Gundy Seeking to Set Huskers Apart

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
In the midst of a long, lively chat with Nebraska football reporters, Ryan Gunderson, NU’s new director of player personnel, sits up and looks at his phone.


“I gotta take this,” he says.

The boss is on the line. Mike Riley. Though he calls two or three times a day, he’s not overbearing, Gunderson said.

“He wants to know what’s going on, but he’s not ‘what have you done today? Give me your schedule,’ ” Gunderson said. “He’s really good with that.”

Gunderson has either played or worked for Riley since he was a teenager. After a standout career at Portland Central Catholic High School — he was the No. 20 pro-style passer in the 2003 class according Rivals — he was a quarterback for five seasons at Oregon State for Riley. He was beaten out by Matt Moore and later Sean Canfield and Lyle Moevao, but started one game, a 56-14 loss to Oregon in 2005. Gunderson graduated after the 2007 season. He worked as an Oregon State graduate assistant for two years. He then moved into the football office for Riley.

Personnel, details, recruiting. He worked his way up that ladder, subtly influencing Riley’s approach along the way.

So when Riley took the job at Nebraska, he wanted Gunderson.

“I didn’t even sit down at my desk and he called me into his office,” Gunderson recalled. “I didn’t know if he was going to say Florida, Michigan or Nebraska. I had no clue. And he said ‘Nebraska,’ and then he said, ‘I want you to come with me.’ ”
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OWH

 
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So on the plane flight to Nebraska, Gunderson made grand plans. NU coaches would recruit only their own position, regardless of location. “my big thing is I want guys to coach players that they want to coach at their position,” he said.
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How does that work with the 500-mile radius territories?

 
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QMany said:
So on the plane flight to Nebraska, Gunderson made grand plans. NU coaches would recruit only their own position, regardless of location. “my big thing is I want guys to coach players that they want to coach at their position,” he said.[/size]
Click to expand...
How does that work with the 500-mile radius territories?
Click to expand...
I liked that. It stuck out to me. I think the context of this quote is, he had big ideas on his first plane ride over but quickly had to re-adapt to the challenge. I don't believe that's what they're doing currently, but the recruitniks would know more.

 
zoogs said:
QMany said:
So on the plane flight to Nebraska, Gunderson made grand plans. NU coaches would recruit only their own position, regardless of location. “my big thing is I want guys to coach players that they want to coach at their position,” he said.[/size]
Click to expand...
How does that work with the 500-mile radius territories?
Click to expand...
I liked that. It stuck out to me. I think the context of this quote is, he had big ideas on his first plane ride over but quickly had to re-adapt to the challenge. I don't believe that's what they're doing currently, but the recruitniks would know more.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think zoogies is right. I think they only used part of that conversation for this article. They realize you have to have coaches cover a region to build relationship with the high school coaches and identify guys then bring in the position coaches once you've identified a guy to go after.

 
QMany said:
So on the plane flight to Nebraska, Gunderson made grand plans. NU coaches would recruit only their own position, regardless of location. “my big thing is I want guys to coach players that they want to coach at their position,” he said.
Click to expand...
How does that work with the 500-mile radius territories?
Click to expand...
REVOLUTIONARRRRRRYYYYYY!

 
zoogs said:
QMany said:
So on the plane flight to Nebraska, Gunderson made grand plans. NU coaches would recruit only their own position, regardless of location. my big thing is I want guys to coach players that they want to coach at their position, he said.[/size]
Click to expand...
How does that work with the 500-mile radius territories?
Click to expand...
I liked that. It stuck out to me. I think the context of this quote is, he had big ideas on his first plane ride over but quickly had to re-adapt to the challenge. I don't believe that's what they're doing currently, but the recruitniks would know more.
Click to expand...
Schools also usually assign a primary and secondary coach to recruit a player. The primary coach is usually the one that is responsible for that area. He could be saying that the secondary recruiter for a recruit will be his position coach if that recruit is outside the coach's area.
 
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