Huskers Fighting Big Trend

[84HuskerLaw]

This year's class is comprised of some pretty good players (as a group it seems to be better than any of the past decade or so) without the big three states of Fl, TX and CA basically.   We need to hit MN, WI, Ill , MO, KS, CO, OK a lot harder in the future.   In my view, they should get 65% or more of their roster from within the region  and cherry pick another 8 or so from the rest of the country.   The population based of CO, WY, Dakotas, MN, WI, IA, MO, IL, KS, OK is probably 30 million or more.   That's plenty to find 35 excellent players annually.   Throw in 8 more from beyond should be quite adequate to build a nationally relevant team.   

This staff has few contacts and connections in the region and or the Big Ten area generally but that can change, over time.   It is disappointing we couldnt land half a dozen out of FL with all the ties there but ???

There is regional bias by the recruiting ranking outfits which probably tend to be located in the 'warm weather' areas so they don't spend much time searching the northern and eastern sections and this bias tends to influence that selection of teams for the play offs and throughout the season in polls as well.  If warm weather teams start with an advantage, it is not surprising they would tend to lead in the number of titles, etc.   Not sure the weather is the prime factor though.

 

[NUinID]

IDK, personally I've never given credence to the "flyover state" saying. It's just a phrase imo. I'd have to question anyone's intelligence who gives it more credit than that. I've been a lot of places that are much worse than Nebraska and it really has nothing to do with population density. Lincoln is a great city. Much better than many southern cities I've seen. If some people (recruits) are stupid enough to go off a perception or silly phrase, there's not much anybody can do about it. I've been to South Carolina, Auburn Alabama, Starkville Mississippi, Nashville, Athens Georgia, to name a few. Those places have absolutely nothing over Lincoln. IMO all we need to do is start fielding a respectable team and get some continuity back in the program. I don't want a player that chooses Tuscaloosa over Lincoln based on his perception of the city or area. His loss. Winning and program culture are what matters. We threw the baby out with the bath water when we went with Callahan and it's been a clusterf#ck ever since......until now. It'll get better and it has almost zero to do with "flyover state", cornfields, rural, Lincoln Nebraska or the weather.

You still don’t get it, what a city looks like or what you or I think is a nice place to live is irrelevant. 

The 2 biggest factors IMO are coach and proximity to home. 

The Deep South, especially in the rural areas is pretty crappy. But, it is home to a great number of those elite players. 

I think Las Angeles is a s#!t hole, but players from LA still want to play at USC and UCLA.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

You still don’t get it, what a city looks like or what you or I think is a nice place to live is irrelevant. 

The 2 biggest factors IMO are coach and proximity to home. 

The Deep South, especially in the rural areas is pretty crappy. But, it is home to a great number of those elite players. 

I think Las Angeles is a s#!t hole, but players from LA still want to play at USC and UCLA.

I’m with you. Proximity to home is one of the biggest reasons that players commit to most schools.  They want to stay in an area they are comfortable with, and they want their family and friends to be able to come watch their games.  The players in the south prefer to play at schools which are closer to their homes.  Also, the southern US is where the population is growing the fastest, so this trend is not likely to change. 

 

[HuskerNBigD]

This year's class is comprised of some pretty good players (as a group it seems to be better than any of the past decade or so) without the big three states of Fl, TX and CA basically.   We need to hit MN, WI, Ill , MO, KS, CO, OK a lot harder in the future.   In my view, they should get 65% or more of their roster from within the region  and cherry pick another 8 or so from the rest of the country.   The population based of CO, WY, Dakotas, MN, WI, IA, MO, IL, KS, OK is probably 30 million or more.   That's plenty to find 35 excellent players annually.   Throw in 8 more from beyond should be quite adequate to build a nationally relevant team.   

This staff has few contacts and connections in the region and or the Big Ten area generally but that can change, over time.   It is disappointing we couldnt land half a dozen out of FL with all the ties there but ???

There is regional bias by the recruiting ranking outfits which probably tend to be located in the 'warm weather' areas so they don't spend much time searching the northern and eastern sections and this bias tends to influence that selection of teams for the play offs and throughout the season in polls as well.  If warm weather teams start with an advantage, it is not surprising they would tend to lead in the number of titles, etc.   Not sure the weather is the prime factor though.

I mean, we hit Georgia pretty good and took some guys from SEC country (Tenn, Ala, Kentucky). Yeah, our Florida recruiting could've been better but we still hit the deep-south.

 

[funhusker]

Here is a More likely Trend:

Saban: 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017


Meyer: 2006, 2008,2014

Saban: 2003
 

9 of the last 15 have been won by 2 coaches (at 4 different schools)

The other 6 have been by 6 different coaches at different schools that happen to be in warm weather.  At the same time Arizona, ASU, UCLA, Miami, Texas A&M, and 100 other warm weather schools haven't won a NC title.  I think it mostly comes down to coaching, and it is hard to argue that Saban and Meyer aren't two of the greatest college coaches of our time.  

 

[C N Red]

We need to even the playing fields between north and south, have to dome every big 10 stadium.

 

[JJ Husker]

You still don’t get it, what a city looks like or what you or I think is a nice place to live is irrelevant. 

The 2 biggest factors IMO are coach and proximity to home. 

The Deep South, especially in the rural areas is pretty crappy. But, it is home to a great number of those elite players. 

I think Las Angeles is a s#!t hole, but players from LA still want to play at USC and UCLA.

Actually I get it exactly. Not sure how you misinterpreted what I said. I mentioned proximity to recruiting hotbeds. That is simply another way of saying proximity to home. And I went into great detail about how the attributes of the school’s city, area and weather are not really a factor. Coaching and a tradition of winning and success are the factors that help sustain recruiting success and proximity is right up there with those. I didn’t previously directly address proximity to home because in Nebraska’s specific case that is not a realistic factor in our return to prominence, rather it is a disadvantage. But it can and will be overcome by the things I did mention. Now what is it I still don’t get?

 

[JJ Husker]

Our potential success has nothing to do with that, for sure. There are plenty of reasons and ways we can eventually convince people to come here.

But one of our unavoidable disadvantages does substantially have to do with perception of Nebraska by the majority of the country. We can overcome it. But it absolutely exists.

Oh I agree that perception exists, I just don’t think it’s much of a factor. Coaching and success, or at least losing the national reputation of being a joke on the field, are much more important. Flyover State, cornfields and all that jazz are only a thing when your team is mediocre or worse, as we have been for about 20 years.

I think another important factor for our return to success that hasn’t been mentioned here yet is style of play. I believe the most important thing Frost brought with him is a more current and exciting style of offense that today’s recruits want to play in. Being Nebraska, we go on a lot about culture, hard work, dedication, passion, etc., and don’t get me wrong, those things are absolutely paramount to our regaining our spot in CFB because we have to achieve it a little differently than many southern schools. But this offense does make it easier to capture the attention of prospective players and helps overcome some of these more minor perception issues.

 

[Atbone95]

So if we just pray for global warming.... 

we too can win championships?

 

[Nebhawk]

Its all about recruiting.  Even Bama has a player from Tulsa on the team that was a 3 star running back.  He might be there best RB.

Identifying talent is the key.  Going out and getting that talent to buy into your system and your coaching style.  Frost has appeal.  Young players will talk to him.  Can you imagine Riley and Bo on recruiting trips trying to convince a young man to attend this school.  Yeah, thats why we are where we are today.  They couldn't turn the deal, and couldn't impress enough.

Take player A.  He is a 3 star.  Alabama talks to him, then he is suddenly a 4 star player.  I don't completely buy into the recruiting stars placed on all recruits being equal.    This is whats wrong with such thing.  Sure, each season we look at who wins the title and look and see that they have had several Top 10 recruiting classes, can we believe those stars are being created equal?  Its all matter of opinion and how a group of coaches can coach up that talent and put it all together on the field.  Watched Bill Snyder take so called 3 star talent and win the Big 12 twice.  If you can coach and get players to buy in, your going to have success.  Matt Campbell is the next Bill Snyder.  

 

[Mierin]

Its all about recruiting.  Even Bama has a player from Tulsa on the team that was a 3 star running back.  He might be there best RB.

Identifying talent is the key.  Going out and getting that talent to buy into your system and your coaching style.  Frost has appeal.  Young players will talk to him.  Can you imagine Riley and Bo on recruiting trips trying to convince a young man to attend this school.  Yeah, thats why we are where we are today.  They couldn't turn the deal, and couldn't impress enough.

Take player A.  He is a 3 star.  Alabama talks to him, then he is suddenly a 4 star player.  I don't completely buy into the recruiting stars placed on all recruits being equal.    This is whats wrong with such thing.  Sure, each season we look at who wins the title and look and see that they have had several Top 10 recruiting classes, can we believe those stars are being created equal?  Its all matter of opinion and how a group of coaches can coach up that talent and put it all together on the field.  Watched Bill Snyder take so called 3 star talent and win the Big 12 twice.  If you can coach and get players to buy in, your going to have success.  Matt Campbell is the next Bill Snyder.  

Counter: Nebraska has had the highest rates recruiting in its division for all the time it’s been in the B1G and long before that in the Big 12 I assume. How often have we won the division? Yet our recruiting rankings don’t get worse.

 

[Pedro G]

I hope we are seeing the Corn, as a cold-weather school, as being unique in that Frost is supposively recruiting lots of speed and power when speed is generally less in cold-weather states. Look at Notre Dame vs Clemson. The Fighting Irish just couldn’t keep up with the Tigers’ speed. Same with Michigan against Florida. Miami right now lacks talent apparently, and Wisky has handled them two years in a row. The cold-weather team that has the whole package of course is OSU. Why OSU’s only two losses in the last two seasons were routs against clearly inferior teams is beyond me. 

 

[The Dude]

We should build a dome.

 

[funhusker]

Here is a More likely Trend:

Saban: 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017


Meyer: 2006, 2008,2014

Saban: 2003
 

9 of the last 15 have been won by 2 coaches (at 4 different schools)

The other 6 have been by 6 different coaches at different schools that happen to be in warm weather.  At the same time Arizona, ASU, UCLA, Miami, Texas A&M, and 100 other warm weather schools haven't won a NC title.  I think it mostly comes down to coaching, and it is hard to argue that Saban and Meyer aren't two of the greatest college coaches of our time.  

I’d like to amend.  Meyer may be one of the best coaches of “our” time.  Meanwhile, Saban is most likely the best college coach of “all” time.  

 

[dvdcrr]

I’d like to amend.  Meyer may be one of the best coaches of “our” time.  Meanwhile, Saban is most likely the best college coach of “all” time.  

There is no valid argument for Saban as best coach of all time.  

Put Tom Osborne at the head of that Alabama unscrupulous recruiting, and under the table funding scheme, with all that local talent, and I don't think he would have lost a single game in 6 or 7 years.  Put Nick Saban at NU in 1991.  would he have turned it around to go 60-3?   OH!  That's right!  He would have lied to all of us and then bailed like he did to the Miami fans:

"Nick Saban Only Lied When His Lips Were Moving"- ESPN

http://www.espn.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2718798

OR OH!  Thats right!  He never would have come here in the first place!  Too tough of a challenge just like MIA was!

My Point:  You can't say that he is the best coach ever when his major successes have come at Alabama, a school absolutely drowning in local talent , and ruthless boosters.

Tom Osborne Won 3 National titles as head coach at Nebraska, had his team in at least three more, AND called the plays for two other championship teams. 

AT NEBRASKA, which is like barren of local schollies.

All Saban does is throw tantrums at everybody, and find other people to call the plays.  TO would RULE Saban  if they were forced to call their own plays.