JUCO Recruiting

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
Just out of curiosity, I went back and looked at the JUCOs we've signed since 2009 (Pelini's first full class).

2009:

Dejon Gomes - Second on the team in tackles; 4th round NFL draft pick

Brandon Kinnie - Graduated #11 in career receptions; NFL free agent signing

2010:

Lavonte David - B1G LB of the year; 2nd round NFL draft pick

Jermarcus Hardrick - NFL free agent signing

Chase Harper - Ummmmm.......

Stanley Jean-Baptiste - Second team All-BIG; likely shot in the NFL

2011:

Joseph Carter - Contributor but nothing special

Daimion Stafford - Two year starter; 7th round NFL draft pick

2012:

Zaire Anderson - 5th leading tackler this year

Mohammed Seisay - Played sparingly

2013:

Matt Finnin - Expected to challenge for playing time next year

Randy Gregory - 1st team All-B1G

Chongo Kondolo - Expected to challenge for playing time next year

So, by my count that's three home runs (Gomes, David & Gregory), three others who signed in the NFL (Kinnie, Hardrick & Stafford), two impact players on this year's team (SJB & Anderson), three busts (Harper, Carter & Seisay) and two TBD (Finnin & Kondolo).

Excluding Finnin & Kondolo (because we don't really know about them yet), that's 7 out of 11 who will probably make NFL rosters (I'm counting SJB and Gregory) and three busts with Anderson in the middle somewhere. A little bit feast-or-famine but if you can get over 60% who are NFL-type players, that's some pretty good pick-ups out of the JUCO ranks.

 
It seems a lot of people are not big on JUCO recruiting, and while you can't make your money long-term with that philosophy (I don't think), it's impossible to say Nebraska hasn't gained an edge in that area. Plus we've gotten a few deals with 3 for 3 guys and whatnot. I hope we continue to find gems this way as long as we don't make the overall roster suffer from too many short-termers.

 
It seems a lot of people are not big on JUCO recruiting, and while you can't make your money long-term with that philosophy (I don't think), it's impossible to say Nebraska hasn't gained an edge in that area. Plus we've gotten a few deals with 3 for 3 guys and whatnot. I hope we continue to find gems this way as long as we don't make the overall roster suffer from too many short-termers.
Along with the longer term JUCOS (3 for 3), we've been getting a lot of early enrollees. Huge advantage having those JUCO kids here for a little longer.

 
It's clear the staff has used juco recruiting well. FWIW, I have a hard time calling carter and seisay busts. Neither lived up to recruiting expectations, but both were contributors that earned playing time.

Busts are guys that don't make it or just aren't good enough to see the field, such as many of the Callahan era jucos.

 
It's clear the staff has used juco recruiting well. FWIW, I have a hard time calling carter and seisay busts. Neither lived up to recruiting expectations, but both were contributors that earned playing time.

Busts are guys that don't make it or just aren't good enough to see the field, such as many of the Callahan era jucos.
Yeah, busts might be a little harsh but both only played sparingly on not-so-great defenses.

 
One thing a lot of people don't talk about when/why Osborne retired, texass and the rest of the chickenshits voted to do away w prop 48s; which TO made a living with.

Maybe Bo is showing a kind of "back door" to that problem by investing enough into 3-3 guys and some seemingly sure fire juco guys.

I don't ever see us getting to the Snyder family juco level, but so far so good.

 
I highly doubt that had anything to do with TO retiring. Do you really think he comes across as a guy that would quit because his job got slightly harder?

His reitirement was precipated by graham spanier hiring bill byrne as AD, instead of one of the internal candidates that TO preferred. It's my understanding that TO wanted to keep his promise to solich that he was next in line and wanted to make the transition while he still had the pull within the athletic department to select his successor. If spanier had hired papik or another internal candidate, TO would have likely stayed a while longer.

I will say that it was stupid to get rid of prop 48's though. All it did was force borderline kids to attend jucos or lesser institutions instead of allowing them to get on track academically within the support system of a major institution. So it was worse for the kids, but hey, it made it easier for the talent rich southern schools to knock NU down a notch.

And I wouldn't say NU "made a living" with them, it was maybe one kid per year, but it did make a difference.

 
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It appears to me that Bo is using jucos to fill holes in recruiting and doing it quite well. It also can help balance out numbers in recruiting classes. I think Bo was feeling some heat and doesn't feel he can wait for results from high school players. He wants to bulk up our depth and make a splash next season. The coaches are doing a great job and bringing in lots of talent.

 
Did Chase Harper even make it to campus?

I do think its a bit rough to call Seisay a bust seeing his career was riddled with injury.

 
Did Chase Harper even make it to campus?

I do think its a bit rough to call Seisay a bust seeing his career was riddled with injury.
I think of him as a bust I guess. He just never showed me much at all. Most of the time, he is chasing after the receiver instead of covering him.

 
Just out of curiosity, I went back and looked at the JUCOs we've signed since 2009 (Pelini's first full class).

2009:

Dejon Gomes - Second on the team in tackles; 4th round NFL draft pick

Brandon Kinnie - Graduated #11 in career receptions; NFL free agent signing

2010:

Lavonte David - B1G LB of the year; 2nd round NFL draft pick

Jermarcus Hardrick - NFL free agent signing

Chase Harper - Ummmmm.......

Stanley Jean-Baptiste - Second team All-BIG; likely shot in the NFL

2011:

Joseph Carter - Contributor but nothing special

Daimion Stafford - Two year starter; 7th round NFL draft pick

2012:

Zaire Anderson - 5th leading tackler this year

Mohammed Seisay - Played sparingly

2013:

Matt Finnin - Expected to challenge for playing time next year

Randy Gregory - 1st team All-B1G

Chongo Kondolo - Expected to challenge for playing time next year

So, by my count that's three home runs (Gomes, David & Gregory), three others who signed in the NFL (Kinnie, Hardrick & Stafford), two impact players on this year's team (SJB & Anderson), three busts (Harper, Carter & Seisay) and two TBD (Finnin & Kondolo).

Excluding Finnin & Kondolo (because we don't really know about them yet), that's 7 out of 11 who will probably make NFL rosters (I'm counting SJB and Gregory) and three busts with Anderson in the middle somewhere. A little bit feast-or-famine but if you can get over 60% who are NFL-type players, that's some pretty good pick-ups out of the JUCO ranks.
Is there any way of knowing what these guys and the new recruits were rated coming out of HS and who had offered them?

 
Just out of curiosity, I went back and looked at the JUCOs we've signed since 2009 (Pelini's first full class).

2009:

Dejon Gomes - Second on the team in tackles; 4th round NFL draft pick

Brandon Kinnie - Graduated #11 in career receptions; NFL free agent signing

2010:

Lavonte David - B1G LB of the year; 2nd round NFL draft pick

Jermarcus Hardrick - NFL free agent signing

Chase Harper - Ummmmm.......

Stanley Jean-Baptiste - Second team All-BIG; likely shot in the NFL

2011:

Joseph Carter - Contributor but nothing special

Daimion Stafford - Two year starter; 7th round NFL draft pick

2012:

Zaire Anderson - 5th leading tackler this year

Mohammed Seisay - Played sparingly

2013:

Matt Finnin - Expected to challenge for playing time next year

Randy Gregory - 1st team All-B1G

Chongo Kondolo - Expected to challenge for playing time next year

So, by my count that's three home runs (Gomes, David & Gregory), three others who signed in the NFL (Kinnie, Hardrick & Stafford), two impact players on this year's team (SJB & Anderson), three busts (Harper, Carter & Seisay) and two TBD (Finnin & Kondolo).

Excluding Finnin & Kondolo (because we don't really know about them yet), that's 7 out of 11 who will probably make NFL rosters (I'm counting SJB and Gregory) and three busts with Anderson in the middle somewhere.  A little bit feast-or-famine but if you can get over 60% who are NFL-type players, that's some pretty good pick-ups out of the JUCO ranks.
Is there any way of knowing what these guys and the new recruits were rated coming out of HS and who had offered them?
All of the recruiting services have this information on their websites. For example, here is the link to the 2013 class per 247 http://nebraska.247sports.com/Season/2013-Football/Commits

Also, on each of the recruits HB profile, this information is provided (though, not always completely up-to-date).

 
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Doesnt this amount of JUCO recruiting really mean the staff is admitting what some have been saying for a while

The 09 and 10 classes were not very strong

 
Doesnt this amount of JUCO recruiting really mean the staff is admitting what some have been saying for a while

The 09 and 10 classes were not very strong
To some extent, yes. I don't think many would argue Bo got off to a slow start. But all the 09 guys are gone now so that's not really a factor. And the '10 class was pretty hit-and-miss but there are actually more contributors out of that class that you'd think. I've said those two classes were pretty sub-par for some time now but the '10 class might turn out decent.

 
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