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NU hosted close to 50 on "Junior Day"
The recruiting process in college football obviously has sped up dramatically in recent years.
Texas, for instance, already has landed 10 verbal commitments for its class of 2010. Not bad considering national letter-of-intent signing day for 2009 was a mere 10 days ago.
Hence the growing impact of "Junior Days" on campuses around the nation — including Nebraska.
NU had its version of "Junior Day" last weekend, with 46 high school juniors making an on-campus visit to get a taste of Husker football. Players arrived from eight states and included high-profile quarterbacks A.J. Derby of Iowa City and Blake Belle of Wichita, Kan.
"We try to almost do what you would do on an official recruiting visit, albeit in about four hours," said Jeff Jamrog, Nebraska assistant athletic director for football. "What we did was give the players a glimpse of everything we feel is important when they come on campus."
In other words, prospects met with Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini as well as coordinators, position coaches, academic counselors, strength coaches, trainers, and others.
Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said "Junior Days" began cropping up about five years ago, starting at Texas.
"Mack Brown tried to get a leg up in the state of Texas," Crabtree said. "And as you know, college football often is imitative. You started seeing it at places like Texas A&M, Southern Cal, Oklahoma and Florida. Now it's a very big part of the recruiting process.
"Some schools make a big deal out of it, and others keep it low key. But you're going to keep seeing it."
Megan Rogers, coordinator of Nebraska's on-campus recruiting, said the Huskers are considering having another "Junior Day" sometime before the April 18 Red-White Spring Game. As for the Spring Game, Rogers said, the Huskers will play host to at least 50 prospects.
Said Jamrog: "I don't know exactly what that number is going to be. We hope it's huge. Every prospect that we think can help us, that we've evaluated, we're going to try to get to the game."
Nebraska had a "Junior Day" in 2008 but this year "had more numbers and definitely more depth in number of states," Jamrog said.
"Our main focal point is to make sure that with anyone within a 500-mile radius, we've done a very thorough job of evaluating players starting first and foremost with the state of Nebraska," Jamrog said.
Texas and California obviously will continue to be emphasized, he said. In Nebraska's 21-player class of 2009, eight players are from Texas, six from California, two from Nebraska and one apiece from Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri and North Dakota.
"Certainly we're going to recruit other areas than those," Jamrog said. "But we know if we do an excellent job in that 500-mile radius and California and Texas, that we can have a heck of a class."
The recruiting process in college football obviously has sped up dramatically in recent years.
Texas, for instance, already has landed 10 verbal commitments for its class of 2010. Not bad considering national letter-of-intent signing day for 2009 was a mere 10 days ago.
Hence the growing impact of "Junior Days" on campuses around the nation — including Nebraska.
NU had its version of "Junior Day" last weekend, with 46 high school juniors making an on-campus visit to get a taste of Husker football. Players arrived from eight states and included high-profile quarterbacks A.J. Derby of Iowa City and Blake Belle of Wichita, Kan.
"We try to almost do what you would do on an official recruiting visit, albeit in about four hours," said Jeff Jamrog, Nebraska assistant athletic director for football. "What we did was give the players a glimpse of everything we feel is important when they come on campus."
In other words, prospects met with Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini as well as coordinators, position coaches, academic counselors, strength coaches, trainers, and others.
Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said "Junior Days" began cropping up about five years ago, starting at Texas.
"Mack Brown tried to get a leg up in the state of Texas," Crabtree said. "And as you know, college football often is imitative. You started seeing it at places like Texas A&M, Southern Cal, Oklahoma and Florida. Now it's a very big part of the recruiting process.
"Some schools make a big deal out of it, and others keep it low key. But you're going to keep seeing it."
Megan Rogers, coordinator of Nebraska's on-campus recruiting, said the Huskers are considering having another "Junior Day" sometime before the April 18 Red-White Spring Game. As for the Spring Game, Rogers said, the Huskers will play host to at least 50 prospects.
Said Jamrog: "I don't know exactly what that number is going to be. We hope it's huge. Every prospect that we think can help us, that we've evaluated, we're going to try to get to the game."
Nebraska had a "Junior Day" in 2008 but this year "had more numbers and definitely more depth in number of states," Jamrog said.
"Our main focal point is to make sure that with anyone within a 500-mile radius, we've done a very thorough job of evaluating players starting first and foremost with the state of Nebraska," Jamrog said.
Texas and California obviously will continue to be emphasized, he said. In Nebraska's 21-player class of 2009, eight players are from Texas, six from California, two from Nebraska and one apiece from Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri and North Dakota.
"Certainly we're going to recruit other areas than those," Jamrog said. "But we know if we do an excellent job in that 500-mile radius and California and Texas, that we can have a heck of a class."
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