You should understand why so many of those highly-talented athletes agreed to go to Nebraska in the first place. NU is nothing special if you don't live in Nebraska, so don't expect them to "play for Nebraska." They play for themselves, and they wanted to play for a Callahan-coached team. He is gone now, and he has been replaced by a defensive coordinator that seems to be an underling of TO. That is not a good national image, folks. Get real. It is only special in Nebraska.
Callahan was a successful coach in the past, and he undeniably knows a lot about the game. He is gone now, and Pellini is an unknown; in addition, I don't think that his return to LSU to coach in the next few weeks is a good thing at all. It makes him look a bit less than dedicated to his new role as NU coach; it looks as if NU is secondary in importance in his eyes.
We had some really good recruits in the last two-three years, but the team chemistry crashed--bad, real bad. I chalk it up to a senior class that withheld effort and leadership, and to an over-emphasis on JC recruits.
Pellini needs to not make the same mistake that Callahan did; he needs to rebuild and focus on development of sound, young players. The "win now" strategy works occassionally, but more often it crashes and burns. We've all witnessed Oklahoma's experience with that.
Don't ever think that recruiting isn't important. It is vital; and it can be supplemented with good player development.
In short, the players are waffling because they do not share the Bogasms of some Nebraska fans. As far as they are concerned, he is still only a tested defensive coordinator that is not all that good at recruiting.
Hopefully, time will correct this.
Great post! Every point is spot on.
The moment I heard Pelini say that NU is not rebuilding is the moment I started questioning this whole gig. NU is rebuilding --- unless a systematic 2 - 3 year plan is in view, the team will continue to ride the lower 1/4 of the conference --- indefinitely.
bo took a similar situation when he came here the first time and made a 3 game improvement in one year. and that was with much less talent. we will winat least 7 games next year. lets not forget we won 9 games last year(even with our terrible coach) and I think we would be atleast .500 if not better if we would have started the season with ganz as for nebraska is just like anywhere else....... sure if you ignore unmatched facilities, a sell out every home game and tradition rivaled by very few teams. and yes all of those things matter. if you are a player and you help nebraska get back to even being a decent team (8-10 wins) you are guaranteed national attention that you would get at just any school. I'm not saying there arent better situations, because there are. but its not as bad as you make it seem either
I agree that Bo did well before. But I disagree with the situation. First, you surmise that the talent now is greater than it was four years ago. I am not convinced that that is true. At QB yes. At a few other positions, maybe. But, in the trenches (OL and DL) the people that Callahan inherited from Solich were much more physically fit and stronger than the players that Callahan left for Pelini. Also, overall team speed is really no different. I think that in the OL and DL the team now is less talented than it was four years ago (now, maybe some of the young guys we have not seen much of yet are a step up --- but we do not know that to be the case). Overall, NU now versus NU then, talent-wise, is pretty much a wash --- distributed differently, but overall there is no real difference or, at best, only modestly so. And....
Now Kansas, Missouri and even Colorado are all better than they were --- so relative to our competition, NU is in worse shape talent-wise after Callahn than before. Pelini will have a much harder task this time than last time. he may still succeed --- and if so, he deserves more credit now than then. He has a brutal task ahead of him.
