Recruiting: It's Time To Notice The Renaissance

[zoogs]

Eh, they're the top 2 kids in state, and are being targeted by other Power 5 schools. They aren't scrubs.

Yeah. These would be misses. Overall things are still going well so it's OK, and when P5 schools call, sometimes you just can't get them. But whenever the state produces one of these rarer prospects, you'd hope we can largely hang onto them.

 

[alwayshusking]

Not concerned about Bubak but Fant is a quality athlete I'd like to land. Overall the operation is much more organized than the previous regime and the roster management will be much better. I'm excited

 

[Sargon]

The 2011 class was full of 4* that delivered nothing or next to it. Sam McK wrote about it a few weeks ago. This class IMO projects to be the best class we've had since Cally's top 10 class as it seems we'll get both quality and quantity.

I would add that coaches efforts and skills to get players that meet or exceed their star ratings is part of a fair and coherent analysis. Mack Brown is an example of a loser in that regard IMO and Wiscy and MSU coaches are examples of winners. Bo was IMO neither high nor low in that regard. I think he had an unacceptable number of misses though with Ohio players and weeders n law/rule breakers (just my hunch on the last).

Riley...IMO....just off the top of my head got underrated WR and LB and TE in '15 and QB's this year. Failing at QB recruitment is a total killer and a problem that already I'm guessing and hoping is a thing of the past for NU.

 

[AR Husker Fan]

In a way, I'm not overly concerned with this class. I hope that what's happening is that the staff is laying the foundation for years to come by starting to establish a presence in places with talent, coupled with developing relationships both with younger prospects and high school coaches. This class - well, kids tend to want to develop relationships over a period of time and not just their senior (to be) year. Let's see how the 2017 class turns out - that will probably be a much better indicator of what kind of recruiters this staff will be.

 

[Mavric]

The 2011 class was full of 4* that delivered nothing or next to it. Sam McK wrote about it a few weeks ago. This class IMO projects to be the best class we've had since Cally's top 10 class as it seems we'll get both quality and quantity.

That seems pretty harsh.

Setting aside that it seems somewhat premature to judge a class while most of them have yet to complete their careers, that class was definitely beset by a number situations that almost defy probability. You can semantic the argument to death but I would say the talent evaluation (the actual recruiting) was pretty good but won't argue that most of it won't provide a lot of benefit to Nebraska.

Starting from the top according to the 247 Composite:

Aaron Green - Extremely talented. Emerged last year as the leading rusher for a one-loss team that had a very good argument as a playoff team and blitzed Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl. His only drawback was he wasn't as good as another player at his position in the same class.

Jamal Turner and Charles Jackson - Contributions have been limited by injuries. Still have a year to go.

Bubba Starling - Incredible athlete. Probably known he was never going to play here but you have to take a chance. Without him the class would still have been #17.

Tyler Moore - First year starter at two different Power 5 schools.

Daimion Stafford - Two year starter here - solid contributor in the NFL last year

Todd Peat - Definitely a bust but has the bloodlines

Ryne Reeves - Same as Turner and Jackson

Selected lower-rated prospects:

Zach Sterup - Probable two-year starter

David Santos - Multi-year starter but apparently academics got in the way

Ameer Abdullah - One of the GOATs

Kevin Williams - Battled multiple injuries but in the rotation

Daniel Davie - Two year starter

Others still on the team and likely to be in the rotation this year: Givens Price, Taariq Allen and David Sutton

So you have one of the greatest (AA) who's in the NFL, another in the NFL (Stafford), two more who will likely get a shot in the NFL after transferring (Green and Moore), four who have battled many injuries but likely solid contributors if they're healthy this year (Turner, CJax, Reeves and Williams), three mulit-year starters (Sterup, Santos and Davie) and three more who may help this year (Price, Allen and Sutton).

It's definitely a class of "what might have been" but with 7 guys who've proven themselves at the college level, four who have one more season to show what they can do and three more who may still contribute this season, that's fairly typical of a class. A lot of that depends on what happens this year which is why it's a little early to be judging, imo. It definitely won't live up to the potential, but most of that is due to the circumstances that followed, not a failure to identify and recruit the talent.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Recruiting is so imperfect, and the rating systems so inconsistent, that you have to wait until all the games are played to declare success or failure.

The really top-notch recruiters recognize both the diamonds in the rough who are motivated and coachable, and the high school superstars who might not adjust to competition and criticism.

There are an awful lot of the latter.

And sometimes there's a huge physical difference between 17 and 18 years old.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

 

[huKSer]

Recruiting is so imperfect, and the rating systems so inconsistent, that you have to wait until all the games are played to declare success or failure.

The really top-notch recruiters recognize both the diamonds in the rough who are motivated and coachable, and the high school superstars who might not adjust to competition and criticism.

There are an awful lot of the latter.

And sometimes there's a huge physical difference between 17 and 18 years old.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

+1 I really don't get caught up in recruiting. KState does well with lower rated classes, up until last year Ol Miss had consistantly bought huge classes with poor results

 

[alwayshusking]

Recruiting is so imperfect, and the rating systems so inconsistent, that you have to wait until all the games are played to declare success or failure.

The really top-notch recruiters recognize both the diamonds in the rough who are motivated and coachable, and the high school superstars who might not adjust to competition and criticism.

There are an awful lot of the latter.

And sometimes there's a huge physical difference between 17 and 18 years old.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

+1 I really don't get caught up in recruiting. KState does well with lower rated classes, up until last year Ol Miss had consistantly bought huge classes with poor results

I should do what you do. Recruiting is important, following recruiting as a fan is not though. I need to get a better hobby.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Recruiting is so imperfect, and the rating systems so inconsistent, that you have to wait until all the games are played to declare success or failure.

The really top-notch recruiters recognize both the diamonds in the rough who are motivated and coachable, and the high school superstars who might not adjust to competition and criticism.

There are an awful lot of the latter.

And sometimes there's a huge physical difference between 17 and 18 years old.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

+1 I really don't get caught up in recruiting. KState does well with lower rated classes, up until last year Ol Miss had consistantly bought huge classes with poor results

I should do what you do. Recruiting is important, following recruiting as a fan is not though. I need to get a better hobby.

Meh....I follow recruiting but don't get emotionally caught up in it. I mostly find it interesting at best. I learned a long time ago as a grown man not to get all caught up in the decisions 17-18 year old kids make because so often they make no sense. Now that I have kids that age, it even becomes clearer to not get emotional about it.

The biggest thing is that the coaches know what type of players they want and nobody knows how individual recruits are going to turn out once in college. Many times the fans think they know but we really don't. The coaches are also one hell of a lot better at evaluating that talent and they actually know these kids.

 

[papersun87]

I'm always nervous getting too excited about recruiting until the ink is dry on the letter of intent . . . but Riley's got even me feeling a bit optimistic.

 

[alwayshusking]

Recruiting is so imperfect, and the rating systems so inconsistent, that you have to wait until all the games are played to declare success or failure.

The really top-notch recruiters recognize both the diamonds in the rough who are motivated and coachable, and the high school superstars who might not adjust to competition and criticism.

There are an awful lot of the latter.

And sometimes there's a huge physical difference between 17 and 18 years old.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

+1 I really don't get caught up in recruiting. KState does well with lower rated classes, up until last year Ol Miss had consistantly bought huge classes with poor results

I should do what you do. Recruiting is important, following recruiting as a fan is not though. I need to get a better hobby.

Meh....I follow recruiting but don't get emotionally caught up in it. I mostly find it interesting at best. I learned a long time ago as a grown man not to get all caught up in the decisions 17-18 year old kids make because so often they make no sense. Now that I have kids that age, it even becomes clearer to not get emotional about it.

The biggest thing is that the coaches know what type of players they want and nobody knows how individual recruits are going to turn out once in college. Many times the fans think they know but we really don't. The coaches are also one hell of a lot better at evaluating that talent and they actually know these kids.

I don't get emotional about it either, just need to find a better way to spend my time considering it's not a spectator sport.