SBNation: Do 2018 college football recruits even remember your team's last national title?

[Saunders]

Jan 1, 2000. If you’re a college football recruit in the class of 2018, that is roughly the average of when you were born. You were a Y2K baby. And the lens through which current recruits view college football is far different than the average fan.

Two things recently hammered home this point for me.

First, I was chatting up the college position coach of an All-Pro linebacker and made the comment that it has to help him in recruiting. Surprisingly, he said not much.

“They don’t know sh#t,” he said of current recruits. “And I don’t think they read about the past greats, or watch replays of them like we did, either. They don’t watch as many games going on now, either. If we don’t tell them, they don’t know.”

Some recruits, like five-star linebacker Shane Lee, have told us that they don’t even watch current football on TV.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2017/5/22/15670628/college-football-history-recruit-timeline-perspective-age

 

[seaofred92]

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

Jan 1, 2000. If you’re a college football recruit in the class of 2018, that is roughly the average of when you were born. You were a Y2K baby. And the lens through which current recruits view college football is far different than the average fan.

Two things recently hammered home this point for me.

First, I was chatting up the college position coach of an All-Pro linebacker and made the comment that it has to help him in recruiting. Surprisingly, he said not much.

“They don’t know sh#t,” he said of current recruits. “And I don’t think they read about the past greats, or watch replays of them like we did, either. They don’t watch as many games going on now, either. If we don’t tell them, they don’t know.”

Some recruits, like five-star linebacker Shane Lee, have told us that they don’t even watch current football on TV.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2017/5/22/15670628/college-football-history-recruit-timeline-perspective-age

I have said that over and over...these guys are not sitting around on Saturdays like we do...

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Jan 1, 2000. If you’re a college football recruit in the class of 2018, that is roughly the average of when you were born. You were a Y2K baby. And the lens through which current recruits view college football is far different than the average fan.

Two things recently hammered home this point for me.

First, I was chatting up the college position coach of an All-Pro linebacker and made the comment that it has to help him in recruiting. Surprisingly, he said not much.

“They don’t know sh#t,” he said of current recruits. “And I don’t think they read about the past greats, or watch replays of them like we did, either. They don’t watch as many games going on now, either. If we don’t tell them, they don’t know.”

Some recruits, like five-star linebacker Shane Lee, have told us that they don’t even watch current football on TV.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2017/5/22/15670628/college-football-history-recruit-timeline-perspective-age

I have said that over and over...these guys are not sitting around on Saturdays like we do...

They are working out and getting laid, which is pretty much the exact opposite of my high school existence.

 

[NUance]

I can believe it. In hs I was too busy playing sports to have time to watch very many games on TV. I played football, basketball and track (and baseball in the summer). (Small town Nebraska--not even close to D1 caliber. lol) Even in college I didn't watch much sports on TV. Just too much other stuff going on. Fun stuff!

That said, I grew up in Nebraska. So I did watch most of the Husker games. And I could tell you which years we had won a MNC. I'm sure any in-state Husker recruits have a pretty good knowledge of Husker lore.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

Jan 1, 2000. If you’re a college football recruit in the class of 2018, that is roughly the average of when you were born. You were a Y2K baby. And the lens through which current recruits view college football is far different than the average fan.

Two things recently hammered home this point for me.

First, I was chatting up the college position coach of an All-Pro linebacker and made the comment that it has to help him in recruiting. Surprisingly, he said not much.

“They don’t know sh#t,” he said of current recruits. “And I don’t think they read about the past greats, or watch replays of them like we did, either. They don’t watch as many games going on now, either. If we don’t tell them, they don’t know.”

Some recruits, like five-star linebacker Shane Lee, have told us that they don’t even watch current football on TV.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2017/5/22/15670628/college-football-history-recruit-timeline-perspective-age

I have said that over and over...these guys are not sitting around on Saturdays like we do...

They are working out and getting laid, which is pretty much the exact opposite of my high school existence.

Ha!

My Saturdays in high school consisted of watching film of a game I didn't play in...followed by pretending to workout while me and the other guys that didn't play talked about the party after the game the night before and what our plans were for that night. Sometimes we would brag if we touched a boob.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I can believe it. In hs I was too busy playing sports to have time to watch very many games on TV. I played football, basketball and track (and baseball in the summer). (Small town Nebraska--not even close to D1 caliber. lol) Even in college I didn't watch much sports on TV. Just too much other stuff going on. Fun stuff!

That said, I grew up in Nebraska. So I did watch most of the Husker games. And I could tell you which years we had won a MNC. I'm sure any in-state Husker recruits have a pretty good knowledge of Husker lore.

Once I got to college I really started watching a lot more games but I think that had to do with starting to gamble.

 

[Nebfanatic]

I got up every Saturday morning and watched Gameday and the ball games all day leading up to the Husker game. I would usually catch a game after the Husker game if it was a big matchup. Saturdays were all college football growing up through high school and even now I like to do that when I can. In between games or after the Husker game I would get with some friends and play pick up either football or basketball. Good times

 

[huKSer]

Typical Saturday for me in HS - LISTEN to the Huskers on the radio @ 1:00, unless they were on TV, which only happened two times per year. Set up the speakers to blast out the window so we could play touch football in the yard.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I don't think anyone is questioning what people on these boards were doing in high school, especially if they are big Husker fans. I think the point is that the majority of these big recruits aren't watching much college football on Saturdays, if any at all.

 

[Scratchtown]

They aren't. At my previous school it was much more common to hear kids talk about watching a movie together on Saturday than watching football.

At the school I'm currently at it's a bit more leaning toward football Saturday's but still, no where near what I watch on Saturday.

If I'm not done breaking down film by 11am. It gets put off till Sunday morning.

I'm not sure if it's sad or not. I just had a kid ask me who Dave Rimington was yesterday.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

They aren't. At my previous school it was much more common to hear kids talk about watching a movie together on Saturday than watching football.

At the school I'm currently at it's a bit more leaning toward football Saturday's but still, no where near what I watch on Saturday.

If I'm not done breaking down film by 11am. It gets put off till Sunday morning.

I'm not sure if it's sad or not. I just had a kid ask me who Dave Rimington was yesterday.

It's not that sad, Rimington was at Nebraska nearly 40 years ago. That would be like you (when you were in high school) asking someone what Rich Glover was like.

Shoot, I am 10-15 years older than you and only know Rich Glover from stories and videos from the Game of the Century.

 

[BigRedBuster]

There were only a few Husker games on TV back then. So, we just needed to be near the radio.

To the question about if they remember your last NC.

I think that is blown way out of proportion when talking about recruiting. Look at all the schools who have never won one or has been longer than us who get really good players. These players are looking at the next 4-5 years to see how they think this program is going to be. They love it that Nebraska has a good history, but that's not what they are looking for in any school.

 

[Scratchtown]

They aren't. At my previous school it was much more common to hear kids talk about watching a movie together on Saturday than watching football.

At the school I'm currently at it's a bit more leaning toward football Saturday's but still, no where near what I watch on Saturday.

If I'm not done breaking down film by 11am. It gets put off till Sunday morning.

I'm not sure if it's sad or not. I just had a kid ask me who Dave Rimington was yesterday.

It's not that sad, Rimington was at Nebraska nearly 40 years ago. That would be like you (when you were in high school) asking someone what Rich Glover was like.
Shoot, I am 10-15 years older than you and only know Rich Glover from stories and videos from the Game of the Century.

Ya but there is an award named after Rimington too

 

[Scratchtown]

There were only a few Husker games on TV back then. So, we just needed to be near the radio.

To the question about if they remember your last NC.

I think that is blown way out of proportion when talking about recruiting. Look at all the schools who have never won one or has been longer than us who get really good players. These players are looking at the next 4-5 years to see how they think this program is going to be. They love it that Nebraska has a good history, but that's not what they are looking for in any school.

Yes!

This is exactly why I get upset about the theory that just because NU has 5 championships they should expect XYZ...

It's about trends in college football. In which case I think NU is trending up even though it may not be super fast like you see some places. I also think people need to be careful about the trends of a program and how it's different from just landing a gem/transcendent player. Gems can distort reality on many fronts