SIGNED ATH Jake Cotton

Status
Not open for further replies.
but I guess its the principle for me. if they have to make room to fit OO or Cooper or someone else in the class that means they potentially are taking away a schollie from a walk on that is already on the team, worked their a$$ off and proved they deserve one. Austin Cassidy comes to mind since he has gotten some games and played fairly well. there wouldn't have been the discussion of "man how do we fit Cooper in this class, he wants to commit but who do we ask to greyshirt or who do we turn down?"

 
First I am not bashing the kid. But yes I would still be upset with the offer anyway you slice it if it were the same case. Neither Evans or Cotton's offers make sense to me really, not bc I don't think they will be good players bc they didn't have any offers and we would have gotten them no matter what.

 
Wrong. They would have gone to UNO. Or SDSU. This has happened with a number of guys we figured to get as walk ons. If you want a guy on your team, you offer him a scholarship.

 
Ohio Pete said:
Wrong. They would have gone to UNO. Or SDSU. This has happened with a number of guys we figured to get as walk ons. If you want a guy on your team, you offer him a scholarship.
Click to expand...
:yeah I don't get how everyone assumes that these players won't take a scholarship somewhere else.

 
I had seen it mentioned on another board that Barney asked Jake's coach not to send out any tape to other schools or the recruiting services. That coupled with him recovering from an injury would seem to be a viable explanation to why he had limited exposure and offers.

I will be interested to see if he makes the all-state team.

One tidbit I thought was interesting is that he is a diver on the swim team. That would be quite a sight seeing someone that size doing dives. Shows some athletic ability.

 
I'll give ya Evans would have maybe gone elsewhere but nobody will convince me that if we told cotton he could be a perferred walk on with his bro his dad as the coach and his family in lincoln that he would have gone somewhere else.

 
Look if some of these studs come back around and he can make room or not make room that is their faults not ours. We made the offers and they looked for the BBD (bigger better deal). I feel some of these in state kids will get a gray shirt if some big talent comes back around.

 
huskers1 said:
I'll give ya Evans would have maybe gone elsewhere but nobody will convince me that if we told cotton he could be a perferred walk on with his bro his dad as the coach and his family in lincoln that he would have gone somewhere else.
Click to expand...

it's awfully hard to assume that any kid, even a coach's kid, will walk-on over offers of a scholarship from other schools. the money is one aspect of it, but it's also nice to know you're wanted (and expected to play) at the school you choose. smaller schools in the region (including those that produce the occasional NFL players, like UNO and NWMS) are constantly getting nebraska kids that NU would have loved to walk on.

as i said before, a kid is either scolarship material or he's not. if he is, you're jerking him around by not offering until other decent schools catch on. that might be the right way to play it on a video game, but real teenagers have emotions and real coaches have integrity. if you really want a kid, you offer him.

as for the grayshirt idea, there are reasons they're rarely used. the kid has to agree to delay starting college, which not every kid will agree to do, particularly when it is likely to be taken as a slight against his abilities. even if he will agree to it, it's really only useful if you actually think a kid is scholarship material and either needs a year to develop physically or you are just too full for the year. both of these may apply to cotton, if he'll agree to it.

the kid still has to be scholarship material though, otherwise you're just preventing a better recruit from getting a scholarship the following year instead of this year.

and for what it's worth, i agree that this offer would have raised a stir even if it weren't barney's kid. recruiting geeks have been throwing online conniption fits over offers to lowly rated home state kids for years now. some of them have been right, some of them have been wrong, but you can count on complaints. the fact that it's barney's kid just adds fuel to the fire, particularly for those that for some reason already dislike barney.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Again, I have no issues with it being barney's kid, him having no stars yet, him being from nebraska, none of that stuff. the problem i have is that he simply didnt have any offers, and yes he would have walked on here. the part about teenagers needing to feel welcome doesnt really apply. there are walk ons being recruited just like schollie players. coaches keep in regular contact, visit his school, talk to coaches to see how he's doing so it's not like they have no contact with the kid and just ask him to try out. also you are acting if you ask a kid to walk on its a slap in their face to athletic ability and only evil coaches do that. i would guarentee you that TO had kids walk on that probably deserved a schollie but he knew that he could get them to walk on and get a more proven player at that point in their careers. they were still recruited and told that if they make the two deep they'll get a schollie. I see no problem with explaining to the kid, hey we really want you but you're still a little green and developing so we'd like you to come in and compete for a spot on the two deep and if you make it then you'll be on schollie. Devaney probably did it, TO did it, so did Callahan and Bo has done it as well. There's nothing wrong with it and its what gave us our advantage during our run.

 
I am quite familiar with the workings and benefits of the walk-on program. That still doesn't change the FACT that we lose quality walk-on prospects every single year to the schools that offered cotton scholarships. In fact, I have a brother and a high school teammate that both turned down preferred walk-on status for small school schollies and both are huge husker fans. You simply have no way of knowing whether cotton would have been one of those kids. Yes, it would be awesome if we could get him and every other quality nebraska prospect to walk-on, but it's just not reality. If the kid is high enough on the coach's list, you don't d!(k around, you offer him.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top