Nebraska's talent may not be top 20 or 25 talent but if you look at the top 25 does Ball State from top to bottom have top 25 talent? NO! They have a great QB in Nate Davis and a few decent position players but the only top 25 talnet they have is Davis. Look at Pitt, North Carolina, Northwestern come on these teams have little to no top 25 talent but they are ranked or near being ranked. On some of the plays that Nebraska does not make it is simple fundamentals that are broken not talent. Missed tackles comes from coaching not an assesment in tackling. That is something that can be worked on in practice and needs to be. I also do not know why the D-line and some of the o-line lost all of the weight they did. Potter was one of the better d players last year and this year he is decent but not playing at the same level as last year. In regards to NFL players on offense Marlon Lucky will be a third down back who is drafted, in the future youll have Javario Burkes, Helu will be, Marcus Mendoza has not played this year but he will be in the NFL someday. If you look at last years recruting class (2008) Bo does not have to much speed. Cameron Merdith is faster than Kreikemeier who is a LB. flash to the 09 recruting class and the fastest guy yuo have runs a 4.47 40. That is not blazing! The conditioning program needs to be examined because I thought that would all help but clearly it has not and I believe that it has made some players get pushed all over the field more.
Some very good points about Ball State and the others. but those teams will not end up in the top 25 when this season is finished and often teams with weak schedules and good records end up in the top 25 w/o really belonging there.
Your points are all excellent. Nice post.
Kansas ended up in the top 10 last year. What was their recruiting like 4 and 5 years ago? South Florida came out of nowhere last year. What was their recruiting like 4 and 5 years ago? Oregon State has comparable talent to USC? I'd also have to question Alabama having all this great talent as they've been scholly limited and nearly emasculated by probation from the past. Snyder built some great teams out of JuCo's. You don't have to have spectacular talent to win. If it came down to a talent pool year in and year out, then USC; Florida; Miami; Texas; OU; etc. would win each and every year. When Cooper was at Ohio State, they were the NFL pipeline. However, he never won a NC. Talent will only take you so far.
I'd have to really doubt Boise State has more talent than we do. I'd have to really doubt Hawaii last year had more talent than we do. Miami has gobs more talent than we do, yet they're still struggling and have a worse record than we do. Now, look at North Carolina that just beat them. They have a great coach, but they don't have superior talent yet.
Some coaches have to have superior talent to win, and some coaches can win without it. If we have to have superior talent to win, then we're going to be down for quite a while. TO never got superior talent, and I highly doubt we're ever going to get superior talent top to bottom recruited into Lincoln, NE.