I think he could have recruited JUCO players if he was that hard up....I maintain that CU will go nowhere with the current staff....the whole culture at CU sucks.
I hate CU too. But we will both be sorely disappointed. Mark my words --- Hawkins will have CU at the top of the North within two years. He will have his squad move ahead of both Kansas and Missouri (though both seem perched to be pretty solid as well). They made a good hire and Hawkins has systematically rebuilt from the ground up. He went with serious youth, took his licks and developed his players in playing for the future.
Pelini should learn from that.
We used to receive recruits from our border states as imports in the past. But with a vastly improved Colorado, Kansas and Missouri, recruits from these states that often came to Nu will stay at home. Now it is our recruits that will be exported.