Where are the Nebraska Kids?

I did a fairly in depth look at this a year to two ago because I was frustrated about the same thing. The phrase "there just isn't any talent here" sort of rubs me the wrong way. There isn't a genetic border around the state of Nebraska that says all the God given talent is far, far away. The issue that I came up with is that it's not being developed at the HS level. We don't have anything outside of the regular season in this state that develops kids into football players. Absolutely every other sport they play, they can literally play year round. The kids can play BB year round. Girls can play VB year round. Hmmm......wonder why Nebraska produces more D1 VB talent than anywhere else per capita.

Then you look at football and there is absolutely nothing other than maybe a kid goes to a camp at a college in the summer.

This is only going to change one of two ways:

1) Spring ball and summer leagues of some kind (7 on 7) that allows these kids to work on their skills and allows the coaches to spend more time with them coaching them up.

2) Bring them into the program and allow them to sit for a couple years developing. This will bring them up to the level of development that FRESHMEN are coming in from other parts of the country.

The problem with #2 is that with scholarship limits at 85, this drastically limits your program when a player sits for a couple years without contributing while he develops. So...we have a walk on program. This allows these kids to come into the program, they don't take up room on the scholarship list and they can develop into players.

People have been all upset that walkons have been starting on our O line. I think that is a completely BS way of looking at it. Those kids worked their azzes off to develop in the program and deserve the start over scholarship players that aren't working as hard.

Once a walkon from Nebraska is in the program for a while, there is no reason why there isn't a possibility they are better. Some of these kids would be 3-4 star kids if they were simply in places like California, Texas and Florida where they are developed in HS.

Then, on top of that, coaches outside of maybe Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, CSU and Ohio simply aren't going to spend any time evaluating talent of kids in Nebraska. So, if the Huskers don't do it, many times these kids that have potential, just aren't going to get that shot.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
People have been all upset that walkons have been starting on our O line. I think that is a completely BS way of looking at it. Those kids worked their azzes off to develop in the program and deserve the start over scholarship players that aren't working as hard.
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I don't think many (at least not myself) are upset that walkons have been starting. I agree with you 100% that they come into the program behind the recruited players due to HS football in NE. They are behind the curve. But, many of them have a ton of potential. What I can't figure out, that gets me a little upset is how we can develop these kids that are very raw, into better than average offensive linemen - but yet those same coaches are given players that already possess all the tools to succeed just need polished, and they can't seem to get them beyond that same "above average" point. ARod should be farther along. Why didn't Yoshi develop much beyond where he started in his 2 years here? Qvale and Sirles have basically played at the same level for the last 2-3 years. Reeves came in and I thought was going to take over the center position when Caputo left. Not only did he get beat out by an undersized walk-on Jackson - but he's also beat out by Pensick and another walk-on in Pelini so he finds himself at the bottom of the depth chart at right guard - behind 2 other walk-ons. WTH?

...and not to get off topic - but I do take a little issue w/ people constantly talking about how hard these walk-ons work and yada yada yada. I will guarentee you that the overwhelming majority of the scholarship players work just as hard. Out of 20ish walkons each year, only a handful make it through the entire 5 years on the team. A few work hard like you mention, but most quickly wash out. And I don't think the ones that are here work any harder than most of the scholly guys. Unfortunately a lazy scholarship player is put front and center so we think all scholly players are lazy, but the 10 lazy walk-ons aren't ever discussed.

 
Reeves has been battling shoulder issues, so bad he probably won't play center again. That cost him a full year or more, he just started getting bac for the bowl game and he should be good to go next year, he got some PT in the bowl game as well as Cotton.

Its been said we have 3 Walk on O Line that redshirted that are developing nicely.

 
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At the beginning of the year, I would hear or read a number of Husker fans that were claiming we must just be pathetic if we have walkons starting on the O line. It might have been on the old board I was at instead of here.

As for the "working hard". Almost all players in the program work their azzes off. I honestly don't have an answer to why someone like Reeves doesn't blossom into a dominating player and a walkon takes their spot. BUT, the way I look at it is this. Looking at Reeves, and A Rod, it is always possible that those guys maxed out their potential. Who knows? Many things can happen.

If Reeves, ARod, Pelini and Jackson hit the program and two are highly rated and two aren't, maybe the two that were highly rated simply were maxed out and didn't have the upside potential that the other two had.

If you are going to develop the local talent through the Walkon program instead of in HS, then it is safe to say that most walkons are still not going to contribute much but the cream will rise to the top.

And...yes....sometimes a walk on simply works his azz off and desevers to be on the field while someone who is highly rated comes in and thinks he deserves the spot no matter what.

Listen to older players talk about the walkon program and how it pushed them. They will tell you that many of those guys are what made them work their azzes off to keep their spots and made them better. Because if they didn't, the walkon was going to be playing instead of them.

 
Yoshi played at a high level. Sirles has improved significantly over the last few years. Qvale barely saw the field until this year and was a pretty effective left tackle. Not sure how you can claim these players didn't improve.

And Jackson played great at center, by the way. His injury was a big blow.

 
dylan said:
Yoshi played at a high level. Sirles has improved significantly over the last few years. Qvale barely saw the field until this year and was a pretty effective left tackle. Not sure how you can claim these players didn't improve.

And Jackson played great at center, by the way. His injury was a big blow.
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Completely agree with this. Jackson was a great surprise this year and a big part of the reason why we had a top 10 rushing attack.

BTW....you don't have a top 10 rushing attack going against the defenses we did without having a good O line that has been developed.

 
Yup. We were able to run the ball effectively against most teams. I don't care how good our backfield was, a lot of it is attributable to the line. Our offense, particularly our ground game has been improving year after year. As much as people want to hate cotton, the proof is in the pudding.

 
kchusker_chris said:
MichiganDad3 said:
I just noticed that only one of 21 committed kids in this year's class is from Nebraska. As a point of reference, 59% of the 1995 roster was from Nebraska and 67% of the offensive lineman were from Nebraska. I know that is skewed by the number of walk-ons, but why aren't more Nebraska kids offered? It could just be my memory, but in the past I didn't see many starters from Nebraska on other teams, but now it seems to happen often.
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3 out of our 5 OL starters this year were from Nebraska. How many starters are you seeing from Nebraska on other teams - and don't count Northwest Missouri State, etc. More than 3? They are few and far between. We aren't losing out on quality talent in Nebraska - there just isn't much.

Choi - Lincoln, NE

Pensick - Lincoln, NE

Long - Elkhorn, NE

Lets go the entire depth chart on the OL for the Georgia game...

Left Tackle

Qvale - ND

Sirles - CO

Thompson - TX

Left Guard

Choi - NE

Pensick - NE

Cotton - NE

Center

Pensick - NE*

Pelini - OH

Right Guard

Long - NE

Nickens - NE

Reeves - NE

Right Tackle

Sirles - CO

Rodriguez - NE

Almost the entire OL. (which might not be a good thing to be honest w/ you) And look at the rest of the depth chart from that game. Out of 31 listed on offense 13 were from NE. On defense there is a discrepancy - out of 29 only 5 were from NE. Throw in our kicker and holder from NE as well. Quite a few considering we recruit nationally, and are located in a small state w/ little to no talent. To be honest w/ you we'll probably start winning when we finally get MORE out of state kids making a bigger impact. The fact that we're relying on so many NE kids is why we have depth issues - they take so much longer to develop because they are behind the 8-ball with HS football in NE.
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Even an asterisk could be put by Rodriguez, because he was from New Jersey up 'til he was 16? or 17?.

 
I'm decent friends with a very long time HS coach that just retired. I made some comment about players not being developed in Nebraska HS.

He opened up to me about his limitations as a coach in a C1 school in Nebraska. He had gone to a coaches clinic at some place in Omaha where there were lots of coaches from larger schools. They were all talking about how practices were organized for maximum reps...etc.

He came away frustrated. He explained that at a larger school where you have enough kids that they only play one way, they can have the offense working on nothing but that for two hours a day in practice. The defense is working for two hours and then at the end, the special teams had enough time to get better.

In smaller schools where kids have to play both ways, that same 2 - 2.5 hours of practice have be all divided up. Meaning, if you have a 2 hour practice, you might spend one hour on offense and one hour on defense and a little bit of special teams at the end.

It all adds up.

Now, if we would simply put in a two week spring football and some 7-7 leagues, the coaches can implement an offense in the spring. The skill players could develop their skills in that offense over the summer and then come fall camp, that coach can develop the team as a whole a lot more.

 
The state overall has to get with it as far as development goes. We are behind most of the country, that is for sure. But yes, our smaller schools do have a disadvantage as far as time goes in a practice. I played for a C1 school myself and know about this. about 6 years ago that C1 team jumped to B, and a couple years ago faced one of the largest B schools in the state semis. The team they faced had 2 completely different lines, 1 D, 1 Off, whilst my old team was trying to play iron man ball against that constant rotation, and let me tell you, the poor kids never had a chance. Not only from a conditioning aspect, but the sharpness of both their lines was clearly evident of literally have twice as much time to perfect schemes.

 
The old coach I was talking about would just laugh when fans would complain that he isn't more creative on offense. He simply doesn't have enough time with the kids to develop a scheme.

 
From what I see down here - it's not so much at the HS level that we are lacking (though i appears that way) - it's at the 5th, 6th, 7th grade levels. There has to be the pee-wee league. That's where it all starts. A lot of kids come into junior high in Nebraska barely having touched a football - then they play 4 games through 8 weeks of practice. Down here, they'll pay 8 games as 4th and 5th graders - and they'll have 12 weeks of practice in the spring, and 12 weeks in the fall. Do that for 5-6 years before hit high school and your freshman team looks similar to some varsity squads in NE.

 
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kchusker_chris said:
From what I see down here - it's not so much at the HS level that we are lacking (though i appears that way) - it's at the 5th, 6th, 7th grade levels. There has to be the pee-wee league. That's where it all starts. A lot of kids come into junior high in Nebraska barely having touched a football - then they play 4 games through 8 weeks of practice. Down here, they'll pay 8 games as 4th and 5th graders - and they'll have 12 weeks of practice in the spring, and 12 weeks in the fall. Do that for 5-6 years before hit high school and your freshman team looks similar to some varsity squads in NE.
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This is a big reason why Millard has had a ton more success over OPS in football for decades. OPS middle schools just recently started having football teams, MPS has had them for a long time.

 
kchusker_chris said:
From what I see down here - it's not so much at the HS level that we are lacking (though i appears that way) - it's at the 5th, 6th, 7th grade levels. There has to be the pee-wee league. That's where it all starts. A lot of kids come into junior high in Nebraska barely having touched a football - then they play 4 games through 8 weeks of practice. Down here, they'll pay 8 games as 4th and 5th graders - and they'll have 12 weeks of practice in the spring, and 12 weeks in the fall. Do that for 5-6 years before hit high school and your freshman team looks similar to some varsity squads in NE.
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We have a midget league here for 4th graders+, and a flag league for 2nd graders+, that both attract numerous kids from surrounding towns. It's a nice league, but I personally think it's a little watered down. Too much standardization as far as offense and defense, and even down to your practice regiments. It's all for the sake of being fair I guess, which is a whole other issue that i wont get into.

 
We have a pretty good little kids football league here. I think it starts with 4th and 5th grade playing flag and then 6th and 7th playing tackle. I know my son was much more prepared for middle school football than I ever was without it. They have practice every day after school and then play I think 5 games on Sundays.

 
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