Stewart Mandel: Nebraska "Biggest Disappointment" Statement Could Be Correct

by Jon Johnston on Feb 6, 2009 12:59 PM CST in Football Comment 12 comments

Stewart Mandel, the head sage of all things college football, has a ringing endorsement on Bo Pelini's first full recruiting class:

Biggest disappointment (in general): Nebraska. You know the formula: Hot-young coach takes over at tradition-rich program and puts together a monster class in his first full recruiting year. In fact, it happened the last time the Huskers changed coaches -- Bill Callahan landed a top five class in 2005.

However, that wasn't quite the case for Bo Pelini, whose first full class was solid (top 30) but hardly spectacular. The lone "star" is QB Cody Green (Dayton, Texas) -- and even he was ranked just 173rd by Rivals.

When I first saw this my response was - "Oh, how quaint that the guy who once called Bill Callahan one of the five worst coaches now uses him as a hallmark of success."

Then I thought, like most Husker fans, that the high falootin’ 2005 class turned out to be largely a bust. Clearly Mandel doesn’t remember this, or he’s purposefully hoping we forgot, and we’ll send him tons of mail that he can use in a future column.

My first thoughts are made on behalf of defending Bo Pelini and a group of young men who’ve just committed to be Cornhuskers - a group of young men we know little about beyond their names or where they’re from.

But if you take a minute and step back, you have to realize that this year’s class probably does look like a big disappointment. In order to understand that point of view, perhaps you need to step back with me.

Pelini took over a floundering Nebraska program and put together a good season in his first full year as head coach. He endured a three-game losing streak during which he sometimes looked like a madman, screaming at his players and assistant coaches. He pulled his team together, realized the man he wants to be on the sideline, and won six out of seven games to finish the season.

Any way you look at it, it’s been a pretty impressive year for Bo Pelini and Nebraska football.

To make it even more impressive, Pelini would have had to put together a top ten recruiting class, filled with stars and high rankings, but he didn’t, and therefore it is disappointing. If he’d have had a mediocre season, there wouldn’t be such high expectations. Taken from that perspective, Mandel is delivering Nebraska a compliment, isn’t he?

We have, in Mandel’s words, a "solid" recruiting class. This class represents the building blocks that are required to continue to build upon the success of 2008. It’s not important that we win a national title next season. What’s important is we take back the Big 12 North. After that, it’ll be important that we hold onto it, then after that we win the Big 12. Along with a Big 12 title will come shots at a national title.

It’s important that Pelini keep moving forward, keep his momentum going. That is what will keep Pelini around and Nebraska on a path to success. Mandel’s world is full of one of coaches who are fired for having set such high expectations (such as Callahan) and failing to meet them.

Besides, Mandel had to pick someone. Given Pelini’s success this season, who else was he to pick?

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Recruitng is way overrated

I would love to know where the Jayhawk class that won the Orange Bowl was ranked four years earlier. Recruiting is all hype, for every Terrelle Pryor their are two dozen Harrison Becks. It is a good way for rivals, scout, and huskerpedia to make money. I would say that if you are in the top 40 and you have done your homework and recruited for your team and what it needs then MOST of those players develop as expected, you will be successful.

by Huzkerfan on Feb 6, 2009 5:27 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Excuse me I meant recruiting rankings are way overrated, recruiting itself is vital

by Huzkerfan on Feb 6, 2009 5:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm not sure

i agree with that.

There’s a lot of BS that goes on with recruiting, but I don’t think you can dismiss the rankings completely.

The rankings do a fair job, not a great one, of telling us who are the best young football players in the nation. Are they skewed towards the big three – California, Texas, and Florida? Yes, they are.

But what they do – getting a top ten recruiting class – is cut down on the margin for error.

Put it this way – there ain’t a damned recruiting service out there that’s going out to western Nebraska to look at player like Danny Woodhead. OTOH, it’s pretty easy for someone like Tom Lemming to see 30 guys in one day in Southern California.

So, recruiting is screwy. It always will be. Can’t be relied upon, can’t be dismissed. That’s a nasty place to be, especially if you’re one of those people who believe that things are black and white and I don’t mean skin color, but a method to make decisions.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!

by Jon Johnston on Feb 7, 2009 1:04 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Well, I wouldn't dismiss them either,

but like he says, there are alotta guys that fly under the radar; the services can only cover so many guys. There’s politics involved too.

"...dOn'T tAZ3 m3, brO'..."

by BO-urne Supremacy on Feb 8, 2009 2:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Kansas

played the easiest schedule ever when it went to the Orange Bowl BTW

You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool.
~Wanko the Sane

by JLew on Feb 6, 2009 9:44 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I know hyperbole was being used there.

But it really wasn’t THAT weak. Not even in the Top 20 weakest in that season.

And however you wanna slice it, Kansas was a Top 10 team in 2007. We lost one game all year, and that was to #4 Missouri. We beat the MAC champion Central Michigan, we beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater and Colorado in Boulder. Three bowl teams. Two of ’em on the road.

Sure, it wasn’t the strongest schedule in the world. It wasn’t that good. It had a lot of bad teams in there, obviously, but wasn’t NEARLY as bad as the people made it out to be. I can’t remember the exact schedule #, but it was a lot closer to like 89th than the 109th Fox put up there.

by rockchalk on Feb 7, 2009 12:14 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

KU DID have a very good team that year,

"...dOn'T tAZ3 m3, brO'..."

by BO-urne Supremacy on Feb 8, 2009 2:07 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think they finished

with about the right ranking.

"...dOn'T tAZ3 m3, brO'..."

by BO-urne Supremacy on Feb 8, 2009 2:07 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The only thing

that the guys who do the ratings have is contacts. If you think for one minute that guys like Lemming go see thirty guys a day you are way wrong. Yes they will go look at a few but mostly they have contacts at highschools who are telling them who is good. They also get tons of game film sent to them.

Guys like Lemming call up college coaches and ask who they are recruiting and then start calling high schools in that area and asking about them and asking for game tapes. They are really just a collection of opinions from so called “experts”. Nothing more nothing less. Just because they say a guy is a “five star recruit” doesn’t mean anymore then they think he is really good.

You never know exactly what you have until they show up and start playing.

by taflorom on Feb 7, 2009 9:53 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I just don't like the whole recruiting scene

Besides it being a big guessing game. I think it gives bigger programs like USC, Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, and even Nebraska in the past too much publicity. And that in turn can affect the polls, which SHAMEFULLY affect the national championship picture. Alabama beating Clemson is a good example. It gave Alabama a win over a top 10 team right off thebat. The only reason Clemson was ranked that high was because of a overhyped recruiting class.

by Huzkerfan on Feb 7, 2009 1:05 PM CST reply actions 0 recs