Nebraska Recruiting - Huskers Have A Better Shot At Big Ten Conference Titles Than You Think

by Jon Johnston on Jan 26, 2011 7:01 AM CST in Nebraska Husker Recruiting

In the recruiting wars, Nebraska appears to be doing pretty well when you put it in perspective:

Ohio State Buckeyes lead Big Ten recruiting but Nebraska Cornhuskers are close behind

The Cornhuskers have raised the bar with their recruiting efforts. They currently project to have the second-ranked class in the conference behind Ohio State. Six of their commitments are of the four-star variety.

Methinks it's going to take a while for everyone to get used to Nebraska being in the Big Ten, including the pundits that do this for a living. It's not just getting used to comparing ourselves to a whole new set of teams, but accustomed to the idea that the Big Ten has gone through a fundamental shift.

Example?

A better headline for that ESPN article might have been - Ohio State Buckeyes Recruiting Leading Leaders Division While Nebraska Leads the Legends.

Or not, once again showing why those division names are still the stupidest creation coming out of the formation of the new Big Ten. Let's try that again.

Ohio State Buckeyes Recruiting Leads Eastern Division While Nebraska Leads In The West

Ah, much better. Not only proof as to why the division names might have better off including something informational about the teams within them, but more to the point.

The point? The point is that the game remains the same as it was in the Big 12 - win your division, get to the conference title game, and you've got a damned good shot at greatness.

We may spend a lot of time over the next few months wringing our hands about how much harder it's going to be to win a Big Ten conference title than it was to win the Big 12, but we don't have to compete with the Texas and Oklahoma schools on the field any more. Considering that three of our top recruits and five total out of 16 commits are from Texas, moving to the Big Ten hasn't appeared to hurt the ability to recruit Texas.

It remains to be seen whether winning the Big Ten grants the Big Ten winner as much prestige as winning the SEC over the next few years but it may prove to be a great irony if Nebraska is in a position to use Texas players to win the conference and get a shot at the national title.

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Comments

What worries me is that

This class had such a strong start and its now slowing down significantly. Will we even break twenty recruits?

by huskermic on Jan 26, 2011 7:05 AM CST via mobile reply actions

We don't

Need that many. Decommits like Sade hurt but this class is about the right size. A few more before signing day should materialize however I doubt it’ll be over 20.

by Restnessizzle on Jan 26, 2011 9:45 AM CST via mobile up reply actions

Stars

and recruiting are fun to talk and speculate about but it really doesn’t show up for a few years some pan out some don’t. Bo and Co. have done a decent job recruiting so far (defense A/offense C-) but I would like to see some more speed on offense, especially on the outside to stretch the field and open up the run. And that will only be effective if the O-line and QB can do their jobs. It seems the focus has been on the lines when it comes to recruiting which is probably where it should be when you are building from the ground up. A strong foundations is essential. I wonder though, to take the next step if we need to get some real gamebreakers. Of course, those recruits are coveted and hard to land.

by Huzkerfan on Jan 26, 2011 10:43 AM CST reply actions

One of my Favorite Observations

from the Callahan era was that Callahan recruited players to play at Nebraska instead of recruiting players who wanted to play for Nebraska.

A gamebreaker (like Suh) is a real asset to be sure, but remember even Suh was only above average until he got coached up by the right guy(s). My concern on offense is not so much the number of stars the recruit has, but the glaring lack of ability to coach anyone up.

And what recruit wants to come and play for the “Mystery Man” (no identity) offense? How do you recruit for something so non-specific? Hard to get a gamebreaker when your offensive identity is to “take what the defense will give you” (duh, teams figured out if they don’t give anything then we got no offense). So what kind of players do you recruit? A real good decision maker? “Hmm…let’s see, what are they giving me this play…OH CRAP! I got sacked!”

OK – that is being overly simplistic, but I think we’ll be average at best on offense until we get an identity we can recruit to and use to entice gamebreakers.

by UltimaRatioRegum on Jan 26, 2011 12:11 PM CST up reply actions