Losing season for NU football... but now ranked #1?!?

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 2:18 am

Anyone seen this ranking? Remains to be seen what kind of coach Callahan really is... but his guys sure can recruit.

Rivals.com

Rank School Commitments 5-star 4-star 3-star Average Points
1 Nebraska 20 2 5 10 3.30 1,648
2 Virginia 24 1 5 14 3.13 1,555
3 Oklahoma 14 0 9 5 3.64 1,373
4 Georgia 14 0 9 5 3.64 1,353
5 Ohio State 11 2 6 3 3.91 1,319
6 Texas A&M 21 0 6 11 3.00 1,309
7 LSU 11 0 8 3 3.73 1,113
8 Maryland 18 0 4 11 3.06 972
9 Texas 10 1 4 5 3.60 947
10 Virginia Tech 14 0 4 9 3.21 925
11 Arizona 16 0 3 12 3.13 867
12 Michigan 12 1 3 6 3.25 841
13 Tennessee 10 0 5 5 3.50 828
14 Iowa 12 0 2 10 3.17 725
15 Auburn 11 0 4 6 3.27 705
16 Clemson 16 0 3 8 2.88 687
17 Alabama 18 0 3 9 2.83 686
18 UCLA 12 0 3 8 3.17 658
19 Texas Tech 14 0 2 9 2.93 642
20 Arkansas 12 1 0 8 2.92 560
21 Miami-FL 6 0 4 2 3.67 540
22 Southern Cal 6 1 1 4 3.50 517
23 Missouri 11 0 2 8 3.09 456
24 Notre Dame 11 0 1 8 2.91 451
25 West Virginia 12 0 1 6 2.67 408

Post by **Coyote** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 10:02 am

Yes, NU justed passed Virginia for the - as of now - #1 recruiting class for 2005.
But there are quite a few 5 and 4 star players yet to commit.
NU just got their 20th commit yesterday and average 3.3 stars.
But if you look close some prominant schools are behind in commits -
OSU with 11 (3.91), LSU 11 (3.71), UT 12 (3.60), Miami 6 (3.67), USC 6 (3.50) all will eventually pass NU.
The new coaches have done well and are all great at recruiting, but they need to land a few more OTs and DTs and a 4 star WR.

OmahaRules · Post by **OmahaRules** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 12:58 pm

I hardly doubt all with eventually pass NU with a 25 scholorship limit. Nebraska will end up with a top 5 recruiting class as long as all of these commits sign. Feb 2nd we will see just how good Callahan is at keeping his recruits.

projectman · Post by **projectman** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 8:00 pm

It seems like we always loose a few in February.

UNOstudent · Post by **UNOstudent** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 8:26 pm

do u think the coaching staff is on par with the number one recruiting class to maximize their abilities and win games? i really have no idea

Post by **Coyote** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 11:18 pm

UNOstudent,

[rant]
That is what we will find out in the next 3 years.
Everyone acknowledges that these coaches are great recruiters.
(But Cosgrove has been a major disappointment.
His strength was supposed to be in Chicago, but we have
no recruits from Illinois and the top 15 uncommits left
do not list UNL as an interest.)

Most people believe that Callahan and Jay Norvell decided that they were
going to implement the WCO and damn the torpedos even though the
OL, RBs and QBs were recruited to run Fearless Franky's version of the option.
They didn't coach to the strengths of the players, they wanted their recruits to know that they were dedicated to the WCO. Being a teacher of the game is more important than coaching - calling the right plays - for which they showed no competence. Another problem was that they tried to change Dailey too much. He naturally throws a little sidearm, they wanted him to be the archetypical drop back and read. He never got past read 2. He can't throw deep, so I hope read one would be the 5 - 15 yard quick slant, then the dump off, and third deep. However if you watch film he looks deep first ( a 3 second watch) and then throws it away. At the end of the ISU game he was great - because he didn't have to think, just react and throw in .5 seconds - sidearm and all.

But then there was the defense. The unit that was supposed to save the offense.

A few years ago Bohl and Darlington changed to the zone - which takes a lot of time to re-align.
Remember PSU? WRs ran into our zones, took our FS/SS out of position, the underneath was open and they basically had their way.
The Pelini came to the rescue (or a few years of practice) the secondary played well. So well it was regarded as one of the best secondaries in the NCAA preseason.

This year they changed to the 2 deep/3 deep coverage.
In the M2M you have to be physical, the zone you have to have the feet.
Again they tried to force feet into physical players.

Blake was a great recruiter but a mediocre coach.
Stoops won a Championship with his recruits.
Kids want to come to NU because they see UNL has no talent for the WCO
and they will start because their talents are better than our starters.
UNL has a history of developing strength.
We will have a top 10 recruiting class for the next 3 years.
Now if they can coach them is something we have to watch.

[/rant]

OmahaDevelopmentMan · Post by **OmahaDevelopmentMan** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 3:42 pm

The Huskers won't end up at #1 by the end of the season. Maybe they'll end up in the top 15, but not the top 5. You see, once the big boy's (USC, Oklahoma, ect) start to sign the tons of 4 and 5 star recruits they have interested we'll see Nebraska's position slowly go down. Also the Husker's only have about 5 more scholarships left, so hopefully they'll use them for some 4 and 5 star guys.

OmahaRules · Post by **OmahaRules** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:13 pm

I think you will see some more quality kids come to Nebraska. Remember although you can have a great recruiting class year in and year out (Texas) that still doesn't mean you will have a great team. I know a few of the Nebraska players personally and if what I am hearing is true I'm skeptical that unless the coaches really do something the morale of this team is really low. They need something big to motivate them. Most don't seem to like the coach which you might recognize from a few of the players public comments about how they didnt buy into the system.

edsas · Post by **edsas** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:18 pm

OmahaDevelopmentMan wrote: You see, once the big boy's (USC, Oklahoma, ect) start to sign the tons of 4 and 5 star recruits they have interested we'll see Nebraska's position slowly go down.

Nebraska is 3 and 5 in national title games over the last 11 seasons. Are you saying a couple of bad seasons eliminates NU from being a "big boy"? I think Nebraska's name recognition and Callahan's connection to the NFL will be more than enough to turn out a top 5 class.

****

It's nice to see Nebraska do well in the recruit race, but I seem to remember all that success in the 90s came from a string of recruiting classes that ranked no higher than 15. I hope Callahan's highly touted kids can get the program back on track, but as others have already said, the right players can go only as far as their coaches can lead them.