[Husker] Recruiting

Sat Dec 15 11:27:48 CST 2007

After the 94 or 95 championship, as a guest of a major corporate donor, I
attended a dinner reception in Omaha that featured Dr Tom Osborne.

Two things that I will ALWAYS remember from TO's speech.

First he started with a story about visiting patients with some players at
mental rehabilitation center.  It was a community outreach thing that the
University sponsors.  To paraphrase his opening, he noted that one of the
patients asked "Tom, Why are we here?"  Tom said that he was puzzled and
wasn't sure how to answer.  He continued his remarks and soon was
interrupted again by the same patient who insisted, "...but, Tom, *WHY* are
we here?'  Again, TO could not provide a response, and finally another
patient replied, "I believe that we are all here because we are not all
there."

Sometimes, I think we are all on this list for the same reasons.

OK... to the 2nd and more important comment from TO. 

He provided facts and data on the recruiting service ranking of the senior
class at the time; and he compared that to Miami, Florida State and Florida.
Although I do not recall the exact numbers, the Huskers were ranked
somewhere in the 30's while all of the Florida teams were in the top 10.
His point of emphasis was that the # of stars assigned by the recruiting
services did not correlate with the team's end result.  The coaching,
strength-conditioning and whatever other intangibles that yielded
year-after-year of on-field success were a result of a robust process - some
of us might call that tradition while other might say:

"Not the victory but the action.  Not the goal but the game.  In the deed
the glory."

I suspect that most everyone on the list has some Husker Big Red blood
running in their veins and deep in the unexplainable DNA lies a passionate
love for the Big Red Machine.   Don't let the antagonists run a downward
spiral around your heart.

Wishing everyone a pleasant holiday season with their family and friends;
and hoping that everyone has a peaceful new year with a bowl game
celebration to talk about this time next year (and a new president, too!)

Peace Out.

Steve G (no relation to Kenny G, or Tommie G for that matter)

Loves Park, IL
(deep behind enemy lines in big TelEveN country)

-----Original Message-----
From: husker-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:husker-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of
Mike Jaixen
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 10:39 PM
To: jon johnston; Gary Fead
Cc: Husker List
Subject: Re: [Husker] Recruiting

My biggest problem with services like Rivals and Scout
is that some fans view them as some sort of authority
on recruiting.  Granted they probably know more than
the average fan...but do they know anywhere near as
much as the average assistant coach?

Jeff Volk, an occasional contributor to this list, had
a great post to this list about a month ago about the
relative value of these services.  For the most part,
these services are really for entertainment purposes
only.  Schools use them mainly to build excitement
with  supporters (look at this guy who signed with us,
he's Rivals #13 linebacker and a 8-star recruit by
Gwonkolinkus.com; get your tickets NOW!)

Now, do these ratings mean that one player is somehow
better than another, or that one recruiting class is
better than another class?  From my perspective, the
opinion comes from service unqualified to do so, so
you believe in the rating at your own risk.  In the
end, it's not so much the rating, but rather how the
player fits the institution.  A player may have all
the physical talent in the world, but if he doesn't
match the institution, he's not going to be valuable.

I think what Gary was implying is that Nebraska has
seen some great players come in unheralded in the past
and leave great players.  Conversely, we've seen some
highly regarded players come to Lincoln in the last
few years and not really make much of a contribution. 
Does that mean that we don't want highly regarded
players?  Not necessarily.  All this means is that we
shouldn't buy into the recruiting hype.  With a
rivals.com 5-star rating and a buck, I can get a
burger at most fast food places - mostly because the
rivals.com rating is meaningless in the end.

What I'm hoping is that the new coaching staff will do
a better job of evaluating and developing players. 
Some of them will be 5-stars, some will be 3-stars,
some will be 1-star players.  The ratings may end up
being more of a coincedence than anything in the end. 
I'm personally more interested in the final result of
how these players perform at the end of their college
careers than how they perform at the end of their high
school career...mostly because I'm not qualified to
evaluate them.

--- jon johnston <jon.johnston at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Dec 14, 2007, at 9:38 AM, Gary Fead wrote:
> 
> > Good Morning All:
> >
> > In reply to the question about the recruiting and
> why we don't seem  
> > to be hearing much about it - could it be that the
> current staff  
> > (starting with Coach Osborne) don't pay much
> attention to  
> > "Rivals.com" and their rating system? And because
> of this the so  
> > called "Big Red Insider" Sean Callahan is now more
> of an "outsider"  
> > - quite honestly I hope this is the case.
> 
> Why is that? What bugs you (and not just you, but a
> lot of people)  
> about rivals.com and scout.com? Is it the way by
> which the rating  
> systems are determined? Is it their undue influence?
> 
> Keep in mind that while coaches are limited by
> contact periods and  
> numbers, Internet recruiting sites are not. They can
> keep interviewing  
> and posting whenever they want and as many times as
> they want.
> 
> For that reason, you can bet that Nebraska has
> someone who reads those  
> sites because they can be incredibly informative,
> even though a lot of  
> information has to be taken with a grain of salt.
> You can't rely on  
> them, but you can't entirely dismiss them either.
> Makes life difficult  
> for those "black and white" people in a grey world.
> 
> 
> > I for one would rather have the coaches recruiting
> "under the radar"  
> > players who will be team players and play for
> Nebraska and not for  
> > their ticket to the NFL. I'll be honest I don't
> watch NFL football  
> > and once players leave NU for the pros I don't
> follow them at all  
> > they end up lost on my screen unless they do
> something worthwhile in  
> > the community or get in trouble and then we all
> hear about it.
> >
> > Gary Fead
> > Omaha
> 
> I understand the whole concept of "play for
> Nebraska", but the fact is  
> that Nebraska should be pursuing a lot of the
> highly-ranked national  
> recruits as well. The best athletes are most likely
> going to the NFL.  
> We want them, the ones that have their heads screwed
> on right. .
> 
> With the internet being what it is, there aren't
> many 'under the  
> radar' guys left anywhere, and I really mean
> anywhere.
> 
> I don't follow recruiting like a religion, but last
> year I read Tom  
> Leming's "Second Season" and Bruce Feldman's "Meat
> Market", both of  
> which were incredibly informative (Feldman's book is
> rather terrifying  
> while being wildly entertaining... Christmas IS
> coming). Gave me a  
> different attitude about recruiting and about sites
> like rivals - they  
> are unfortunately a necessary evil.
> 
> 
> > Note:  Comcast has been bouncing a lot of list
> traffic recently.   
> > The problem appears to be on their end.
> 
> 
> Comcast is extremely difficult to deal with when it
> comes to email.  
> They block systems from sending mail based upon very
> rigid standards  
> and definitions that they won't reveal and are
> constantly changing.  
> Given that you can get a free gmail.com account and
> keep it regardless  
> of what ISP you use, I'd recommend you do that if
> Comcast blocks too  
> much of your email.
> 
> Jon Johnston
> http://www.cornnation.com
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> husker site list
> husker at tssi.com
> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/husker
> 
> Note:  Comcast has been bouncing a lot of list
> traffic recently.  The problem appears to be on
> their end.
> 

Mike Jaixen
Blog: http://huskermike.blogspot.com

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