[Husker] 2007 Game plan

[Duane Feldman]

Thanks for sticking up for me in my  absence Jon, Steve and Stuart.  Osborne RARELY was ranked highly in recruiting.  I still remember his almost apology in '91 (might have been the '90 squad) when we were ranked #44 in recruiting and TO saying "well, we feel we got the athletes we wanted."  That team went on to win two national championships.  Winning due to talent?  Not according to the recruiting gurus.

Recruiting makes coaching easier for sure.  But was there EVER a year when Bill Snyder outrecruited TO or FS???  Certainly WF, Rutgers and Navy aren't winning because of recruiting class rankings.  Throw in Hawaii, TCU, and several other teams into that group.

I did a study using the data supplied by Sports Illustrated.  The SI data concluded a correlation between recruiting classes and national rankings.  It is true, those teams with high recruiting classes were also those with high national rankings.  But I did a time lag analysis of the SAME DATA and it showed that the recruiting class rankings came IN THE SAME YEAR AS THE HIGH NATIONAL RANKINGS.    Miami, Nebraska, FSU, et al all had their highest recruiting classes in the year they were NC's or otherwise highly ranked.  NOT four or five years prior to the title(s).  Five years ago, Miami had the #1 or #2 ranked classes.  Where are they last year and today?  Not so good.  Ditto FSU.

No, TO was NOT a great recruiter (unless you consider the fact he could find talent not highly ranked by the gurus).  But the man could coach X's and O's with anyone.  ANd he didn't have his best teams with his highest ranked recruiting classes.

Duane Feldman


----- Original Message ----
From: "jonlists at cbsol.com" <jonlists at cbsol.com>

> 
>      The name of the game is recruiting.  Get better players than 
> your competition.  That is the way Tom Osborne did it throughout his
> career.  I never did think TO was a great, adequate but not great, 
> game day coach but he typically had more, sometimes much more, 
> talent than did his opposition.  It all goes back to recruiting.
> 
> 
> Bob Beach

I really questioned responding to this, since Bob will now back off his 
original statement, stating that he meant to say something else, but: 

Tom Osborne was possibly the greatest game day coach in the history of the 
game if you're counting preparation and practice as part of being a game 
day coach. 

Osborne did not always have great athletes. He certainly didn't have them 
throughout the 70's and 80's. If Osborne would have had the same athletes, 
say, as those playing at Ohio State, USC, or Alabama, he'd have probably 
won about six national titles. In fact, say the same for Oklahoma 
throughout the Switzer years. 

This will be my only response to a truly foolish statement. 

Jon Johnston
http://www.cornnation.com

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