[NU Sports] speed demons heading elsewhere

[Jeff Beamsley]

Those of us who live in the cold are too willing to accept as fact that 
warm-weather kids don't want to play in the cold, but I think it really 
depends on the kid.  We've recruited plenty of warm weather kids who 
could have played other warmer places.  If anything, our need to recruit 
smart kids who value education is going to go a long way towards 
overcoming an emotional bias to cold weather.  The 2004 recruiting class 
supports that claim.  8 of the 13 recruits were from warm weather states.

I also don't accept your premise that kids in Florida or California are 
inherently faster than kids anywhere else in the country.  It may seem 
like more football players come from those parts of the country, but it 
is as much to do with their large HS populations as it does the fact 
that they can play 12 months a year. 

The two fastest kids on our team right now come from Ohio (Jeff Backes) 
and Michigan (Kim Thompson).  Thompson won the 100M HS state meet in 
2003 setting a record (So much for not being able to recruit speed to NU).

Teddy Ginn (OSU) who is probably the fastest kid in the BT is from 
Cleveland.

Being faster than everyone else is a genetic gift, just like being 
smarter than everyone else.  Statistically these gifts are going to be 
spread more or less evenly thoughout the population regardless of 
region.  Our challenge every year is to find twenty or so good football 
players who are smart and fast.  This may be a larger challenge than the 
state schools that we compete with, but we've got a lot more to offer 
than those schools too.  And we have the ability to recruit nationally 
for smart kids in a way that our other BT rivals (with perhaps the 
exception of Michigan) can't.

Jeff




Brad Wilson wrote:

>To (partially) defend coach Roy here it may be that
>the really fast kids don't want to play in cold
>weather on fields where their speed may be negated by
>snow, rain, etc. And if it's true that most CFB speed
>comes from Florida and California I can see why NU
>might not get most of them. Joe Paterno said earlier
>this year he didn't recruit two stud receivers in
>Florida because "heck, they're not coming here," and I
>suspect RW would sympathize.
>
>Also, there's a perception (partially true; see
>NU-PSU) that the Big Ten plays a stodgier style of
>game, and a boy with 4.4 speed may find his skills
>better used at, well, Hawaii or TCU, say, than NU.
>It's also probably not a coincidence that the fastest
>Big Ten team I can remember was Ohio State's national
>champions.
>
>I insist where NU most needs a speed infusion is
>d-back, BTW.
>
>Brad Wilson
>
>=====
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