Thoughts on recruiting at Nebraska

What I would like to know is where did the posters at the BRB ever come up with the premonition that once Tom became AD that Nebraska was going to build their team with walk-ons?

I do not remember one recruiting class in the 80's when Tom was not out recruiting the best talent he could in the Texas area. In fact, the only real set back he had was the ordeal with Mike Rosier. The next year we had at least 3 top recruits back out and go elsewhere.

In the late 70's and into the 80's Tom found that trying to get the top recruits from Florida, Georgia, California was not worth the effort as these kids had their schools in mind, a bit closer to home than Nebraska and they coould play in warm weather all year long. One of the best recruiting pitches out there was playing Miami for the national championship in the orange bowl in 1984. Didn't really matter to most of the top athletes from the Southeast as most would rather play for Miami, Florida State, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, etc. Tom knew competing against this was not worth the effort. Besides, there were plenty of Texas kids that wanted to come to Nebraska. So why not recruit closer to home. It makes sense. Yes I know Mike Rosier and Irving Fryer are from New Jersey, Tom and Frank did recruit that area as well as California, but the majority of the effort was close to home. Like most all schools, with the exception of Notre Dame, do.

Not only are you recruiting a kid but you are also convincing the parents that Nebraska is the right school. Football wise, in Tom's case, was not hard to convince. But if the top kids from say California also had offers from UCLA, USC, Washigton, and Nebraska - being from California, which school do you think he might chose? Would his parents want him to attend Nebraska where they may never see him play, other than on tv.

For Nebraska to convince the top high school players from the state of California to overlook USC and UCLA today, is no different than the 90's or 80's or even the 70's.

Look at ESPN's top 150 high school athletes, where they are from and what school they have committed. I am going to estimate about 75% of the kids that have committed are going to a school in their home state or in a state close to the school (in the case of LSU). California kids are staying in California, Texas kids are staying around the Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Lousiana area. Florida kids are looking at Miami, Florida State, Florida, Georgia, Alabama.

Recruiting the "odds" for the top players has always been, and always will be getting the best talent you can find with-in, say, a 500 mile radius of your school. Given this you have the best odds of not only getting the kids to commit but also have the support of the parents. This is not always possible so the top schools do verture out to find what talent they can. Tom and Frank were very good at this, and thrived in the 80's and 90's doing so.

Baylor is the one example of the true "home grown" recruiting. Look at the recruiting map from last year and look where Baylor recruited. I would guess it's no more than a 200 mile radius of the school.

Yes I know, we are not Baylor! But, recruiting starts at home, and works out from there. The best college player is one that wants to be there. This is not the Pros. This is not their job, but rather in college football it is their passion to play football for at least 4 more years. The passion of a play cannot and never will be judged in terms of speed or muscle, but it is an invaluable tangible when it comes to high school athletes.

Tom went after the best players for his system, and you can bet Bo will do the same.

Both Pete Carrol and Bob Stoops won the national championship by installing a working system that included most of the same players that previously saw losing seasons. It wasn't until after winning, that the "star" players started showing intrest.

Recruit the very best kids you can get to fit your system - mix that in with hoem grown kids that have done nothing but dream of playing for Nebraska - toss in good coaching to mature the talent and you have what Tom Osborne experienced over his years of coaching. Success in the Mid-West.

Enjoy the time between now and the Bowl game husker fans. This was something I sorely missed last year. Having the season end after Colorado was, well, Just not the Nebraska Way!

NDHusker