Scholies vs. Walkons - The real story

cg_8 said:
What the heck is going on here? Is it good or bad to have Walk Ons? I thought it was good, but now I'm hearing its bad?

Someone seriously needs to tell me what I need to believe from here on out about walk ons... Someone needs to provide me with my opinion...
Click to expand...
It's good to have walkons to make up for recruiting misses. It's bad to have to rely on walkons to make up for recruiting misses.
 
Where did all of this "All we have is walk-ons!" nonsense began in the first place? Here's two guys who weren't good enough to get a scholarship to Nebraska but were considered "walk on" material:

Danny Woodhead

Jay Novacek

Both played in the Super Bowl.

That "Jimmies and Joes" quote is mostly used by coaches who need an excuse, IMNSHO. A high school recruit is nothing more than raw material, not the finished product. Ask any NCO from Fort Bragg or Parris Island.

 
Bowfin said:
Where did all of this "All we have is walk-ons!" nonsense began in the first place? Here's two guys who weren't good enough to get a scholarship to Nebraska but were considered "walk on" material:

Danny Woodhead

Jay Novacek

Both played in the Super Bowl.

That "Jimmies and Joes" quote is mostly used by coaches who need an excuse, IMNSHO. A high school recruit is nothing more than raw material, not the finished product. Ask any NCO from Fort Bragg or Parris Island.
Click to expand...
Really??????????? You cherry pick 2 out of thousands and that is supposed to make your point. Laughable!
default_yourpoint.gif


 
RADAR said:
GBRedneck said:
I saw a lot of references to the 24 of 79 players on the Husker travel roster being walkons. ("Oh the horror!!!")

I asked several times for the same stats from other teams, because as a standalone number, 24/79 is pretty meaningless. Anyway, I got tired of waiting so I went to compile some numbers on my own.

I looked at Wisconsin. Since I couldn't find any travel rosters, I figured I would find a blowout game where a lot of players saw the field and maybe the game participation report would have a similar number of players to the Husker travel roster. The Sept 12 game against Miami(OH) was a 58-0 blowout, and sure enough, they had 64 players that saw the field. I cross referenced that list with their recruiting classes from 2011 - 2015 to include 5th year seniors through true freshman.

The results were very similar to the Huskers. Out of 64 who saw the field, 18 were walkons. 18/64 = 28% walkons. Remember, that is the guys that actually played. Our numbers for Miami were 24/79 = 30% walkons, but that is just those who traveled, not necessarily played.

So I also checked the Huskers participation report against Miami. The Huskers played 51 total, 10 were walkons. 10/51 = 19.6%

So either Wisconsin is in big trouble talent wise, or Riley has a bunch of supporters who are experts in "How to Lie with Statistics".

Here are the Wisconsin players marked with either W for walkon, or the year of their recruiting class.

Biegel, Hayden 13

Biegel, Vince 12

Brookins, K. 13

Caputo, Michael 11

Cichy, Jack W

Connelly, Ryan W

Connors, Brett W

Deal, Taiwan 14

Deiter, Michael 14

Dixon, D'Cota 14

Dooley, Garret 13

Edwards, TJ 14

Endicott, Andre W

Erickson, Alex W

Farrar, A. 15

Ferguson, Joe W

Figaro, Lubern 14

Fredrick, J. 11

Gaglianone, R. 14

Goldberg, A. 12

Hayes, Jesse 11

Hillary, Darius 11

Hirschfeld, B. 14

Houston, Bart 12

Jacobs, Leon 13

Jamerson, N. 14

James, Alec 13

Jones, Kellen W

Jordan, AJ 11

Kapoi, Micah 14

Keefer, Jake 11

Kinlaw, Caleb 14

Love, Reggie 12

Marz, Tyler 11

Maxwell, Jacob 14

McEvoy, Tanner 13

Meyer, Drew W

Musso, Leo 12

Neuville, Z. W

Obasih, Chikwe 13

Ogunbowale, D. W

Orr, Chris 15

Panos, George 14

Peavy, Jazz 13

Rosowski, PJ W

Rushing, George 14

Russell, Jack W

Saari, Mark W

Sagapolu, Olive 15

Schmidt, Logan W

Schobert, Joe W

Sheehy, Conor 14

Shelton, S. 13

Stave, Joel W

Steffes, Eric 11

Straus, Derek W

Tindal, Derrick 14

Traylor, Austin 11

Udelhoven, C. W

Voltz, Dan 12

Watt, Derek 11

Watt, TJ 13

Wheelwright, R. 13

Williams, W. 1
Click to expand...
A crap post, the only thing Nebraska and Wisconsin have in common right now is they are both unranked with average talent. Damon Benning said today on the subject, that if this continued to be case in 2 years, Nebraska is in real trouble. (hense, Nebraska is in real trouble NOW)
Click to expand...
Wisconsin is ranked in both polls.

If Damon Benning said that, he's ignorant about the subject. It was that type of response to this issue that caused me to look into it and discover that it's not an issue. If TO had a travel roster with 79 players on it back in 1997, 24 would have been former walkons.

 
GBRedneck said:
RADAR said:
GBRedneck said:
I saw a lot of references to the 24 of 79 players on the Husker travel roster being walkons. ("Oh the horror!!!")

I asked several times for the same stats from other teams, because as a standalone number, 24/79 is pretty meaningless. Anyway, I got tired of waiting so I went to compile some numbers on my own.

I looked at Wisconsin. Since I couldn't find any travel rosters, I figured I would find a blowout game where a lot of players saw the field and maybe the game participation report would have a similar number of players to the Husker travel roster. The Sept 12 game against Miami(OH) was a 58-0 blowout, and sure enough, they had 64 players that saw the field. I cross referenced that list with their recruiting classes from 2011 - 2015 to include 5th year seniors through true freshman.

The results were very similar to the Huskers. Out of 64 who saw the field, 18 were walkons. 18/64 = 28% walkons. Remember, that is the guys that actually played. Our numbers for Miami were 24/79 = 30% walkons, but that is just those who traveled, not necessarily played.

So I also checked the Huskers participation report against Miami. The Huskers played 51 total, 10 were walkons. 10/51 = 19.6%

So either Wisconsin is in big trouble talent wise, or Riley has a bunch of supporters who are experts in "How to Lie with Statistics".

Here are the Wisconsin players marked with either W for walkon, or the year of their recruiting class.

Biegel, Hayden 13

Biegel, Vince 12

Brookins, K. 13

Caputo, Michael 11

Cichy, Jack W

Connelly, Ryan W

Connors, Brett W

Deal, Taiwan 14

Deiter, Michael 14

Dixon, D'Cota 14

Dooley, Garret 13

Edwards, TJ 14

Endicott, Andre W

Erickson, Alex W

Farrar, A. 15

Ferguson, Joe W

Figaro, Lubern 14

Fredrick, J. 11

Gaglianone, R. 14

Goldberg, A. 12

Hayes, Jesse 11

Hillary, Darius 11

Hirschfeld, B. 14

Houston, Bart 12

Jacobs, Leon 13

Jamerson, N. 14

James, Alec 13

Jones, Kellen W

Jordan, AJ 11

Kapoi, Micah 14

Keefer, Jake 11

Kinlaw, Caleb 14

Love, Reggie 12

Marz, Tyler 11

Maxwell, Jacob 14

McEvoy, Tanner 13

Meyer, Drew W

Musso, Leo 12

Neuville, Z. W

Obasih, Chikwe 13

Ogunbowale, D. W

Orr, Chris 15

Panos, George 14

Peavy, Jazz 13

Rosowski, PJ W

Rushing, George 14

Russell, Jack W

Saari, Mark W

Sagapolu, Olive 15

Schmidt, Logan W

Schobert, Joe W

Sheehy, Conor 14

Shelton, S. 13

Stave, Joel W

Steffes, Eric 11

Straus, Derek W

Tindal, Derrick 14

Traylor, Austin 11

Udelhoven, C. W

Voltz, Dan 12

Watt, Derek 11

Watt, TJ 13

Wheelwright, R. 13

Williams, W. 1
Click to expand...
A crap post, the only thing Nebraska and Wisconsin have in common right now is they are both unranked with average talent. Damon Benning said today on the subject, that if this continued to be case in 2 years, Nebraska is in real trouble. (hense, Nebraska is in real trouble NOW)
Click to expand...
Wisconsin is ranked in both polls.

If Damon Benning said that, he's ignorant about the subject. It was that type of response to this issue that caused me to look into it and discover that it's not an issue. If TO had a travel roster with 79 players on it back in 1997, 24 would have been former walkons.
Click to expand...
That's probably not totally accurate because TO was allowed 24 more scholarship players on the team than they are allowed now.

 
StPaulHusker said:
GBRedneck said:
RADAR said:
GBRedneck said:
I saw a lot of references to the 24 of 79 players on the Husker travel roster being walkons. ("Oh the horror!!!")

I asked several times for the same stats from other teams, because as a standalone number, 24/79 is pretty meaningless. Anyway, I got tired of waiting so I went to compile some numbers on my own.

I looked at Wisconsin. Since I couldn't find any travel rosters, I figured I would find a blowout game where a lot of players saw the field and maybe the game participation report would have a similar number of players to the Husker travel roster. The Sept 12 game against Miami(OH) was a 58-0 blowout, and sure enough, they had 64 players that saw the field. I cross referenced that list with their recruiting classes from 2011 - 2015 to include 5th year seniors through true freshman.

The results were very similar to the Huskers. Out of 64 who saw the field, 18 were walkons. 18/64 = 28% walkons. Remember, that is the guys that actually played. Our numbers for Miami were 24/79 = 30% walkons, but that is just those who traveled, not necessarily played.

So I also checked the Huskers participation report against Miami. The Huskers played 51 total, 10 were walkons. 10/51 = 19.6%

So either Wisconsin is in big trouble talent wise, or Riley has a bunch of supporters who are experts in "How to Lie with Statistics".

Here are the Wisconsin players marked with either W for walkon, or the year of their recruiting class.

Biegel, Hayden 13

Biegel, Vince 12

Brookins, K. 13

Caputo, Michael 11

Cichy, Jack W

Connelly, Ryan W

Connors, Brett W

Deal, Taiwan 14

Deiter, Michael 14

Dixon, D'Cota 14

Dooley, Garret 13

Edwards, TJ 14

Endicott, Andre W

Erickson, Alex W

Farrar, A. 15

Ferguson, Joe W

Figaro, Lubern 14

Fredrick, J. 11

Gaglianone, R. 14

Goldberg, A. 12

Hayes, Jesse 11

Hillary, Darius 11

Hirschfeld, B. 14

Houston, Bart 12

Jacobs, Leon 13

Jamerson, N. 14

James, Alec 13

Jones, Kellen W

Jordan, AJ 11

Kapoi, Micah 14

Keefer, Jake 11

Kinlaw, Caleb 14

Love, Reggie 12

Marz, Tyler 11

Maxwell, Jacob 14

McEvoy, Tanner 13

Meyer, Drew W

Musso, Leo 12

Neuville, Z. W

Obasih, Chikwe 13

Ogunbowale, D. W

Orr, Chris 15

Panos, George 14

Peavy, Jazz 13

Rosowski, PJ W

Rushing, George 14

Russell, Jack W

Saari, Mark W

Sagapolu, Olive 15

Schmidt, Logan W

Schobert, Joe W

Sheehy, Conor 14

Shelton, S. 13

Stave, Joel W

Steffes, Eric 11

Straus, Derek W

Tindal, Derrick 14

Traylor, Austin 11

Udelhoven, C. W

Voltz, Dan 12

Watt, Derek 11

Watt, TJ 13

Wheelwright, R. 13

Williams, W. 1
Click to expand...
A crap post, the only thing Nebraska and Wisconsin have in common right now is they are both unranked with average talent. Damon Benning said today on the subject, that if this continued to be case in 2 years, Nebraska is in real trouble. (hense, Nebraska is in real trouble NOW)
Click to expand...
Wisconsin is ranked in both polls.

If Damon Benning said that, he's ignorant about the subject. It was that type of response to this issue that caused me to look into it and discover that it's not an issue. If TO had a travel roster with 79 players on it back in 1997, 24 would have been former walkons.
Click to expand...
That's probably not totally accurate because TO was allowed 24 more scholarship players on the team than they are allowed now.
Click to expand...
Not in '97. The limit has been 85 since '92.

 
knapplc said:
Damon Benning is "ignorant about the subject."
default_blink.png


No. Just no.
Click to expand...
About this issue. If he thinks that the Huskers' ratio of former walkons to scholarship athletes on the travel roster is all of a sudden a problem, when it's roughly the same ratio as our peers, and the same as it's been for the last 20 years, then yes, he is ignorant about this issue. But I don't know what he said about it. I'm just going on what RADAR said. Did Benning actually say that about this issue?

I'm a big fan of DB and always have been. But this issue is one of those things that sounds scary until you dig in and find out the details. It's like "OMG! Dihydrogen monoxide is everywhere and thousands of people die from it!" and then you find out it's just water.

 
How many walk ons did Wisconsin take to Dallas? That is what you should be looking for. Who cares how many played. That isn't the point of the other discussion.

 
Stumpy1 said:
How many walk ons did Wisconsin take to Dallas? That is what you should be looking for. Who cares how many played. That isn't the point of the other discussion.
Click to expand...
If you can find their travel roster, I'll do the analysis. But there's no reason to believe it will be much different than ours based on the numbers that saw the field (participation report). Let's assume they brought 79. They played 50. 12 were former walkons. Do you think the 29 that didn't play were all or even predominantly scholarship athletes? 10-15 of those 29 who didn't play will be former walkons.

 
Could be wrong, but most of us don't care what Wisconsin does, and how similar they are to us. If we want to be back, we're going to have to blow Wisconsin away in every tangible way. 24 of 79 simply points to recruiting issues over the past 3, if not 4 years.

It absolutely is a fact that Pelini didn't get it done with recruiting; Riley and his staff have to improve drastically on that if we're going to gain relevance again.

 
Back
Top