2012 Nebraska Cornhuskers and the 2013 Recruiting Class

[AFhusker]

Hi guys,

Got really busy at work and have not frequented the board as much as I need to/want to. Here is my breakdown on the 2012 season position by position and the 2013 recruiting class.

QB - I have heard mixed reviews on a lot of fronts. One from a guy that I trust that said Brion Carnes has done nothing to prove he is better than TMart. So TMart gets the nod here. REDSHIRT ARMSTRONG!!!!!!!!!!! I have echoed this throughout the offseason, I am not ready to give up on our sophomore QB. He made an improvement from year one to year two showing from the Wisconsin game on that he wouldn't make just awful mistakes that would hurt us terribly. I am not looking for a Heisman campaign. But I do in fact believe he will be better and all in all more explosive than we saw last season.

RB - NEED to have a solid number two step up. Marrow will get carries from the way it sounds and he has a tremendous work ethic from all reports. I look for Abdullah to have a solid sophomore campaign. Needs to prove he can hold onto the ball more consistantly.Unfortunate about Aaron.... Redshirt Cross.

WR - This will be the best group of WRs we have had in a long time. Tarriq Allen is a name to watch. This position has been recruited very well by Bo and staff. I don't know if there is a single kid that was a four star recruit coming out of high school besides Westercamp on the roster at this current point in time.

TE - I am not worried at all about this position. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised to hear Cotton's name come up as a possible pro ball player. Ask me about 2013 and it is a different story.

OL - We are awfully talented at this position but also young age-wise as well as experience-wise. Need to have some leaders step up and bring these young guys up to their level. Choi, Long, ARod, Moore, among others need to be those guys. Since 2010, this position has been recruited very well. Center is a concern to me,

DL - I am on the Kaz bandwagon. This is a guy that has been a part of the schemes that have allowed a program like Iowa to consistantly beat the likes of Michigan and Wisconsin. A lot of those wins were predicated on the DL being able to stay in their lanes and contain Robinson and tackle Monte Ball!!!!!! If we can get Rome and Baker to play like the players we recruited them to be it will take a ton off of our linebackers.

LB - Will Compton Zaire Anderson are the two that I am looking at. Compton played very well last year towards the end. Zaire is somewhat of an unknown, but we all know that Bo doesnt recruit JUCO's to sit the bench. Really hope that Santos is the other guy at this spot.

DB - We should have a very, very solid group back here.

We are so far ahead of where we have ever been as far as recruiting to this point. The only two on our commit list that shouldn't be four star kids are Natter (one could even make a case for him getting a fourth star at some point), and Hart. I am a huge fan of the job Els has done thus far. A ton has changed and I think that it is for the better. I am looking for a huge push this summer and no let up. I would like to see us be around 12 commits by the start of the season with another 7 basically in the bag. If we are sitting around 19 commits from guys that we want come November I will be a very happy camper. Speed or Paulie can correct me if I am wrong but I believe we are looking at around 25 in this class. This could be the monster class that we have all waited for. It is certainly off to that kind of a start.

Listen guys, we will have a chance in every game that we play. When you go back and watch the bowl game, or the Michigan game, or even the Wisconsin game, there was not a single time that we stepped onto the field and the other team was just so much more athletic or so much better coached than we were that we couldn't compete. Granted, we deserved to lose every game I listed off, but to claim that we were no match for our opponent in all of those games would be incorrect. Most of the time we were a play here or there. That is what I am looking for from this team this year is to make those plays that win us those big time games. That is what is going to set us over the hump. It isn't that we suck at recruiting or our coaches suck, it is that we have to make those big time plays and we have to let ourselves succeed.

I agree with everything except that South Carolina had much superior athletes than we did. But most of our problems in the blowouts were scheme (not pressuring the QB)/player related (as in who was playing, Thorell anyone?) on the defensive side along with a weak OL. (What else is new?) The one thing that I'm wondering is that how we are always "young and inexperienced" on the OL every year? At some point in time, they just need to produce, no more excuses for Barney.

As for this year's recruiting, this is what they should have been doing from day 1. I'm very happy that they seem to finally get it and are taking it as serious as they need too. It just sucks that it took them 4 years to do it. Joseph has been the best hire that Bo has made and it's not even close. They are building relationships in the south that will eventually pay off big time for us. Els organizational skills are paying big dividends too.

What's been so horrid about the recruiting the last four years???

LOL at your BC comment. :ahhhhhhhh

BC? What BC comment are you talking about?

Do you really need to ask what has been wrong with Bo's recruiting for the last four years? He's barely recruited during the season and didn't try to press for a commit due to the strong dislike of decommits. Decommmits happen to everybody, and only using 25 of our allotted 55 official visits during the regular season last year (for example) isn't going to get it done. That mindset will not bring in good enough talent to win anything. I have no doubt in my mind that these coaches (minus Barney the buffoon) can get the most out of the players once they are here. But if you don't have the talent in the first place, it doesn't matter how good you are at schemes/motivation if you don't have the athletes. And brining in a handful of those types of players surrounded by a bunch of filler type of players won't get us where we or Bo want us to get

No we are not going to have the USC, Texass type of classes due to our location, but with more effort, a top 15 class every year should be able to be attained, and that will be able to make NU relevant again. This would be nice since we haven’t been since 2001.

i thought the whole recruiting process was going to be re evaluated this past off season? think i read that in a post last winter, maybe not?

it must be improved........no question.

It was, Tom basically told Bo that he needs to recruit better to get where he's expected to take the program. Which is why Joseph was brought in to mainley be a recruiter, while Bo is taking most of the DB's coaching duties.

 

[AFhusker]

If you watch the South Carolina game again, maybe you have I dont know, I think you will see what I am talking about. The only kid that you could say was head and shoulders more talented than any one of our guys was Clowney.

We played prison ball for 1.5 quarters of that game. In my opinion, our young and inexperienced guys got caught up in their SEC bull sh#t smack talk and we were out of our game and we weren't playing football. There were some very cheap things going on in that game. That was the only way they know how to play. If we win that game as we should have, this off-season people are talking about us winning the conference. Not losing 6 games as I have seen people post on here.

They didn't do anything wrong. Smack talk is part of the game and if our guys were too big of pussies to take it, then we don't have the type of players that we need to win titles here. How do you think NU won during the Devany/Osborne years? We did the same things that USC did only better. If you think anything different, then you are sorely mistaken.

 

[Hunter94]

If you watch the South Carolina game again, maybe you have I dont know, I think you will see what I am talking about. The only kid that you could say was head and shoulders more talented than any one of our guys was Clowney.

We played prison ball for 1.5 quarters of that game. In my opinion, our young and inexperienced guys got caught up in their SEC bull sh#t smack talk and we were out of our game and we weren't playing football. There were some very cheap things going on in that game. That was the only way they know how to play. If we win that game as we should have, this off-season people are talking about us winning the conference. Not losing 6 games as I have seen people post on here.

They didn't do anything wrong. Smack talk is part of the game and if our guys were too big of pussies to take it, then we don't have the type of players that we need to win titles here. How do you think NU won during the Devany/Osborne years? We did the same things that USC did only better. If you think anything different, then you are sorely mistaken.

would have to agree, the best team won that day and it damn sure wasn't us.......

 

[HuskerFowler]

We sure looked like the better team until the hail marry. I was pretty shocked how easily we could move the ball on them, and how good our defense looked. The backfield was 09 10' material. QB had no where to throw the ball, becuase our secondary was all over them. I almost couldnt believe what i was seeing, we were running right at them and taking it to em. Then we fell apart for various reasons. If we can play like we did the first half of that game on both sides of the ball, we could be a scary team. We should have won that game, and i believe it was a glimpse of things to come. Its all going to come together this season.

 

[zoogs]

Yeah, we started that game really strong. Then we lost it post interception.

There was a great analysis of Dennard vs Jeffrey a while back that showed he was really dominating the guy on bump coverage, but when asked to line up ten yards off, was when Jeffrey got to make some headway.

 

[NUinID]

We sure looked like the better team until the hail marry. I was pretty shocked how easily we could move the ball on them, and how good our defense looked. The backfield was 09 10' material. QB had no where to throw the ball, becuase our secondary was all over them. I almost couldnt believe what i was seeing, we were running right at them and taking it to em. Then we fell apart for various reasons. If we can play like we did the first half of that game on both sides of the ball, we could be a scary team. We should have won that game, and i believe it was a glimpse of things to come. Its all going to come together this season.

Agree completely NU was going into score and fumbles. What would that have put us up by? Then the hail mary just killed them.

Team composure is the thing that needs to improve the most on this team. Three of the 4 loses are directly related to not being able to handle adversity and falling apart.

 

[HuskerShark]

We sure looked like the better team until the hail marry. I was pretty shocked how easily we could move the ball on them, and how good our defense looked. The backfield was 09 10' material. QB had no where to throw the ball, becuase our secondary was all over them. I almost couldnt believe what i was seeing, we were running right at them and taking it to em. Then we fell apart for various reasons. If we can play like we did the first half of that game on both sides of the ball, we could be a scary team. We should have won that game, and i believe it was a glimpse of things to come. Its all going to come together this season.

Agree completely NU was going into score and fumbles. What would that have put us up by? Then the hail mary just killed them.

Team composure is the thing that needs to improve the most on this team. Three of the 4 loses are directly related to not being able to handle adversity and falling apart.

I also agree. And the whole composure thing was to be expected with such a young team last year. It had better improve this year though.

 

[EZ-E]

1. Has the quality of discussion dropped?

I think I make quality posts that foster discussion and I don't drag other teams down as broadly as you did in your post. Did I offer up everything I happen to think about that game and it's participants? No. Because it would get me banned.

Again.

2. "That was the only way they know how to play."

Who is "they"? Carolina? Point out a game where a Gamecock played "prison ball." Did they play it against Navy's infamous cut blocking? Did Carolina's Quarterback react like a convict when an official threw him to the ground a few seasons back? No, Carolina plays spirited but fair football. If things were said that would hurt your feelings then get some thicker skin or lose games because of it.

If you are referring to the scuffle that occured I can only say that one player now has a history of poor impulse control even off the field and that young man did not wear garnet.

3. Better on that day? Sure Carolina was better that day, and better all season. Two wins better and in a tougher conference.

4. I venture to would say that players other than JC were head and shoulders better than Huskers. For example Jeffery was at least three shoulders, one head and six points better.

I will work backwards here.

4)Jeffery was in no way shape or form better than Dennard. He had one play that he beat Dennard on and that was the catch and the long run down to the 5. If you watch the game multiple times like I have Jeffery was so frustraited that Dennard was blanketing him the whole game that he ultimately started that fight. Dennard was playing the more physical football and Jeffery got angry and started the fight if you watch it again. The other was a Hail Marry that you can in no way attribute to Dennard. JSB was there until Jeffery blatantly shoved off. Watch the play.

Name more if you watched the game. You may be able to make solid cases for other players from SC, but I could again refute the point and make just as strong of cases for Huskers as well. Our make shift offensive line was more than servicable for basically 2 and a half quarters. That OL included three walk-ons a JC transfer, and a true freshman at times.

3) Kind of redundant to revisit my point.

2) There were things that happened during that game that I have had conversations about with other people. Bo Pelini as much as he is painted as this bigot, does not go off for no reason. There were things that didn't make TV that happened. There was a play were Bo was calling for an ejection of an SC player that wasn't even flagged. Consequently, there was a pass interference that was called on NU the very next play IIRC. Not claiming in the slightest that the referees were one sided, just giving you an example.

1) Come on Bucky, dont hold back. If you have some things to say about our guys say them.

We will see you guys in Lincoln this year. You will be treated much better down here than I was up there and that is a promise.

 

[EZ-E]

We sure looked like the better team until the hail marry. I was pretty shocked how easily we could move the ball on them, and how good our defense looked. The backfield was 09 10' material. QB had no where to throw the ball, becuase our secondary was all over them. I almost couldnt believe what i was seeing, we were running right at them and taking it to em. Then we fell apart for various reasons. If we can play like we did the first half of that game on both sides of the ball, we could be a scary team. We should have won that game, and i believe it was a glimpse of things to come. Its all going to come together this season.

Agree completely NU was going into score and fumbles. What would that have put us up by? Then the hail mary just killed them.

Team composure is the thing that needs to improve the most on this team. Three of the 4 loses are directly related to not being able to handle adversity and falling apart.

I also agree. And the whole composure thing was to be expected with such a young team last year. It had better improve this year though.

Finally some people that see things how I do! It is not out of this world to say that we had every opportunity to win that game. But with that said we did deserve to lose based on a few things.

 

[EZ-E]

Here are Jeffery's "highlights" in that game if you will.

 

[kchusker_chris]

I remember Devin Taylor wreaking some havok in that game, and Swearinger seemed to be everywhere. If Jeffry was blanketed all day, he wouldn't have had 150 receiving yards. They dominated the OL, and Martinez staring off into space certainly didn't help anything. They lived in the backfield.

I'm going to go ahead and just trust the coaches on this one. When one of our OWN coaches says that we lacked the talent that SC had on the field...I'm going to agree w/ him.

 

[zoogs]

I think we did lack some of the talent and athleticism they had. IIRC they had a very good corner on their team as well, Gilmore. But Dennard got in Jeffrey's face and in his head. That matchup was won by Dennard even if Jeffrey ended up getting all the glory. We brought enough to the table - talent, scheme, gameplan - to win the game, regardless how talented/athletic they were. But then we fizzled.

EZ, love the optimism, but I hope it's not just that.

 

[kchusker_chris]

Here are Jeffery's "highlights" in that game if you will.

:12, :43, 1:08, 1:40 - that overthrow at :12 was TD. Jeffrey beat our guys a number of times that game.

 

[EZ-E]

Here are Jeffery's "highlights" in that game if you will.

:12, :43, 1:08, 1:40 - that overthrow at :12 was TD. Jeffrey beat our guys a number of times that game.

:12, I crapped my pants on that one to be honest. I agree with you.

:43, an 8 yard reception will happen occassionally.

1:08, yes Dennard didn't get his hands into him at all and he ran right by him.

1:40, The Hail Marry, sure whatever.

So we are looking at 4 total plays. One wasn't even a first down, so to say that Jeffery was head and shoulders better than him when he was dominated by Dennard on every play but four is a bit silly IMO.

 

[EZ-E]

I remember Devin Taylor wreaking some havok in that game, and Swearinger seemed to be everywhere. If Jeffry was blanketed all day, he wouldn't have had 150 receiving yards. They dominated the OL, and Martinez staring off into space certainly didn't help anything. They lived in the backfield.

I'm going to go ahead and just trust the coaches on this one. When one of our OWN coaches says that we lacked the talent that SC had on the field...I'm going to agree w/ him.

I addressed the Jeffery comment in the above post.

They did not live in the backfield until the fourth quarter and they did not dominate our OL until that time as well. I rewatched the game yesterday as a matter of fact. I should have done a few more stats. Had nothing better to do.