DE Owamagbe Odighizuwa

JTrain said:
caveman99 said:
JTrain said:
caveman99 said:
JTrain said:
caveman99 said:
JTrain said:
Husker_x said:
Whatever happens, we have a very solid class this year.
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Solid, maybe. But if you want to compete for national titles, you have to do better than solid. Even TO had top 10 classes when he finally won his national titles. You need difference makers to win titles. Difference makers are the difference between 10-2 and 12-0. Think of our national title years and the amount of legitimate stars we had on that team. Tommie Frazier was not a 3-star Grand Island kid who TO coached to greatness. He was a huge prep star who everyone recognized as special coming out of high school. The best coach in the country cannot win a national title without those players. TO couldn't and neither can Bo. Owa is the type of difference maker we need. We will not win a national title with classes consistently ranked outside of the top 20. That's just how it is.
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Not true at all.
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I can't find the link anymore, but another forum had gone back and found national team rankings for pre-Rivals years. The idea that Osborne never had good recruiting classes is just a myth. The classes that contributed to our national titles were mostly highly ranked. But the main point is, difference makers are necessary. Top 100 type players are necessary to make the jump from a very good, 10-2 type team to a national title contender. Guys like Grant Wistrom (HS all-american by just about every publication) are needed, and Owa seems to be one of those guys.
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I agree that TO recruited much better than many fans would have you believe, but he wasn't an elite recruiter by the standards that the recruitnics go by. Here is the link you are referring to I think: HuskerPedia - Historical Recruiting Rankings. They only found the SuperPrep rankings, which became Scout.Com in 2002, but if you look at the 5 year averages for the championship years I think you will be surprised. The 5 year recruiting ranking average for 1994 was 18, the 4 year average was 20. The 5 year average for 1995 was 17.6, the four year average was 15. The 5 year average for 1997 was 14.2, the four year average was 13.25. The highest ranking TO had from 1987 to 1997 was 6, that was in 1996.
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Thanks for the link. I understand TO was not elite, but even the worst numbers you posted there are considerably higher than Bo's average thus far, which is around 26. More importantly though is that the real difference makers are the ones that win championships. We had great coaches in the 90s, but we still needed a handful of prep all-americans to make us elite. Bo could win the North 90% of the time and still not be quite to national title contender level if he isn't able to get 1-3 elite recruits every season.
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What is your definition of an elite recruit? Top 250, 100, 10? Bo got a few in the Top 250 this year and a Top 100 RB.
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Tough to put an exact definition on it, but I would say roughly top 100. Of course, rankings aren't always accurate, and anyone with 4 stars or higher could be a potential "difference maker", but if I had to put a number on it, I would say top 100 guys all have a really good potential to be special players. In three classes so far (granted, one class was mostly Callahan's), Bo has signed two Rivals100 players (Steinkuhler and Heard). I think you'll see that teams that play for national titles will get two per year at the very least (and I think our teams in the mid-90s reflected this standard as well). So far Bo is averaging 0.67 of them per year. I highly doubt that is going to be good enough to lead us to a national title. I hope, but I doubt. I'm happy with a Big 12 North title and hopefully a Big 12 title soon, but if we want to really be considered national title contenders, I think we should hope to start getting at least two difference makers every year.
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Bo will get the elite recruits to come to Lincoln. Come on he is about to start his 3rd year and considering what Nebraska was before he got there it may take a little bit to get the elites to come to Lincoln.

 
I hate to add to this thread, only because it keeps it at the top of the threads, but I stated this before: I watched this kid play here in Oregon and his effort seemed to be lacking. My expectation of a dominating player certainly did not even come close. I did only see one game so I may be wrong and who really knows what he will do at the next level. As far as coaching, I think he missed the boat but, Ricky is a solid coach and does get the best of his players... no matter what it takes. I'm not a fan of his in any way but, he has produces some solid players. And I agree with the earlier poster, Owa is not real interresting to me now that he chose not to sign with NU... Thats just the nature of the game.

 
T_O_Bull said:
I've been watching recruits come and go for over 40 years and the one constant has been that a lot of high school kids look like super stars in high school and their talent doesn't translate to the college game. its a funnel:

Pee-wee's tons of kids.

JR FB a few less.

Middle school a lot less.

Freshman FB a few less.

Sophmore FD a few less.

High school a few less.

College (Big Time) a lot less.

NFL a ton less.

Its a crap shoot.

Here's a good analogy: You date a beauty queen and finally get to score but she just lets you do all the work. You date a girl who is less pleasing to the eye but when you finally score you both work at it and its like fire works in Boston on the forth of July.

T_O_B

:cheers
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That is awesome!

:clap

 
T_O_Bull said:
I've been watching recruits come and go for over 40 years and the one constant has been that a lot of high school kids look like super stars in high school and their talent doesn't translate to the college game. its a funnel:

Pee-wee's tons of kids.

JR FB a few less.

Middle school a lot less.

Freshman FB a few less.

Sophmore FD a few less.

High school a few less.

College (Big Time) a lot less.

NFL a ton less.

Its a crap shoot.

Here's a good analogy: You date a beauty queen and finally get to score but she just lets you do all the work. You date a girl who is less pleasing to the eye but when you finally score you both work at it and its like fire works in Boston on the forth of July.

T_O_B

:cheers
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That was a legitimately spectacular analogy brudda

 
thiscircus said:
T_O_Bull said:
I've been watching recruits come and go for over 40 years and the one constant has been that a lot of high school kids look like super stars in high school and their talent doesn't translate to the college game. its a funnel:

Pee-wee's tons of kids.

JR FB a few less.

Middle school a lot less.

Freshman FB a few less.

Sophmore FD a few less.

High school a few less.

College (Big Time) a lot less.

NFL a ton less.

Its a crap shoot.

Here's a good analogy: You date a beauty queen and finally get to score but she just lets you do all the work. You date a girl who is less pleasing to the eye but when you finally score you both work at it and its like fire works in Boston on the forth of July.

T_O_B

:cheers
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That was a legitimately spectacular analogy brudda
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Hey OWA, UCLA is 0-2 and embarrassing. OSU is 0-1 and not a top 50 program. Nebraska is 2-0 with a freshman QB. You still happy with your choice? (9-12-10) I don't think you made the right choice. Slick Rick will be fired by the end of next year. OSU is a nice school but will never be more than a top 50 school. Nebraska will challenge for National Championships. Big 10 play as well. Nebraska was the choice!!!

 
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Not that I'm still amazed by this kid's decision, but....

Yet more smoke smoldering up from that hot seat Slick Rick Neuheisel is sitting on:

I'd like to believe that Slick Rick gets another year at UCLA provided he turns in something over 4-8. However, should he pluck more defeat from the jaws of victory, what would you think about Mike Leach coaching the Bruins? It seems like a job he would take, and with our propensity to go cheap, he seems like a safe bet to win some games in the Pac-12 without breaking the bank.-- Jonathan, Sacramento, Calif.

Any hopes I had for Neuheisel turning things around this year went out the window when he disclosed Tuesday that freshman quarterback/anointed savior Brett Hundley is undergoing knee surgery and will miss the first half of fall camp. Mind you, 99 percent of coaches' Media Day press conferences are completely non-newsworthy. So of course, the one coach that shows up with his own scoop is Neuheisel, and of course it involves yet another quarterback injury.

As to your question, there's no doubt whatsoever Leach would come to Westwood in a nanosecond. UCLA fits all the criteria he'd be looking for in a school (good academics, nearby talent, desirable place to live, etc.). Keep in mind, however, the Pac-12's new multibillion-dollar ESPN deal kicks in next year, and it wouldn't surprise me for one second if the contract includes a Craig James coaching-hire veto clause.

Read more
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Treand3 said:
I'm actually mostly over him. Sometimes I those what if moments, but I'm like Bo in that it's his loss.
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I totally agree...his loss. But those wha if moments are glorious! Can you imagine him under the coaching of JP and the Pelini bros...oh man that would have been nice

 
couldn't care less. once they aren't N, well best of luck with it actually working out. Of course Rick is going to be fired, hes been fired from CU, UW, and soon to be UCLA. Anyone that falls for his snake oil did it to themselves.

At least he gets to go to the beach.

But LOL at the Leach assessment if they think he'd be cheap. Book deal, commentary, and doing whatever the hell he wants vs rebuilding a program? He took Ttech from absolute bottom feeder to heights never before seen and was fired basically because the administration there had buyers remorse on a contract that for what he did was actually probably close to in line with his market value. His agent will make sure he gets plenty of money wherever he ends up going. Anyone looking to get a cheap coach ain't looking at Leach and until somebody ponies up it's not like eccentric Key West living doesn't suit him.

 
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