ESPN Recruiting Nation Class Rankings

NWHuskerfan said:
Sorry but I dont agree with the Nick Saban argument. Saban was at Michigan St for five years and never had a losing record. Mike Riley was at Oregon St for 13. He had 7 years of winning records and 6 years of losing records. In Oct of 2014 Nebraska had 26 former players in the NFL. In October of 2014 Oregon State had 19 players in the NFL. Football is a team sport who cares how many players are in the NFL. If you don't win you're not going to get top recruits plain and simple. Bottom line he wasnt getting it done at Oregon State. Why wouldnt he come to

Nebraska. The heat was getting hot from the Oregon State fanbase. He gets offered a fresh start at a school like Nebraska and that little thing called a million dollars more per year. No brainer why he took the job. Meanwhile the Ducks and Frost pull in the 1, 3 and 5 all purpose backs in the nation. The Ducks still finished out of the top 15. Regardless of my opnion I wish them all

the success in the world.
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Just to be clear on the Saban argument, I do think he is a good coach and I won't debate that, but his record at Michigan St. is not all pretty and shiny either.

1995 -6-5-1: They lost to Nebraska 50-7. They also lost to Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn St. and LSU.Wins against Louisville, Boston College, Illiois, Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana. Only Michigan was ranked. They tied Purdue.

1996 - 6-6 They lost 55-14 to Nebraska. They managed to lose to Louisville this time. Also lost to Iowa, Michigan 45-29, Penn St.,and Stanford. Wins against Purdue, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Indiana.

1997- 7-5

1998- 6-6

1999- 9-2

You get the theme don't you? Wins against bottom-middle tier teams and losses to most anyone of significance.

Without that 9-2 season, LSU would never have hired Saban in 2000. The difference is, Saban did leave after that one "good" year, and we have all witnessed his rise since with LSU and Alabama. Until Saban found his spot where he was able to recruit better talent and to pay better coaches, his record didn't really reflect the level of coach he was.

Riley is highly respected as a coach by many., as are his staff members. Maybe Riley would be thought of differently if he had taken one of those other jobs he was offered after one of those really good seasons at Oregon St.?

Maybe this Nebraska job is Riley's time to show what he can do with those resources.

 
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Coincidentally convenient how TheSker starts of his record rabbling right after Riley's more successful time when he went 8-5, 9-4, 9-4,10-4, 5-6, 7-5, and 8-5.

 
Count 'Bility said:
Coincidentally convenient how TheSker starts of his record rabbling right after Riley's more successful time when he went 8-5, 9-4, 9-4,10-4, 5-6, 7-5, and 8-5.
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No coincidence about it Count. I posted it because there's discussion about how Riley did "more with less" or however someone wants to term it.....and I don't see that to be true. His past 5 seasons are red flags. I fail to see how someone who "develops talent" has a 3-9 season, and 3 of 5 losing seasons.

 
TheSker said:
Count 'Bility said:
Coincidentally convenient how TheSker starts of his record rabbling right after Riley's more successful time when he went 8-5, 9-4, 9-4,10-4, 5-6, 7-5, and 8-5.
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No coincidence about it Count. I posted it because there's discussion about how Riley did "more with less" or however someone wants to term it.....and I don't see that to be true. His past 5 seasons are red flags. I fail to see how someone who "develops talent" has a 3-9 season, and 3 of 5 losing seasons.
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Notice how the last 5 years also coincides with Oregon "coming online" so to speak. I bet if you analyze the recruiting and such of Oregon St prior to '09 and since '09, I bet you would see a pretty clear pattern.

As someone myself that used to all the time, and for someone as yourself that apparently still does, in in give Bo the benefit of the doubt in anything with excuse after excuse and reason upon reason for "failing", i"m really shocked that you of all folks is using a win-loss record at a shithole like Oregon St as an end-all be-all determining factor in a guy's ability. Dont forget, he was hired by an NFL team, and courted by Bama, USC, and UCLA at one time too. Obviously there are folks out there who also see his ability. Why didnt he leave then then? Well, hometown like Corvallis was at the time is a tough thing to leave. Not to mention until 2009, he was really REALLY close to gettin Oregon St "over the hump". They had played for a trip to the Rose Bowl on a few occasions in the last game of the year. But at some point, you wind up fighting a no-win type of battle. Things got burned out. Then Oregon started to explode. it became too much and at some point you get burned out fighing that constant unwinnable situation.

Honestly, I dont see how it's in any way difficult to understand all the circumstances around this.

 
Well I respectfully disagree. Unlike many of you I actually have lived in the Pacific NW for close to 20 years. So I have much more exposure to these coaches on a yearly basis. I've watched numerous games, followed the local media, have numerous contacts with former beavers. I'm not saying Mike Riley isnt a good coach. I'd be much more optimistic if he had severed ties with several of his assistants. But for people to continue to say that he has this great staff assembled? Sorry but his D-Coordinator, O-Coordinator, Offensive line coach and special teams coach all have ties to his lack of winning at Oregon State. They've been screaming for years for him to fire Banker, but they have long term ties. All he's done is got his old band back together and regrouped to the Midwest. They all got pay raises and an upgrade in facilities and tradition. Will that equal success? Will that result in better recruiting? Time will tell, but some of the things I've observed from these coaches.

Horrible clock management, poor defense and lack of wrapping up. Lots of penalties more than our beloved Huskers. Failure to be ready to play in early season games. Poor special teams play. The lack of or ability to defend the spread offenses. The stubborness to change. Pocket passing QB's that have very little mobility. The pass first mentality.

Nebraska has lost its brand of all american lineman and I-back U. We've been all over the board for 15-20 years. You must establish tradition and a brand for long term success in college football. Current recruits werent even alive during our glory years. Perhaps Coach Riley starts a new brand for the Huskers. I feel we lost our way and our relevance on the national scene once we got away from the blue collar pound the rock Nebraska way. Thats respectfully my opinion and its the reason I dont see us improving drastically in overall recruiting rankings.

 
Count 'Bility said:
TheSker said:
Count 'Bility said:
Coincidentally convenient how TheSker starts of his record rabbling right after Riley's more successful time when he went 8-5, 9-4, 9-4,10-4, 5-6, 7-5, and 8-5.
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No coincidence about it Count. I posted it because there's discussion about how Riley did "more with less" or however someone wants to term it.....and I don't see that to be true. His past 5 seasons are red flags. I fail to see how someone who "develops talent" has a 3-9 season, and 3 of 5 losing seasons.
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Notice how the last 5 years also coincides with Oregon "coming online" so to speak. I bet if you analyze the recruiting and such of Oregon St prior to '09 and since '09, I bet you would see a pretty clear pattern.

As someone myself that used to all the time, and for someone as yourself that apparently still does, in in give Bo the benefit of the doubt in anything with excuse after excuse and reason upon reason for "failing", i"m really shocked that you of all folks is using a win-loss record at a shithole like Oregon St as an end-all be-all determining factor in a guy's ability. Dont forget, he was hired by an NFL team, and courted by Bama, USC, and UCLA at one time too. Obviously there are folks out there who also see his ability. Why didnt he leave then then? Well, hometown like Corvallis was at the time is a tough thing to leave. Not to mention until 2009, he was really REALLY close to gettin Oregon St "over the hump". They had played for a trip to the Rose Bowl on a few occasions in the last game of the year. But at some point, you wind up fighting a no-win type of battle. Things got burned out. Then Oregon started to explode. it became too much and at some point you get burned out fighing that constant unwinnable situation.

Honestly, I dont see how it's in any way difficult to understand all the circumstances around this.
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A few points. First, my post has nothing to do with Pelini. Seriously, it doesn't. I'm fine with him being gone and after hearing the Pelini audio it's obvious he wanted to be gone. Fine. Done deal. And Oregon coming on strong is not a valid excuse for continued losing seasons. Harbaugh was in the same conference....for a much shorter period of time.....and did better than Riley. As for being hired by an NFL team....umm yeah.....those results were not exactly resume building material either. I do think the assistant coaching staff as a whole is a good upgrade. I'm just not a fan of the Riley hire and don't believe he has the type of resume at this point in his coaching career that should have caught Nebraska's eye.

 
I struggle to understand why people are so worried about our recruiting class ranking. When you look over the losses Bo had its hard to find too many that we were out classed in talent. As weird as that was to type after 40+ point losses its true. Most of the big losses came from scheme issues or not playing the most talented player. Look at Wisconsin this past year. Plenty of teams with far less talent than us contained their running game better than we did. We, for whatever reason, decided to protect against Wisky airing it out on us while Gordon ran by us time after time.

Riley also had a good track record of beating highly ranked teams. For whatever reason that was a major issue with Bo. Let's let him get his people in place and let them coach up the talent we already have.

 
As I've gotten older, I've cared less and less about the number of
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associated with our recruiting classes.

I still follow them pretty closely. I'll look at measurables, home state/school, offer list, and occasionally watch film when I have time, but I tend to make my own judgments on guys. Obviously, I like it as much as anyone else when we land a highly-ranked player, but I've largely stopped caring when they do not choose us or getting headaches over how our class stacks up nationally.

A major reason I stopped buying the hype was when I realized some of the recruiting sites base their ratings in part on how many of their camps a kid attends. At that point, it's just a business. I don't know how much of their rating is what the see on film, competition the kid plays, how they project at the next level, intangibles, or the aforementioned camp attendance prevalence. I agree it's helpful to see a kid drill against other talented players, but it's not necessary. There's got to be plenty of lower ranked kids out there simply because they haven't gotten the exposure of other guys who hit the camp trail all summer.

In short, I'll trust our coaches talent evaluation more than the for-profit recruiting services. FWIW, I'd say a 31st ranked class after a coaching change equates to about a top 20 class without one. We're in good hands with this staff.

 
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Also count billity I feel your way off base. Have you ever been to Corvallis, Oregon? Please explain why you called it a poophole? It's an hour from the Ocean. It's got two mountain ranges in either direction. Have you ever been to an Oregon State football game? I'm sorry but the line the national media is singing is untrue and very offensive to Oregon State students and alumni. Coach Anderson will do damage in the Pac 12 at Oregon State because he will run the football with big lineman and play defense. Im so sick of the excuses of doing more with less. Really if Oregon State is such a dump and so disadvantaged for recruiting how did they role into Omaha a few years back and win the College World Series in baseball? I'll tell you how with coaching and great players recruited.

 
Riley hasn't even coached his first game for Nebraska and the negative nannies are out in force.

And as for recruiting, lets see what Riley can bring us in '16 before we comment.

 
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NWHuskerfan said:
Also count billity I feel your way off base. Have you ever been to Corvallis, Oregon? Please explain why you called it a poophole? It's an hour from the Ocean. It's got two mountain ranges in either direction. Have you ever been to an Oregon State football game? I'm sorry but the line the national media is singing is untrue and very offensive to Oregon State students and alumni. Coach Anderson will do damage in the Pac 12 at Oregon State because he will run the football with big lineman and play defense. Im so sick of the excuses of doing more with less. Really if Oregon State is such a dump and so disadvantaged for recruiting how did they role into Omaha a few years back and win the College World Series in baseball? I'll tell you how with coaching and great players recruited.
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i apologize for calling Corvallis a shithole. But there was a reporter who's been there numerous times and compared it to Grand Island on the radio around here one day. So that clouded my judgement. Bottom line is, it's not what you would call a destination.

And I guess when success on a baseball field or volleyball court automatically translates to success in college football, or any other sports for that matter, your little baseball team comment may have at least a slight fraction of meaning.

 
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