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Athlon Pre-Season All-Big Ten Selections

nu2u

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Aug 10, 2006
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Athlon is out early with their Big Ten player selections - 4 teams deep. Regarding the criteria used to select their picks:

Career statistics and awards matter in the evaluation, but choosing players for the 2021 all-conference team is largely based on predicting and projecting the best for the upcoming year.

Number of Selections
Ohio State - 13
Iowa - 11
Wisconsin - 11
Penn State - 10
Indiana - 10
Rutgers -9
Minnesota - 8
Michigan - 7
Illinois - 7
Nebraska - 6
Northwestern - 6
Maryland -6
Michigan State - 5
Purdue - 5

No Husker players were chosen on offense. yowzah

Named on defense:
Cam Taylor-Britt (1st Team)
JoJo Domann (2nd Team)
Ben Stille (3rd Team)
Deontai Williams (4th Team)

Connor Culp (2nd Team K) and Taylor-Britt (4th Team PR) were selected as Specialists.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-football-2021-all-conference-team
 
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What was their hit rate last year? I’ve been told athlon is gospel when ranking things.
 
Their publication is suppose to be out May 25.. It’s usually the first college football rag that comes out..
 
I have to laugh at Taylor - Britt 4th team PR..Laughing

Damn we have to have someone on our team returning punts than him... That fumbles put pisses me off against Ioway every time I’m reminded of it. :mad:
 
I have to laugh at Taylor - Britt 4th team PR..Laughing

Damn we have to have someone on our team returning punts than him... That fumbles put pisses me off against Ioway every time I’m reminded of it. :mad:
He was pretty good when not fumbling, at least.

I think punt return was our best special teams category last year in terms of conf ranking. Not counting FG, of course, but that’s more of an individual thing.

I do agree, though. That fumble was oh so very Huskers, and obviously a killer.
 
Frost has been here long enough that I believe he should have more players considered then 6, especially when Indiana has 10. Is that his recruiting, player development or both? He has had good recruiting classes, but is he recruiting the right type of player for this league? Just food for thought.
 
Frost has been here long enough that I believe he should have more players considered then 6, especially when Indiana has 10. Is that his recruiting, player development or both? He has had good recruiting classes, but is he recruiting the right type of player for this league? Just food for thought.
Indiana’s coach kisses his players on the lips
 
Indiana’s coach kisses his players on the lips
That may be, but this should be the concerning thing.
247 Recruiting rankings..........
2018 Nebraska 23rd Indiana 50th
2019 Nebraska 17th Indiana 36th
2020 Nebraska 20th Indiana 57th
2121 Nebraska 20th Indiana 49th
So, what does that tell me? To me it says Frost can recruit but can't develope players, and these are all his players now. Even Northwestern, who has been to two BiG championship games in the last few years best recruiting class in this same time frame was 47th.
 
That may be, but this should be the concerning thing.
247 Recruiting rankings..........
2018 Nebraska 23rd Indiana 50th
2019 Nebraska 17th Indiana 36th
2020 Nebraska 20th Indiana 57th
2121 Nebraska 20th Indiana 49th
So, what does that tell me? To me it says Frost can recruit but can't develope players, and these are all his players now. Even Northwestern, who has been to two BiG championship games in the last few years best recruiting class in this same time frame was 47th.
This is exactly what scares me about Frost.
 
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That may be, but this should be the concerning thing.
247 Recruiting rankings..........
2018 Nebraska 23rd Indiana 50th
2019 Nebraska 17th Indiana 36th
2020 Nebraska 20th Indiana 57th
2121 Nebraska 20th Indiana 49th
So, what does that tell me? To me it says Frost can recruit but can't develope players, and these are all his players now. Even Northwestern, who has been to two BiG championship games in the last few years best recruiting class in this same time frame was 47th.
The stars matter. Frost has accumulated a ton of talent for the Huskers.
 
How can CJ Stroud get 2nd team?
When you get to throw to Olave, Wlson, Fleming, Egbuka, Harrison Jr., Smith-Njigba etc., it's not hard to project the type of stats he might produce this year. Look what Haskins did in 2019 as a first time starter. Granted Dwayne had a little more game experience than Chris but I believe this receiving group is better than in '19 and the offensive line, both starting tackles back, will be just as good. The real question is will Stroud be the starting quarterback (I believe he will). Maybe Athlon should have just printed "OSU QB" for 2nd team.
 
When you get to throw to Olave, Wlson, Fleming, Egbuka, Harrison Jr., Smith-Njigba etc., it's not hard to project the type of stats he might produce this year. Look what Haskins did in 2019 as a first time starter. Granted Dwayne had a little more game experience than Chris but I believe this receiving group is better than in '19 and the offensive line, both starting tackles back, will be just as good. The real question is will Stroud be the starting quarterback (I believe he will). Maybe Athlon should have just printed "OSU QB" for 2nd team.
Martinez has a bunch of 4 stars to throw to as well. He also has a ton of experience.
 
The stars matter. Frost has accumulated a ton of talent for the Huskers.
Yes, stars matter, but it's what you do with those stars that counts, and those stars are not showing up when it counts, on Saturday's. Frost and I dare say Riley both out recruited every school in the West, and what is there to show for it?
247 Recruiting rankings
Neb Iowa Wisc NW Minn
2018 23 39 46 58 38
2019 17 41 29 51 45
2020 20 35 26 47 38
2021 20 24 16 49 38
Ave. 20 35 29 51 40
 
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Yes, stars matter, but it's what you do with those stars that counts, and those stars are not showing up when it counts, on Saturday's. Frost and I dare say Riley both out recruited every school in the West, and what is there to show for it?
247 Recruiting rankings
Neb Iowa Wisc NW Minn
2018 23 39 46 58 38
2019 17 41 29 51 45
2020 20 35 26 47 38
2021 20 24 16 49 38
Ave. 20 35 29 51 40

At the end of the day. The schools who recruit the best will have the most success. Wins are flukey, but stars are tangible. Give me stars over wins any day because stars is what leads to titles.
 
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Yes, stars matter, but it's what you do with those stars that counts, and those stars are not showing up when it counts, on Saturday's. Frost and I dare say Riley both out recruited every school in the West, and what is there to show for it?
247 Recruiting rankings
Neb Iowa Wisc NW Minn
2018 23 39 46 58 38
2019 17 41 29 51 45
2020 20 35 26 47 38
2021 20 24 16 49 38
Ave. 20 35 29 51 40
Bear in mind NU has had pretty extraordinary turnover of its 4* recruits going back a lot of years. That's a subset of player development, you have to keep them on campus and eligible to get an impact out of them.

That hasn't been happening often enough, especially at RB and WR.
 
What was their hit rate last year? I’ve been told athlon is gospel when ranking things.
How does Iowa have 11? Iowa sucks.

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I don't put much stock in this list because Culp is somehow not 1st team...
I also question their unit rankings of Nebraska DL 9th best and DB 8th best..

Since there is so many departures and incoming receivers that hadn’t played last year they rank WR/TE 12th but by seasons end this group won’t be 12 best in the Big10..
 
At the end of the day. The schools who recruit the best will have the most success. Wins are flukey, but stars are tangible. Give me stars over wins any day because stars is what leads to titles.
You have that exactly backwards. Wins are tangible and recruits are flukey, which is why your best recruits end up transferring.
 
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He was pretty good when not fumbling, at least.

I think punt return was our best special teams category last year in terms of conf ranking. Not counting FG, of course, but that’s more of an individual thing.

I do agree, though. That fumble was oh so very Huskers, and obviously a killer.

Martinez has been playing with absolute bums to his defense. He had a good FR season for a reason. He had Morgan, Spielman, Ozigbo and Washington. Since then it has been a carousel of average players. This will be the best OL since he has been here and we have capable WRs but inexperience is still there and at RB.
 
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That may be, but this should be the concerning thing.
247 Recruiting rankings..........
2018 Nebraska 23rd Indiana 50th
2019 Nebraska 17th Indiana 36th
2020 Nebraska 20th Indiana 57th
2121 Nebraska 20th Indiana 49th
So, what does that tell me? To me it says Frost can recruit but can't develope players, and these are all his players now. Even Northwestern, who has been to two BiG championship games in the last few years best recruiting class in this same time frame was 47th.
What isn’t considered here are the number of kids that leave the team. Rankings mean nothing, absolutely nothing for teams recruiting outside the top 10-15 .

This is proof difference between a class ranked 25 and 50th is 0
 
At the end of the day. The schools who recruit the best will have the most success. Wins are flukey, but stars are tangible. Give me stars over wins any day because stars is what leads to titles.
I can't hold my breath anymore...
 
What isn’t considered here are the number of kids that leave the team. Rankings mean nothing, absolutely nothing for teams recruiting outside the top 10-15 .

This is proof difference between a class ranked 25 and 50th is 0
To be honest, if you can recruit yearly in the top 20, but can't keep your recruits, isn't that a problem as well? Winning on the field is what the ultimate goal is, and if your best players are leaving every year, that is a major problem. So, yes, it's great to consistently recruit in the top 20 but if that doesn't translate to wins on Saturday, that's a problem. Mike Riley recruited well, but it didn't translate to wins on Saturday. I know that the Athlon thing is a pre season GUESS by Athlon, but when your consistently recruiting in the top 20 one would expect that we should have more all BiG players considered then Illinois and Rutgers. LOL That my friends is sad, and reflects on our coaching staff. We won't know until December, and Athlon could be completely wrong and we could have 10 all big players, but I see red flags.
 
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