Congrats to Riley, usually around this time Pelini would land
- Thread starter WestCoastCornhusker
- Start date
Part of me likes this post. Another part of me wishes we would just stop talking about Pelini.
Appreciate the post. You've been critical of recruiting to date so I appreciate the love shown here.
I'm tired of them for sure. Pelini is not the standard of success for Nebraska football. He did set the lowest possible standard for diplomacy, which, in the end, we were unwilling to tolerate any longer (some of us far earlier than others).
As we bring Pelini into all these conversations where he is no longer relevant, I cannot help but think that is either a reflection of our insecurity and angst with the current direction of the program or lingering hostility toward Pelini - both of which we'd be better off without.
I suppose we'll keep hearing about the guy until the current staff (or some future one) manages to reach the magical nine win threshold. But to me Nebraska football was always about more than wins and losses, and in any case, nine wins is just good enough not to be pessimistic and disappointing enough not to be satisfied.
The exemplar of Nebraska football is Tom Osborne. If people want to compare, there is your target. I don't have a problem with that, so long as we recognize what a rare breed that man was.
I think it is valid to compare Riley with Pelini. Many of us, including me, we're starting to get very nervous that Riley's recruiting was beginning to look scarily similar to Pelini's. So pointing out that Riley is a good closer and finisher, while Pelini was not, is a valid thing to do imo.
Actually, the Pelini staff landed quite a few highly rated recruits in the weeks leading up to signing day. Some examples:
Mikale Wilbon
Nick Gates
Cethan Carter
Maliek Collins
Terrell Newby
Imani Cross
Vincent Valentine
Ameer Abdullah
Kenny Bell
Honestly, my biggest complaint with Pelini's staff wasn't how they recruited after the regular season, but rather how they recruited during the season. I believe Mason Wald (who was obviously a reach) was added right before signing day shortly after Pelini was hired. Bill Callahan did something similar with Beau Davis right after he was hired, if I remember correctly. Sometimes it's hard to use all your scholarships when you only have a couple months to recruit.
Mikale Wilbon
Nick Gates
Cethan Carter
Maliek Collins
Terrell Newby
Imani Cross
Vincent Valentine
Ameer Abdullah
Kenny Bell
Honestly, my biggest complaint with Pelini's staff wasn't how they recruited after the regular season, but rather how they recruited during the season. I believe Mason Wald (who was obviously a reach) was added right before signing day shortly after Pelini was hired. Bill Callahan did something similar with Beau Davis right after he was hired, if I remember correctly. Sometimes it's hard to use all your scholarships when you only have a couple months to recruit.
There are many reasons to criticize Pelini, but this isn't one of them.
Mason Wald was part of Pelini's very first recruiting class that he only had a month to fill after most of the recruits bailed on Callahan. And anyway, I remember many people on this board salivating over Wald's highlight reel like he was the next John Lynch.
Mason Wald was part of Pelini's very first recruiting class that he only had a month to fill after most of the recruits bailed on Callahan. And anyway, I remember many people on this board salivating over Wald's highlight reel like he was the next John Lynch.
I think it is a reflection of the fact Pelini was an asshole and that Huskers fans are tired of not competing at a high enough level - Conference Championships are the standard goal - been way too long since we captured one. Of course.....most of the conference championships came under Bobfather and TO and there alot more teams to beat than the Big 8 days.....I realize the bar is higher. Still - a player should not leave the program without a conference championship ring if we are operating the way most fans expect.
Agreed. A conference championship would go a long way to address the insecurity felt by Husker Nation, and that, or at least a conference championship appearance, should be within our reach. And soon.
People often think that Bo brought in worse classes than he did because of how many highly rated kids transferred or didn't make it to campus because they played baseball.
It is easy to look back at the 2011 class that ranked 15th and see the top 3 kids transferred (Green, Moore, Klatchko) and the 4th hardly contributed (Peat and he transferred too, right?), the 5th and 6th best players didn't due much (Turner and Jackson) and the 8th best kid (Starling) didn't even make it to campus. Heck out of the eleven 4* stars in that class, only 3 made a real impact and 2 of them were Nebraska kids, typically considered 'gimmies'.
Hopefully the new staff will recruit better than Bo and keep/develop that highly rated kids better too.
Well given Bo credit, he did get us to the conference champ game more then a few times but like the Bo we came used to would just choke his ass away. We made it there, just couldnt ever win them. Texas game should of been a Big 12 championship for us, we all know we got hosed and then we had what a 21 point lead on OU in another Big 12 champ game just to watch Bo let up and let Stoops come storming back and we lose on the final drive. So yes, we been there but we always lost.
I went to Rivals and looked at the entirety of the Pelini Era, from his first combo class with Cally to the combo class with Riley. It's interesting that regardless of class size, the number of key contributors seems to top out at 11.
Year- # of contributors (class size, rivals rank)
08- 11 (28, 30) (Cally/Pelini hybrid)
09- 11 (20, 28)
10- 11 (21, 22)
11- 11 (19, 15)
12- 10 (so far) (17, 25)
13- 9 (so far) (25, 17)
14- 8 (so far) (24, 32)
15- 5 (so far) (20, 31) (Pelini/Riley hybrid)
Year- # of contributors (class size, rivals rank)
08- 11 (28, 30) (Cally/Pelini hybrid)
09- 11 (20, 28)
10- 11 (21, 22)
11- 11 (19, 15)
12- 10 (so far) (17, 25)
13- 9 (so far) (25, 17)
14- 8 (so far) (24, 32)
15- 5 (so far) (20, 31) (Pelini/Riley hybrid)
I do understand those of you who are sick of the Pelini comments. I also understand those of you who need to vent. It's human nature. I also think it's fair to compare the past regime that has only been gone a year with this staff who is in their first full recruiting cycle.
The 3 turnovers are what did it. Redzone TO, Helu's TO in OU's territory was a quick 6 after they scored. Then Rex's fumble when were driving to score.
I think had we won in 2009. We would have won impressively in 2010. They cheated us at A&M too.
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