ADVERTISEMENT

Recruiting Under Riley

No, Bo's classes were far better than Rileys in comparison to other Big Ten teams. He was third in every meaningful category.
22007433_10155795023344485_4309495229925629838_n.jpg

After seeing this, I had to go back and look at Wisconsin's recruiting rankings...

HOLY CRAP! They sucked at recruiting!!!
 
Sooooooooo...for a long span of time Bo was recruiting as well as Riley with 1/3 the budget?
Nope. The results bear that. Kids that never stick around are misses. Please tell us another story of how Osborne held the program back Grammy Tranny Preacher.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nope. The results beat that. Kids that never stick around are misses. Please tell us another story of how Osborne held the program back Grammy Tranny Preacher.
I don't buy into "we had the 42nd ranked class last year" because of our misses. I doubt you do either.
 
I don't buy into "we had the 42nd ranked class last year" because of our misses. I doubt you do either.
Last year was full of misses. But I am sure it was because Bounds and the Regents were "kicking Riley in the balls" or some other pathetic lying crap.
 
Last year was full of misses. But I am sure it was because Bounds and the Regents were "kicking Riley in the balls" or some other pathetic lying crap.
The numbers tell the story about how we have recruited. While our recruiting has stayed the same with Riley, some of the other Big Ten schools have recruited even better. We either need a coach who can recruit better than what we have seen recently or find a way to get more out of our players ala a Wisky or Okie State or TCU. Or preferably both.
 
I don't buy into "we had the 42nd ranked class last year" because of our misses. I doubt you do either.
IF you re-rank our class due to misses you have to do the same for every single program. You can't say we were 42 without doing that. Quit your dishonest trolling please.
 
I keep hearing about how good our recruiting is under Riley. We have had classes of #31, #24, and #20. Yet, it is hard to find aggregate totals so I put some together for the Big Ten.

I have three questions:
1. Are we satisfied with our rankings as compared to other Big Ten teams during this tenure?
We are tied for fourth in 5 stars at 0
We are fifth in 4 stars.
We are second in 3 stars.
We are fifth in average star.
We are fifth in total points.
We are first in all those categories (except # of 3 stars) in the West.

2. Is this the best recruiting that we can expect at Nebraska?

3. Why do we consider Riley a good/great recruiter?
21768323_10155794664419485_5947426552277258826_n.jpg
This is spot on. I'm sure I missed 2 pages of people pissing on the OP for personal reasons, but these are facts. The #1 reason people hold up about why Riley must stay is recruiting. His recruiting hasn't been anything special. It's been trending in a more positive direction, but NU is still looking WAY up at OSU, UM and PSU.
 
This is spot on. I'm sure I missed 2 pages of people pissing on the OP for personal reasons, but these are facts. The #1 reason people hold up about why Riley must stay is recruiting. His recruiting hasn't been anything special. It's been trending in a more positive direction, but NU is still looking WAY up at OSU, UM and PSU.

And they always will be looking up at OSU, UM and PSU. They looked up at those schools, in recruiting since the beginning of time. Guess what Florida and Texas and Texas A&M and Florida St and USC are probably going to have higher ranked classes than Nebraska does year in and year out.

1-85 Nebraska will never be on par with those schools. They simply have to be on par 1-40.
 
This is spot on. I'm sure I missed 2 pages of people pissing on the OP for personal reasons, but these are facts. The #1 reason people hold up about why Riley must stay is recruiting. His recruiting hasn't been anything special. It's been trending in a more positive direction, but NU is still looking WAY up at OSU, UM and PSU.
*** Courtesy of Tuco ***

You must of brushed right by this one

"4 and 5 stars as a pct of total recruits
2012 6/17 - 35%
2013 5/25 - 20%
2014 4/25 - 16%

2015 6/21 - 29%
2016 4/21 - 19%
2017 7/20 - 35%
2018 5/10 - 50%

there is improvement"

See the trend? Yeah that is a good thing!
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedMyMind
Lets look at the players Riley signed that look like they belong.

2015:
Lee, Davis twins, Morgan, Young, Decker, Williams, Ferguson, Ozigbo, Barry, Reed all look like good players and have contributed. Ober too if you want to count him.

Anderson, Neal, Snyder, and Davis are to be determined.

Talan, Alston and Stevenson are gone. Barnett and Gaylord look to be non-contributors

2016:
Too early to tell since they are redshirt freshman. But the guys that have contributed are:

Bryant, Farniok, Lightborne, Stille, Dismuke (a little), Bootle, Jackson, Spielman (this is a pretty good list so far for being second year players)

On the listed depth chart:
Engelhaupt, Stoll, POB, Raridon, Wilson, Domann, Miller, Butler,

Way too early to tell: Alexander, Brokop, Simmons, Jefferson,

Gone: Grim

2017:
Way too early to tell, but:

Lindsey, Bradley, Jaimes, Roberts, D Thomas have all played good minutes. McQuitty would have played as well if it weren't for injury

Way too early to tell: The rest

Gone: KJJ, Blades, Watts

For such a young crew, that is a lot of contributors from all the classes.
 
If you take off Bo's last class that SE ruined, Bo's numbers are easily better across the board.
I'm not saying SE stringing Bo along didn't hurt anything, but which prospect decided not to come to Nebraska because they didn't know if Bo would be around or not?
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedMyMind
Always? Cally got a top ten class. Frank had three top ten classes. Lord knows how many top ten classes Dr. Tom had. Always?

Yes always. No offense man but you cant judge recruiting classes with any sort of accuracy prior to maybe 1990. Each magazine's rankings were 1 guys opinion on what the class looked like, based on what the high school coaches, that he trusted, shared with them. Very little game film evaluation. Top coaches had top talent. The recruiting rankings were basically the same as the final AP top 25.

And even back then Ohio St, Michigan and Penn St were pulling in classes better than Nebraska. But please pull out your 1986 Street and Smith's magazine with the 2 pages that were devote to recruiting and prove me wrong.
 
I'm not saying SE stringing Bo along didn't hurt anything, but which prospect decided not to come to Nebraska because they didn't know if Bo would be around or not?

It had nothing to do with Bo Pelini saying in a press conference if they are going to fire me than just do it. Or the leaked audio of him gloating about a win over a 6-7 Ohio St team and calling the Nebraska fans names. Nope, it was all SE and what he did to Bo.

Again move this to the double standard thread.
 
Yes always. No offense man but you cant judge recruiting classes with any sort of accuracy prior to maybe 1990. Each magazine's rankings were 1 guys opinion on what the class looked like, based on what the high school coaches, that he trusted, shared with them. Very little game film evaluation. Top coaches had top talent. The recruiting rankings were basically the same as the final AP top 25.

And even back then Ohio St, Michigan and Penn St were pulling in classes better than Nebraska. But please pull out your 1986 Street and Smith's magazine with the 2 pages that were devote to recruiting and prove me wrong.
No need to go back before 1990. I have already showed you three instances (1998, 2000, and 2001) where this very company who runs and owns this site said Frank had three top ten classes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: huskerfan1414
*** Courtesy of Tuco ***

You must of brushed right by this one

"4 and 5 stars as a pct of total recruits
2012 6/17 - 35%
2013 5/25 - 20%
2014 4/25 - 16%

2015 6/21 - 29%
2016 4/21 - 19%
2017 7/20 - 35%

there is improvement"

See the trend? Yeah that is a good thing!


2018 can't be counted, as anything can happen and we always fare better early in the recruiting cycle.

I see one class where Riley had a 9% better and a 3% better.

Not exactly head and shoulders better than snotty sleeves Pelini
 
2018 can't be counted, as anything can happen and we always fare better early in the recruiting cycle.

I see one class where Riley had a 9% better and a 3% better.

Not exactly head and shoulders better than snotty sleeves Pelini

Of course not, doesn't fit your narrative. And please with the we always fare better early in the recruiting cycle. That right there discredits your entire post. That is fundamentally untrue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: timnsun
When we are talking about how well RIley has recruited so far, we should look at class ranking and individual players successes. What I mean by that is, has the staff found undervalued player consistently? And should that be accounted for. We can talk shit on Iowa and Wisconsin all day about recruiting, but they find undervalued guys consistently that become good football players. That should be factored in.

IMO, Bo had some under valued players here and there that became good players. But it wasn't consistent and he had a ton of reaches/last minute scrambles.

From what I can tell, Riley has brought in some lower rated players that have played far beyond their rating. Here is who I am talking about:

2015: Aaron Williams (5.6 three star), Mo Barry (5.5 three star), Alex Davis and Reed (both 5.4 two stars) all have played a lot of minutes and/or are starters

2016: Boe Wilson (5.6 three star who almost played as a true freshman), Tre Bryant (5.6 three star), Butler (5.6 three star), Bootle (5.5 three star wth no other major offers)

2017: D. Thomas (5.6 three star playing significant minutes at NT), Jamies (5.7 three star - I haven't put any other 5.7 kids on the list because they are really close to four star kids in terms of rankings, but he just started as a true freshman at tackle - and played well - that is over-performing his ranking)
 
Of course not, doesn't fit your narrative. And please with the we always fare better early in the recruiting cycle. That right there discredits your entire post. That is fundamentally untrue.

What narrative?

Love to see some stats on the kind of recruits we get before and after October.
I was always under the impression from the experts on here that we always do better early in the recruiting cycle at NU.

That's been the "narrative" on this board forever.
 
What narrative?

Love to see some stats on the kind of recruits we get before and after October.
I was always under the impression from the experts on here that we always do better early in the recruiting cycle at NU.

That's been the "narrative" on this board forever.

No the narrative is that Nebraska does best when we get the kids to visit and see a game. The previous staff rarely recruited in the summer, let alone had a bunch of verbally committed players. Then would bring in a bunch of plan B guys in January. Remember Els, its tough to get kids to come to Nebraska on their own dime. We have to wait until the season so we can pay for it.
 
Yes always...The recruiting rankings were basically the same as the final AP top 25.

And even back then Ohio St, Michigan and Penn St were pulling in classes better than Nebraska.
Ok...let's just look at the 80's.

1. Nebraska was ranked in the AP top 25 every year in the 80's. MU and OSU were ranked 8 times. PSU just 6 times.
2. Nebraska was ranked in the top 10 seven times. MU six times. PSU 5 times. OSU just 2 times.

You say the recruiting rankings before 1990 were the same as the final AP top 25, yet you also declare that OSU MU, and Penn St. were still pulling in better classes than us. How can that be?

As with the other numbers in this thread, the numbers tell the real story not some nonsense about how we just know this person or that person is a better recruiter.
 
The numbers tell the story about how we have recruited. While our recruiting has stayed the same with Riley, some of the other Big Ten schools have recruited even better. We either need a coach who can recruit better than what we have seen recently or find a way to get more out of our players ala a Wisky or Okie State or TCU. Or preferably both.
Our recruiting has stayed the same under Riley? It was floundering badly at the end of Pelini's era and is now ramping up in Riley's. The majority of Pelini's classes were failures.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NorthWillRiseAgain
Ok...let's just look at the 80's.

1. Nebraska was ranked in the AP top 25 every year in the 80's. MU and OSU were ranked 8 times. PSU just 6 times.
2. Nebraska was ranked in the top 10 seven times. MU six times. PSU 5 times. OSU just 2 times.

You say the recruiting rankings before 1990 were the same as the final AP top 25, yet you also declare that OSU MU, and Penn St. were still pulling in better classes than us. How can that be?

As with the other numbers in this thread, the numbers don't lie.

The numbers match up with the recruiting rankings, like I said, "basically". I also said, those recruiting rankings were BS, why don't you dispute that. They were one guy per magazine. It was a joke. If TO recruited him and the high school coach said he was good, then boom 5 star blue chip player.

Let's use the rankings we can easily access. The number of years since 2002, where Nebraska was ranked higher than all 3 schools is I believe 1 time. 2005. Every other year 1, 2 or all 3 were ranked ahead of Nebraska. Nebraska will always be chasing those schools. You can pretend it is 1980 again if you want to but the rankings since 2002 tell a much different story.
 
Our recruiting has stayed the same under Riley? It was floundering badly at the end of Pelini's era and is now ramping up in Riley's. The majority of Pelini's classes were failures.
Look, if you want to look at the numbers and believe what we have seen is great recruiting, go for it.
 
Look, if you want to look at the numbers and believe what we have seen is great recruiting, go for it.
Sorry, but recruiting is more nuanced than you would like to admit.
Average star ranking goes to Riley.
Total quality contributors goes to Riley.
 
Still looking for the post that said Riley's recruiting was "great". What I have seen is people saying the recruiting is improving and clearly better than the last few years under Pelini. Tom, one to never make excuses, hahahaha blames Eichorst for Pelini's recruiting woes.
 
IF you re-rank our class due to misses you have to do the same for every single program. You can't say we were 42 without doing that. Quit your dishonest trolling please.

We were 38th or 39th with re-ranking including the other teams missed. FWIW
 
Sorry, but recruiting is more nuanced than you would like to admit.
Average star ranking goes to Riley.
Total quality contributors goes to Riley.

What matters to kids is the NFL. That definitely goes to Bo. Even if they aren't exactly pillars to society.
 
What matters to kids is the NFL. That definitely goes to Bo. Even if they aren't exactly pillars to society.

So you're saying, in seven years at Nebraska Bo had more players in the NFL than Riley has had at Nebraska?

And as a parent of a player, NFL only matters to about 2% of high school football players going to college. 98% are looking for playing time, position coaches they can relate to, women and some semblance of night life all before NFL.
 
Look, if you want to look at the numbers and believe what we have seen is great recruiting, go for it.

Rivals numbers are a nice guide to go by. But clearly the current staff has found players that are undervalued and under-ranked better that the previous staff.

Not including kickers/punters/long snappers, here are the two star guys Riley has brought in:

2015: Reed and A. Davis - both have started games by their 3rd year.
2016: None
2017: Walker - TBD

Pelini-
2008: Wald (bust), Marlowe (contributor), Kreikemeier (bust), Ward (bust), Bell (bust)
2009: None
2010: Marsh (bust), J. Cotton (contributor), Evans (bust)
2011: Sutton (contributor)
2012: None
2013: None
2014: Cockrell (was a decent player), Irons (bust), Wills (bust), AJ Bush (bust), Tolbert (bust), K. Williams was unranked and from a prep school - count him however you see fit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedMyMind
No the narrative is that Nebraska does best when we get the kids to visit and see a game. The previous staff rarely recruited in the summer, let alone had a bunch of verbally committed players. Then would bring in a bunch of plan B guys in January. Remember Els, its tough to get kids to come to Nebraska on their own dime. We have to wait until the season so we can pay for it.

Fair enough, I do remember Pelini having a few classes that people were excited about but then totally fell apart after October. It's an absolute fact Riley has been better later in the cycle than Pelini. No denying that.
 
Rivals numbers are a nice guide to go by. But clearly the current staff has found players that are undervalued and under-ranked better that the previous staff.

Not including kickers/punters/long snappers, here are the two star guys Riley has brought in:

2015: Reed and A. Davis - both have started games by their 3rd year.
2016: None
2017: Walker - TBD

Pelini-
2008: Wald (bust), Marlowe (contributor), Kreikemeier (bust), Ward (bust), Bell (bust)
2009: None
2010: Marsh (bust), J. Cotton (contributor), Evans (bust)
2011: Sutton (contributor)
2012: None
2013: None
2014: Cockrell (was a decent player), Irons (bust), Wills (bust), AJ Bush (bust), Tolbert (bust), K. Williams was unranked and from a prep school - count him however you see fit.
You may be right. Riley may be able to identify diamonds in the rough better than Bo (or more importantly he needs to do it better than others he coaches against). But honestly it seems your argument is "Bo had a bunch of busts who aren't playing." Then you point out that Riley has a bunch of guys (some unexpected) who are playing early. Well, since someone has to play it makes sense these guys are stepping into the fray.

It would be exciting if the team were playing well. The reality is that it simply hasn't been very good thus far. Let's hope they will turn it around and we can declare these young guys as solid contributors to a great team.
 
You may be right. Riley may be able to identify diamonds in the rough better than Bo (or more importantly he needs to do it better than others he coaches against). But honestly it seems your argument is "Bo had a bunch of busts who aren't playing." Then you point out that Riley has a bunch of guys (some unexpected) who are playing early. Well, since someone has to play it makes sense these guys are stepping into the fray.

It would be exciting if they were playing well. The reality is that it simply hasn't been very good thus far. Let's hope they will turn it around and we can declare these young guys as solid contributors to a great team.

Reed has been pretty darn good for us. A. Davis, fine. But Reed has played well. And so have the other 'underrated' players that are seeing playing time. A. Williams, Bryant, Farniok, Jaimes, D. Thomas have all played really well or at the very least, outplayed their Bo recruited counterparts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedMyMind
There is something getting missed in all this. Look at Bo's #'s, then take off all the kids that didn't stay or even show up, im betting there will be a telling story there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedMyMind
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT