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College football recruiting often becomes downright silly, and sometimes a bit repulsive.
Thunder Collins comes to mind. He was a headliner in Nebraska's recruiting class of 2000. Perhaps you remember reading front-page stories in the local press — and we're not talking about the front of the sports section; we're talking A1 — detailing Collins' hardscrabble background. Never mind he had never played a down for Nebraska or even arrived on campus.
Radio stations counted down Collins' arrival, day by day, using AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." It was cute, I guess.
Folks showed up at Nebraska's summer workouts to check out the heralded running back (back when you could watch summer workouts).
What they saw was a spindly legged athlete who was nowhere near equipped to carry an offense to the promised land, as many envisioned. At 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, he looked more like a slot receiver. He turned out to be an OK running back.
Point is, we built Collins into something he wasn't. It wasn't his fault at all. We shoulder the blame — media and fans. We do it constantly with recruits — romanticize what they might become. OK, not everybody does it, but enough of us do. I've been as guilty as anyone over the years.
It's disturbing enough that we fool ourselves into believing the hyperbole about certain players. Perhaps worse is that the players themselves believe the hype. Who can completely blame them for feeling a sense of entitlement when it comes to playing time?
Of Scout.com's top 10 quarterbacks in the class of 2010, eight already transferred — in most cases because of playing-time issues.
Nebraska running back Braylon Heard, a junior-to-be, reportedly is set to transfer, although nothing has been announced officially. He's an instinctive running back with excellent speed, a four-star player in high school. But he probably isn't good enough to unseat the projected starter, Ameer Abdullah.
Meanwhile, a pair of high-profile recruits — Adam Taylor of Katy, Texas, and Terrell Newby of West Hills, Calif. — are set to join the tailback competition.
I haven't talked to Heard. But I've learned enough about the situation to draw one conclusion: If Heard were the projected starter, we wouldn't be hearing transfer talk.
Players often transfer for excellent reasons. Maybe there's a severe personality conflict with a coach. Maybe a loved one is ill back home.
Or maybe they transfer because they're reluctant to compete for playing time; they want it handed to them. After all, many players have been told of their greatness for years. As prospects, they read Internet message boards and come to believe they're powerful enough to affect the mood of a fan base. Reading Husker message boards, it's easy to understand why certain prospects might think that way.
It's silly. It's Bizarro World. It could get worse, thanks to recent NCAA legislation that will revolutionize the recruiting climate.
Starting with the class of 2014, college coaches will be allowed to call, text or communicate privately by any methods available (Facebook, Twitter, et al) — without restrictions. It's a startling development. Think about a high-profile coach — Nick Saban, Mack Brown, Urban Meyer — calling a prospect 10 times a day and texting the player constantly. Could you blame the kid for beginning to think he should be locked into a starting role at whatever program he chooses?
Coaches already push the envelope in recruiting. Imagine how far some will push the new contact rules. Recruiting is about to become even more cutthroat, as if it's not ruthless enough already.
Consider the Vince Marrow saga at Nebraska. Marrow and Husker coach Bo Pelini had a friendship that dated to their teens at Cardinal Mooney High in Youngstown, Ohio. As a graduate assistant at NU, Marrow recruited four-star Cardinal Mooney safety Marcus McWilson to Lincoln. Marrow then left for Kentucky in December to become the tight ends coach under Mark Stoops, another Mooney graduate.
Marrow soon began recruiting McWilson to Kentucky, and McWilson reneged on his commitment to Nebraska to attend UK.
You can probably imagine how that went over with Pelini.
Why should I be surprised Marrow abandoned friendship for a recruit? After all, it's silly season, which at times becomes sort of pathetic.
Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
The Iowa-Nebraska series will continue on Black Friday if both schools get their wish.
Iowa and Nebraska announced Thursday that they’ll formally ask the Big Ten to keep their annual game on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The first two Hy-Vee Heroes Games have taken place on Black Friday, but the next two contests are scheduled for Saturdays (Nov. 30, 2013, in Lincoln, and Nov. 29, 2014, in Iowa City).
Athletic directors Gary Barta (Iowa) and Shawn Eichorst (Nebraska) will make a formal request to the Big Ten’s Joint Council at its next meeting Feb. 25-26.
From a news release:
Those dates would change to Nov. 29, 2013 and Nov. 28, 2014, following approval. Barta also said he expects Iowa and Nebraska to continue meeting on the final weekend of the regular season, pending Big Ten schedule changes for 2014 and beyond due to Big Ten expansion.
The key phrase there being "schedule changes for 2014 and beyond due to Big Ten expansion." We still don’t know how the schedules and the divisions will shake out, although it would be a major shock if Iowa and Nebraska aren’t in the same division, as league athletic directors say geography likely will be a greater priority in this round of alignment.
Nebraska has played games on Black Friday for years and wanted to continue to do so. There was some hesitancy on Iowa’s side, as some Hawkeyes fans are acclimating to the logistics of these games. But Iowa has decided to move forward.
It’s definitely the right call. The Black Friday games give Iowa and Nebraska a big stage when few other games are taking place. Their games have been nationally televised on ABC. It’s very hard to compete with the Ohio State-Michigan game the following day, so by keeping the game on Friday, Iowa and Nebraska receive attention they otherwise wouldn't, especially when the contest factors into the division/league race.
Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
Somehow, it’s appropriate that the last intercollegiate competition that will count as a win or a loss in the history of the NU Coliseum will be Nebraska's 7 o’clock Friday night wrestling match against Michigan State. Is there anything more worthy than giving the oldest recorded sport in the nation’s oldest athletic conference the honor of bringing down the curtain in celebration of one of this state’s most historic structures?
Friday Night at the Coliseum will be one wrestler’s will pitted against another’s in primal combat. And that, in its own inimitable way, will salute all Husker wrestlers from the past, whether they competed inside the Coliseum or the Devaney Center. As the Huskers prepare to host the last competitive event that counts inside this once dimly lit facility, we share 10 celebratory facts for wrestling to exit stage left, while Nebraska’s volleyball team, the building’s longest anchored tenant, waits to bid its own farewell with three spring exhibition matches against Creighton, Iowa State and South Dakota:
1) It doesn’t get any better than having Jordan Burroughs, the world’s hottest wrestler, in Lincoln so he can be honored between Friday night’s fifth and sixth matches. America’s highly celebrated and widely publicized Olympic gold medalist also is set to answer questions beginning at 6 p.m. on Youth Wrestling Night. The Coliseum doors will open at 5:30 p.m. to accommodate this uniquely timed Q&A.
2) Nebraska Wrestling Coach Mark Manning will honor NU Athletic Director Emeritus Tom Osborne with a guest coaching spot on the bench. It's Manning's own special tribute to a life skills mentor who also has spearheaded the transformation of the program’s facilities. With a giant-sized wrestling room, four new mats and 40 custom-made, backlit lockers, the Huskers now have what it takes to recruit in the Big Ten.
3) Friday is Senior Night for Huskers Ross Grande (165), Josh Ihnen (184), Ridge Kiley (141) and Tyler Koehn (174). Ihnen will make dual start No. 14 of the season, Kiley No. 11 and Koehn No. 4. Grande will not start, but the three-time letter-winner from Palatine, Ill., is a 2012 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and, through a relative, has become a role model for supporting a young Alabama wrestler with cerebal palsy.
4) Nebraska's 2012-13 wrestling motto is Tough ... Together, so it's only fitting to acknowledge Rulon Gardner, the Huskers’ other Olympic gold medalist and permanent fixture on the Olympic highlight reel. In a shocking upset of three-time Russian Olympic champion Aleksandr Karelin, Gardner won the Greco-Roman heavyweight title in 2000, handing Karelin his first loss in 13 years of international competition.
5) Through the years, Nebraska has produced five other Olympians in addition to Burroughs and Gardner, who also won an Olympic bronze. They are: Dan Brand (fifth, lightweight & bronze middleweight in 1960 and ’64); Jim Scherr (fifth at 198 in ‘88), Bill Scherr (bronze at 220 in ’88); Matt Lindland (silver at 167 in 2000); and Brad Vering (eleventh at 185 in 2004 and an Olympic Team spot at 185 in 2008).
6) The Huskers claim three world champion wrestlers – Bill Scherr (90 kg Freestyle in 1985); Gardner (130 kg Greco-Roman in 2001) and Burroughs (74 kg Freestyle in 2011). NU also has four world runners-up – Bill Scherr (100 kg Freestyle, 1986); Jim Scherr, 90 kg Freestyle, 1987 and 1989); Lindland (85 kg Greco-Roman, 2001); and Vering (84 kg, Greco-Roman, 2007).
7) NU has 11 individual NCAA national champions with Burroughs winning two following unbeaten regular seasons (35-0 at 157 in 2009 and 36-0 at 165 in 2011). The other nine: Mike Nissen (123, 1963); Jim Scherr (177, 1984); Bill Scherr (190, 1984); Jason Kelber (126, 1991); Tony Purler (126, 1993); Tolly Thompson (Hwt., 1995); Brad Vering (197, 2000); Jason Powell (125, 2004) and Paul Donahoe (125, 2007).
8) If wrestling teaches such valuable lessons as self-discipline and perseverance, no wonder the Scherr twins – natives of Mobridge, S.D. – have succeeded in life. Jim, once the CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is now CEO of a marketing firm and Bill is the vice president of a global investment firm. Former Husker John Myers is the founder of a digital design and effects studio and Judd Norman owns an investment firm.
9) After coaching Nebraska to a share of the 2009 Big 12 Conference Championship at the Coliseum, Manning is on a solid 13-year run as head coach. His Husker teams have an overall record of 173-65-3, including a 27-20 mark at home against ranked teams. The Huskers have finished in the Top Eight at five NCAA Championships and accumulated 32 All-America honors, including five individual national titles.
10) Beginning next fall, Nebraska wrestling will compete in a $20 million remodeled Devaney Center that will be home to NU volleyball and men’s and women’s gymnastics. Here are wrestling’s highlights: 91 All-America honors; 45 NWCA All-Academic selections; 18 Top Ten NCAA team finishes; 15 USA World Championship medals; 11 individual national champions; 10 Olympians; and six CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.
(The N-Sider will take readers on a nostalgic journey of the NU Coliseum’s history this weekend).
Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
a discussion broke out about should the black friday game for UNL change to Wisky instead of Iowa.. Some posters couldn't understand why Iowa gets no respect. here was a response:
Iowa gets no respect because their women are hideous wildebeestesses.
And that's why it's good to keep the Iowa game on Black Friday. Keep their female fans out of the malls, where they'd start riots fighting over the limited supply of XXXL undergarments at Lane Bryant, or DressBarn, or Fashion Pig, or wherever they buy stuff.
Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
Football games frequently come down to the smallest man on the fieldthe kicker. The Ravens-49ers Super Bowl this Sunday could be no different. Here, Philadelphia Eagles kicker Alex Henery, one of the best in the business, explains the science of the
Anatomy of a Field Goal - Alex Henry
Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
The Tribute to Tom: Night of Legends Gala has added some well-known personalities who have committed to attend the Saturday, March 9, once in a lifetime evening that will honor Tom Osborne and his family at Omaha?s CenturyLink Center.
The latest commitments include two more Division l head football coaches, a pair of former Nebraska defensive coordinators, another Heisman Trophy winner and an actor who portrayed the President of the United States on a popular TV show.
Nebraska?s Bo Pelini and Oklahoma?s Bob Stoops are the two head coaches who will join previously announced commitments from Wisconsin?s Barry Alvarez, Kansas State?s Bill Snyder and Oklahoma?s Barry Switzer. Charlie McBride, Osborne?s longtime defensive coordinator who helped his Hall-of-Fame head coach win three national championships and 60 of 63 games in a five-year stretch, will be part of the program.
So will Craig Bohl, the former Nebraska defensive coordinator who has led North Dakota State to back-to-back NCAA Division I FCS national championships.
Mike Rozier, NU?s 1983 Heisman Trophy winner, joins Johnny Rodgers (1972) and Eric Crouch (2001) at the Tribute to Tom event, giving the Night of Legends Gala a clean sweep of Husker Heisman winners.
Dennis Haysbert also has committed to attend the event that will contribute all proceeds to two major causes: 1) The TeamMates Mentoring Program established by Tom and Nancy Osborne in 1991; and 2) The NU Athletic Research Center for the Study of Brain and Sport Performance, which will open this fall as part of the $63.5 million East Stadium Expansion Project.
Haysbert is known for his work in the movie Major League, for his lead role in the television series The Unit and for his portrayal of President David Palmer in the television series 24. He is also featured in nationally prominent insurance commercials.
Former Nebraska wingback and longtime NFL receiver Irving Fryar and college football offensive coordinator Scott Frost, the quarterback who led Osborne?s last team to the 1997 national championship, also have committed to a program that will include interviews, video features and sideline reports.
ESPN College Football GameDay host Chris Fowler and ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe will be catalysts for interactive dialogues and salutes that will honor Osborne?s contributions to the state of Nebraska, Big Red football and service to our country. The entertainment also features legendary Las Vegas impersonators for Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and Neil Diamond, plus the Miami-based New Century Dance Company, which will perform a unique style of shadow dancing. Fans can reserve spots for the gala by calling the Huskers Athletic Fund at 1-800-8-BIGRED or by visiting Huskers.com (see links at the top).
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Grammar... The difference between feeling your nuts and feeling you're nuts.
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