Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[entropy]

2013 Media guide

[*JD*]

I thought they'd switched their helmets to black.

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At the end of the day, we hold our guys to a pretty high standard. That's the way it's going to be as long as I'm the head football coach here," Pelini said.

"We're going to help kids grow. We're going to help them develop as human beings. But at the end of the day, you're accountable to not just yourself and your family, but my family, everybody associated with Nebraska football, and your teammates.

"And if at any time if a player is acting in such a way that it's taking away from any of that then they're not going to be a part of our program. It's not a right. It's a privilege to play for the University of Nebraska. That will never be compromised. Ever."




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[entropy]

By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON(0) Comments

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini told the Journal Star that fullback Mike Marrow will not be on the Husker roster this year.

It was not a dismissal, according to Pelini, but a family decision of the Marrows. Mike's father, Vince Marrow, became an assistant coach at Kentucky this year after working as a grad assistant at Nebraska.

* Pelini also said that 2013 athlete recruit Tre'Vell Dixon (Baldwin, La.) will not be on the team. Dixon is likely to go the JUCO route.

Pelini doesn't yet know where Dixon is going but said, "we're helping him work on it."

* As for other incoming recruits who were on on the fence? Pelini said Randy Gregory, Dimarya Mixon and Chongo Kondolo will be ready to participate in fall camp.

Linebacker Marcus Newby still has some paperwork that needs to go through before he can compete, according to the coach.

* As you'd expect, Pelini doesn't know yet have an answer on Alex Lewis, who has a trip to court in Colorado for an assault charge scheduled this week.

"There are no guarantees for Alex Lewis. There never were."

* Defensive end Avery Moss has a court case pending but it doesn't appear it will impact his status with the Huskers in Pelini's eyes.

"Avery's in good shape right now."

* Linebacker Trevor Roach is out for the season, Pelini confirmed. The coach described it as a "freak injury" suffered during conditioning.

More to come from media days.



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[entropy]

Grant Teaff (from left), Bobby Bowden and Tom Osborne enter the Lincoln North Star gymnasium to applause before taking part in a roundtable discussion Tuesday at the Nebraska Coaches Association multi-sports clinic luncheon.

10 hours ago • By KEN HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star




Three of the most famous college football coaches agreed Wednesday that high school coaches play a bigger role in the lives of children than ever before.

Tom Osborne, former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and former Baylor coach Grant Teaff said the breakdown of traditional family structure makes high school coaches some of the most important people in the future of the country.

Speaking before a crowd of more than 2,000 at the Nebraska Coaches Association Multi-Sport Clinic at Lincoln North Star, the emphasis on discipline, respect, loyalty, generosity and the basic fundamentals of social life often come from the coaches, said Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association and one of the most influential people in college sports.

“We recognize the issues and problems that nobody hands coaches the tools to handle,” Teaff said. Effective high school coaches should be named to a “Hall of Influence” for their work with kids – sometimes filling in for a single parent in life.

“I had mommas call me up and say, ‘What about my boy?’ and I’d say, "You had him 17 years, at least give me a couple of years,” said Bowden, who won national football titles and was 6-2 against Osborne-coached Nebraska teams.

Osborne, who started the TeamMates program in 1991 to address the issues of fatherless families, said kids are looking for role models, someone who will speak the truth.

“High school coaches can be that model,” he said. “I started coaching in 1962 and we didn’t deal with many families without fathers. That has changed drastically in the 1980s, 1990s and the last decade.

“The TV set talks on the evening news about the economy, al-Qaida, but our biggest problem is what upbringing we offer to kids,” Osborne said. He said he was surprised that over the seasons, he had to teach players who had never been exposed to character issues. He took a word, “honesty,” for instance, and through the week before a game talked about what it meant. “After 13 games, we covered a lot of building blocks to character in a season,” he said.

Bowden, who has spoken in Nebraska often, said the people of Nebraska could help lead the way, too.

“I have always appreciated the Nebraska people and I like them,” he said. “They’re not like people from New York, Los Angeles. They have a wonderful association with each other and they can lead the way.”

Tidbits

* Bowden on the concussion problem in football: “I played with a leather helmet and we didn’t get concussions because we tackled with our shoulders. We didn’t use the leather helmet as a weapon.” Osborne added: “Rugby is a very rugged sport and they don’t wear helmets and don’t have the concussion problems football does. I’ve watched old tapes of games and the shoulder pads were bigger and you saw most linebackers wearing a neck roll. NASCAR and physicists have found that kind of protection prevents the whip lash that can cause concussions,” he said. Teaff said the helmet was devised to prevent skull fractures. “Not a weapon,” he said. “We have started programs with the AFCA ‘Heads Up’ to teach proper tackling. The helmet can’t stop the fluids in your head from violent shifts.”

* Nebraska Coaches Association president Nancy Kindig-Malone presented Osborne with a fly-rod kit for his years of coaching in Nebraska. “We asked and we were told that this is something he’d never buy for himself,” she said.

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Brian Christopherson @HuskerExtraBC 13m

Will Nebraska-Iowa stay on Thanksgiving weekend after '17? B1G official floats #Huskers-Wiscy possibility in quote...

http://thegazette.com/2013/07/25/iowa-nebraska-to-move-off-black-friday/

Brian Christopherson @HuskerExtraBC 28s

The fact Mark Rudner floats Husker-Wiscy possibility in a story about a month before '18 schedules might come out is ..... interesting.

[entropy]

http://sports.omaha.com/2013/07/25/b1g-media-days-assistant-captains-and-bos-valentine-message/

[entropy]

Sipple

Let's be real: Good recruiting often involves pushing the envelope, including how to approach NCAA rules.

Good recruiting generally involves a commitment to aggression. For some coaches, that might mean bending a few rules.

Alabama is perhaps as aggressive as it gets, hence its three consecutive top-ranked recruiting classes by Rivals.com (2011, '12 and '13). The Crimson Tide's class of 2014 is currently ranked fifth, with 10 four-star players in the mix.

Aggression? Commitment? Well, according to the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News, Alabama last year employed 24 noncoaching individuals devoted solely to football (not including graduate assistants) and paid them a combined $1.6 million.

Much of the energy obviously is devoted to recruiting.

The Crimson Tide's support roster includes six workers who operate under a "player personnel" designation, including former Nebraska assistant Kevin Steele. The roster also has seven "football analysts," whatever that means.

Don't expect Nebraska to follow suit.

"More so than a head-coaching decision, that's a philosophical decision by your athletic department," Husker head coach Bo Pelini said last week. "Honestly, I don't think I ever foresee Nebraska going down that road.

"There's a different perspective and different priorities at our place."

Pelini took over at Nebraska in December 2007. Since then, he said, he hasn't increased to any great degree the number of support staff devoted solely to football, although doing so is a trend nationally.

Although NCAA rules strictly define the number of coaches who can instruct on the field (head coach, nine full-time assistants, four graduate assistants), there are no limits -- at least for now -- on how many employees can help "behind the scenes."

It can be difficult to accurately identify and categorize such employees. Suffice it to say Nebraska employs not a single "football analyst" or "player personnel" staffer, at least according to the team's 2013 media guide.

Because many employees have multiple duties, it can be tricky determining exactly which people in any program contribute significantly to recruiting.

At Alabama, for instance, former "football analyst" Russ Callaway spent most of his time breaking down opponents' video as a means of game preparation. But he also was a researcher on recruits.

According to Sports Illustrated, Callaway's duties would include seeking out video of a prospect, writing a report on the player and forwarding it to the "player personnel" department (which employs student assistants to cut up the highlights, according to the article).

"It was so machinelike, how we had it set up," Callaway told SI.

Based on Callaway's description, SI pointed out that it's possible Alabama is bending an NCAA rule that states noncoaches may not partake in "activities involving athletics evaluations."

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban countered by saying analysts and administrative assistants have no input into which players 'Bama ultimately decides to recruit, that their work simply allows the program to cast a wider net.

That's what I mean by pushing the envelope.

Meanwhile, the American Football Coaches Association board of trustees in April drafted a proposal placing "limitations on coaching staffs and noncoaching staff personnel" for the NCAA to consider.

"If you don't have some parameters in place," Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne told SI, "you could eventually have a football staff member for every two or three (players), and I don't think that's healthy for the industry."

In some regards, the industry must regulate itself. In the SEC, that seems unlikely.

* Player discipline, or lack thereof, was a hot topic last week during Big Ten Media Days, what with Ohio State's spate of off-field issues. How can coaches keep players on the straight and narrow?

It begins with recruiting, said Northwestern eighth-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald, whose comments were germane to a recurring Husker recruiting discussion.

"If you look at our history in recruiting, we're typically a day late, a week late, a month late in potentially offering a young person, and I know it sometimes frustrates our fans," Fitzgerald said. "But we're going to make sure when we offer a young man, that's someone we truly want to become part of our football family. Not all schools care as much about that as we do.

"And that character evaluation takes a little bit longer."

Pelini couldn't have said it better himself.



* As if Michigan's class of 2014 weren't strong enough -- ESPN ranks it No. 3 nationally -- the Wolverines also are off to an impressive start for the class of 2015.

Michigan on Saturday landed its third commitment for 2015, as wide receiver George Campbell of Tarpon Springs, Fla., the top athlete and No. 3-ranked prospect overall in the ESPN Junior 300, pulled the trigger.

Campbell is the sixth wide receiver Michigan has landed since 2012 that is at least 6-foot-4.

The knock on third-year Wolverines head coach Brady Hoke early in his tenure was that he couldn't land high-profile skill players. So much for that. Since 2012, Hoke has landed 10 four-star offensive skill players, including Campbell.

[DennisT]

The knock on third-year Wolverines head coach Brady Hoke early in his tenure was that he couldn't land high-profile skill players. So much for that. Since 2012, Hoke has landed 10 four-star offensive skill players, including Campbell.

And now Harris. I'm convinced the skill guys have been paying attention to the development of the o line pipeline.

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the difficulty in developing a DT..

http://sports.omaha.com/2013/07/29/abu-lamin-or-as-the-dt-world-turns/#.UfbF-o2ceSo

[entropy]

a post from another board.. not sure who this is as they rarely post... but I think it has merit.

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what's really going on is that the reason NU dominated the SEC in the 1970s-1990s is because we coached our players better, we played football the way it was meant to be played (blocking, tackling, hitting, wearing you down, physicality) and that's how we beat all those teams who had better recruiting classes and "athletes."

Then, they took away prop 48s, prop 42s, legislated non-qs to go to juco's instead (taking away our advantage in academic support)(most juco's are in the south and west), and now are legislating rules changes such that recruiting budgets and personnel are unlimited, limited ability to get to know the recruits well, force them to take official visits usually in the winter time when it's colder at northern schools, and legislate out of existence the physicality that can overcome "athleticism" and raw ability.

In 10 years, we will be playing 11 man versions of 7 on 7 and teams with the best passers and athletes will win.

In short, NU of the 1990s and that style of football, without top recruiting classes, will never happen again until we get this crap under control.

[WM Wolverine]

Like I've said for years, you need an 'elite' coach, not just a good one that knows his X's & O's. The dynamics have changed. Your position as a dominant program is tougher than your peers.

One thing you guys having good for you is you are in the B10 West, I don't see a lot of competition in the West (Wisky, NW then blah, gimmie, gimmie, gimmie) and you guys should be a regular in the B10 CCG. This should help boost your brand and help lure those top recruits from the south. Still, it's going to be harder to land those kids where your at than a program like Oklahoma, Georgia, Oregon, LSU, etc that is right next door to talent rich places.

[Hannibal]

Yeah Nebraska is in kind of a rough spot. They definitely have the financial support and the tradition, but the lack of a population base will always be somewhat of a problem.

[WM Wolverine]

Population is less of an issue than nearby fertile recruiting grounds. NY has a ton of population and there is talent there but it's hard to find as it's spread out so much...

Of the schools I listed, Oregon is probably the best comparison for what Nebraska needs. Oregon built up their brand & facilities with help from Nike and success on the field; Nebraska more than anything in the short-term only needs success on the field. Oregon isn't that close to the talent in Southern Cal (which is a ton) but they have better access to it than Nebraska. Nebraska needs to start a string of 10+ win seasons to build their brand back up, top recruits from Cali/Texas/SE should take notice and might seriously consider them; that is if they have a HC that can really recruit.

[Wild Hoss]

Meh...Lincoln is in the same spot it was in 1971 and 1995. If anything, distance is less of an issue today than its ever been.

Never really cared for the Prop 48 argument either; Prop 48s never provided us anything we couldn't or can't get from JUCO, with some forethought. Our last national championship team only had one Prop 48, and he was a co-starter.

No question we are a poorly coached, unphysical program. I don't know that even Osborne's teams could beat the best of the SEC of today so I don't know if that point on physicality really separates us from "elite". They are a different animal from the squads we were slapping around in the 80s and 90s. Nowadays they are like the pinnacle of decades of experimentation in rule-skirting and ethical ambiguity.

We need a real coach.