Nebraska’s recruiting losses extreme

By Marc Hudgens  |   Thursday, December 27, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

Nebraska Cornhuskers
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Before late October Nebraska boasted 24 verbal commitments, several highly rated players who would have planted the Huskers' 2008 recruiting class solidly inside the nation's top 10. Since then, however, this once-strong class had dwindled to just 15 commitments.

However, not all of it should be blamed on new head coach Bo Pelini.

Matter of fact, it appears four committed prep stars -- five-star QB Blaine Gabbert, four-star recruits Jonas Gray (RB) and Shaun Mohler (LB) and three-star DE Josh Williams -- backed out before Pelini was hired. These young men probably saw the meltdown in progress, knew a coaching change was forthcoming and went in another direction before Bill Callahan was fired.

That's a lot of star power lost. But it didn't stop there.

The aforementioned four players' departure probably would have gone somewhat unnoticed had it not been for the infamous five who followed in what appears to be inside a week. Between Dec. 13 and Dec. 18, the Huskers lost five-star DE Simi Kuli, four-star recruits Will Compton (LB), Bryce Givens (OL) and Trevor Robinson (OL) and three-star LB Doug Rippy.

Dan Young, a former assistant under Nebraska interim AD and ex-head coaches Tom Osborne and Frank Solich, said recruiting is "a brutal business," and many other schools poach those who have already committed elsewhere. But coaching instability makes other schools salivate. Colorado scooped up four of the nine players Nebraska lost, while Notre Dame has grabbed two.

According to Young, another reason for these departures is that some of these earlier commits may not have been very solid to begin with. Given the direction Nebraska was heading earlier in the season, who can blame them?

While losing commitments is a natural casualty of the war that is big-time college football recruiting, these losses are on the extreme side. In spite of this natural part of business, Young also stated he was very surprised Nebraska lost this many this quickly. Still, you can expect Pelini, Osborne and the rest of Husker Nation to make up for what was lost.

Teams that are in the throes of a coaching transition can expect a certain loss of commitments. It happened at Alabama last year when Nick Saban took over, and it happened this year at Arkansas when Bobby Petrino came aboard. It will happen, but that's the cost of making for a better tomorrow. However, fans shouldn't view Nebraska's current situation as the norm, as this is probably the most extreme recruiting downward spiral that has occurred in college football in probably the past decade.

Not even Nebraska fans should worry too much, though, as this national powerhouse will always attract top-tier talent.
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About Marc Hudgens

Marc Hudgens has been with RealFootball365 since 2007, covering college football, specifically Clemson and Oregon. He also writes for SouthernPigskin.com covering the ACC. He enjoys the acidic wit of Hunter S. Thompson, is a freelance graphic designer and has written several screenplays. He...
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