Huskers’ recruiting scare over

By Marc Hudgens  |   Monday, January 28, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Nebraska Cornhuskers
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article!

It was just a wee bit over a month ago when Nebraska was in the throes of a recruiting nightmare. Now it appears the program has finally awoken from it.

In late October the Cornhuskers had 24 verbal commitments. Over the next couple of months they lost nine of them, with a huge fraction giving the thumbs-up to Colorado. But that wasn't the only turmoil in Lincoln.

Athletic director Steve Pederson was fired midway through October and replaced with the legendary Tom Osborne, thereby putting Bill Callahan's head coaching job in serious jeopardy. With Callahan's demise at Nebraska coming to fruition late in November, the coaching and athletic leadership turmoils probably caused the recruiting one.

Although most of the time you can expect some recruiting prospects to waver or even de-commit during a head coaching change, what Nebraska endured was a bit extreme and unexpected. Three or four commits is the total a coach would normally lose, and the Huskers lost well over twice that. Even new head coach Bo Pelini, who hit the recruiting trail immediately upon taking the job, was having a difficult time saving recruits.

With national signing day upon us in just a few days, Nebraska has since made up for a lot of lost ground, currently bragging about its current 21 commitments, one of whom has already signed his letter of intent. This was made possible by the verbals given this past weekend by Texas twins Courtney and Steven Osborne (no relation to Tom) and receiver Antonio Bell of Florida.

While Nebraska has a ways to go given its No. 7 ranking in the Big 12's 2008 recruiting classes and 27th nationally according to Rivals, getting this close to filling out the roster after such a huge loss late last year is quite impressive.

With a new athletic director and first-time head coach solidly in place, the dust appears to be settling back to normal levels. Chaos has once again given way to stability, as it always does with a coaching change, and prep stars now feel more comfortable about, maybe even drawn to, Nebraska.

As Bell put it, "I know they're on the rise because they got these new coaches."

Indeed.
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article! (0)

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 ...
read more
Article Tools Share!   |  RSS  |  Bleacher Report About Bleacher Report