By Brandon Cavanaugh
It’s approaching mid-December and Nebraska recently picked up its eighth commitment of this recruiting cycle. Linebacker Thomas Brown is a welcome addition as fellow linebacker Deion Jones defected to LSU. The peculiar thing is that the Cornhuskers could easily have approximately double their current commitment numbers, so why don’t they?
Bo Pelini’s not a fan of recruiting and it’s easy to understand why. It’s a 24/7/365 gig and it’s not for everyone which is why a recruiting coordinator is usually designated. In some cases, head coaches will crack the whip and in others, such as with Pelini’s staff, the coach with the official title of recruiting specialist is trusted to make necessary adjustments.
Through Nebraska’s 2011 home slate when the Cornhuskers can take advantage of their biggest recruiting tool in the Big Red faithful, they used 29 official visits out of an allotted 55. Only 22 of those trips brought uncommitted prospects to Lincoln.
The December and January months need to be when the Cornhuskers find a few diamonds in the rough or sneak athletes like true freshman running back Ameer Abdullah out from underneath the noses of the nation’s premiere programs. It’s not the time for the heaviest of lifting to be done.
When Pelini’s not at official Capital One Bowl functions, he’s pounding the recruiting pavement with a ferocity not seen out of the Huskers’ fourth-year coach during his tenure. Could Urban Meyer’s hiring at Ohio State signal a gauntlet being thrown down? Whatever the reason, Pelini would be doing his program a service by stepping into recruiting matters more often, but it’s understandable why he doesn’t.
Bo Pelini is the big gun. When he steps into a recruit’s living room, you know the situation just got real. The Kingpin of North Stadium has come to pay a visit. When Pelini is ready to talk face to face, he cranks up the heat. He has “it”, but does he truly realize that or not?
This ramped up recruiting effort is part one in determining how serious Pelini is about taking the Nebraska football program back to the elite level. He knows his strengths. He’s a tactician, he deals with the X’s and O’s, but he has gradually grown more into the CEO role necessary of a head coach at a major FBS school.
Part two will be revealed in his hire of a new defensive coordinator. If he hires someone from outside the program who knows how to properly recruit, buckle down and gladly be the taskmaster, one has to think he’s in it for the long haul.
Another promotion from within, another Ohio Bobcat, another ho-hum pick and it’ll be hard to take talk of commitment to win as seriously. Bo Pelini’s defenses will likely always provide nine or ten wins. To challenge for and win Big Ten championships, not to mention grace a BCS bowl for the first time in a decade, there needs to be a legitimate hire that makes a statement from the initial tweet.
Nebraska's head man has everything he needs to return the Cornhuskers to true relevancy. The Huskers were the fresh face in the Big Ten this season, the new kid on the block. With Jared Crick, Lavonte David and Alfonzo Dennard, they looked to produce one of the finest defenses seen since the defensive mastermind came to town. The rest is history.
Pelini must redirect the passion seen on the Huskers’ sideline every game day to recruiting, development of depth and a true pledge to be the best in the nation by actions, not words. If this happens, Nebraska stands a good chance of casting an intimidating shadow across the entire college football landscape again.
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