By Brian Towle
Last week, we looked at stats that showed before the most recent National Signing Day, Nebraska had failed to take care of business inside the 250-mile radius around Lincoln over the last few years.
Some of the talent missed was Aldon Smith, Montee Ball, Arthur Brown, and Joseph Randle. Even today, some wonder why Nebraska hasn’t been able to get more locally-raised prospects into their program.
After checking out some of the numbers from 2012’s cycle, the eyebrows rise.
Total offers: 168
Offers to recruits in the state of Georgia: 13
Offers to recruits in the states of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado combined: 13
Stop and think about that for a moment. Bo Pelini, who commented that it was a difficult task to get kids into Lincoln via flights, gave as many offers to players from the Peach State than to Nebraska and most bordering states, save Wyoming.
The offer breakdown of those states:
Nebraska and Iowa: one each
Kansas and Colorado: two each
Missouri: seven
Another glaring statistic is that for all 168 offers that went out, 32 of them went to prospects that had a Rivals 5.6 ranking or below (“All-Region Selection; considered among the region's top prospects; deemed to have pro potential and ability to make an impact on college team”)
Offers to California and Florida combined: 52
Offers to TX, AL, MS, CO, AZ, CA, TN, FL, GA, MO, OH, MD, KS, IL, IA, NE, HI, MI, MD, NV, CO, WA, LA, OK, UT, PA, NC, NJ, SC and VA combined: 30
Of those 30, 19 were handed out to Texas prospects.
Two states were offered nearly double the total of 30 other states.
As Husker Locker’s James Stevenson stated, star rankings don’t necessarily mean much. He prefers to see which schools offered a recruit to determine their worth.
When two players are ranked as three-star prospects with a 5.7 Rivals rating, the difference is in who wanted them on board. If a player has more than his fair share of BCS offers versus a player with only one and you sign with the latter, that speaks volumes.
To those who say that Nebraska kids are the ones that need to walk on to continue that tradition: I feel there’s plenty of merit in your feelings. However, you can’t build up a walk-on class as good as your scholarship recruiting class.
There’s no question that the Huskers need to get the best one or two players in Nebraska, Iowa, and possibly Kansas or Missouri on a regular basis. It’s a very talent-rich area and one that the Cornhuskers should not yield to surrounding schools for any reason, especially a fear of rejection.
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