Recruiting is a tougher task in Lincoln

We now have some new information to analyze about Nebraska recruiting from the last couple of years.

For years we used to blame the option offense for not being able to recruit nationally recognized high school players because we thought they all wanted to be prepared for a pro career - linemen, tight ends, receivers, quarterbacks. Now we've got a pro offense run by a head coach with a long list of NFL credentials and the recruiting results for high school players still are coming in very disappointing. You couldn't have a much better NFL set up if that's the only thing these high school stars were looking for. The recruiting difficulties can no longer be blamed on the type of offense we run.

We also know the difficulties are not caused by lack of effort on the part of the staff. Very few staffs have worked as hard across the nation for such modest results. They probably are having to work four times as hard on recruiting as staffs at Texas, USC or Notre Dame have to work. In retrospect, the real shocker is that the old staff could have actually done as well as it did with less recruiting efforts (i.e., a large part of that old staff was pretty ineffective on the recruiting trail).

So two popular old myths about recruiting are now being put to rest. Unfortunately that leaves us with location, location, location - something that can't be changed about Lincoln. It looks like Tom Osborne wisely knew he could never compete for the same type of athlete as national powers located in population centers. He evolved his system to differentiate Nebraska from the pack so he could compete for different types of skilled athletes and also utilized a powerful walk-on program to build depth. The old master knew what he was doing.

We know Nebraska can be a very successful national program because that's already been proven. The path to success, however, may have to be different from that followed by other schools. If Nebraska has a strong season this fall and recruiting still does not respond to that success in a huge way, that would be a sure signal of future trouble.

Callahan already has had to follow a different recruiting strategy - the one long used by Kansas State (i.e., going after JUCOs when you can't get the high schoolers you want). Most of us thought that JUCOs were a temporary thing but there may have to be more of the same forever if things don't dramatically change. And it looks like we may already be forced down the JUCO QB path this year.

Go Big Red,

RedCap