Recruiting states population

[SnohomishRed]

Since the dawn of recruiting sites and up to the minute recruit rankings, NU has always been slammed that it cannot be what it was because of population. I think a lot of that is pure hogwash.

1. Recruit rankings by rivals and others put a heavy lean on certain high population states. For example players from Texas are automatically deemed better than players from western Nebraska. In most instances that is based on higher visibility and perceived level of competition. While some of it is justified much of ratings differentials is not. Base talent level should be more correlated to overall population.
2. If you take the population of Texas for instances and divide it by the number of FBS football programs in that state you come up with a population of 3,588,041 per program and this does not include Oklahoma or other neighboring schools that live on Texas recruits. If you take the population of Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado and Missouri and divide by FBS program you have 3,382,638 per program. Virtually no difference

Nebraska can thrive if we start winning the wars for the top recruits in our neighboring states only. I feel these states would provide just as talented a pool as the the entire state of Texas and in most instances a much lower competition level for these recruits. Our recruiting ranking would not be as high, as the recruiting sites will lean towards the Texas schools however our talent level potential is there to win another National title

 

[RealTucoSalamanca]

If it was simply based on population NYC would have more division 1 players than most states and Rutgers would be a national powerhouse.

I have an opinion on recruits that may somewhat back up what you are saying though.

I think the level of youth and high school coaching that players get here in Texas and in Florida is higher than many other states. So when a player from those areas gets to college they have reached a greater percentage of their potential than players from other areas. So in many cases, you don’t see as much improvement from those players.

 

[jbt25_rivals29801]

If it was simply based on population NYC would have more division 1 players than most states and Rutgers would be a national powerhouse.

I have an opinion on recruits that may somewhat back up what you are saying though.

I think the level of youth and high school coaching that players get here in Texas and in Florida is higher than many other states. So when a player from those areas gets to college they have reached a greater percentage of their potential than players from other areas. So in many cases, you don’t see as much improvement from those players.

A lot of truth in that especially year round emphasis on year round football in Texas and Florida and number of good coaches. Ohio calif are some others. Georgia is climbing instate

But if what OP says is true and Rivals was biased only to high pop states even if you exclude NY big cities, then we would see way more teams who don’t recruit a ton of 4 and 5 stars win titles and we don’t

It’s not bias it’s simple math. Omaha has produced Ahman Green Eric Crouch and Johnny Rodgers types 3 times in 50 years

Calif TX FL With 15-20 million in pop - almost 20 times more 4-5 star players than year I would guess. When you include better demographics. some years maybe triple these caliber of players every year in day Dallas area, any large area in FL or LA /SD Oakland SF area than we have in 30 yrs. That doesn’t mean they all win heismans but that’s they difference between high pop states and us.

 

[SnohomishRed]

A lot of truth in that especially year round emphasis on year round football in Texas and Florida and number of good coaches. Ohio calif are some others. Georgia is climbing instate

But if what OP says is true and Rivals was biased only to high pop states even if you exclude NY big cities, then we would see way more teams who don’t recruit a ton of 4 and 5 stars win titles and we don’t

It’s not bias it’s simple math. Omaha has produced Ahman Green Eric Crouch and Johnny Rodgers types 3 times in 50 years

Calif TX FL With 15-20 million in pop - almost 20 times more 4-5 star players than year I would guess. When you include better demographics. some years maybe triple these caliber of players every year in day Dallas area, any large area in FL or LA /SD Oakland SF area than we have in 30 yrs. That doesn’t mean they all win heismans but that’s they difference between high pop states and us.

The play on the field suggest you must have elite talent in order to win a title. However I think NU has elite talent within our bordering states. Texas certainly has a lot of talent in the state but everyone recruits Texas. Not as many people are recruiting Col or Iowa for example. As far the bias I find it very curious that once the rating services went mainstream all of the sudden Nebraska becomes devoid of talent when there was plenty of all america talent before that

 

[barney44]

We need to pick up all of the talent surrounding us and go elsewhere to get the rest. We’re not going to survive on our region alone.

 

[jbt25_rivals29801]

The play on the field suggest you must have elite talent in order to win a title. However I think NU has elite talent within our bordering states. Texas certainly has a lot of talent in the state but everyone recruits Texas. Not as many people are recruiting Col or Iowa for example. As far the bias I find it very curious that once the rating services went mainstream all of the sudden Nebraska becomes devoid of talent when there was plenty of all america talent before that

There are examples of good talent here that can be developed and we should secure all of our 500 Mile radius. However, even under TO that was only 3-4 some years instate scholly worthy.

Here’s the bottoms line:

Frost will make us more nationally relevant but If we want anything like mid to late 90s where we are just even .500 in conf title games then we need to start pulling more of the 4-5 star kids who have offers from Mich Ohio state OU Bama Tx USC etc like we did back then. Some were prop 48 kids back then

 

[jbt25_rivals29801]

Let’s face it. What was Frank Solich’s downfall in the end? He didn’t keep up the out-of-state recruiting that TO had in 90d and had given him. That’s just simply undeniable.
It’s exactly what killed him in the end. His last 2 Recruiting classes were at or in the 40s with almost no out of state great talent to speak of 02-04 classes