A look back at the 2007 class, 2011 results

[FeelLikeAStranger]

I was thinking about the impact of the small SR class we had this year and how that impacted the team's results, especially in leadership, poise, resiliency, etc.. Just some numbers to ponder...

Our senior class is primarily Callahan's '07. Here's what happened:

In '07' we signed 22 freshmen

2 did not qualify

6 didn't redshirt and exhausted eligibility in 2010
1 dismissed but would have expired eligibilty anyway (Castille)

6 out of those 7 are/were in the NFL, btw. The top-end talent was elite-30% of the guys that enrolled made the league and Crick and Jones might make that 35-40%. I maintain that was Callahan's best overall class. 2008 was on pace to be better when the bottom fell out.

6 were gone for various reasons

(A. Blue-MHS, 8/11; R. Hill-MHS 11/10; W. Yancy-NOR 8/09; P. Witt-GnS07; TR 2/09; S. Sullivan-LT 12/08; A. Stafford-SUS/LT, 9/08)

2 More were medicals (Burkes and Lawrence)


Only 5 scholarship players from the 22 signed/20 enrolled in 2007 made it to their 5th year here. 25%.

The small class including defections and exhausted eligibility is killing us in recruiting this year due to small # of seniors.

20 total
14 on scholarship
6 walk-ons

Of the 14 scholarship players:

5 of those former walk-ons, one a transfer (Legate)
3 were JuCo's
1 was a 2008 recruit (Dennard)
2 were non-contributors for the most part (Gilleylen and Mendoza)
2 were All-American caliber (Crick, Dennard)

Only 5 scholarship 5th year seniors, or only 25% of the total seniors on the team. Only 3 that were starters/major contibutors, and all 3 missed significant starts/PT due to injury. Only 6 that had been here for four years or more.

Think about that...only SIX 4-5 year scholarship players remained in our senior class. Staggering. Add in the 4 former walkons that were here 5 years = 10

Of the 6 walkons:

2 were transfers

So, if you think about it, our senior class was represented by only 14 players that had four years in the program out of roughly 145 on the roster... Only 10%. i think that may explain some of the leadership issues. I expect that to improve next year, as we have the 2008 transition class (including the big initial walk-on group)  and a few four year seniors like Burkhead, Bell, and Mangieri.

These are guys that came here for Bo and for Nebraska and have been here a long time. There are 38 seniors on the roster in 2012. Nearly twice the number we had this year. 35 of them have been here 4-5 years. 21 MORE than this year's senior class.  20 scholarship prep recruits vs. only 6. Over twice as many guys who have been together for 4-5 years. That's a significant point that one cannot overlook. In retrospect, the 'youth' explanation was dead on. The dynamic of a larger group of guys going through their entire college/team experience together will be a stark contrast to this year's collection of mostly part-timers.

When you are looking for resolve and trust, seeing the guys you've studied, partied, bled, lifted, competed, struggled, bonded, and played with for a significant % of your young adult life is huge. 'Play for the guy next to you' is a cliche' that isn't. I think it makes a huge difference when a team is playing for each other and therefore committed to pushing harder and working harder to not let their teammates down and push each other harder, and have each other's backs. I'm not saying anything bad about our 2011 seniors at all, just pointing out that as a group they had less time and less sweat, blood, and tears together than the group we will see next year.

Our trajectory is up. It hasn't slipped or plateaued. I expect improvement next year and the following year, as this is becoming the players' team again. We have a lot of returning experience unlike last year. A lot of returning starters. A lot of young talent as well. Another year in the offensive system and a year more with/experience for the newer coaches.

[Sexy Leather]

FLAS,

Well said and spot on.  

During the LSU-Alabama game back on Nov 3rd, the announcers said that the LSU defense this year has 8 senior starters.  In the debates with nearly everyone in re: talent I tried, repeatedly, to tell people that (among numerous other points) having so many senior starters on defense makes a huge difference in perception of talent in regards to execution.  But it was ignored because why...we're Nebraska and anything less than being 100% perfect is merely making excuses for failure.

[OhioHusker43065]

I was thinking about the impact of the small SR class we had this year and how that impacted the team's results, especially in leadership, poise, resiliency, etc..  Just some numbers to ponder...
 
Our senior class is primarily Callahan's '07.  Here's what happened:

In '07' we signed 22 freshmen

2 did not qualify

6 didn't redshirt and exhausted eligibility in 2010
1 dismissed but would have expired eligibilty anyway (Castille)

6 out of those 7 are/were in the NFL, btw.  The top-end talent was elite-30% of the guys that enrolled made the league and Crick and Jones might make that 35-40%.   I maintain that was Callahan's best overall class.  2008 was on pace to be better when the bottom fell out.

6 were gone for various reasons

(A. Blue-MHS, 8/11; R. Hill-MHS 11/10; W. Yancy-NOR 8/09; P. Witt-GnS07; TR 2/09; S. Sullivan-LT 12/08; A. Stafford-SUS/LT, 9/08)

2 More were medicals (Burkes and Lawrence)


Only 5 scholarship players from the 22 signed/20 enrolled in 2007 made it to their 5th year here.  25%. 

The small class including defections and exhausted eligibility is killing us in recruiting this year due to small # of seniors.

20 total
 14 on scholarship
6 walk-ons

Of the 14 scholarship players:

5 of those former walk-ons, one a transfer (Legate)
3 were JuCo's
1 was a 2008 recruit (Dennard)
2 were non-contributors for the most part (Gilleylen and Mendoza)
2 were All-American caliber (Crick, Dennard)

Only 5 scholarship 5th year seniors, or only 25% of the total seniors on the team.  Only 3 that were starters/major contibutors, and all 3 missed significant starts/PT due to injury. Only 6 that had been here for four years or more.

Think about that...only SIX 4-5 year players remained in our senior class.  Staggering.

Of the 6 walkons:

2 were transfers

So, if you think about it, our senior class was represented by only 10 players that had four years in the program out of roughly 145 on the roster.  i think that may explain some of the leadership issues.  I expect that to improve next year, as we have the 2008 transition class (including the big initial walk-on group)  and a few four year seniors like Burkhead, Bell, and Mangieri. 

These are guys that came here for Bo and for Nebraska and have been here a long time.  There are 38 seniors on the roster in 2012.  Nearly twice the number we had this year.   35 of them have been here 4-5 years.  29 MORE than this year's senior class.  Almost 6 times as many guys who have been together for 4-5 tears.  That's a significant point that one cannot overlook.  In retrospect, the 'youth' explanation was dead on.  The Dynamic of a larger group of guys going through Their entire college/team experience together will be a stark contrast to this year's collection of mostly part-timers.
 
When you are looking for resolve and trust, seeing the guys you've studied, partied, bled, lifted, competed, struggled, bonded, and played with for a significant % of your young adult life is huge.  'Play for the guy next to you' is a cliche' that isn't.  I think it makes a huge difference when a team is playing for each other and therefore committed to pushing harder and working harder to not let their teammates down and push each other harder, and have each other's backs.  I'm not saying anything bad about our 2011 seniors at all, just pointing out that as a group they had less time and less sweat, blood, and tears together than the group we will see next year.

Our trajectory is up. It hasn't slipped or plateaued.  I expect improvement next year and the following year, as this is becoming the players' team again.  We have a lot of returning experience unlike last year.  A lot of returning starters.  A lot of young talent as well.  Another year in the offensive system and a year more with/experience for the newer coaches.

The stats on players every contributing to a team, let alone 4 and 5 star recruits is shockingly low, across the board and not just the Huskers.  The percentages are very surprising. 

[512Husker]

FLAS,

Well said and spot on.  

During the LSU-Alabama game back on Nov 3rd, the announcers said that the LSU defense this year has 8 senior starters.  In the debates with nearly everyone in re: talent I tried, repeatedly, to tell people that (among numerous other points) having so many senior starters on defense makes a huge difference in perception of talent in regards to execution.  But it was ignored because why...we're Nebraska and anything less than being 100% perfect is merely making excuses for failure.

Then the announcers are wrong because they have 5 defensive starters that are seniors and 7 seniors on their two-deep roster. And in the SEC they have 4 starting sophomores and 1 starting freshman.

[Big Sky Husker]

FLAS,

Well said and spot on.  

During the LSU-Alabama game back on Nov 3rd, the announcers said that the LSU defense this year has 8 senior starters.  In the debates with nearly everyone in re: talent I tried, repeatedly, to tell people that (among numerous other points) having so many senior starters on defense makes a huge difference in perception of talent in regards to execution.  But it was ignored because why...we're Nebraska and anything less than being 100% perfect is merely making excuses for failure.

You're wrong.  A simple google of LSU's defense would show you that. 

Link:

http://lsufootball.net/depthchartlsu.htm

LSU has 4 starters on defense that are seniors this year.  As of Dec 27.  There are 8 seniors on LSU's defense (3 deep).

[Big Sky Husker]

Alabama has 4 seniors starting on their defense as well, I believe.

[Jarhead Husker]

.......Another year in the offensive system and a year more with/experience for the newer coaches.

Another year to learn how to remember the snap count.......

[Hort]

FLAS- your stats are always a welcome contribution to the board.

Thanks!

[Red Said Ted]

Good post, FLAS.

Personally, I'll take talent over experience.  But we are on an upward trend in that regard too.  2008 was a down year in recruiting high end talent due to the transition from the Callahan staff to the Pelini staff.  2009 wasn't much better.  Both years landed some solid recruits, but not enough high caliber recruits.  By the 2010 class Bo had apparently made believers out of high school coaches and players and the recruiting took a leap forward.  2011 is Bo's best class by far.  And the 2012 class, although small looks to be outstanding in terms of individual talent. 

So, although we may have an increased number of seniors in 2012, I don't think that group is a particularly talented group.  Due to the initial Pelini dip, the most talent classes at NU won't be juniors and seniors for 3-4 years.  But I expect to see a significant impact from those two classes really beginning in 2013. 

[FeelLikeAStranger]

I think I goofed the #'s just a bit.  Forgot to count the 4 FWO's in the total of 4th and 5th year players including walkons.  Thus, 14 or about 10% of the team this year was 4th/5th year seniors.  Still very low.

[Carolina Husker]

Now, thats just wonderful information there.   Nice job. 

[FeelLikeAStranger]

Fixed the #'s

[Solly]

Amazing work, as always, FLAS!   

[HuskerFan2002]

Good stuff, FLAS.

Keep up the good work!

[FeelLikeAStranger]

Amazing work, as always, FLAS!   

Any thoughts on the basic premise, from a former player's perspective? 

I can only postulate, but if only 10% of the team are fully-vested 4th and 5th year guys, they would be heard less.  A lot of the "leaders" on this team were either underclassmen-Taylor/Rex, JuCo's-David, former  walkons-Caputo, or ended up on the bench for a good part of the season due to injury.  That had to have an effect that was reflected in this year's performance, especially over the background of a less-experienced /revamped/ reshuffled staff AND a new conference schedule.

I'm disappointed like anyone is, but I also believe this was a pretty good coaching job to get to 9 wins.  A lesser coach could have easily slipped to 7-8 with everything that happened throughout the season.  A lot of youth, a lot of inexperience, and a lower number of true senior class leaders to lean on...key injuries.

I don't know what good it does to lament blowout losses.  I wouldn't call 30-13 a blowout at all, missing a 3, losing 3 on the blocked xp, and turning it over twice in the redzone.  That was a good SEC team and we were running over them for a half until we cooked our own goose.  We had similar rankings all year to USC...we belonged on that field with them and showed signs of dominating them before the Hail Mary.  We beat a decent Mich State team and pulled that comeback against tOSU, who arguably had better athletes based on recruiting rankings.  We were running the ball on Wisconsin just fine and then completely pooped our pants and lost the will to live.  Total quicksand game.  Give Michigan four extra posessions on special teams...another quicksand game.  northwestern was complacency and overconfidence.  I think the youth really showed in those situations.