The Bone Yard

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TheUnknownFan said...

"Winning has absolutely nothing to do with recruiting" might be the most naive remark ever made on this board. It's not the only thing, of course, but for a great many schools, it's a huge factor.

Vanderbilt has recruited more players, not better players for 2013. They play in the best conference in college football. Ole Miss is in the heart of SEC country with tons of top football players within easy reach. Washington is in a far better recruiting area than Nebraska. Nebraska has one of the most disadvantaged locations of any school trying to compete at the highest level. If you don't think that's a major factor, you can go on deluding yourself.

When you have this disadvantage you have to prove yourself worthy of recruits who come from clear across the country. That means win a lot of games and show that you are a destination school. Losing games you shouldn't and having too many meltdown performances absolutely factors into the equation when you're comparing a school in Los Angeles to one in Lincoln. It factors in when you are comparing playing in Lincoln when you might go play in the SEC.

When you are stuck out on an island in the midwest trying to compete with the power players from the coasts and southeast, you better be able to sell a solid winning tradition. We still have that winning tradition, it's just not very solid at this time due to numerous inexplicable losses. It definitely factors into our ability to recruit kids away from top schools closer to their homes. This is not worth debating.

BTW, I don't know where you are deriving the rank of T.O.'s recruiting classes since he coached practically his whole career before any current day ranking services were in existence.

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TheUnknownFan said...

Good question. Not sure I want to know the answer.