For Peat sake recruiting matters

Sorry in advance for the delayed blogging about National Letter of Intent Day. If you are looking for a blogger to give grades or ratings on a recruiting class, you’ve come to the wrong place.


Let’s face it, rankings are pure conjecture because yes these youngsters had accomplished high school careers but the fact of the matter is, their college careers have not even begun yet. The most highly touted recruits of the 2012 Nebraska football class are quarterback Tommy Armstrong, offensive tackle Paul Thurston, wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp, linebacker Michael Rose and cornerback Mohammed Seisay. Given the rarity of quarterbacks stepping in right away as true freshman (unless your name is Tommie Frazier or Matt Barkley), Armstrong is the only one that might not make an immediate despite calls by a segment of Husker fans to end the Taylor Martinez experiment.

Seisay and Rose will likely be counted right away. The former is a junior college transfer and, let’s face it, such players are not brought in to a program unless it is to make an immediate impact. Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini has made his share of mistakes in burning redshirts on the offensive side but defensively he generally will not burn redshirts. However, with Rose he might feel compelled to do such because Nebraska needs depth at the linebacker position with the loss of All-American LaVonte David to graduation.

As for Thurston, with Nebraska getting back to running the option, at least a variation of such, coupled with limited proven depth at tackle, Thurston might be playing sooner rather than later. Westerkamp not only brings a deep threat but has a penchant for making acrobatic catches, which is significant considering how rarely Martinez hits receivers in stride.

The recruiting topic, however, that has been most prominent is the fact that offensive tackle Andrus Peat, who Nebraska strongly coveted, chose Stanford over Nebraska.

Peat is a five-star recruit by rivals.com and would have been the only such recruit signed by Nebraska’s the 2012 recruiting class. Peat was rated the No. 9 offensive tackle in the country by scout.com

One of the reasons why so many Husker fans believed Peat would attend Nebraska is because of his connections to the school. Peat’s older brother, Todd Peat, is a defensive tackle for the Cornhuskers. Todd Peat was highly recruited last year.

Nebraska didn’t make ESPN’s top 25 classes nationally and got a C-plus from ESPN’s RecruitingNation staff.

There’s two ways to look at such. With the exception of the ill-fated Bill Callahan era, Nebraska recruiting classes have very seldom been highly regarded. Therefore when the Callahan era ended, a significant portion of Husker zealouts scoffed, “Who cares about five-stars, give me five hearts.” The 2005 campaign featured the top rated recruiting class in the county but unfortunately did not lead to Nebraska getting back to prominence as some hoped.

There will always be a segment of Husker fans that say, “who gives a damn about rankings. What do they know?” That point has its merit but to say you don’t need impact players to win is foolish.