Nebraska's Recruiting Dilemma

As a Nebraska football fanatic I have grown up being lucky to watch the great teams of the 90's under the great Tom Osborne. I have experienced games in Memorial Stadium in Lincoln with the best fans in college football screaming for their team. The bad part is that over the past years Nebraska hasn't been performing to the level that is expected by the fans, players, coaches, and college. The program is under a large dilemma right now with the question of firing Bill Callahan or keeping him as the head coach. The problem with this is that not only does this effect the program right now but the recruits that are thinking about attending Nebraska and playing football.
Nebraska has already seen a number of players de-commit and either commit to another school or keep their options more open. The biggest recruiting loss is with Blaine Gabbert. The Huskers had one of the best high school quarterbacks committed to come play at Nebraska until the job of Bill Callahan was threatened. The recruits deal with the coaches and why would they commit to a place that isn't sure who the coach will be next year. The Nebraska recruiting class has lost some recruits and dropped in the recruiting class rankings on nearly every website that ranks recruiting classes. This season has hurt the Huskers pride and could continue to hurt the ability to get kids to come play at Nebraska.

Movie Review: Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights is the adaptation of the book written by H.G. Bissinger. This might be one explanation for why the movie is the most real depiction of high school football. I've played football since I was in first grade but I never enjoyed it more than I did in high school. This movie shows football the way it was meant to be. The in-game footage is realistic and shy's away from most other football movies and there extreme scenes making every play out to be a highlight.

Friday Night Lights is about the society in West Texas with football being a constant formula in everyone's life. The whole community is obsessed with their team. The community lives their lives through the coaches and the players of the 1988 Permian Panthers. The expectations of the coaches and players is for perfection. Permian is expected to win state and bring home a ring like their fathers and elders did when they were in high school. The pressure that the coaches and players go through is crazy. Before the state game the boosters imply to Gaines that if he loses "that'd be a real bad deal for you, so just go out there and get it done." The only thing anyone in the community talks about is football and winning state. Players are told that the years of high school football are the best ones of their lives. Don Billingsley's father (Tim McGraw) tells his son that "you got one year to make you some memories and i'll be damned if you don't miss it." Billingsley's father implies that this is the best time of his son's life and it won't get any better than what he has now. The movie focuses the whole time on the Panthers winning state and follows the team through an unlikely road to a championship game.

The characters in the movie make it so real. Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) is one of the many people who make the movie great as he is dealing with the extreme pressure that he and his Panthers must win state. Thornton plays the role of the coach to a tee. The quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) as a quiet and insecure person who's mother is mentally ill. Winchell shows his heart and becomes a leader when the team needs him after the injury to Boobie Miles (Derek Luke). Miles is the playmaker on the team. He is the cocky running back who hurts his knee in an early season game. Miles focused on playing football the rest of his life and disregarded school. After cleaning out his locker he goes out to his uncle in the parking lot and breaks down crying and says all he knows how to do is play football. Another very interesting character is Ivory Christian or "Preacher Man." He is a silent leader until the state game when he rallies his teammates.

Friday Night Lights is a great movie for everyone. This movie is by far a top three movie on my list of favorites. It portrays the game in realistic scenes that anyone who has played football can relate to. It is not just about football but the lives of everyone in a town and on a team. Friday Night Lights appeals to the emotions of people who love football and know how it can affect the lives of so many. Friday Night Lights is a football film for the ages.

College Football's Crazy Season

This college football season is by far one of the craziest seasons ever. There is not many years that the preseason top ten all have a loss by week seven. The story of 2007 has been all the upsets. What do these upsets show recruits though? Upsets have shown these recruits that about every team in the country can compete with one of the elite teams. Recruits don't have to go to the top programs to be recognized. These upsets can turn recruits heads and say how'd they beat USC or Oklahoma. If this trend of crazy seasons continues the recruiting process could get even more interesting than it is today. We could see the top recruits going to schools other than the elite programs. Although the top recruits will still continue to go to the elite programs unless these crazy seasons continue, we have seen the excess of talent throughout the game. This excess of talent shows that some recruits get snubbed by the big boys and go to a weaker program and do a great job and even make it farther than the five-star recruits do.

Recruits and Parents of Recruits Financial Relief

Many recruits and parents had a feeling of relief in their wallets when the NCAA banned text messaging. Parents and players are already paying enough for their cell phones and plans, but they had to deal with the constant texts from coaches. Early in a player’s recruiting process they are considering so many teams that they feel obligated to text back the coach to show him that he might have some interest. This obligation makes players text to the maximum of what most people do. Throughout the whole process, which for many starts during their junior year, the expenses pile above what the kids or parents can afford. Of course the time when the coaches text the most is when signing day comes around. Coaches want to make their last push on as many recruits as they can. The recruits, if undecided, get numerous texts from numerous programs just like they did at the beginning of their recruiting process. These costs are many times overwhelming to whoever has to pay the bills for the cell phone and plan. When the NCAA banned text messaging many recruits and parents of recruits pockets got to fill back up to where they were before the text messaging era.

Text Messaging Ban

The ban of text messaging by coaches to players is a fair and just rule that the NCAA plans to uphold. If text messaging was not banned by the NCAA then coaches would be constantly on their recruits. I have a friend who was being recruited when text messaging was a legal form of recruitment. I remember him coming out of school at the end of the day checking his phone and having fifteen new text messages all from college football coaches recruiting him. It’s funny that he always complained to me about how much they were always on him but the year after he went to school the NCAA bans text messaging. Text messaging by coaches was too much. The phone calls that these athletes have are plenty to handle along with their schoolwork and practices trying to finish the last year or two of high school that they have. Text messaging is the one form of media that I disagree with in college football recruiting.

NCAA to keep text messaging ban in place (article on ESPN)
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2967872

The Change of College Football Recruiting by the Media

College football recruiting has evolved into a public affair. In the early ages of college football recruiting the public was not as aware of what teams were offering what players. Today you can look on sites like rivals.com and espn.com to find out what the website ranks a high school football player. A person can view a player's pictures, statistics, even many of their highlights from high school. People can view what teams are offering the player and the order of schools that the student-athlete is considering to go to school and play football at. Today, someone can follow a player throughout his whole process and be aware of everything that happened. The media has completely changed the recruiting process. In the past people had no idea about players, but today they can find all the information they want on someone by the quick click of a mouse.
Following players that you have heard of and seen play is interesting, especially when the player you follow is a person you know well or even a teammate. I’ve had the opportunity to follow a family member through his whole process and viewing all of his information on statistics. I was always informed with the latest news of what was going on with him. Even seeing a player that you’ve never heard of is fun when you see what amazing statistics they have put up in the past. Simply going to a recruiting website and looking up a player and watching videos and kind of scout him yourself is a very popular thing to do. Other players also like viewing what their peers are doing in the same process that there in. The information people can obtain about these players is almost as in-depth of a pro football player. I could stay on websites like rivals and espn to look at recruiting for hours.