LINCOLN In a refreshing change for those weary of the out-of-control hype that seems to go hand in hand with college football's signing day, Nebraska coach Bo Pelini seems to have taken the position that less is more.
During a press conference Wednesday to officially announce the newest Cornhuskers, Pelini declined to speak individually about anyone in the 2008 class.
"We are recruiting talent and potential and we are proud of every recruit that we have," Pelini said. "What they become in the future, that remains to be seen."
While some media types and fans may have been disappointed not to get a blow-by-blow breakdown of every player's various strengths a common theme in recent signing-day press conferences it seems Pelini wasn't interested in adding to the hype. By not offering glowing assessments of the newcomers, Pelini avoided setting the bar of expectations too high for guys who have yet to play a single down of college football.
"There's no sense in singling kids out," Pelini said. "Everybody knows about them you can read about them. They are a part of our program and they are part of the team. That's how we're going to approach it and they know that. They signed on for that.
"When they became part of the Nebraska football program, it's not about any individual guys, it's about the unit as a whole."
Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, a holdover from former coach Bill Callahan's staff, agreed with Pelini's approach.
"What happens today with the onset of all the different things that are going on with recruiting is there's a lot of pressure and hype that maybe wrongfully gets placed on a young man who has not have the life experiences to know that all that is not really important right now," Watson said. "What's important is that you understand that you have to work hard and you have to earn your place. That's part of being honest, being forthright and shooting them straight down the middle."
In a process that sometimes includes shady practices and more than a few little white lies to gain the services of top players, Pelini said he believes that honesty is indeed the best policy.
"We're going to be honest with our expectations," Pelini said. "There are going to be no promises made. We want to develop a relationship and that relationship is going to be built on trust.
"If you promise things or you try and sell a bill of goods or try and give them something that you're not going to be able to live up to in the future, then what? Then they come into your program and you lose that trust right off the bat and you might as well part ways at that point."
While many in Husker Nation were in a panic when Nebraska started losing recruits back in December, Pelini said he wasn't concerned. Even as several players who had verbally committed to the Huskers wavered, Pelini didn't.
"We want kids that are committed to the University and want to come play for Nebraska and have a strong feeling about it," Pelini said. "They want to become part of our culture and part of our program, within the standards we give them, and want to play championship football.
"That isn't for every kid. Kids that we recruit and they go someplace else, we say 'God bless them.' At the end of the day, we're going to have kids that are passionate about the University of Nebraska and what we have going."
Pelini also made it clear what he thinks of star systems and recruiting services, which often play a leading role in feeding the hype. To that end, Pelini indicated that he couldn't care less where Nebraska's 2008 recruiting class was ranked.
"We don't really base our assumptions or our evaluations on what other people think," Pelini said. "We watch tape and we spend a lot of time looking at tape and we see how they play football.
"We're going to make the judgments. We don't really get concerned with who else has offered, or what he's ranked, how many stars he has. We're concerned with whether he can play football and be successful in our system and that's how we approach it."
Pelini reiterated that he plans to build his program with high school players, mostly steering clear of the going the junior college route that was frequently traveled when Callahan was calling the shots. He also shot down the notion that you have to recruit players in the south to find speed.
"Obviously, you want guys that can run," Pelini said. "I know that there are a lot of guys in the state of Nebraska that can run. I think it is a little bit overblown people think all of sudden you go down and cross into Louisiana and Florida and all of sudden you can run."
With Pelini, it seems there's really only one attribute he's looking for in a recruit.
"Good football players guys that play with passion, play with an attitude," Pelini said. "We haven't had much association with the players on campus, so we were just looking at tape and trying to find good football players that we knew were going to help us somewhere."
Terry Douglass is sports editor for The Independent.
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