Not trying to belabor the point, but pretty much all scholarship athletes at NU (and elsewhere) are on pretty much 365-day training plans and most of them use the current facilities on Central Street for at least some of their strength/speed training, though some will use current on-campus facilities.
New football facility
- Thread starter superhawk
- Start date
Not trying to belabor the point, but pretty much all scholarship athletes at NU (and elsewhere) are on pretty much 365-day training plans and most of them use the current facilities on Central Street for at least some of their strength/speed training, though some will use current on-campus facilities.
Sure, but I was also referring to winter practices and such for outdoor olympic sports being moved into the fieldhouse.
Those are really marginal improvements (I get that), but it's something. As far as training goes, you make a fair point that it's really just a dramatic improvement in the space/size and convenience, and it's hard to judge whether there's really an improvement when those kinds of things change.
I hate to give into this line of thinking but you are probably right. It seems ridiculous to spend so much money to essentially create eye candy for recruiting. I have to hope that there will be some intrinsic value to being able to train in an inspirational setting. At the very least they should be able practice a little more efficiently during inclement weather conditions in a bigger indoor facility. Perhaps they will become less weary of the training space if it is more pleasant but benching 250 lbs 10 times has pretty much the same effect in a basement as it has from a penthouse.
That's pretty much what college sports is though in this day and age. Since the players aren't getting paid, what do you offer instead? Gold plated facilities.
And that's why the biggest impact from any of this is on the quality of athlete that comes to campus.
I would hope we are ahead of Nebraska, who I don't think have had top 20 classes in a while. I would hope that we can reach at least Stanford's level of recruiting.
But Stanford only has the 71st best class in the country!
https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2018/all-teams/football
Even though it is at least four times the size of the size of the new Kellogg pile of glass, it has a much better scale and character to it. How could the same university build two such dramatically different quality buildings so close to each other? Kudos to Ryan and the other donors and the Athletic Department for so dramatically outshining the MBA's. This reinforces the high GPA that students in the Athletic Department achieve. Perhaps we should also encourage a much higher sense of civic value among the business majors.June 2017:
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That will change after the final signing day when many of the best recruits will commit. They already have a bunch more 4 stars than we do. Their last 4 classes were ranked between 14-19 and 2012 class was ranked #5. And they have the same issues with class size that we do.
However, this may also attract a higher level of assistant coaches (not naming any names), who will in turn improve player development.
I would think getting in higher level of raw talent would help. It the new faculty does that it has done its job. You can’t make velvet out if pigskin. Our guys aren’t pigskin anymore. We now need to grab a few “can’t miss” type of recruits supplemented by NU’s already excellent knack of finding diamonds in the rough. I know there are no “can’t miss” but no one can tell me the evaluation services are so incompetent that there is no difference between 3-5 stars and mid 3 stars. Give me higher ranked recruits and you are way more likely to succeed that finding all under recruited over achievers.
Yes, our recruiting is trending up, but agree with DaCat that it needs to keep and accelerate the upward trend.
I'm very aware, hence why I italicized in an attempt at the new "sarcasm font." Was attempting to (admittedly flippantly) use that as another piece of my "star/class rankings mean bupkis" argument.
That's kind of an end-around, but probably about the most that could be hoped for.
Sure you don't have any names? I was already intrigued with what Fitz would do with the 10th assistant, now he's got two openings. Double the intrigue?
I don't think there's that much of a difference between Stanford or Nebraska in terms of recruiting. Nebraska's typically somewhere in the 20s with larger classes sure, but the differences are small at that level (between #10 and #30 classes in the country).
If you really look at it closely, each of those programs in that range grabs a handful (4-6) 4 stars and the rest of their recruits are high quality 3 stars.
That's really the level you want to get to consistently, and it probably also requires us to continue to win at a high level.
Either way this new facility removes the biggest remaining negative recruiting tool that had affected the program, so we'll see what happens.
I think it’s fair to consider that consolidating daily use facilities on main campus is for the benefit of the student athletes and worth an investment. Consider the different things the students may have to do up on Central - not just practice, but injury treatments/therapy, meetings, academic support, training table (not sure if all those are on Central). I’m sure a lot of those things are consolidated now but they wouldn’t have to be at the new facilities. That could open up more flexibility for the student athletes in scheduling both training and classes, and less wasted time in transit.
Definitely a big improvement. It's not about the aesthetics, as more about easier access and having state-of-the-art equipment and technology for our student-athletes. If we can flip even one or two big-time recruits each class from being on the fence to committing to NU because of this facility, then it's worth it.
Bingo. We are an average of 2.5 high quality recruits per class from seriously contending for and winning the opportunity to play for BIG championships. With a heavy emphasis on OTs and vertical playmakers on both sides of the ball, those 2.5 recruits per year are gettable .
GOUNUII
A little of this has crept into recruiting of regular college students as well. The little state college I attended in Pa. now offers suite-style living with private bathrooms in the dorms, a far cry from the high-rise dorms of my day where you shared the facilities with the other 49 guys in your corridor. Instead of the family-style dining room of my era with its "mystery meat" nights and chickens barely the size of Cornish game hens, the dining room now is a moveable feast of salad bars, stir fry stations, pizza and burger stations etc. There is a Starbucks in the library and Dunkin' Donuts in the student union. With declining high school graduation numbers in Pa., there's nothing most schools won't do to attract new bodies.
My sophomore year at Bobb may have been both the most memorable time and paradoxically the time I least remember of my college life. Certainly the worst grades. If you look at a tree on the SE side of the complex, you'll see a Miller Lite can 30 feet up. That was my contribution to her legacy (well, I helped hold the guy who put it there). At least it was there 10 years after we put it up, can't imagine it has come down since.
Well, they don't mean Bupkis, considering how both our ranked classes did 20 years ago (3 rings) and Stanford's have done relative to ours as of late.
So you’re really arguing that you want to WIN like Stanford, not necessarily RECRUIT like Stanford... which is what I’ve long been arguing.
sarcasm meter still broken
I'm arguing that I want to win like Stanford and that it involves us recruiting more like them, which you still don't get. We are as successful on the field as our recruiting allows.
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What is this... A football facility for ants?
I don't think our recruiting pitch really changes. It's not about the next 4 years, it's about the next 40 years. Our potential recruiting base will still be smaller than most schools due to academic requirements. We may entice a few more eligible high-end prospects, but the real change will be better integrating student athletes with the rest of campus. A good thing. Awesome facility? Yes. Recruiting eye candy? Yes. Game changer? I don't think so.
The recruiting base will never change (only a narrow slice of the annual 1000 total Power 5 recruits academically qualify to come to NU or other schools like us).
What changes (and it's admittedly a mix of factors that goes into this) is locking in an extra 1-3 of our "first tier" offers in each class over our previous classes.
Most of the reason why Fitz is drawing in superior recruits to his early years is of course the winning and stability that the program has had the past couple of years.
But recruiting isn't only about positives, it's about negatives also. Rival coaches would always tell recruits "you'll never win anything there"/"they haven't won a bowl game in a gazillion years"/etc., which is why getting to and winning bowl games has been important to remove that negative tool against us. We've now spent a lot of time ranked under Fitz and won a number of games while ranked as well. This upcoming season should feature our 2nd preseason ranked team under Fitz (though that may depend on CT's situation).
The other negative tool regularly used against us has been facilities..., and this year we're going to shoot up straight to the top of the list in terms of day-to-day facilities for the team.
The effects of removing the negative tools used against us is as important as the positives we get from winning. Combine all of that and it will make a difference.
If over time, annually, this facility helps shift 1-3 "first tier" offers to come to NU, then it's an absolute success.
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Given the length of Fitz's tenure in the conference, I'm expecting the "Fitz is getting pretty old" argument to be used against NU (hey, in a conference that can Beckman...)
That's Ironic! I watered that tree as a sapling, with Budweiser, usually late at night.
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Agreed. As discussed already, the already-solid base of recruits we are bringing in now will (hopefully) continue to choose to attend NU. Where the facility should help is to tip the scales in our favor with the additional 2-3 top recruits who are wavering -- as an example, maybe guys like Hinton Jr, Walker Little, Cody White, Kasim Hill, etc. who we recruited heavily but decided to go elsewhere.
How about Zeek? Comes out of nowhere with all of these reasonable recruiting/program insights.
I've been a lurker on this board for at least a decade..., made an account in 2010 (and forgot about it) and then remembered I had it after the bowl win.
I'm pretty sure I made the account because of my frustration with the Wrigley loss (given the join date), but then I thought better of posting right after a loss and never posted.
Wow I hate losing to The Fighting Lovie’s with the best of them, but that is some hiatus. We know xyz won’t accuse you of being with the Koolaid Klan after that.
Yeah, I used to be pretty critical of Fitz back then, but he and the program have come a long way so I'm more willing to accept the downs with the ups of following NU football.
Of course that's a lot easier to say when we've had a lot more ups and the future is as bright as it's ever been for the program.
