If you ask me -- and nobody did -- I think all this hoopla over college football recruiting has gotten out of hand.
I admit it's interesting to see who the Huskers have landed when national signing day rolls around, but we don't really know much about these players.
It's more fun to look back on a class and pick out the successes and failures. Here's a brief look at some of Nebraska's recruiting classes in the past decade.
1990 -- I-backs Calvin Jones and Derek Brown headed up NU's recruiting efforts.
"As a pair, they appear to be the best combination of running backs we've recruited here,'' Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said at the time. Those two did not disappoint. They went on to become the "we-backs." Both left college a year early to join the NFL.
Some names from this class are familiar -- Terry Connealy, Cory Schlesinger, Corey Dixon, Danta Jones and Ed Stewart. It was a banner year for offensive lineman. NU nabbed Zach Wiegert, Rob Zatechka and Brenden Stai. All three started on the 1994 national championship team.
But whatever happened to Joel Gesky, Brian Havens, Bill Humphrey and Duane Wiles?
1991 -- Grand Island's Phil Ellis was a NU recruit that year. He wasn't a blue-chipper, but went on to have an outstanding career.
Other future starters that year included Dwayne Harris, Clester Johnson, Tony Veland, Doug Colman, Troy Dumas, Aaron Graham and a quarterback named Brook Berringer.
But whatever happened to Anthony Cole, Ken Bello and Charles Green?
"I think we had a good year from the standpoint of quality,'' Osborne said on signing day. "I don't know how it will be perceived by the ratings services and frankly I don't care. I don't think it's overwhelming, but I think it's good and solid.''
1992 -- The Huskers went after speed.
"Just look at the way football is going,'' Osborne said. "The bowl game (a 22-0 loss to Miami) was a good example of it. But we've seen it several years in a row. You'd better have good speed and that's at all positions.''
The big recruit that year was a kid from Bradenton, Fla., named Tommie Frazier. St. Paul's Jeff Ogard was among the in-state recruits, along with Damon Benning, Clinton Childs, Chris Dishman and Eric Stokes.
But whatever happened to Ed Morrow, Ben Rutz, Marvin Sims and Jim Steibel?
1993 -- Lawrence Phillips was a member of this class, along with other future stars like Jason Peter, Michael Booker and Aaron Taylor. Eric Anderson, Lance Brown, Josh Heskew and Jon Zatechka turned into solid players.
But whatever happened to Jason Jenkens, Sean Noster, Rodney Percouts and Justin Stephens?
1994 -- Grant Wistrom was the star of this group. Darin Erstad, Jay Foreman, Sheldon Jackson and Mike Rucker weren't too bad, either.
Anybody know happened to Ted Butler, Tray Crayton, Constantine Dumitrescu and Jon Elder?
1995 -- Ahman Green, Chad Kelsay, Kris Brown and Tony Ortiz were among this recruiting class. So were Chad Bell, Grand Island's Lonnie Fulton, Luis Almanzar, Andy Bilanzic and Marnell Mathews.
1996 -- St. Paul's Loren Kaiser has done well out of this class. So have Clint Finley, Mike Brown and Ralph Brown.
Sasho Becvarovski, Justin Ferrell and David Webber haven't been heard of since.
Osborne said some good players were scared off from Nebraska that year.
1997 -- It's still early to judge this class, but Eric Crouch, Bobby Newcombe, Joe Walker, Matt Davison, Tracey Wistrom, Dominic Railola, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Correll Buckhalter and Erwin Swiney have already made significant contributions to the program in their first two seasons.
It's definitely too early to even look at the 1998 class, and we don't know what the future holds for the 1999 recruits.
Some will certainly be standouts. Some will go on to the NFL. Some will simply disappear.
Only time will tell.
Bob Hamar is assistant sports editor for The Independent. You can reach him via e-mail at bhamar@theindependent.com or call 381-9417 or 1-800-658-3160.
