You Can't Always Get What You Want....

but if you try sometimes, you just might find.... YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED, AW YEAH...

That song came on the radio as I left work yesterday, and as I sat, driving through Minnesota's relentless cold, I thought about the connection between the song and the recruiting class that Bo Pelini announced yesterday. During Callahan's tenure, it was often a conference extolling the stud blue-chip prospects that he had hauled in. We all fawned over the top-10 classes with all their stars and rankings. And that will always be an alluring thing, everybody will always WANT 5-star guys, everybody will always WANT top-5 classes. But yesterday, I couldn't help but feel that while we only signed one 5-star recruit, we came away at the end of the day with exactly what we NEEDED. Guys who want to be part of the Husker tradition, hard-nosed kids who will sacrifice for the next 4 to 5 years for the greater good of the team. And that's not to say that the 5-star guys wouldn't do that. But for all the hoopla over guys like Harrison Beck, there's a 2-star kid from some small podunk down that will out-work and out-sweat other guys because that's what it takes to get on the field and contribute. I was laughed at on a message board the other day because I wrote that I wanted Mason Wald more than the stud 4 or 5 star guys. And I stood by it, because when you watch his film, it's not his size or any tangible thing that jumps out at you. It's tenacity and fire, and it's obvious that those traits attracted Pelini's staff to the kid.

Pelini came back to the same theme again and again: TEAM. He never once talked about an individual's recruits talents. He lamented the hype behind the recruiting process, saying that he knew what his staff was looking for and he didn't care about stars or the rankings, that he only wanted good football players who will come in and work hard. And at the end of the day, that's all any of us can ask for, is kids who understand how important it is to wear the N on the helmet and the pride the state takes in it's program.

That's why you'll find almost as much written today about the walk-ons as you will about the scholarship kids. The re-emphasizing of the walk-on tradition is a point of pride for the Pelini staff, and the state is excited to see the change. You never know what unknown recruit might develop into an All-American, which has happened more than a few times at NU. If you want a perfect example of an unheralded guy who wasn't offered a scholarship coming out of high school, look at the New England Patriot's Pro-Bowler Wes Welker, a former walk-on at Texas Tech. You can measure height, 40 times, vertical leaps, and any other stat you want. But you can't measure heart.

I'm going to let the dust settle a bit before I write a more detailed breakdown of the recruiting class next week, just wanted to put a brief 2 cents in today. Hope everyone is as excited about this class as I am.