Our weekly #TwitterTuesday file continues this week where you ask National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell your football questions via social media. Here are questions about Nebraska's rough start to the Scott Frost era, chaos at Tennessee and more.
MORE FARRELL: Saturday's Shine, Shame | Godfather & Gorney podcast on Week 4
I need everyone to breathe and relax. Nebraska is 0-3, but it’s not like this was unexpected. Yes Scott Frost is likely embarrassed, especially after leading UCF to an undefeated season last year, and yes he’s under some national scrutiny, but none of it matters right now.
This is a marathon and not a sprint and if Nebraska is still in this place two years from now, that’s something to worry about. But anyone who felt this was going to be a quick turnaround didn’t watch the Nebraska football team that quit halfway through the season. So let’s not freak out and worry about whether Frost is getting preferential treatment or if the fan base is too optimistic because he’s a favored son and let’s focus on seeing if Nebraska improves by season’s end and how next year and beyond goes.
Things are a struggle, but that’s expected. No one figured the rebuilding job with the Vols would be an easy one and it looks like it will be quite the challenge. See Nebraska above, this is a team that doesn’t know how to win and doesn’t have leadership that knows how to win. By leadership, I mean players on the team. A culture of losing has set in and there’s nothing harder to break than a culture of losing. Expect more issues with players not buying in and big losses until Jeremy Pruitt can get his own guys in there and can find some players to lead the locker room.
The buyout is too much for Ash at this stage, but the one name you have to look at in the next few years is Greg Schiano. Tennessee didn’t want him, but Rutgers would likely welcome the Ohio State defensive coordinator back with open arms.
Based on the early returns from this season, the Ash era is not going to work out and is starting to get embarrassing. Bringing back Schiano, the only coach to have success in recent years at Rutgers, would make sense and would be a perfect fit. In the meantime, Rutgers fans are just going to have to endure more awful losses and likely some horrific beatdowns along the way.
It depends on what you really believe. If you believe what recruits tell the media, then it doesn’t matter. Because even coming off visits where the home team got croaked, recruits rave about their experience.
Off the record, however, I’ve talked to many prospects over the years who were affected by a bad loss because of a few reasons. First, the atmosphere isn’t great when the home team is losing or getting blown out. Secondly, the post-game fun isn’t as fun coming off a loss and the hosts of the recruits often aren’t as excited as if they were coming off a win. And finally, the coaches often don’t pay as much attention to recruits following a loss for obvious reasons.
This is the reason many middling programs avoid home games for official visits if they know they are going to lose the game. They’d rather have the recruits at a home basketball game following the season or visiting on a weekend where nothing is going on rather than deal with a loss and losing atmosphere. Scheduling official visits is strategic just like everything else in recruiting, make no mistake about it.
Simple reason: Clemson plays in the Power Five. That may not be the answer you want, but it’s the way of the world. Those Power Five programs play better competition week in and week out than Group of Five programs do so the strength of schedule becomes a factor.
Clemson might end up playing a few ranked teams as some ACC programs could jump into the Top 25 as the season progresses (like Boston College just did last week) but even if they don’t, winning the ACC will be enough to get them into the playoff.
I disagree. Many teams could break through and win the national title although I understand the point you’re making. What about Penn State? What about Notre Dame or Washington or Stanford? There are many teams that could break through over the next few seasons and make the playoff as it stands.
However, the playoff should be expanded to eight teams at least and if Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Oklahoma continue to make the playoff over and over again, you will see a push for expansion, which is a good thing. Those who think an expanded playoff is bad for college football and waters down the regular season are crazy. This is still a sport where a team can be eliminated currently with two early losses and that should never be the case.
An expanded playoff makes the regular season even more important. But, as we all know, parity will always exist in college football and I don’t think you’ll see the same teams in the playoff over and over even if it doesn’t expand.
