• View the PDF: When stars collide: Re-rating the 2005 recruiting class

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Feb. 2, 2005.

The height of hope in the Bill Callahan era at Nebraska.

That afternoon, two months removed from NU's first losing season since 1961, Callahan introduced a class of 31 prospects that attracted unprecedented attention in Lincoln, where Tom Osborne and Frank Solich historically downplayed recruiting.

National publications agreed that the Huskers had compiled their best class in years. One of the nation's top 10, for sure.

“They're No. 1 without a doubt,” ESPN recruiting guru Tom Lemming said. “Anyone who doesn't have them No. 1 is not following it.”

Callahan's staff “has exceeded even my expectations,” Athletic Director Steve Pederson said.

Said Callahan: “I was thinking about polls and what they mean to our recruiting class. I really believe it gives you a better chance to win. I think it's documented that when you are ranked higher, you do have a better chance of winning.

“Now there isn't a guarantee, but it just allows you to have a better chance. Will it bring championships? Will it bring what we're looking for? I surely hope so.''

Ndamukong Suh's last college game will be the big news from San Diego next week, but the Holiday Bowl represents another landmark: the curtain call for the school's most famous recruiting class.

Of the 31 who signed with Nebraska the winter of 2005, six lasted until now: Suh, Phillip Dillard, Barry Turner, Jacob Hickman, Chris Brooks and David Harvey.

They didn't win a Big 12 or national championship. And Callahan and Pederson got run out of town without objection.

But the legacy of the '05 recruiting class is as cloudy today as ever.

Yes, Harrison Beck and Leon Jackson bolted. Yes, Rodney Picou and Justin Tomerlin and others disappointed. But consider:

• Suh became the most dominant player in college football.

• Zac Taylor won Big 12 offensive player of the year and still owns the school record for career passing yards.

• Marlon Lucky finished his career with 4,214 all-purpose yards, fourth in school history.

• Dillard was second-team All-Big 12 as a senior.

• Cody Glenn, Zack Bowman and Steve Octavien are currently on NFL rosters.

• Hickman, Turner and Zach Potter were steady multi-year starters in the trenches.

In February 2005, Jeremy Crabtree of rivals.com told the World-Herald:

“One recruiting class isn't going to make you a national title contender. But it's a foundation. If Nebraska gets 10 guys from this group who turn into college starters, it's an overwhelming success.”

Ten starters? In fact, Nebraska found 12 players who started at least one season.

So was '05 an “overwhelming success” even though no member of the class has won 10 games in a season? Did that class indeed lay the program's foundation? Does Callahan deserve more credit?

We'll get to that.

But look first at why the '05 class is so tough to judge.

• Callahan signed 31 prospects that winter. Thirty-one! Nebraska rarely hits 25.

With that large a class, you're almost guaranteed to find a little bit of everything: record-holders, big-time busts, underrated players, overrated players. If you're lucky, maybe even a Heisman finalist.

• Of the 31 recruits, 12 were junior-college transfers. This was not a pack of 18-year-old kids who came to campus, bonded in Harper Hall and rose through the ranks together. They were spread out. They had little in common.

Taylor's career ended before Suh started a single game. So how do you judge a recruiting class when its most successful members barely played together?

• Two head coaches and 18 assistants officed at Memorial Stadium between February 2005 and December 2009. Some players thrived under certain coaches and disappeared under other coaches. Suh is the obvious example.

But Lucky, for instance, put up 144 total yards per game under Randy Jordan in 2007. Under Tim Beck in 2008, Lucky averaged just 67 yards per game.

How do you rate players who never had the luxury of a stable environment?

But all is not muddled.

There are lessons to be learned, conclusions to be found. They're obvious now, but weren't in 2004, when the accepted explanation for bad football was “lack of talent.”

• We learned again to look at unknown names on paper with healthy skepticism.

Just because a kid supposedly runs a 4.4 and wants to play at Nebraska doesn't mean he's better than the kid who supposedly runs a 4.4 and already plays for Nebraska.

• We learned there's a difference between good college recruiters and good college coaches.

Persuading an athlete to wear the uniform is no more important than teaching him what to do inside that uniform.

• We learned there's a difference between talented players and productive players.

Circumstances on campus dictate success as much as natural athleticism and work ethic. How good are the players and leaders around the recruit? What are coaches asking the recruit to do, and does that assignment suit his physical and mental capacities?

• We learned that without Bill Callahan (and John Blake), Ndamukong Suh likely never would've wound up at Nebraska.

But without Bo Pelini (and Carl Pelini), Suh likely would've left Nebraska early — or finished his career with honorable mention on the all-Big 12 team.

• We learned you never really know how it's going to end until it ends.

The famed class of 2005 represents hype and substance; timidity and resolve; weakness and strength.

It's Beck, overwhelmed by attention, leaving Lincoln without telling his coaches. It's Dillard falling into a pit of despair, then climbing his way out.

The class of 2005 didn't restore the program to its old ways, as advertised. It didn't fail miserably, as feared.

But it's the thread binding two eras of Husker football.

In its own way, it made a little history.

Contact the writer:

649-1461, dirk.chatelain@owh.com

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