Recruiting Roundup - Blaine Gabbert

Welcome to the world of competitive recruiting. This is the realm of college football that most fans do not pay attention to. It provides a glimpse into what could be in store for their team in the upcoming seasons. This obviously makes it an important element while following your favorite program, or for avid college football fans in general. It's exciting to watch and keep tabs on, however it can be a double edge sword. Prospects don't pan out, get injured and never come back or just transfer because they aren't getting what they were promised when they first signed. Obviously, I'll be focusing primarily on the Nebraska recruiting trail.

Top quarterback recruit Blaine Gabbert is who I’ll profile first and probably deserves all the pub he is currently receiving. Gabbert is easily one of the best recruits landed (at least verbally) by a Nebraska coaching staff in school history. With a sturdy 6’4” and 226 pound frame he is also probably the best pro-style quarterback to potentially play in Lincoln in the next few years and arguably the nation.

Just last week Gabbert was named MVP of the EA Sports “Elite 11” camp which brings in the top 11 high school quarterback recruits in the nation. Gabbert won the recognition over such touted “regional” prospects as Landry Jones who has given a strong verbal to Oklahoma and Dayne Crist who has verbally committed to Charlie Weiss and Notre Dame. Finally, it seems that Nebraska is recruiting with the big boys when it comes to skill positions. Whether elite prospects translates into an elite program remains to be seen, and probably why Nebraska brass felt it necessary to extend Coach Bill Callahan’s contract to 2011. Extending a coaches contract makes this process easier from the standpoint of answering questions regarding a program's future. For the record, the extension Callahan signed is also laced with incentives to do what Nebraska fans expect, and that’s win conference and compete for national titles.

Blaine Gabbert will enter this season as a senior at Parkway West High School in Ballwin, Missouri. Gabbert has the tools to be a four year system quarterback. Meaning, he won't be a transfer job like Zac Taylor or Sam Keller. He'll be used to the system and more polished as he reaches his years as an upper-classman. What are some of his strongest attributes? Well, he possesses one of, if not the strongest arm of any QB that will sign in 2008. He runs a 4.65 40-yard-dash which will make him mobile in and out of the pocket. His high school track record not only shows him as a smart player on the field but off as well with a 3.6 cumulative GPA. This will more than likely translate into Gabbert digesting the bloated Nebraska offensive playbook in enough time to be a regular starter for two or maybe even three seasons. Gabbert was unable to enroll early because of missing home economic requirements to graduate early and be ready for spring ball at Nebraska. I’m not kidding. Rather than studying the playbook he’ll live by for the next four or five years of his life, he’ll be baking cakes because of this oversight. Gabbert was brought to Lincoln by offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove.

Coming up when I will profile more verbal commits I’ll post more than one at a time, with a couple of exceptions. Just keep in mind that recruiting is not an exact science and sometimes the best players are the ones that fly under the radar. You remember Harrison Beck? Don’t be sorry if you don’t, he wasn’t at Nebraska for that long. He was a highly sought after player and one of Nebraska’s best QB recruits of all time. This weekend he’ll make his first start for North Carolina State.

Watching recruiting just gives you an idea of potential for the next couple years and it’s a year round practice. Here is an interesting fact, when the Huskers dominated the mid to late 90's they were never on anyone's recruiting watch list. It’s nice to get excited over, but until players step on campus and onto the practice field no one can be sure of how they’ll all shake out. On the other hand, there can be a lot of positives. Look how well Marlon Lucky is turning out, and the Husker coaching staff stole him out from under Pete Carroll and USC. More often than not in this day in age of college football good recruiting is more important. The teams that are always in the top 10 in the polls are generally in the top 25 in recruiting. It's no mistake.