NU Notebook: Pelini says Wilson's status uncertain
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
The line for playing time may be shorter next season for Nebraska running back recruits Collins Okafor and Lester Ward.
Coach Bo Pelini said Wednesday he doubted senior Kenny Wilson would be healthy enough to participate in spring practice, leaving his future status unclear.
Wilson, who rushed for 335 yards and four touchdowns as a junior in 2006, missed all of last season recovering from a broken leg he suffered while carrying a television last spring. Wilson had missed the 2007 Cotton Bowl with a leg infection.
“He’s busting his butt, but he’s not there yet,” Pelini said of Wilson. “I can’t really put a percentage on it yet, I’m still trying to get acquainted with what he’s doing. But he’s doing everything we’re asking him to do and he’s working hard at it. Where he ends up, I can’t quite say yet.”
Last on board
Two Alabama prep teammates appear to be the last to join this year’s Nebraska recruiting class. The Huskers made a late recruiting push to land Mason Wald and Justin Rogers, who both starred at Vestavia Hills High School in Birmingham.
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Rogers rushed for 2,100 yards both as a junior and senior, with a total of 59 touchdowns, but will likely be a defensive back for the Huskers. He chose the Nebraska over the likes of Clemson, Auburn, Kentucky and UCLA.
For a while Wednesday, it was thought Rogers might be the final addition to NU’s class.
But Pelini said Nebraska is not completely finished with recruiting for this class, noting that coaches were still involved with two other players, one of those apparently being Wald.
Wald, a hard-hitting safety, said he committed to Nebraska on Wednesday, but didn’t have a letter of intent to sign. He plans to fill out his paperwork today, he said, giving NU 28 recruits for the class.
Pelini also got Ronnell Grixby, a running back/free safety from Omaha Central and younger brother of former Huskers DeAntae and Cortney Grixby, to walk on. Former coach Bill Callahan once offered Grixby a scholarship, but later pulled it.
NU did fall short in landing heralded receiver Kendall Thompkins, although the player of perennial high school power Miami (Fla.) Northwestern did make things interesting Tuesday morning. Fifteen minutes before announcing he was staying home to attend Miami, Thompkins showed up to school wearing a Nebraska cap.
Watson not distracted
Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson moved quickly out on the recruiting trail two weeks ago after a 24-hour period in which he was reportedly mulling an offer to take the same position at Alabama.
Watson did admit Tuesday that recruits did ask about his plans.
“There was a lot going on, so I just tried to tell them what was going on,” he said.
“Those things are always flattering, but it comes back to where your heart is, where you’re happiest,” Watson said. “A lot plays into that. For me, it’s family first and then the relationships I have here.
“I hit it off really well with Bo, and Coach Osborne was really important, so I put everything together, it was an easy choice for me.”
A different perspective
Offensive line coach Barney Cotton could fill a book with stories about recruiting, but the last two years have given him a perspective he’d never experienced. He could title that chapter: How to deal with recruiters as a father.
Two years ago, when he was coaching at Iowa State, Cotton watched his son proudly accept an offer from the Cyclones. Those plans went awry when Iowa State changed coaching staffs, and so Ben Cotton reopened the recruiting process with Iowa, Wisconsin, Louisville and Kansas.
Eventually, he selected Louisville.
“It was interesting to sit back and watch my son, how he took to things,” Barney Cotton said. “Because some schools were more people-oriented and some schools were maybe a little bit more stuff-oriented. And some schools maybe placed a little bit more on winning rather than the relationship part of things, and he goes, ‘Dad, what do I do?’
“I said ‘Ben, I’m going to just kind of point some things that I observed, but you’re the one that’s got to go there.’”
That, of course, was before his dad rejoined the Nebraska coaching staff, and the next day Pelini was gauging any interest Ben had in becoming a Husker.
“He even asked me, ‘How do I do this?’” Cotton said of his son. “I said, ‘You know what? This is a special deal here. I played here. You lived here. This isn’t like decommitting to a school and just changing your mind throughout the process.’”
The coaches at Louisville must have thought the same thing, too. On Wednesday, they called Ben Cotton to congratulate him and wish him well.
A hot ticket
As of late Wednesday, 22,700 tickets for the April 19 Red-White Spring Game had been sold. That’s just 4,900 fewer than all advance sales for last year’s game. Fans grabbed 5,800 tickets in the first hour they went on sale Wednesday.
The right fit
Pelini had no interest in singling out individual players Wednesday, and seemed unconcerned how recruiting services might rank the Huskers’ class. He said the primary objective was to sign kids who were capable of playing winning football, and in that regard, the mission was accomplished.
“There’s a tremendous amount of unknowns,” Pelini said about recruiting, but “that’s part of the beauty of coaching.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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