Honestly, there are only a few scenarios where as I could justify promoting John Papuchis rather than hiring a guy like Mike Stoops. The first positive being that it is always a good move having your coordinators be your best recruiters, which Papuchis and Beck clearly are. Bo Pelini sells the program to recruits, but Beck and Papuchis sell the systems they would be apart of. In this regard, it would be a huge positive.
The other philosophy would be to go out and hire a top-flight recruiting coach/coordinator. In my personal opinion, when a coach puts a staff together, his most important hires are his offensive and defensive coordinators (obviously) and his strength coach. After those core three, without a doubt, the next in line is the recruiting coordinator. I feel he should be the highest paid position coach on the staff. He is entrusted in feeding the lifeline of the program; finding the talent to sustain a great program for consecutive years. In essence, he allows a team to reload, not rebuild.
If Papuchis is promoted, I assume Vince Marrow or TJ Hollowell would be added to the Husker staff. While I feel both could be good additions, I would look to aim higher and find someone who is proven and has a reputation and resume for recruiting and coordinating the task.
I would personally make a call to recently fired Memphis coach, Larry Porter. Porter is widely regarded as one of the top handful of recruiters in the country. His ties to the SEC would be a huge benefit. He is a RB coach, so I could then see moving Ron Brown back to coaching the TEs and keep Garrison's focus soley on the OL with Cotton.
Pelini has no ties to Porter, thus it is basically a pipe-dream that he or anyone else would be lured from a current position to take over similar responsibilities at Nebraska. Maybe its the NFL structure in me, but I see no reason a coach would need a prior background with a position coach. I would simply identify the best, and go pay him to work his magic for my team.
Along with Porter, some other guys who I would target and offer a raise/title upgrade to are:
Ed Orgerson, USC
Rodney Garner, Georgia
Larry Johnson, Penn State
Trooper Taylor, Auburn
Tosh Lupoi, Cal
Tommy Thigpen, Auburn
Eddie Gran, Florida State
Don Pellum, Oregon
Clint Hurtt, Louisville
Stan Drayton, Ohio State
Billy Gonzales. LSU
Josh Henson, Missouri
Joe DeForest, Oklahoma State
Fair list, I would like to see a shot at Kevin Steele, but I just dont think he would leave his current dig. He's kinda got a good thing going on there.