Potential Dumb Question(s)

[BLyons11]

I've heard Frost wants to keep the roster size to 150 +/- players.

Is going up to 150 allowed during the course of the year - or- does that number drop off after camp (not assuming attrition)? Any idea what the average D1 roster size is for comparison?

I just went on Ohio State's website and counted just short of 100 individuals on the roster..Assuming 85 scholarship players that would just leave a handful of walk ons...where in our case we almost have a full 50 more players and walk ons than an Ohio State, is that correct?

Any opinions on this number of players... to me it sounds great that you have that many more kids pushing you in team drills, position drills and the weight room. Percentages alone would indicate we have an insanely higher likelihood of finding a stud out of the number of walk-ons we have vs a program that has 10-15 or so

I guess I'm also trying to figure out: is this 150 man roster size concept really patented by Tom Osborne and only really practiced at Nebraska or are there other teams doing it as well? I would think Nebraska is unique (for all the obvious reasons) in that you would have 70+ willing kids to walk on while at the majority of other programs couldn't get close to those numbers if they tried? Or is it that most D1 coaches would rather spent more meaningful time with only their elite players and think that having say 20 WRs in a room vs 8 would make it more difficult than helpful?

Looking forward to being enlightened!

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

150?!!?

Out of curiosity, where did you hear this?

 

[Husker Country Doc]

I think the more walkons, the more development you can do at practice, and you can find that diamond in the rough. If 10% of walkons contribute, that's 7 a year. Schollie players only hit at a 50% rate, so you HAVE to fill those holes in some way.

 

[huskrthill]

150?!!?

Out of curiosity, where did you hear this?

From the head coach himself:
https://hailvarsity.com/s/6732/frost-talks-nebraska-walk-on-program-wandale-robinson-and-more

"It takes awhile for those guys to develop, just like any other freshman, and it's going to start getting competitive, frankly. We took about 25 walk-ons the first year, about 25 this year, we're kind of limited to between 150 and 160 players on our football team right now but sooner or later those spots are going to have to be earned."

I think it's great if the coaches can manage it successfully. It gives more guys more repetitions, which is how you get better. That's especially true for timing on offense. It also means that the 3rd string freshman defensive end has had significant exposure by the time he gets the opportunity to play.

 

[Huskerthom]

I've heard Frost wants to keep the roster size to 150 +/- players.

Is going up to 150 allowed during the course of the year - or- does that number drop off after camp (not assuming attrition)? Any idea what the average D1 roster size is for comparison?

I just went on Ohio State's website and counted just short of 100 individuals on the roster..Assuming 85 scholarship players that would just leave a handful of walk ons...where in our case we almost have a full 50 more players and walk ons than an Ohio State, is that correct?

Any opinions on this number of players... to me it sounds great that you have that many more kids pushing you in team drills, position drills and the weight room. Percentages alone would indicate we have an insanely higher likelihood of finding a stud out of the number of walk-ons we have vs a program that has 10-15 or so

I guess I'm also trying to figure out: is this 150 man roster size concept really patented by Tom Osborne and only really practiced at Nebraska or are there other teams doing it as well? I would think Nebraska is unique (for all the obvious reasons) in that you would have 70+ willing kids to walk on while at the majority of other programs couldn't get close to those numbers if they tried? Or is it that most D1 coaches would rather spent more meaningful time with only their elite players and think that having say 20 WRs in a room vs 8 would make it more difficult than helpful?

Looking forward to being enlightened!

My take. Schools like tOSU do not need as many walk ons. When 50% of your class is 4 and 5 stars you do not have as much need to find a diamond in the rough. A better team to look at would be teams like IA or Boise state. Maybe even UW. (Either WI or WA)

 

[NU_Alum]

If done right it's an amazing help. But if not, it drains valuable practice time, resources and hurts the University under title IX.

Hopefully Frost can run it like TO did.

 

[satcong2]

Tom liked to run many stations, gave everyone a chance to participate, kept the interest up and every once in awhile manna fell from Heaven. Everyone stays busy and happy while running multiple stations.

 

[NJHuskerFan]

Maybe a dumb question, but here goes. If walkons aren't on scholarship, how does it create a problem with Title IX?

 

[Huskerthom]

Maybe a dumb question, but here goes. If walkons aren't on scholarship, how does it create a problem with Title IX?

Because Walkons still get things like training table benefits etc. So the womens teams have to offer similar opportunities to equal it out.

 

[Middle-aged_Ball_Coach]

Maybe a dumb question, but here goes. If walkons aren't on scholarship, how does it create a problem with Title IX?

Because Walkons still get things like training table benefits etc. So the womens teams have to offer similar opportunities to equal it out.

Title IX looks at participation rates of athletes by gender as compared to the gender ratio of the student population, so for counting purposes, it doesn't matter to Title IX whether an athlete is a walk-on or on scholarship, though the scholarship numbers also need to be in compliance. There have been multiple cases over the years where schools with a male club sport had to shut it down because the participation numbers put them out of compliance with Title IX. This is why a lot of schools have eliminated male sports, such as wrestling, baseball, gymnastics, and hockey. If the sport doesn't make money, and it has a large roster of male athletes, it's a double liability, even if they're a winning program.

 

[ShortSideOption]

I've heard Frost wants to keep the roster size to 150 +/- players.

Is going up to 150 allowed during the course of the year - or- does that number drop off after camp (not assuming attrition)? Any idea what the average D1 roster size is for comparison?

I just went on Ohio State's website and counted just short of 100 individuals on the roster..Assuming 85 scholarship players that would just leave a handful of walk ons...where in our case we almost have a full 50 more players and walk ons than an Ohio State, is that correct?

Any opinions on this number of players... to me it sounds great that you have that many more kids pushing you in team drills, position drills and the weight room. Percentages alone would indicate we have an insanely higher likelihood of finding a stud out of the number of walk-ons we have vs a program that has 10-15 or so

I guess I'm also trying to figure out: is this 150 man roster size concept really patented by Tom Osborne and only really practiced at Nebraska or are there other teams doing it as well? I would think Nebraska is unique (for all the obvious reasons) in that you would have 70+ willing kids to walk on while at the majority of other programs couldn't get close to those numbers if they tried? Or is it that most D1 coaches would rather spent more meaningful time with only their elite players and think that having say 20 WRs in a room vs 8 would make it more difficult than helpful?

Looking forward to being enlightened!

You can fluctuate, but the "true" numbers are in season. We won't really get penalized if we are 5 more than women athletes tho as long as we show we are working to correct it.

It depends on the coaches for the walk-on program. You have NFL guys that don't want much over 100 kids, too many things to manage, especially when you are dealing with non-professionals. Guys like Bruce Read had access to all sorts of walk-ons but still wanted the scholarship guys for his special teams squads.

The practicing and concept was pretty much TO. It's kind of like our weight program tho too where people say Epley and Nebraska developed football strength programs. If you dig deep enough, you can debunk both of those. TO and Epley just took it to the next level. It is extremely difficult to manage the four stations of players going at it in practice.

 

[One Hit Wonder]

I just went on Ohio State's website and counted just short of 100 individuals on the roster..Assuming 85 scholarship players that would just leave a handful of walk ons...where in our case we almost have a full 50 more players and walk ons than an Ohio State, is that correct?

Any opinions on this number of players...

Yes. You were looking at Ohio State's spring roster which does not include incoming freshmen (only early enrollees). Their fall roster (with incoming freshman) will be 116.