A Bit of Football Recruiting

by Brandon Huffman of Scout.com, May 31, 2008

Upland (Calif.) quarterback Josh Nunes, who cut his list to eight schools earlier this week, received his 22nd and 23rd offers this week.

"Last night, Cornell University offered Josh and this afternoon Josh received an offer from Oregon State head coach Mike Riley," said Upland recruiting coordinator Mike Esquivel. "They both had a great conversation over the phone in the football office and Josh was fired up and excited when he hung up the phone with Coach Riley."

Cornell was the second I-AA program to offer Nunes, joining Harvard.

"What is appealing about Cornell is that they offer one of the top engineering programs around, which it looks like to be Josh's major as of right now," said Esquivel.

Nunes trimmed his list to include Arizona State, Stanford, BYU, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida and Harvard.

Tomorrow, we'll see Nunes at the UnderArmour/Scout.com Combine in Los Angeles.

I'd be shocked if we got a sniff of this kid. Once the big-time schools come calling, the Ivies tend to get the cold shoulder.

Harvard might be appealing if the kid's parents make less ... oh than $200k a year.

Unless the kid wants out of California, it seems like Stanford is a pretty good fit for him. The odds of Cornell getting a guy with offers from Oklahoma and Florida and Nebraska and Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

Josh '99
Unless the kid wants out of California, it seems like Stanford is a pretty good fit for him. The odds of Cornell getting a guy with offers from Oklahoma and Florida and Nebraska and Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

If Cornell and Harvard are offering, the odds that he will ever actually play QB during a game at Oklahoma or Florida or Nebraska or Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

ugarte

Josh '99
Unless the kid wants out of California, it seems like Stanford is a pretty good fit for him. The odds of Cornell getting a guy with offers from Oklahoma and Florida and Nebraska and Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

If Cornell and Harvard are offering, the odds that he will ever actually play QB during a game at Oklahoma or Florida or Nebraska or Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

Good point. Might seem better to take a more or less guaranteed starting job at a weaker program than red shirt and then fight for playing time at a top school. A lot might depend on how good the kid thinks he is.

KeithK

ugarte

Josh '99
Unless the kid wants out of California, it seems like Stanford is a pretty good fit for him. The odds of Cornell getting a guy with offers from Oklahoma and Florida and Nebraska and Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

If Cornell and Harvard are offering, the odds that he will ever actually play QB during a game at Oklahoma or Florida or Nebraska or Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

Good point. Might seem better to take a more or less guaranteed starting job at a weaker program than red shirt and then fight for playing time at a top school. A lot might depend on how good the kid thinks he is.

Invariably, since they're competitive kids, they think they are better than they are (see Collin Robinson thread). But if he has offers from top-flight programs, who knows? Jonathan Meyers turned down a football scholarship from Florida to play lax at Princeton, but he's a rarity. Back in the early 80's, Derrick Harmon turned down Rutgers and Syracuse to play at Cornell, and that didn't turn out too badly for him.

scoop85

KeithK

ugarte

Josh '99
Unless the kid wants out of California, it seems like Stanford is a pretty good fit for him. The odds of Cornell getting a guy with offers from Oklahoma and Florida and Nebraska and Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

If Cornell and Harvard are offering, the odds that he will ever actually play QB during a game at Oklahoma or Florida or Nebraska or Tennessee seem vanishingly small.

Good point. Might seem better to take a more or less guaranteed starting job at a weaker program than red shirt and then fight for playing time at a top school. A lot might depend on how good the kid thinks he is.

Invariably, since they're competitive kids, they think they are better than they are (see Collin Robinson thread). But if he has offers from top-flight programs, who knows? Jonathan Meyers turned down a football scholarship from Florida to play lax at Princeton, but he's a rarity. Back in the early 80's, Derrick Harmon turned down Rutgers and Syracuse to play at Cornell, and that didn't turn out too badly for him.

And Marcellus Wiley turned down UCLA to play at Columbia, but the two biggest factors in his decision were his underestimation of his ability. He said that he assumed he wouldn't make the NFL, so he went to Columbia for the education.

ugarte
And Marcellus Wiley turned down UCLA to play at Columbia, but the two biggest factors in his decision were his underestimation of his ability. He said that he assumed he wouldn't make the NFL, so he went to Columbia for the education.

He was also just a leeeeeeettle bit smaller when he started playing for Columbia than when he finished.

ugarte
And Marcellus Wiley turned down UCLA to play at Columbia, but the two biggest factors in his decision were his underestimation of his ability. He said that he assumed he wouldn't make the NFL, so he went to Columbia for the education.

You can get a damn fine education at UCLA, but trying to do so while playing big-time football there might not be so easy.

Al DeFlorio

ugarte
And Marcellus Wiley turned down UCLA to play at Columbia, but the two biggest factors in his decision were his underestimation of his ability. He said that he assumed he wouldn't make the NFL, so he went to Columbia for the education.

You can get a damn fine education at UCLA, but trying to do so while playing big-time football there might not be so easy.

Agreed - I wasn't looking to slag UCLA. I also think he may have said "opportunities" - Ivy League networking and such.

ugarte

Al DeFlorio

ugarte
And Marcellus Wiley turned down UCLA to play at Columbia, but the two biggest factors in his decision were his underestimation of his ability. He said that he assumed he wouldn't make the NFL, so he went to Columbia for the education.

You can get a damn fine education at UCLA, but trying to do so while playing big-time football there might not be so easy.

Agreed - I wasn't looking to slag UCLA. I also think he may have said "opportunities" - Ivy League networking and such.

Even that can depend on what he might want to do--and where--when football is in his past. UCLA, for example, has a very effective network in the southern California area, as does, for that matter, USC.

Al DeFlorio

ugarte

Al DeFlorio

ugarte
And Marcellus Wiley turned down UCLA to play at Columbia, but the two biggest factors in his decision were his underestimation of his ability. He said that he assumed he wouldn't make the NFL, so he went to Columbia for the education.

You can get a damn fine education at UCLA, but trying to do so while playing big-time football there might not be so easy.

Agreed - I wasn't looking to slag UCLA. I also think he may have said "opportunities" - Ivy League networking and such.

Even that can depend on what he might want to do--and where--when football is in his past. UCLA, for example, has a very effective network in the southern California area, as does, for that matter, USC.

Hey! This is a Cornell board! Can't we all agree to gratuitously bash and demean other schools while braying about the immortal superiority of Cornell?

Can't we all agree to gratuitously bash and demean other schools while braying about the immortal superiority of Cornell?

I'm not really for bashing the other schools. But I will point out that Cornell has considerably strong alumni networks in California (the weakest seem to be in the Midwest), and that you can't get a beautiful sunset like the type that appear over Libe Slope at most other schools.

That said, if UCLA was significantly cheaper than Cornell, go to UCLA.

KeithK
Hey! This is a Cornell board! Can't we all agree to gratuitously bash and demean other schools while braying about the immortal superiority of Cornell?

Sure, as long as I still get to pick on your split infinitives.

I love a good settlement negotiation.

mnagowski

Can't we all agree to gratuitously bash and demean other schools while braying about the immortal superiority of Cornell?

I'm not really for bashing the other schools. But I will point out that Cornell has considerably strong alumni networks in California (the weakest seem to be in the Midwest), and that you can't get a beautiful sunset like the type that appear over Libe Slope at most other schools.

That said, if UCLA was significantly cheaper than Cornell, go to UCLA.

And you can't get a beautiful sunrise like the type that appear over the Pacific in Ithaca. (Many UCLA students live in Venice, Santa Monica, or other beach communities.)

Swampy

mnagowski

Can't we all agree to gratuitously bash and demean other schools while braying about the immortal superiority of Cornell?

I'm not really for bashing the other schools. But I will point out that Cornell has considerably strong alumni networks in California (the weakest seem to be in the Midwest), and that you can't get a beautiful sunset like the type that appear over Libe Slope at most other schools.

That said, if UCLA was significantly cheaper than Cornell, go to UCLA.

And you can't get a beautiful sunrise like the type that appear over the Pacific in Ithaca. (Many UCLA students live in Venice, Santa Monica, or other beach communities.)

If they can actually get the sun to rise in the west in LA, I'm moving right now. No wonder these kids want to go to Southern California!

BCrespi

Swampy

mnagowski
I'm not really for bashing the other schools. But I will point out that Cornell has considerably strong alumni networks in California (the weakest seem to be in the Midwest), and that you can't get a beautiful sunset like the type that appear over Libe Slope at most other schools.

That said, if UCLA was significantly cheaper than Cornell, go to UCLA.

And you can't get a beautiful sunrise like the type that appear over the Pacific in Ithaca. (Many UCLA students live in Venice, Santa Monica, or other beach communities.)

If they can actually get the sun to rise in the west in LA, I'm moving right now. No wonder these kids want to go to Southern California!

We actually did get sunrise over the ocean in Santa Barbara, because the coast runs East-West there.

jtwcornell91

BCrespi

Swampy

mnagowski
I'm not really for bashing the other schools. But I will point out that Cornell has considerably strong alumni networks in California (the weakest seem to be in the Midwest), and that you can't get a beautiful sunset like the type that appear over Libe Slope at most other schools.

That said, if UCLA was significantly cheaper than Cornell, go to UCLA.

And you can't get a beautiful sunrise like the type that appear over the Pacific in Ithaca. (Many UCLA students live in Venice, Santa Monica, or other beach communities.)

If they can actually get the sun to rise in the west in LA, I'm moving right now. No wonder these kids want to go to Southern California!

We actually did get sunrise over the ocean in Santa Barbara, because the coast runs East-West there.

Well, there are two ways to get them in LA. One is to drive out to Malibu and look back across Santa Monica Bay. The other is to hang out on Venice Beach for a while and purchase something that may be illegal but makes the sun shine wherever you look.

I actually do have a friend who moved to the Bay Area from Baltimore, and one morning he and his future wife got up early to drive from Berkeley to Pt. Reyes to watch the sun rise over the ocean. Whoops! (I don't know what they were doing before they decided to go watch the sunrise. )

I'm sorry, a discussion of sunrise in LA can't go any further without this:

Soul Coughing
It is 5am
and the sun has charred the other side of the world and come back to us
and painted the smoke over our heads an imperial violet