Rivals Screwed Up Again - And More Proof of the Dangers of Recruiting Publicity

Recently I did something I knew better than to do, and that was to get into an argument with an anonymous internet poster over Rivals.com ratings...specifically, Matt Slauson. The weird thing is...we both were right. Frequent visitors to this site know what I (and Rivals own people) think about Rivals "ratings", but I couldn't help but point out that Matt Slauson was listed as a 0-star recruit when he signed with Nebraska in 2005 and is now preseason all-conference. Mr. Anonymous insisted that Slauson was a 3 star recruit. And sure enough, he was right also. Seems that Rivals rated him a 3-star recruit in 2004 and then completely forgot about him when he signed with Nebraska immediately prior to the start of classes in the fall of 2005. And Slauson will live on with duplicate, conflicting entries in the Rivals database... Maybe we should just average it out and say he was a 1 1/2 star recruit!

Last winter, the Knight Commission held hearings about the effects of recruiting on players. Now Husker fans have a prime piece of evidence. Remember Marlon Lucky's trip to the intensive care unit in February? Lucky talked to the Lincoln Journal-Star's Steve Sipple about what happened and how he's rebounded from the depths of hype:

Things were moving too quickly for Nebraska I-back Marlon Lucky throughout last season and into January and February.

“That was a horrible year,” he said Thursday. “All the stuff was just too fast for me. I mean, it had to slow down.”

The stuff to which he refers, he said, includes pressure from fans and high expectations. He was homesick. School was difficult. He lost his starting spot after five games. It was a lot to handle, he said. He prayed and took life a day at a time.

In any event, Lucky has rebounded from those depths and looks to be ready to turn things around. He had a good spring game, and rebounded in the classroom as well, earning a mention on the Big XII Honor Roll for the spring semester.

Kudos to Marlon. Looks like things are definitely turning around for him.