A strong walk-on program (SBNation article from Wiscy)

[aik]

http://www.buckys5thquarter.com/wis...ll-walk-on-program-barry-alvarez-bret-bielema

Favorite part of this:

At Wisconsin, that walk-on heritage manifested itself in recruiting. Bielema looked for "undersized, under-recruited and under-developed" athletes to help fill areas of need where other recruits may not have panned out.

"Well, I think that one of the common things that coach Alvarez and I used to always talk about was you'd use walk-ons as kind of erasers," Bielema said. "They were guys that would erase recruiting mistakes."

We have some freshmen right now who could end up contributing on special teams or at positions in Orban, Moeller, and maybe Chris Hill. I would love to build the strongest walk-on program in the conference and hope to be in a position in a few short years where a larger number of Colorado high school athletes talented enough to receive scholarship offers and start at UNC or Pueblo choose instead to walk-on at CU. I know it's difficult to play up the local pride angle in our circumstances but I'm thinking of some fiery bouts between the offensive and defensive lines in particular during practice that could be fueled by having depth on both sides who did battle in the trenches in high school and can add some competitive spirit that should encourage the rest of the team to step their game up by example with the intensity of how they practice and play.

 

[slider]

Yep, watching cfb and walk-ons make significant impacts at a lot of schools. It's been a while since we've had legitimate contributions from walk-ons. Most of ours earn scholarships/PT simply by default because there is no one else (Fernandez, Wood etc)

 

[Buffnik]

I'm in total agreement with this.

And on that note, keep an eye on the development of Robert Orban at Tight End. http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209226196&DB_OEM_ID=600

 

[slider]

I'm in total agreement with this.

And on that note, keep an eye on the development of Robert Orban at Tight End. http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209226196&DB_OEM_ID=600

FWIW they moved him to WR because he was so skinny. We're talking spaghetti stick

 

[J.R. Ewing]

FWIW they moved him to WR because he was so skinny. We're talking spaghetti stick

6'6" 195 :wow:

 

[SECOBuffsFan]

Jared Abbrederis was a walk-on at Wisconsin as a QB to begin with and I think any team in the country would be okay with him as a starting WR

 

[aik]

FWIW they moved him to WR because he was so skinny. We're talking spaghetti stick

Yup, tremendous athletic potential based on hearing about his lacrosse skills as a very tall guy. Wish he could put on 30 pounds by his junior year to be an effective TE but hopefully with the height and athleticism he can be of help shaking a defender wherever he lines up.

 

[SBG]

CU is quite expensive even for instaters relative to our California brethren outside of USC (which may have a large endowment). How does Wisconsin compare?

Low tuition would help for our PWOs. Wiscy and Nebraska are also helped by the fact that they are the only FBS schools in their state. We have CSU to contend with for guys that we would want to be a PWO.

 

[aik]

CU is quite expensive even for instaters relative to our California brethren outside of USC (which may have a large endowment). How does Wisconsin compare?

Low tuition would help for our PWOs. Wiscy and Nebraska are also helped by the fact that they are the only FBS schools in their state. We have CSU to contend with for guys that we would want to be a PWO.

CSU under the current coach doesn't do much better than us with in state commits. They target a healthy amount of Jucos which helps them get to those bowl games with a "win now" attitude that never quite gets them to a good enough finish to recruit solid 4-year depth. McElwain also is a West Coast guy so I would expect him to be offering some of the same California players we have - Lee and Jones come to mind as they both hold CSU offers. Our biggest recruiting test locally will not be to get the heralded guy to stay home. If he wants to leave for an ASU or K-State it will happen at this point. In our current state of affairs the real test will be getting a 2-star or unranked or undersized guy to pick us as a walk-on over CSU and Wyoming. And if we succeed in that it will make our program better by rebuilding it from the ground up.

 

[goalline]

CU is quite expensive even for instaters relative to our California brethren outside of USC (which may have a large endowment). How does Wisconsin compare?

Low tuition would help for our PWOs. Wiscy and Nebraska are also helped by the fact that they are the only FBS schools in their state. We have CSU to contend with for guys that we would want to be a PWO.

A strong walk-on program also comes after a winning tradition, not before. Walk-on athletes want to be in with a a program they dreamed of playing for.