Nebraska's first Pipeline Camp a big success
Having a true prospect camp that draws national talent to Nebraska is no easy task. The state of Nebraska has the smallest population in the Power Five, along with West Virginia.
Traditionally, there are fewer four and five star players within 500 miles of Lincoln than any school in the country.
So, when it comes to putting together a Satellite Camp that's going to draw coaches' interest from around the country, your options are fairly limited. However, the Huskers may have found something that's going to work in the years to come. NU hosted their first-ever Adidas OL/DL Pipeline Camp in Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
300 prospects from 20 different states made their way to Lincoln. Coaches from Adidas schools such as Kansas, Miami, Arizona State, Rutgers, Rice and South Dakota, among others, were also in Lincoln evaluating Saturday's camp. Even first-year KU head coach Les Miles was in attendance at Saturday's camp.
“Les was awesome,” Nebraska offensive line coach Greg Austin said. “He actually complimented us. He said that we did a pretty good job with the camp. That meant a lot coming from, obviously, a guy with his background and knowing who he is. It was good having other coaches on campus and other schools on campus to not only see the players on campus, but to get a taste of Nebraska football history as well. This is such a special place and, I’ll tell you, I’m fortunate to ever have played here and be back as a coach. I’ve been at other places, but I can’t think of a place so much more special than this place.”
Several different former players worked Saturday's camp in Lincoln as guest coaches, including all five members of the original 1994 Nebraska Pipeline - Zach Wiegert, Brenden Stai, Aaron Graham, Joel Wilks and Rob Zatechka. Defensive linemen Jason Peter and Adam Carriker were also a part of Saturday's camp.
“Kids in the Midwest love football, they love contact and they love striking people,” defensive line coach Tony Tuioti said. “I think, for me, the biggest thrill was having the original pipeline guys out here.
"If I had a pen, I’d get all of their autographs. I was just a fan of those guys. I watched them play growing up. It’s awesome just to see them out here. I know with them here, we’ll be able to promote this camp and get more kids. This could get up to 500 (campers) easy.”
The big picture of this camp is probably what is the most exciting thing after seeing Saturday play out.
Several different players picked up new Division I offers, and the buzz from year one should make this event even bigger and better in the future.
“The sky is the limit,” Austin said. “We were aggressive this year, very aggressive in that initially we put our number just above 200 to 225. Then, as those numbers filled up, we went to 250. Then we went to 275. We wanted to cap it at 300, because we didn’t want it to be a camp where guys only got limited reps.
"We didn’t want to be cow herders so to speak. We didn’t want guys getting just one rep. We wanted actual teaching, actual coaching. We didn’t want the player-to-coach ratio to be ginormous.”