The Eight Laces Mailbag of the Week for 10/5/2012

It’s time to go to the source of every sport’s best questions and answers (for one reason or another): the fans. All questions are welcome and will be ripped through Thunderdome-style. Let’s kick this thing off.

@eightlaces 1) How much of the hire of Eichorst is Harvey wanting to change the culture of the Nebraska AD department?

— Brian Towle (@btbowling) October 4, 2012

I don’t think Harvey wants to change the culture of the athletic department. I think he wants to make sure that the future of it is in the hands of someone who isn’t afraid to make unpopular decisions for the good of the university. We’re not talking going all Trev Alberts (“You guys don’t have a team anymore”), but if a hire is down to Candidate A and Candidate B, Candidate B shouldn’t get preference just because he was born and raised in South Bend, Nebraska.

Perlman said it well yesterday. No matter where you’re from or where you grew up, you have to understand the culture that makes Nebraska athletics unique to be in its decision-making positions. You can’t please everyone, Harvey showed us that much, but for the people who don’t like Eichorst today, I will remind you of two things:

- Not everyone liked Tim Miles’ hire initially (myself included). Now, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t like the guy.

- Eichorst needs time to excel or fail. The good news is he’s well-educated and has excellent recommendations from a number of people who’d know if he was just some rube or not. If you won’t take anyone else’s word for it, take a Nebraska alum’s in Barry Alvarez’s.

@eightlaces #huskers recruiting classes have been between #17-#34 in 9 of 10 yrs. What can/are they doing to keep it above #20 to compete

— Dave Bartoo (@cfbmatrix) October 4, 2012

Whenever Dave asks me questions, I feel like I have to get a protractor out.

The X-factor here was Bill Callahan’s recruiting. While he couldn’t develop athletes at the collegiate level, he knew how to bring them in. Most people point to his 2005 class as evidence of this being incorrect as it was ranked extremely high which leads to a “recruiting doesn’t matter” misconception. I feel the 2007 class was his best, ironically the year he was canned.

In that group, you had guys like Prince Amukamara, Jared Crick, Roy Helu, Eric Hagg, Marcel Jones and Terrence Moore. A large amount of this class would combine with past ones to form a national championship-caliber defense in 2009. As we’ve seen over the years, if you’ve got a great defense, you can afford to suck out loud on offense. As long as you can hold your opponents to 10 points every game and you put 13 on the board, who cares?

Now that the vital cogs of that 2009 defense are gone, we’re starting to see a dip (UCLA). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “I wish we had Eric Hagg back” this season so far. Despite his record and how poorly he’s received by Nebraska fans as a whole, Callahan set the table for Pelini to create a monster defense. Bo needs to step his recruiting game up if he wants to get back to a 2009-level squad, though.

@eightlaces and 2) When will you give love to filet mignon and creamed spinach as a fantastic meal?

— Brian Towle (@btbowling) October 4, 2012

Okay, look: I have nothing against creamed spinach and the filet is a fine cut, but in terms of flavor and something that will sit with you longer, the ribeye is the premiere cut of meat. Creamed cauliflower or a baked sweet potato with all the trimmings is also acceptable as a side.

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Leave it in the comments section below, send an e-mail to brandon at eightlaces dot com or follow Brandon on Twitter and fire away.