Buffaloes battling Big Red perception to keep Colorado recruits

Colorado won a major battle over old rival Nebraska last September in Lincoln, the highlight of what later spiraled into another lost season. But new CU fotoball coach Mel Tucker says he’s still scrapping to win the perception war against the Cornhuskers, at least on the recruiting trail.

“There are in-state kids here who don’t care a thing about CU, so it’s a sell job,” Tucker told The Denver Post recently. “It’s like, you’ve got to win games before they’ll even consider you. I’ve been through that before. That’s just how it is. There are kids right now that you (ask), ‘Well, who are your top guys?’ And they’ll say, ‘Nebraska.’

“And you look and say, ‘Well, what has Nebraska done?’ But in their mind, that’s like way, way better than CU.”

Was Tucker using the Big Red as an example? Or drawing a line in the prairie just west of Ogallala?

Nebraska is the dance partner for Tucker’s home debut as the Buffs’ coach, a nationally televised rumble Sept. 7 at Folsom Field. CU has another home-andhome set slated with the Big Red in 2023 (Lincoln) and 2024 (Boulder).

The Huskers have posted a 2327 record (.460) since 2015, while the Buffs have a 24-27 mark (.471) over that same four-year stretch. Their respective fan bases walked away from 2018 in a decidedly different mood as CU dropped seven consecutive games after a 5-0 start while Nebraska won four of its final six contests in coach Scott Frost’s debut season last fall.

The Big Red currently project to have at least 10 players who played high school football in Colorado on their 2019 roster, which would be the most representation from the Centennial State in a single autumn in many years. The 2003 Big Red roster featured nine Coloradans.

And Frost is in the middle of battles for recruits in Colorado: The Huskers signed one top-five Colorado prospect from the Class of 2018 (Legend’s Tate Wildeman) and two of the top five in 2019 (Valor Christian’s Luke McCaffrey and Cherry Creek’s Michael Lynn). Nebraska has offered three of 247Sports’ top five instate gets in the Class of 2020 and has a scholarship extended to Fossil Ridge offensive lineman Trey Zuhn, the state’s No. 2 prospect for 2021.

“I don’t know (why), because I can’t get into it with them like that; I don’t know what they’re thinking,” Tucker said of in-state recruits who have Nebraska among their favorites. “I don’t negative recruit, so I never talk about another school to a kid.

“But there’s a perception here, obviously, that they have a more relevant program. … But you know, winning solves all that.”