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On Saturday, the last members of perhaps the most infamous recruiting class in Nebraska history will run onto the field of Memorial Stadium for the final time in their careers.
Six seniors - Jacob Hickman, Ndamukong Suh, Chris Brooks, Barry Turner, Phillip Dillard and David Harvey - are all that remain from a 32-man squad that was expected to bring NU back to the top of college football. The excitement over the class was so ridiculous back on Feb. 2, 2005 that local television stations broke from their programming to air Bill Callahan's press conference live.
The class was a glimmer of hope for fans, a silver lining to Callahan's first season. NU had gone 5-6 and was struggling to move to the West Coast offense.
Surprisingly, the program continued to gravitate towards mediocrity.
And yet, somehow, Callahan and his staff of assistants managed to convince 32 kids that they were the answer to NU's woes. In doing so, they landed a consensus top 10 class full of touted prospects. Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming deemed it the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation and called it one of the deepest in Husker history.
"It will be a new era in Nebraska football that will really start taking shape two or three years down the line," Lemming said at the time.
In most fans' minds, the 2005 class was the one that would ultimately lead NU back to the top. Callahan felt the same way.
"Will it bring championships? I surely hope so," he said on Signing Day. "I'd like to believe we made all the right moves to improve our program. It's premature to judge how their careers will end up."
In hindsight, it sure was.
The face and crown jewel of the class, Harrison Beck, transferred in the summer before his sophomore season. The four-star passer from Clearwater, Fla., wasn't pleased that Zac Taylor had a firm grip on the starting spot, even though Beck had OK'd the staff's decision to add Taylor to the class in the first place.
Four-star running back Leon Jackson also opted to transfer due to displeasure with his spot on the depth chart. Lineman Rodney Picou, another four-star, quit the team after becoming academically ineligible as a freshman.
Hickman remembers all the hype surrounding lineman Craig Roark, a three-star prospect from Ada, Okla., who transferred after two injury-filled seasons.
"Roark was supposed to be ‘the chosen one' for the o-line," Hickman said. "It's funny. I guess it's a credit to how those Rivals sites aren't always right."
Hickman, a three-star recruit out of Bakersfield, Calif., said sitting back and watching the hyped class fall apart has been a bit surprising.
"It's kind of funny to see how it's all played out and see who's actually been successful," he said. "And it's nice to be one of the guys who actually had success in the class."
Of the 32 players in the class, 11 ended up transferring, quitting or getting kicked off of the team. Two didn't qualify academically and never made it to Lincoln. Despite all the letdowns, the class hasn't been a complete failure. At least 16 of the players started for NU, and five – Zackary Bowman, Cody Glenn, Steve Octavien, Zach Potter and Matt Slauson – are currently in the NFL.
Still, Callahan never found the solution when it came to turning recruiting classes into a team. That changed with the arrival of Bo Pelini.
The reason NU is 7-3 today and on the verge of a North title is the simple fact that Pelini and his staff understood how to develop players. His staff is full of master motivators and coaches who know how to teach the physical, fundamental side of the game as well as the mindset aspect of executing and dominating on every play.
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