Nebraska football coach Mike Riley has been recruiting gems from the state of California. It's become a main source of optimism for his program.
If you were to identify the period when Nebraska really started delving hard into recruiting in California, you have to go clear back to the late 1960s.
Nebraska was 6-4 in both 1967 and 1968. The coaching staff needed to right the ship, pronto, particularly after dropping a 47-0 decision at Oklahoma to end the 1968 season, recalled Osborne, an offensive assistant under Bob Devaney at the time.
"So we decided to try to recruit some junior college guys, and probably the greatest number would have to come from California," Osborne said.