Article; Disastrous Games Show Recruiting Hasn't Matched Hype
- Thread starter Random UK Fan
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Every post on the subject assumes that recruiting is a lot better and talent has been greatly improved. If you drop this assumption, the results on the field make a lot more sense
I doubt Troy or Nicholls or Central Michigan have five stars knocking on their doors but they all put up a much better fight than Kentucky, were better prepared and reacted better to in-game developments.
Articles like this deflect from the cold reality: Stoops and his assistants are terrible coaches.
Articles like this deflect from the cold reality: Stoops and his assistants are terrible coaches.
Excellent article and makes a lot of great points. Was talking with some folks last night who were asking me about UK and what was going on. In looking at Stoops the last four years and comparing him to other coaches a few things are very apparent:
* Stoops and his staff are unorganized, they don't prepare well, and they don't make adjustments in game. This tells me they basically think on a lower level than most coaches, and they are only capable of going so far whether it is recruiting, schemes, player development... How many games have we come from behind with Stoops and won in the 2nd half versus how many times have we had a lead and lost it? How many times have we started the season 4-1 or 5-1 only to collapse. It means other teams make adjustments and we don't.
* Stoops is a micromanager and does not allow his people a chance to succeed. Not sure whether or not Brown or Dawson would have succeeded here or if they were calling the plays, but they seem to do better without Stoops than with him. Rather than let his people do their jobs he is constantly getting in the way on the sidelines. Rather than constantly mingling he should focus on time management, player development, having a gameplan plus being proactive and thinking ahead.
* If not for his recruiting success on paper I don't think he would have made it this long, but has he really done a great job of recruiting? With our 4 star/highly rated recruits how have they developed - Timmons, Barker, Baker, Towles, Elam, Bone, Horton, Richardson.... I think the article makes a great point about recruiting versus evaluating. Look at Brooks and his guys that were 2-3 stars but were players - Trevard, Wesley, Braxton, Corey Peters, Myron Pryor, Keenan, Dickie Lyons, Tamme.... - that is just naming a few. This staff thinks grabbing players Ohio State does not want and not developing equals success. We have kids who are lazy, don't want to practice or train and only want to show up on Saturdays to play.
Leadership is the biggest thing missing along with organization or lack of it. Tell me who are the leaders on the field? Who is leading in the locker room, in practice, on the staff? In hindsight everyone got excited about Barker and all of the guys he was recurring to come here, but now that fight in Richmond makes a lot of sense. Why would two teammates stand around as seen in the video while their QB gets ko'd? That should tell you a ton about what is happening. I don't care if there are 50 guys around - if someone in your group or team needs help you jump in.
It is apparent that Stoops will be gone either this year or next - only positive is there are a lot of young players left with very few seniors so the next coach should have some ammo.
* Stoops and his staff are unorganized, they don't prepare well, and they don't make adjustments in game. This tells me they basically think on a lower level than most coaches, and they are only capable of going so far whether it is recruiting, schemes, player development... How many games have we come from behind with Stoops and won in the 2nd half versus how many times have we had a lead and lost it? How many times have we started the season 4-1 or 5-1 only to collapse. It means other teams make adjustments and we don't.
* Stoops is a micromanager and does not allow his people a chance to succeed. Not sure whether or not Brown or Dawson would have succeeded here or if they were calling the plays, but they seem to do better without Stoops than with him. Rather than let his people do their jobs he is constantly getting in the way on the sidelines. Rather than constantly mingling he should focus on time management, player development, having a gameplan plus being proactive and thinking ahead.
* If not for his recruiting success on paper I don't think he would have made it this long, but has he really done a great job of recruiting? With our 4 star/highly rated recruits how have they developed - Timmons, Barker, Baker, Towles, Elam, Bone, Horton, Richardson.... I think the article makes a great point about recruiting versus evaluating. Look at Brooks and his guys that were 2-3 stars but were players - Trevard, Wesley, Braxton, Corey Peters, Myron Pryor, Keenan, Dickie Lyons, Tamme.... - that is just naming a few. This staff thinks grabbing players Ohio State does not want and not developing equals success. We have kids who are lazy, don't want to practice or train and only want to show up on Saturdays to play.
Leadership is the biggest thing missing along with organization or lack of it. Tell me who are the leaders on the field? Who is leading in the locker room, in practice, on the staff? In hindsight everyone got excited about Barker and all of the guys he was recurring to come here, but now that fight in Richmond makes a lot of sense. Why would two teammates stand around as seen in the video while their QB gets ko'd? That should tell you a ton about what is happening. I don't care if there are 50 guys around - if someone in your group or team needs help you jump in.
It is apparent that Stoops will be gone either this year or next - only positive is there are a lot of young players left with very few seniors so the next coach should have some ammo.
Recruiting may be better...rankings can be deceitful but Stoops appears to be just plain dumb to me.
This is what happens when you hire a bunch of guys based on their recruiting abilities alone. You get a whole lot of hype with little substance to back it up.
The other issue is you have a HC with no HC experience, a DC with no DC experience, no ST coach due to HC not having managerial or organizational skills = recipe for disaster. Not only that but you cannot just load up on WR's and DB's becsuse of star ratings and ignore your oline and Dline. You cannot show up and act like you are at FSU and have 10-15 first rounders on your team and just roll the ball out.
I agree somewhat with the OP....most of these guys don't pass the eye test to me.......now having said that the coaching HAS to get better....and I'm not sure that's gonna happen....but after 4 years of recruiting we should have better depth and talent....I don't see it...
I don't think it's an evaluation problem. Actually, i think there is someone on staff with a keen eye for talent. How many players have we recruited who were unranked or low 2 stars only to blow up in the rankings and sign with the big boys later? This shows me the problem is in player development.
Their isn't a talent problem at certain positions (rd, wr, db) but there is a huge talent problem concentrated at certain positions (OT, DT, DE, LB) So yes we have more higher ranked guys but they all play the same positions.
Special Teams actually weren't that bad in Stoops first year when Bradley Dale Peveto was the ST coach. But, they have greatly disappointed since then.
What a **** article. Clay's the worst. Yeah, why hasn't Stoops great recruiting classes made his first year of 2-10 retroactively better? Stoops has problems, but talent on the field isn't one. We are beating off good teams to get these players here. He's underachieving big time. But the cupboard is stocked for the next guy to step in and win immediately.
This staff can't develop players period and end of story....that is by far the biggest issue with the program.
It's almost like a similar issue Joker had...he fired most of Brooks coaches because we wanted more recruiters on staff (Petri, Heggins) and the player development went to crap. Watching Woodson/Hartline vs. Towles/Barker is night and day. Ventrell Jenkins, Pryor, Lumpkin, Jarmon, Zipp Duncan, Gary Williams, Justin Jeffries, Eric Scott vs. the entire DL and OL (maybe Toth is an exception) is a complete night and day as well.