Obviously this is a class with great average stars but nearly twenty years ago Solich was ripped every year for not having enough top shelf recruits to fill all the open slots and perhaps even be forced to turn away a couple highly rated guys who waited too long to commit. It's great to get quality but we need to get enough guys lined up to fill the classes. Depth matters.
Just like Solich
- Thread starter hddude55
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At what cost? I would love to fill the 85 limit and turn dudes away. The problem is when you reach to fill the 85 number, your making a 4 year minimum investment. So that "depth" becomes deadweight when the reach doesn't workout.
Solich inherited the best program in the country... he didn't have many holes to fill, so his failure to do so was on a whole different level
Agree that we need to fill the classes, but Riley spoke today of how he will have a little bit more flexibility this year in regard to transfers, if the fit is right etc.. Seems he has plans for the extra schollies, but certainly you don't want it to become a habit.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it has become a yearly habit. Typically the defenders of the practice will say how happy they are that worthy walk-ons scoop up those scholarships. The flip side of the coin is Alabama and the other big boys. There is a thread ripping Alabama for oversigning and grayshirts. OK, maybe they are immoral but they definitely know how to fill a roster and guarantee quality depth.
It seems that we have made the decision as a program not to over sign. Clearly we would have taken more of those CA kids had they chosen to sign. But it seems we have fewer slots for next year. So maybe hedging a bit on the numbers might be a secondary choice. Taking a flyer on a kid that might just contribute on special teams eats a scholarship. Work on areas of need, balance your classes and focus on good talent that you've made a real evaluation investment in.
It appears to me that IF we had gotten all 3 of those kids (Calvin, Lewis and Lenoir) that would have really maxed us out. So we were limited in how we filled this class. We could have I'm sure found another 3 star WR to fill but that might have left one of those guys out had they wanted in. I'm good with Blades and the WRs we did get.
Since 2010, the number of signees have been 22, 20, 25, 25 (big class ranked 32, 8 or 9 kids already have left), 21, 21, and 20. Those two back to back classes of 25 were chock full of busts.
I think it is a nice class, but it is hard for me to understand why we couldn't fill it out.
He's right you know. There probably were a handful of 2* recruits from Edna Karr we could have scooped up to finish out this class.
There is a difference between couldn't fill it out and choosing not to fill it out...there are plans for the other two scholarships.
True, I just hope the D line recruits of JP can live up to the lofty accomplishments of Bo's guys like Jay Guy, Chase Rome, Tobi Okuyemi and Walker Ashburn.SickSickHe's right you know. There probably were a handful of 2* recruits from Edna Karr we could have scooped up to finish out this class.
True, I just hope the D line recruits of JP can live up to the lofty accomplishments of Bo's guys like Jay Guy, Chase Rome, Tobi Okuyemi and Walker Ashburn.SickSick
Besides Rome did anyone else amount to anything?
Didn't Rome quit 2 or 3 times? They were all busts.Besides Rome did anyone else amount to anything?
Riley himself said that this past year we missed out on some transfers because we didn't have room for them when they became available.
This isn't like a Pelini or Solich class, where they were 3 or 4 short, so they drove through Louisiana and threw 3 or 4 'ships out the window and the first 18 year old males to pick them up were headed for Lincoln, NE. I believe nearly all 20 signed are highly regarded football players.
Well, OK, maybe we don't want 2 stars, and maybe if we have openings we can snag a transfer guy, but wouldn't we rather fill it out with two more 3-4 star guys? Why can't we do that? I don't know why, but other teams are.
I totally agree and am amazed there is so much difference of opinion. Of course we should prefer your suggested outcome. Unfortunately we have been hearing the same song for years. If this was the unusual year I wouldn't have mentioned it. This year looked like it would be different as we certainly seemed to have a lot more resources at work, but instead it seems everything had to break just right in the last few days to fill the class. Do you think that was the case for PSU, OSU, or MIchigan? Of course not. The top schools surely missed on some great players this week, too, but had options besides holding scholarships empty for walkons or shots in the dark after signing day. Callahan had a lot of faults -- like refusing to fire his DC-- but since TO he is the only Husker coach who could fill his classes without post-signing day Hail Marys.
We haven't filled a class yet under Riley, that has to change. At some point, he's gonna have to play the game and get rid of guys. The 4-year guarantee is overblown.
Frank was built in the mold of the Tom of the 90's. Take the top notch recruits and then reward walk-ons. The difference was that early on Frank was pulling some top 10 classes (for example even in 2000 and 2001 he was in the top 10) until his last couple of years. If he could have kept up pulling those classes, his plan would have been fine.
This is like comparing apples to oranges.
Nebraska's class- NE-4, CA-4, TX-3, FL-2, and 1 each from IN, MI, LA, DE, OK, OH and MO. As you can see it takes a lot more work and resources to sign a class to Nebraska because it's nation wide and you are competing against some established programs in some of these areas. You are going to lose more of these battles than you win, but with all of that I think this staff did an outstanding job. Now let's look at the other 3 programs you mentioned.
PSU's class- PA-5, VA-4, NJ-3, MD-2, OH-2, 1 each from MI, IN, NC, GA and FL. So I would say 19 out of 21 were either instate or within a reasonable radius of PSU or the B1G footprint. Of the 2 out of region the FL one was from IMG and may have been from Pennsylvania or somewhere near by but I'm not sure.
Michigan class- MI-8, CT-4, OH-3, AL-2, GA-2, FL-2, 1 each from IA, TX, NJ, RI, PA, VA, NM, CO and Montreal, PQ. I would say that 21 of the 30 were instate or within a reasonable radius of Michigan or the B1G footprint. Of the 9 out of region the 2 from FL were from IMG and may very well have been from close by.
OSU's class- OH-6, TX-5, FL-4, NV-2, 1 each from IN, MD, CA and NY. I would say that 9 of the 21 are from instate or within the radius of OSU or the B1G footprint. Of those out of region 2 of the FL commits are from IMG and may very well be from close by.
Now PSU definitely stays local, Michigan goes a little more national but still remains fairly local and OSU was the most nationally spread out of the 3 this year. I would contend though that Michigan and OSU have had enough recent success to be able to cherry pick prospects from around the country.
Nebraska will have to have more success on the field before we see the results in national recruiting. Now if there was enough high level prospects in the 500 mile radius it would have been easier. I don't believe there were enough high level recruits in that radius this year to fully fill out our class. But if you would like to do the research of the 500 mile radius, by all means be my guest and see if there were enough. Now next year might be a different case, I believe the 2018 class is pretty strong in MO especially in the St. Louis area. As for KS, OK, CO, IA, WY and SD I have no clue.
That is just my 2 cents worth and it is my belief that this was a good class, that will be very productive in the future. I believe this staff will recruit even better in the future as they start to pile up the meaningful wins. But then again, I just like to have a positive outlook on life. Thanks for bearing with me on this long post and happy NSD!
Todd, I understand that we have challenges as a small, rural state that Ohio State doesn't have. We will never have almost all four and five star recruits living 200 miles from Lincoln. The question is why we don't we "overrecruit" by a few three and four star recruits to make sure we fill the class on signing day -- and fill it with quality. I realize that may put us in a bind if we have too many LOIs signatures about to materialize on LOI day, but that's where grayshirts and eliminating scholarships for unproductive upperclassmen comes in. Unfair? Maybe, but is it any more fair to cut someone's academic scholarship if his GPA is enough to graduate but below a B? That's the case at many universities re academic scholarships, so what's the difference when it comes to football scholarship expectations? We can't expect to compete with the big boys if we recruit with one hand tied behind our backs.
I didn't realize the numbers looked as bad as they did going back. I think you have a valid point historically. It's something coach needs to address for next years class and going forward.
a lot of the top tier programs use all their scholies every year and then cut the dead weight when numbers get tight. It has to be done in order to be a top ten team year in and year out. It isn't fun to do if you are a coach who deeply cares about his players as human beings. But it is what needs to be done. Besides, sometimes players become dead weight out of apathy and laziness. There are players who not only need to be cut, but deserve to be cut.
All that said... this was a great class and we don't need to belabor the negative. I see Ohio State only took 21 players as did Penn State and Notre Dame. Stanford only took 14. Florida State took 22 or 23. So we got 20. I wanted two or three more. But this class is outstanding
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The question this past year how would we have done that and who else would we have taken without diluting the talent pool. Should we have taken guys we thought were marginal over guys already in the program or without leaving room for Lewis etal. Having to wait around for the "press conference" recruits really screws the programs that don't get their signature IF you're not Bama with a waiting list of 4 stars. This is the second year that we've had a flip flopping WR really hurt us. We should have had one more guy yesterday and I think we could have had another 4 star WR if Calvin hadn't jacked us around. IMO, we get some of the walk ons we do because we don't always fill and we always reward the guys that pan out. So, you take 10 walk ons and you always seem to get a couple of guys out of that that are equal to or better than the 3 star guys you fill your class with. It's a difficult balancing act IMO. IF you over sign and stop rewarding walk ons do you then totally stop getting those quality kids to walk on?
The coaches chose to wait around for Lewis and Johnson. Lewis has been a lost cause for awhile now, we weren't going to pay the money some claimed it would cost to get him so why in the heck did we wait around? But, I'll play along - he's a take no matter what so you figure out a way later on to make the room - not before anything happens.
20 scholarship seniors.
+3 B1G allowance.
+2 with seniors graduating before fall camp.
That's 25 right there, before we roll up the sleeves and do what's necessary to maximize our roster every single year.
20 scholarship seniors.
+3 B1G allowance.
+2 with seniors graduating before fall camp.
That's 25 right there, before we roll up the sleeves and do what's necessary to maximize our roster every single year.
I don't see the point in handing out schollies to players you don't want.. We targeted the players we wanted and didn't get them..