Honest Questions re: Recruiting

[LyndenCane22]

Virginia has NO offensive linemen listed higher than 3 stars in HS. Many of the OL-men are sophomores and they still play as a unit.
First, get the recruits. Virginia showed that you do not have to have 5 and even 4 star people to develop a solid offensive line. You juts need a good eye to spot the material. Purdue and Central Florida have shown this. If you look at their 3 star lines out of high school.
Second, have a coach that really knows how to develop them.
Until this problem is solved it will be a 4th year, then a 5th year, then a 6th year etc. of SOS

To prove your point even more look at a school like Iowa. Known for constantly getting 3 start kids and making products out of them. Not saying they are competing for national championships, but they are the gold standard for taking what people view as mediocre talent and turning them into program kids. Iowa also is pretty much year in and year out a top 25 team as of late.

 

[Squid Bumciorek]

I'll get angry about SEC bags if we're 11-1 and elite recruits are bailing. Right now everyone can see Miami is on its way to 8-4 and not even winning a pathetic ACC coastal because 2/3 of our team (O and ST) is a dumpster fire. I didn't fault kids for staying away from Al Golden. I can't fault them for staying away from Miami with Rick as he is right now.

The one bright spot is defense, but if I'm recruiting against Miami, I just tell D recruits, "No doubt Manny Diaz is legit. But he'll likely get a HC offer and be gone in a year or two. And do you really trust a head coach, who hired his own unqualified son to coach QBs, to hire a replacement for Diaz that will maximize your talent? That's a big risk to take if you have any dreams of playing in the NFL."

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

I'll get angry about SEC bags if we're 11-1 and elite recruits are bailing. Right now everyone can see Miami is on its way to 8-4 and not even winning a pathetic ACC coastal because 2/3 of our team (O and ST) is a dumpster fire. I didn't fault kids for staying away from Al Golden. I can't fault them for staying away from Miami with Rick as he is right now.

The one bright spot is defense, but if I'm recruiting against Miami, I just tell D recruits, "No doubt Manny Diaz is legit. But he'll likely get a HC offer and be gone in a year or two. And do you really trust a head coach, who hired his own unqualified son to coach QBs, to hire a replacement for Diaz that will maximize your talent? That's a big risk to take if you have any dreams of playing in the NFL."

I'm not blind to the problems with our offense and ST (though, ironically, our kicking/punting units had their best game of the season at UVAg... totally wasted by that horrible offensive effort), but I'm not willing to concede we lose two more games and tank the Coastal . . . at least not yet, talk to me again Friday at 11 pm. But for the sake of argument, assuming you are right and we go 8-4 and lose the Coastal, is your answer fire Richt at the end of the season? And if so, do you have any thoughts on who to replace him with that will be able to maximize the talent we can bring in to get us to 11-1 (without the elite recruits in hand)?

It seems like there is a chicken vs. egg or vicious cycle dynamic at play here: we can't compete for a playoff birth because we don't have enough elite recruits, but we can't get enough recruits because we aren't consistently competing for a playoff run. Honestly, how do we break the cycle?

 

[Squid Bumciorek]

I'm not blind to the problems with our offense and ST (though, ironically, our kicking/punting units had their best game of the season at UVAg... totally wasted by that horrible offensive effort), but I'm not willing to concede we lose two more games and tank the Coastal . . . at least not yet, talk to me again Friday at 11 pm. But for the sake of argument, assuming you are right and we go 8-4 and lose the Coastal, is your answer fire Richt at the end of the season? And if so, do you have any thoughts on who to replace him with that will be able to maximize the talent we can bring in to get us to 11-1 (without the elite recruits in hand)?

It seems like there is a chicken vs. egg or vicious cycle dynamic at play here: we can't compete for a playoff birth because we don't have enough elite recruits, but we can't get enough recruits because we aren't consistently competing for a playoff run. Honestly, how do we break the cycle?

I'm guessing Rick has a large buyout, so we're stuck. Even if we wanted to fire him, we can't. We can absolutely compete for a playoff berth with the recruits we have. Why? Because our division is one of the weakest in college football. Miami has 5x more talent than anyone else in the ACC Coastal. I don't think that's even disputable. So that means that we should be a lock to get to the ACC Championship game each year. Last year we just had to beat Pitt, and we had a decent shot at getting in the playoffs even with a loss to Clemson. Do we have enough to beat Clemson? If we play a near perfect game, I think we have enough talent to be able to beat Clemson. Does U of Washington or U of Wisconsin have as much talent as Clemson? Not even close. Would it be an earth shattering upset if either UW team beat Clemson in a playoff game? Nope, because people recognize that Petersen is an ELITE coach and Chryst is almost at that level. Miami has as much talent as either school, I don't think many people are going to allege that they are paying for recruits.

So what to do... if I'm Blake James, first I punch myself in the face. Then once that's done I call Rick into the office and I don't buy any of his bullsh#t that he needs more time or that the team is making progress. I'd tell I'd identified a short list of OCs that I think would help him on offense and I that I can see that trying to be a HC and the OC is taking a toll and that I'm asking him to get an OC to take some pressure off. If he wants to get offended and say that I'm stripping him of his duties, so be it. But I'd take the approach that I'm just trying to help him. If he says no and insists that he isn't giving up play duties, then I'd tell point blank that he needs to hire an OC because the offense should be much better than is and we aren't seeing the improvement we'd hoped. I won't be able to defend his performance to the BOT if he refuses to give up an OC. If after year 4 the team isn't better, I'd throw 5.5 mil at Chris Peterson and beg him to leave UW, or if I'm feeling like a gamblin' man and want to keep the salary under 5 mil, I call up Lane Kiffin.