We now enter a month-long
lull until Spring Practices begin March 7.
I know I have been promising it for while but my full
position-by-position breakdown of the roster is almost done. Meanwhile, there are a few items of note…
The biggest news
this week besides the recruits was the Bohnhead announcing that CU would renew
its rivalry with Nebraska, albeit not until 2018. Colorado will head east in
2018 and 2023 to play at Memorial Stadium (I will definitely be at one of those
games if not both!) and the Shuckers will play in Colorado (either Folsom or possibly
in that big stadium in
Denver where the Broncos play) in 2019 and 2024. MacIntyre said that was great, but he would
rather meet them sooner in the Rose Bowl.
Almost there…the
Bohnhead was also feverishly trying to raise cash for all the things he has
blindly promised and was able to bring in $93…thousand. Yippee now it’s only…a lot more. This will probably cover an interest payment
for when they have to borrow huge amounts for something stupid.
Both TE Nick
Kasa and early draft entree OT David Bahktiari have been invited to participate
in the Combine in Indianapolis
Recruiting: The day Mike MacIntyre was hired he
said that he would blanket the state of Colorado and treat California as if it
was in-state. Preliminary indications
are that he is following through on those promises. Thirteen of the twenty
recruits who sent in their letter of intent are from California, one of the
largest groups ever to come from any one state besides Colorado. In May, MacIntyre will dispatch four coaches to "hit every
high school" in Colorado. Six coaches will be assigned to California, with
some of them also working Colorado if necessary.” He also said at his 2013 class presser, “We’ve been to 52 high schools in
Colorado since I’ve been here. We have
already offered five juniors. The
in-state number will go up.”
At
his luncheon to introduce the class MacIntyre pleased the crowd with his
announcement that WR Devin Ross was pursued by Nebraska late but he shunned
them!
After
LB Markeis Reed was told he could only walk-on to USC, he called MacIntyre, who
basically snuck Reed onto campus, offered and got the commitment before anyone
else jumped on him.
He
mentioned a few players that could change positions, depending on how they
develop: S Tedric Thompson is 205 and could end up 215+ and play some outside
linebacker; 255 pound LB George Frazier, who also played QB as well, was told
he was “one biscuit from being a defensive end”; Philip Lindsay and Ryan
Severson habe the ability to play many positions.
Rivals
ranks CU with the 67th best class in the country, giving 13 of the
players three stars. ESPN also has them
at 67th, also last in the Pac-12, even with 14 three-star players
and one four-star in Sefo.
The Saturday
Blitz website deemed CU the “whipping boy” of the conference, with “the consensus,
clear-cut worst class”, adding that it is “hard to determine what is a position
of need considering Colorado was beaten nearly every week last year at every
phase of the game.” They said the three players you should know from the class
are
QB Sefo Liufau, LB George Frazier and WR Devin Ross.
ESPN’s Pac-12
blogger Ted Miller gave his “guess at one (true freshman) per team who will get
playing time next season” and he didn’t bother with or remember Colorado. I doubt he thought there were no players that
would get playing time because it’s obvious some will have to play. Not much
respect coming this way nationally.
As was predicted
here and elsewhere when CU ignored him, Windsor’s Joey O’Connor, who couldn’t
cut it at big boy Ohio St., will indeed head to fort collins and “enroll” at csu.
More interesting2013 class
stats: Of 20 total new
recruits, 13 players were honor roll or had at least 3.0 GPA in high school and
17 won some level of high school championship.
From
the Dave Plati Files: I had wondered but doubted…but Elijah Dunston is actually
a distant cousin of former Cub shortstop Shawn Dunston. Also, Sefo is nephew to Washington St. QB
Jack “the Throwin’ Samoan” Thompson. Other athletic connections: Jimmie Gilbert’s
dad played in the NBA, Nigerian LB Kenneth Olugbode has two brothers playing
football at Stanford and Idaho, and Colin Sutton’s sister is Chloe Sutton who
swam for the USA in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Yo David,
ReplyDeleteSomething to get you through your February doldrums... you can forget about the so-called experts at recruiting rating services. There are way too many high school players for these guys to cover adequately. So, they use simple algorithms to come up with their star ratings. You know the drill, calculate based on height, weight, and 40 time, blah blah blah.
The recruiting services don't have anything that judges these kids on their ability to be STUDENT athletes. They also do not judge whether the kids have a propensity toward criminal behavior. And they certainly don't worry about grades or test scores. All these services really offer is a chance for folks to get all lathered up about the star ratings of prospective recruits.
And, on top of everything, some so called recruiting experts are just paid to promote the talents of kids whose families pay them to do so. For some families of limited means, coming up with $500 or more is a fine investment toward possibly getting their kid an athletic scholarship worth many tens of thousands of dollars.
Frankly, I would prefer to leave the analysis to the professionals. Mac has shown that he wants motivated kids with the ability to handle a college class workload. He also wants young men who have the ability to GROW into college football players and who have a big upside.
Most 5 star player are guys who were early developers whose physical strength and speed was much greater than the kids they competed with in high school. Thus, they stood out as head and shoulders above the crowd. What they tend to find in college, however, are players who as big and fast and strong as they are. And this is shocking to many of them. A lot of kids with great natural talent are coddled their whole lives and never develop a strong work ethic, mostly because they did not need it to excel at the high school level.
While every coach has to recruit some guys who will come in and make an immediate impact, most recruits are guys that come in and redshirt while they grow their skill set and get used to the college environment. This gives them time to finish growing and build strength and body weight. It is the coaches who have to determine what these kids CAN be. The recruiting services only try to tell people what the kids were in high school.
If you look at the last five years in college football, you will find many examples of teams that ended up in the top 10-12 that had no business being there according to the recruiting gurus. Examples of schools ranked so high with their recruiting classes 2-3 years out?
--Boise State tends to have recruiting classes ranked in the 60's-80's.
--Utah has classes in the 50's to 70's.
--TCU's classes rated from from 46 to 96!
-- Nevada's classes ranked from 79 to 116!
--Utah State's classes were 108 and 77.
-- BYU classes ranked from 56 to 83.
--Cincinnati got up there with classes ranked 89 and 67.
And lastly, San Jose State ended up ranked with classes ranked 100, 99, and 99.
If it was really as simple as ranking high school kids, USC would be the national champion damn near every year! Hell, they only bothered to sign one 3 star kid this year because three of their 5 star recruits abandoned ship at the last minute.
Personally, I will take a 5 star COLLEGE player who started out as 2-3 stars than a load of spoiled 5 star high school kids. CU has had those top recruits before (do the names Darrel Scott and Marcus Houston ring a bell?). The prima donna's had no interest in competing at all. They just wanted CU to hand them a crown and then bow deeply. I will pass, thank you very much. It seems for every 5 star player like Ryan Miller that comes to CU there are a handful of young men with glowing accolades who come in and do nothing.
I would prefer a team of young men who want to prove themselves and who are committed to the team above all else. I think those are the kind of guys that Mac will go after. And it makes me very excited for the future of Buff football.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you wrote BD. The only thing is that none of those teams you mentioned with less than stellar rating play anywhere near the schedule the Buffs do. They need size and speed more than any of those teams do.
ReplyDeleteI actually like this class, I just don't love it though. While Embree and crew were better recruiters than coaches, MacIntyre has a rep for being both. I do anticipate this staff preparing the players way better for gameday and that they will field a more competitive team. The true test won't come until they step into Mile High in September.
There are examples from the BIG BOY conferences as well. Missouri, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Kansas built top 5-6 teams from classes ranked in the 30s to the 50s. And these guys had to play Big 12 schedules. Northwestern had to play Big 10 schedule
ReplyDeleteOther examples from the non-traditional powers that have made good include Hawaii and Northern Illinois and Tulsa.
The most important keys are not arbitrary star ratings of high school kids, but good coaching, player development and good game plans and play calling on both offense and defense.
I think CU is in good hands. As Mac and his guys develop good players and get known for doing so, better high school players will want to come to CU. But best of all, I am confident that the new CU coaches will still require their recruits to have all the intangibles like intelligence, good grades, etc. that make them likely to become classy and honorable young men.
And, unlike some of the teams from the conference known for their BCS national championships, CU will never have players admitted that cannot read and write. Hell, some of those schools have been known to graduate players who cannot read and write. I like college football... but not enough to make a mockery of what college is supposed to symbolize. It is better to require incoming players to score well on their ACT and SAT than it is to ask them if they can spell ACT and SAT.
GO BUFFS! And bring on the Spring!
And one last bit about the star ratings of recruits...
ReplyDeleteOf the CU Buffs playing in the NFL who came through the "star system" of the last ten years, only ONE (Ryan Miller) was a five star recruit. How about the other starry players?
4 Stars -- ZERO of more than 20 of these recruits are now in the NFL.
3 Stars -- there are FIVE Buffs rated out of high school with three stars (Mason Crosby, Tyler Polumbus, Jimmy Smith, and Lawrence Vickers.
And the 2 star guys? Justin Drescher and Brad Jones have made it as 2 star high school players to the NFL. Also note that Buff lineman David Bahktiari, who is leaving early to try for an NFL career was also a two star recruit.
Just sayin...
whoops - forgot about Nate Solder (the unlisted 3 star prospect)
ReplyDelete