Recruiting for Defense

[SUFan44]

Honestly, I think recruiting for the defense should be pretty easy for this staff.

"Hey, look at who is playing at the position you are being recruited for. Do you think you're better than him? Yeah, we do too. Come play right away, and play on a team that will score a ton of points for you to get after it on defense."

Biggest thing is getting some development right away with these kids and adding 10-20 pounds during a redshirt year. Especially at the DE & LB positions. Tough to get game-ready kids in our position, and its a luxury we have not had unfortunately.

Hopefully we can get to that point and have a redshirt freshman LB come in and be ready to play at 6-2, 225.

 

[RF2044]

Honestly, I think recruiting for the defense should be pretty easy for this staff.

"Hey, look at who is playing at the position you are being recruited for. Do you think you're better than him? Yeah, we do too. Come play right away, and play on a team that will score a ton of points for you to get after it on defense."

Biggest thing is getting some development right away with these kids and adding 10-20 pounds during a redshirt year. Especially at the DE & LB positions. Tough to get game-ready kids in our position, and its a luxury we have not had unfortunately.

Hopefully we can get to that point and have a redshirt freshman LB come in and be ready to play at 6-2, 225.

We have three incoming LB recruits who are all 6-2 or taller. Two of them are light right now [around 200 pounds], but with that frame they should be able to carry more weight without losing speed / athleticism after being in a collegiate S&C program for a year or two. VERY excited about Fagan [amazing offer list, from Florida] / Trotter [amazing high school team in Ohio], as well as the raw athletic potential of the LB prospect from Canada, Richards. Need to get bigger at LB, and these three are a huge step in the right direction.

In the secondary, Coley and Melifonwu bring a LOT more size to the secondary, and are good fits with Foster / Jones, who've both been thrown to the wolves this season. Would still love to see us add a 5th year grad transfer safety or corner to stabilize things for next year. Moore would have really helped this season.

I don't think we will get a magic bullet at DE. The hope has to be that the three true frosh DEs and Pickard [who is a redshirt frosh] round into form and generate some upfield pressure the next three seasons, while the coaching staff stocks the talent behind them [Morton / Kingsley seem like a step in the right direction from the class of 2017]. Sherrod would have helped.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I think we'll be able to recruit for defense fine, because they're going to be able to talk with kids about playing for a program that's on the rise.

 

[CuseCrew08]

We have three incoming LB recruits who are all 6-2 or taller. Two of them are light right now [around 200 pounds], but with that frame they should be able to carry more weight without losing speed / athleticism. VERY excited about Fagan [amazing offer list, from Florida] / Trotter [amazing high school team in Ohio], as well as the raw athletic potential of the LB prospect from Canada, Richards. Need to get bigger at LB.

In the secondary, Coley and Melifonwu bring a LOT more size to the secondary, and are good fits with Foster / Jones, who've both been thrown to the wolves this season. Would still love to see us add a 5th year grad transfer safety or corner to stabilize things for next year. Moore would have really helped this season.

I don't think we will get a magic bullet at DE. The hope has to be that the three true frosh DEs and Pickard [who is a redshirt frosh] round into form and generate some upfield pressure the next three seasons, while the coaching staff stocks the talent behind them [Morton / Kingsley seem like a step in the right direction from the class of 2017]. Sherrod would have helped.

This is how we are going to have to recruit until we start seeing results on the field, and maybe even after. Guys that have the height/frame/speed to compete in the ACC who need 1-2 years in a college S&C program to get to ACC playing weight.

 

[PhatOrange]

We have three incoming LB recruits who are all 6-2 or taller. Two of them are light right now [around 200 pounds], but with that frame they should be able to carry more weight without losing speed / athleticism after being in a collegiate S&C program for a year or two. VERY excited about Fagan [amazing offer list, from Florida] / Trotter [amazing high school team in Ohio], as well as the raw athletic potential of the LB prospect from Canada, Richards. Need to get bigger at LB.

In the secondary, Coley and Melifonwu bring a LOT more size to the secondary, and are good fits with Foster / Jones, who've both been thrown to the wolves this season. Would still love to see us add a 5th year grad transfer safety or corner to stabilize things for next year. Moore would have really helped this season.

I don't think we will get a magic bullet at DE. The hope has to be that the three true frosh DEs and Pickard [who is a redshirt frosh] round into form and generate some upfield pressure the next three seasons, while the coaching staff stocks the talent behind them [Morton / Kingsley seem like a step in the right direction from the class of 2017]. Sherrod would have helped.

The Richards kid has huge potential. Some of the video of him is real impressive and he's a big kid right out of the box.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

One more thought - good players want to play with other good players. If the recruiting for offense takes off the way I think it will, that will help to get better talent on defense too. Plus, some of those offensive recruits would end up moving over to defense.

 

[SUFan44]

We have three incoming LB recruits who are all 6-2 or taller. Two of them are light right now [around 200 pounds], but with that frame they should be able to carry more weight without losing speed / athleticism after being in a collegiate S&C program for a year or two. VERY excited about Fagan [amazing offer list, from Florida] / Trotter [amazing high school team in Ohio], as well as the raw athletic potential of the LB prospect from Canada, Richards. Need to get bigger at LB, and these three are a huge step in the right direction.

In the secondary, Coley and Melifonwu bring a LOT more size to the secondary, and are good fits with Foster / Jones, who've both been thrown to the wolves this season. Would still love to see us add a 5th year grad transfer safety or corner to stabilize things for next year. Moore would have really helped this season.

I don't think we will get a magic bullet at DE. The hope has to be that the three true frosh DEs and Pickard [who is a redshirt frosh] round into form and generate some upfield pressure the next three seasons, while the coaching staff stocks the talent behind them [Morton / Kingsley seem like a step in the right direction from the class of 2017]. Sherrod would have helped.

Agree with majority of what you're saying RE: Class of 2017. I was just speaking in general - it shouldn't be too difficult for the staff to upgrade defensively through recruiting, given what it inherited. That was my point.

Bennett & Thomas are midgets compared to their counterparts in the ACC, and Thomas is lost out there half the time. And that's not even mentioning our secondary.

The LB & secondary prospects they have on the hook appear to be the right fits athletically. I think the DEs we brought in this past year are going to be good players. Just have to be patient, as most of them should have been redshirts this year.