Are Dukes and Dawson the only two we are waiting to see | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

Are Dukes and Dawson the only two we are waiting to see

As Comstock pointed out, we went 9-3 with overall lower rated kids. This staff can win with the talent they are bringing in and if we keep winning we will get even more talented kids. Very strong finish this class once there was evidence to match the belief. And Dino got extended which hopefully helps with negative recruiting a bit
 
Staff knows a hidden four star when they see one. Staff knows a team that will finish number 2 in the ACC when all the "experts" say last. There are between 200 to 400 "hidden gems" at 3 star that really given a year are 4 star athletes. That is why those picked to be last finish 2nd...and coaches like Dino just smile at the idiot rankings of players who are hyped to sell magazines.
 
Staff knows a hidden four star when they see one. Staff knows a team that will finish number 2 in the ACC when all the "experts" say last. There are between 200 to 400 "hidden gems" at 3 star that really given a year are 4 star athletes. That is why those picked to be last finish 2nd...and coaches like Dino just smile at the idiot rankings of players who are hyped to sell magazines.

I don't think you can dismiss ratings and stars completely. Yes our coaching is a big part of our success however in the long run you want the highest rated star players on the board. You seem super confident that we work going to be second this year as if it was a foregone conclusion. I love the success of where we are however to become even better we need to continue to not lose out on top players such as Isaac to other teams. It's fine if you don't agree with me but we with the 180 we took this year I was hoping for a bigger snowball effect and not sure we got it entirely with this class.
 
As Comstock pointed out, we went 9-3 with overall lower rated kids. This staff can win with the talent they are bringing in and if we keep winning we will get even more talented kids. Very strong finish this class once there was evidence to match the belief. And Dino got extended which hopefully helps with negative recruiting a bit

This is true, and this class is deep, and fills several needs -- especially LB.

So, one caveat about 9 and 3. We had multi-year starters in key roles, a touch of luck and a senior QB who was among the top 3 QBs in the ACC. It was a special year.
 
The 180 we did was because of a class with ratings similar to the one you're panning. Stars are one indication. A better indication is the SU staff.

Didn’t I just say that? I appreciate the staffs recent success.
 
Didn’t I just say that? I appreciate the staffs recent success.
You did, but you should have finished the thought - "I appreciate the staff's recent success even though last year's class - a big factor in that success - had a mediocre star rating."
 
I don't think you can dismiss ratings and stars completely. Yes our coaching is a big part of our success however in the long run you want the highest rated star players on the board. You seem super confident that we work going to be second this year as if it was a foregone conclusion. I love the success of where we are however to become even better we need to continue to not lose out on top players such as Isaac to other teams. It's fine if you don't agree with me but we with the 180 we took this year I was hoping for a bigger snowball effect and not sure we got it entirely with this class.

I think the expectation that recruiting would pick up for this recruiting cycle misses a lot of the fundamentals of the whole process.

Without writing a book, part of that is twofold. Our win total didn't technically happen until recently. So it was great to have and probably helped solidify the commitment we had from some of the recruits. But getting "in on" recruits - building trust, etc. happens well before the season started and for the bigger recruits starts a couple years before signing day. So really the expectation should be that we see a continued uptick in recruits over the next couple of years.
 
You did, but you should have finished the thought - "I appreciate the staff's recent success even though last year's class - a big factor in that success - had a mediocre star rating."

Actually if you consider how bad we have been and how highly rated some of the players there were last year I'd say we got a terrific class. I thought that as well last year also. However, I'm not talking about last year. We got some of the bigger names in NY to stay in Syracuse which means in my opinion a better future. BTW and I have to check wasn't our class ranking in the 40's last year?
 
Interesting in Dino's NSD presser he states there are roughly 5 more spots to fill still
I would be happy to see our staff reserve at least some of the available spots for impact Jucos/transfers along the lines of AET, Jordan Martin, Guthrie, Pierce, Robinson, Koda Martin, Adams, and Jackson.
 
I don't think you can dismiss ratings and stars completely. Yes our coaching is a big part of our success however in the long run you want the highest rated star players on the board. You seem super confident that we work going to be second this year as if it was a foregone conclusion. I love the success of where we are however to become even better we need to continue to not lose out on top players such as Isaac to other teams. It's fine if you don't agree with me but we with the 180 we took this year I was hoping for a bigger snowball effect and not sure we got it entirely with this class.
If you listened to what Babers has said consistently this years accomplishments on the field will have a greater effect on the recruitment of the 2020 class. Also offers and staff camp evaluations are more important than rankings by payservices.
 
Just b/c his opinion isn't as positive as yours, doesn't mean it's wrong. Time will tell.

Making an assessment based on a class ranking that is incomplete (there are 2 more months to this recruiting cycle) is wrong. Period.
 
Actually if you consider how bad we have been and how highly rated some of the players there were last year I'd say we got a terrific class. I thought that as well last year also. However, I'm not talking about last year. We got some of the bigger names in NY to stay in Syracuse which means in my opinion a better future. BTW and I have to check wasn't our class ranking in the 40's last year?

Yeah. At the end of the recruiting cycle. You're making a comparison of a completed cycle vs an incomplete one. We will probably land 4-5 more prospects this cycle and some of our current commits will likely get ranking updates as well. Trill wasn't a 4 star last year until a ranking update.
 
Last edited:
IDK. we got a few decent recruits. I don't think we made the splash in the same way we did last year. That's just my opinion. Hopefully we can build off this season and keep getting better recruits for next year.

I totally disagree. Sure the overall recruiting ranking doesn't look all that exciting, but it doesn't tell the whole story. The position we needed to address the most, linebacker, we brought in two 4 star recruits (Jones and Kpogba) with legit, elite offers. The 3rd (Cantin) could possibly be the best of the bunch, who has college ready size, with speed to boot. I believe he only camped at Syracuse and playing up in Canada he was under the radar.
Cornelius Nunn is that game changing type of recruit that we took our of Miami's backyard and won a heads up recruiting battle. He is the type of player who can go up against anybody in the country and you would feel pretty good.
Defensive end we added to commits with the size to play now. Dawson we beat out Clemson for and Tuazama had legit offers from Miami and FSU plus more out of HS. Both are athletes who could play at several positions. That's not even mentioning Rondi , who is another under the radar kid who didn't hit the camp cycle, but from everything you hear is a big, athletic kid.

Offensively , Courtney Jackson is just below a 4star recruit that will compliment an already loaded unit. The OL commits consist of a camp offer kid, another Canadian with college ready size (both Cantin and Bergerson were the #1 and #2 rated Canadian PG recruits) and a game ready JC OT who we beat out Pitt, Arkansas and WVU for.

Those were the kids that really stood out to me, who to a man all had legitimate, multiple high end P5 offers. That's not even counting the high end projects, who we took at deep position groups. Guys like Gouldbourne, and Hewitt have elite athleticism who could be possible homeruns if they reach their full potential. Even the guys towards the back end of the class like Cole, Williams, Benson, and Greenwood all had multiple P5 offers. I don't think this class is as good as last year mostly because we took more guys, but the top end can compete with any class that we've had in the last 20 years, and has legit P5 projects. These aren't the "diamonds in the rough" prior staffs brought in who had below average size, and maybe some MAC offers. These guys have ACC size, and real P5 offers. I'm excited about this class because it addresses some major needs at LB, and DE with guys who can contribute next year. Plus we still have to sign another 4-5 recruits. Adding to this class already signed is just gravy imo



.
 
I don't think you can dismiss ratings and stars completely. Yes our coaching is a big part of our success however in the long run you want the highest rated star players on the board. You seem super confident that we work going to be second this year as if it was a foregone conclusion. I love the success of where we are however to become even better we need to continue to not lose out on top players such as Isaac to other teams. It's fine if you don't agree with me but we with the 180 we took this year I was hoping for a bigger snowball effect and not sure we got it entirely with this class.

While I do agree that you can't dismiss rankings, you also have to figure that we only have 17 commits, which is the 2nd least in the ACC. Also, we are approximately within 1 point of the entire conference minus Clemson, FSU, and Miami when looking at average ranking. Finally, these rankings aren't including 1 of our most best recruits, Jawhar Jordan since he didn't play ball this year. Basically the difference between #5 and #13 in the ACC recruiting rankings is hardly noticeable.

I would be happy to see our staff reserve at least some of the available spots for impact Jucos/transfers along the lines of AET, Jordan Martin, Guthrie, Pierce, Robinson, Koda Martin, Adams, and Jackson.

I would expect most of the available spots to be filled with grad transfers. Unless it's for a position of need and a player they practically know can play right away, Babers have mostly stayed away from JUCO's.
 
Im excited for the LBers most in this class. Love the South Carolina kid simply because he had the gentleman with the disability by his side, what a high character guy!

At the end of the day we truly dont know what we have but there is no need to be pessimistic. Dino has done more with less in the past, Im confident this class will be just fine!


I completely agree with the first part - the LBs in this class are SO promising.

I feel like we do have a pretty good sense of what we have, though - the offer lists of these kids show that probably 2/3 of them had at least 5 or 6 P-5 offers, and some were in double digits. That says a lot.

Plus, a lot of these kids are coming from the South, rather than some of these kids from Ohio, illinois or the Northeast who don't have the same measurables, the same caliber of competition (Yes, Ohio is a football factory, but not everywhere; my recollection is that we've had some dud kids out of the midwest who were Shafer recruits or GRob recruits).

The videos on some of these kids is eye opening, even taking selective editing in account.

Many of these kids are from traditional powerhouse programs. Pedigree, coaching and the talent some of these kids are surrounded with on the elite HS teams better prepares them for the transition to college. We are getting a lot of kids who will be "more likely to succeed", in my opinion.

Just like with the product on the field, you can see it trending upward. Eyes don't lie.
 
I’ll just add that so far we have turned a walk on kicker into a Groza winner in his freshman year, a 3 star in Cisco becomes a third team All American, Alton Robinson had the issue but was under recruited. Taj Harris was lightly recruited considering the talent. And on and on. We haven’t even seen half of last years class because they redshirted. Boller deserves credit but this staff finds players and coaches them up so I’m not remotely worried about stars or class rankings.

As Dino said, the first half of the class was filled with us coming off 4 wins. The second half was during or after the 9 win regular season. Next year we recruit the whole thing off hopefully a 10 win season(plus a likely hot start looking at the schedule) and we’ve removed the biggest question mark...’Will Dino leave?’ Very, very excited to see where we are at this time next year.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,127
Messages
4,681,573
Members
5,900
Latest member
DizzyNY

Online statistics

Members online
69
Guests online
1,737
Total visitors
1,806


Top Bottom