Class of 2025 Class of 2025 Recruiting Discussion

[timkay99]

That's debatable.

The infrastructure is definitely much better but that isn't Dino's doing.

His first 3 years including his high water mark 2018 relied on inherited talent at a lot of positions (the least of which being Dungey). He turned over a roster to Fran that lacked any first line QB, let alone a functional backup, and that needed complete rebuilds to both the OL and DL. Not to mention the 2 deep beyond Pena and LeQuint at WR and RB were pretty weak overall. TE / LB / DB are the depth charts that were good to strong without a ton of work on Fran's part, even though he still added some really nice pieces to each of them.

Dino turned over a 2-6 ACC team, Shafer turned over a 2-6 ACC team. So I don't feel Dino turned over anything that much different than what he inherited, and due to the QB depth, arguably worse.

I would say the infrastructure, the coach is definitely a part of that. It isn't like new facilities just got built once Fran was hired. Part of the growth of the program under Dino's 8 years, but not sure how you can separate that from the head of the program.

To use the last 2 years before a coach came in, much different inheriting a team that went to back to back bowl games vs. a team that went 3-9 and 4-8. It still took Dino 2 years after Shafer was gone to get more than 4 wins, so there was some level of coaching/injury luck/recruiting/player development to work with Dungey magic to get the 10 wins.

Team plateaued under Shafer just like it plateaued under Dino. The base Fran has to work with and the impact talent he brought in to complement from the portal, would argue expectations are higher than a bowl game and exceed the pre-season expectations of any year in recent Syracuse memory except entering 2019.

Either way, transfer portal does it make it difficult to assess, so much more power to re-shape a roster quickly nowadays.

 

[anomander]

Stars are a fan thing and a coaching staff should never take it into account and should dismiss it. It's like PFF numbers. Stuff for fans to discuss that really doesn't mean anything.

This seems pretty revisionist overall. Devito could play at this level and started in the NFL. He brought in Trishton Jackson as a transfer (NFL camp WR). Saying he stumbled on guys (Tucker/Allen), we can both admit is shaping something to your assumptions and saying Gadsden is a recruiting win while arguing stars isn't supporting that.

If looking at only stars, per 247, he got Qadir White (4 star), Enrique Cruz (4 star), Neil Nunn (4 star), Trill Williams (4 star) and Tommy Devito (4 star). The success rate of those guys kind of shows the risk in recruiting solely off stars.

Dino left the team in a better spot than he found it. Obviously, there were deficiencies, but taking over a 6-6 team in the ACC is better than almost every new Syracuse coach since the move away from P.

Fran is going to get raw measurables and ability and trust he can mold it into a football player at the HS level, then go into the portal for those kids he liked out of HS that become available.

You literally named 3 guys Dino recruited out of HS who actually turned out to be good in his 8 years at Syracuse. That’s abysmal. Devito was serviceable at very best. We all saw him play here. Even at Illinois they relied on him not turning it over, an elite RB and defense. He made the NFL because he could heave it. Idk who can call him a recruiting success to Syracuse.

Why is it the programs with all the 4 and 5 stars are always those in the top 25. Sure it’s a fan thing, but it’s also accurate more than not. Otherwise, how come we had to struggle to get to 6 wins 3 of Dino’s 8 years with recruiting classes in the 50’s or worse?