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Message: [QUOTE="kcsu, post: 4096838, member: 528"] A couple of thoughts. First of all fear is often justified and based on facts. 1 winning season out of 6 is a fact. Continually poor recruiting rankings are a fact. Leading the " Portal Cup" in most players lost ( especially considering no coaching change) is a fact. These are all factual, concrete reasons for concern or as you refer to it fear. However its also a fact that coming out of the early signing period our ranking is basically the same as Pittsburgh and many of our ACC foes. In my opinion 50 - 70 in rankings is a crap shoot. I do however believe that being in the 30- 50 range is an indication that you are obtaining the talent to play with pretty much anyone other than the elite professional teams. I also believe very strongly that the portal is an equalizing factor for the majority of college football programs. Why? Because it will hurt many teams depth, basically even out the talent of the 2nd and 3rd teams. Many of our opponents will have a difficult time stocking up on great players. I believe that the days of Clemson rotating 7 or 8 excellent DL players are numbered. Just look at what happened at Syracuse. A team with little depth. We lost players from the only areas of strength. RB LB DB I believe this will happen across all of college football. With this as a background how does a school like SU compete? Here are my thoughts. First make darn sure that your HS recruits are sold on SU for the right reasons. Good fit athletically and academically. They really need to want Syracuse. Second take at least 40% of your players from the portal for 2 primary reasons. It allows an extra year of evaluation and the player is more likely to stay with your program allowing the coaches an ability to create depth. Third and most important. Hire the best possible coaches. Coaching is going to matter more than ever. Game planning and in game coaching are going to be critical. I actually think that this is an opportunity for SU to do better and close the gap as long as we have good coaching and a good culture your star players will stay and the portal will allow you to build solid depth. Fear is if your top players enter the portal. If a Tucker, or Mikel were to leave that becomes a death spiral. It was my biggest fear heading into this off season and im beyond relieved, actually very encouraged that it didnt happen. For all of his very obvious coaching defincicies Dino does seem to have the respect of his players which is as important a head coaching trait as any. I also think that his strengths of Family and truly caring for the kids can be a huge winner in portal recruiting. My hope is that he hires a great OC and distances himself from the game planning and in game decisions which he struggles at and focuses more on the overall leadership of the program leaving the details to his coordinators. Sorry for the long post. [/QUOTE]

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