Illinois

[timkay99]

Is Illinois going to be to this staff what Georgia was to the previous staff?

If so, I highly dislike that trade-off.

 

[javadoc]

Is Illinois going to be to this staff what Georgia was to the previous staff?

If so, I highly dislike that trade-off.

Who says it was a trade? I think we are still recruiting Georgia.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I guess I will never understand posts like these, who cares where the coaches get the kids? as long as they can play. It does not matter

 

[orangefog]

I guess I will never understand posts like these, who cares where the coaches get the kids? as long as they can play. It does not matter

Totally agree. Syracuse is in an area that is not exactly a hot bed, so our coaches have to use every resource they have at their disposal. Comb the midwest, explore the south, hit South Florida hard, make calls to Texas and California and everywhere in between. If a kid has talent and wants to be part of the SU program, go get him. As long as he isn't Dutch.

 

[timkay99]

Who says it was a trade? I think we are still recruiting Georgia.

Do you know who that will be? It seems like all the coaches with connections there are gone.

I care about this because Georgia is the 4th best state, IMO, when it comes to football. If the staff will no longer have a presence there and will shift to the midwest, then I am concerned.

It comes down to use of resources. Its not like the staff can comb all 50 states and spend time and resources there.

 

[Rocco]

Do you know who that will be? It seems like all the coaches with connections there are gone.

I care about this because Georgia is the 4th best state, IMO, when it comes to football. If the staff will no longer have a presence there and will shift to the midwest, then I am concerned.

It comes down to use of resources. Its not like the staff can comb all 50 states and spend time and resources there.

No it comes down to coaches' and their respective connections in certain areas. This staff hasn't even been here for 6 weeks. Give them some time, they are bound to land some studs. WGAF where they are from.

Beer here.

 

[timkay99]

No it comes down to coaches' and their respective connections in certain areas. This staff hasn't even been here for 6 weeks. Give them some time, they are bound to land some studs. WGAF where they are from.

Beer here.

There are more D-1 players in GA then in Illinois. That is a fact.

They are bound to land some studs, sure. Even G-Rob landed some studs. But, classes need to be built on depth.

Based on the amount of money it takes to get down to GA from Syracuse vs. Illinois from Syracuse, I can see the budget allocation greatly reducing Cuse's presence in GA in favor of the midwest (where most of the coaches have connections).

Just saying that, if that is the case, I am not a big fan.

 

[supp]

Who says it was a trade? I think we are still recruiting Georgia.

I think anytime you reach out to a new recruiting territory, you're giving up time spent elsewhere. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many weeks in a year that you can recruit. And we're not Alabama or ND where we have an automatic "in" in virtually every recruits' top 5 whether we start early or late/pay more attention or less to them. If recruiting is about relationships as people like to say, then the staff has to work to build relationships with kids, especially those in Illinois, regardless of their connections to coaches there. I think that necessarily means less time elsewhere. My hope is that it pays off but my gut tells me that it's going to be hard to take kids from Illinois with top tier Big Ten offers even with their connections. And if we're going to wind up with second tier guys, I'd rather have GA's second tier than IL's. They may still be recruiting GA, I don't know. But moving deeper into the Midwest (IL and MO) likely means they're giving time spent elsewhere.

IMO, Marrone's recruiting strategy was a good one. You start with your backyard and then move out from there to the 6-hour driving radius and then to direct plane connections to Syracuse, with FL thrown in. That's been the recipe for every successful coach we've had. My hope with Shafer was that he'd get a couple of dynamic recruiters from that geographic footprint and, armed with the ACC membership and facilities upgrades, we'd take a step or two forward from Marrone's classes.

 

[javadoc]

This is not a dig at anyone, just an observation. I've never liked that carping that goes on about New Jersey, we HAVE! to get back into NJ, yada yada. IMO we are not going to rely heavily on Illinois or Georgia for depth on our team, no matter who is on staff. We may get about the same number of guys from either place. Given the recruiting bona fides of the new staff, I would expect that the "outlier" guys we get from secondary recruiting beats would be better than the Georgia guys we have been getting.

We finally have a staff that has proven recruiting success, top notch type success, and already people are expressing dissatisfaction with the way they are doing their jobs. I just don't get it.

 

[supp]

This is not a dig at anyone, just an observation. I've never liked that carping that goes on about New Jersey, we HAVE! to get back into NJ, yada yada. IMO we are not going to rely heavily on Illinois or Georgia for depth on our team, no matter who is on staff. We may get about the same number of guys from either place. Given the recruiting bona fides of the new staff, I would expect that the "outlier" guys we get from secondary recruiting beats would be better than the Georgia guys we have been getting.

We finally have a staff that has proven recruiting success, top notch type success, and already people are expressing dissatisfaction with the way they are doing their jobs. I just don't get it.

It's not dissatisfaction. It's skepticism. I'm just going by our history as a program. Successful coaches in the past have been successful by recruiting our region first and moving out from there. The one year Coach Mac tried to recruit nationally, we failed miserably. I just think we have a better shot at success following the tried and tested formulas we've had. The Atlantic Seaboard is our territory broadly defined. Northeast kids and schools know who we are. That's half the battle. Places like NC, VA, GA, and FL are full of northern carpetbaggers who know our program. Not so much the case in midwest states like IL and MO. Not to mention that the SE is part of our conference footprint and in terms of population one of the fastest growing areas in the country.

 

[tep624]

Alex Hayes was our only GA recruit in 2012 and he committed to the new staff. Granted, he was a player that developed a relationship with SU under the old staff but with McDonald's connections to the south, I really doubt we're not going to continue to mine Georgia.

If McDonald is assigned the Carolinas, GA and FL, then you'll have nothing to worry about.

 

[steve deberg]

I know no one is trying to argue that Illinois is on the same level as Georgia for producing D1 talent, but I felt like being unproductive today, so I looked up some numbers. Here are the number of BCS recruits produced by the two states over the last three recruiting cycles (did it quickly referencing the database that shall not be named, so there is clearly room for error).

(Yearly total at the top, Georgia numbers in bold to hopefully make it easier to read).
Illinois Georgia
2013: 30 121
SEC: 5 57
B1G: 21 15
ACC: 0 29
PAC: 1 3
B12: 0 11
BE: 2 5
ND: 1 1

2012: 31 116
SEC: 4 64
B1G: 22 4
ACC: 0 31
PAC: 1 3
B12: 2 6
BE: 1 8
ND: 1 0

2011: 31 114
SEC: 4 56
B1G: 22 6
ACC: 0 28
PAC: 1 4
B12: 3 3
BE: 0 16
ND: 1 1

Total:
92 351

For the record, I am in the camp that thinks the individual we recruit is more important than where they are from., I just thought I would throw some data into the discussion.

 

[Moontan]

If a kid has talent and wants to be part of the SU program, go get him. As long as he isn't Dutch.

Belgians on the basketball team are OK, but Dutchmen on the football team are not?

What?

The tallest people on the planet and you're not interested? I suspect there are some potential linemen and tight ends there... not to mention some kids that can kick the ball.

 

[orangefog]

Belgians on the basketball team are OK, but Dutchmen on the football team are not?

What?

The tallest people on the planet and you're not interested? I suspect there are some potential linemen and tight ends there... not to mention some kids that can kick the ball.

Just an obscure little thing from an Austin Powers movie, I have nothing against the Dutch, in fact I am fond of their dikes.

 

[longtimefan]

Just an obscure little thing from an Austin Powers movie, I have nothing against the Dutch, in fact I am fond of their dikes.

Did you misspell the last word in your post?

 

[Rautins07]

I

Just an obscure little thing from an Austin Powers movie, I have nothing against the Dutch, in fact I am fond of their dikes.

have nothing against dikes either!

 

[Rautins07]

Maybe HCSS is looking at the Chicago area like Marrone looked at NYC, major metropolitan area with unmined potential, there is nothing wrong with establishing new ties and areas, I doubt we will be giving up on Georgia

 

[rosconey]

didnt you guys hear? rutgirls is pulling strings to get us a big invite- so the new staff is already getting midwest recruiting channels open-

at least thats what ive read on the wv forums:rolling:

 

[CIL]

We have 6-7 offers out to GA kids for the class of 2014.

 

[OttoForLife]

Donovan Jamal McNabb

 

[Noexcuse]

Just an obscure little thing from an Austin Powers movie, I have nothing against the Dutch, in fact I am fond of their dikes.

Nothing wrong with the Dutch at all. Their national team color is appropriate as well.

 

[CuseLegacy]

Do you know who that will be? It seems like all the coaches with connections there are gone.

I care about this because Georgia is the 4th best state, IMO, when it comes to football. If the staff will no longer have a presence there and will shift to the midwest, then I am concerned.

It comes down to use of resources. Its not like the staff can comb all 50 states and spend time and resources there.

Why wouldn't we use this guy...he seems to have the drawl down.

Prior to UCLA, Lea served as an offensive graduate assistant (running backs) at Vanderbilt University in the Spring of 2005. Lea was a three-year letter-winner at Vanderbilt University from 2002-2004, the final year as a graduate student. Lea (whose last name is pronounced LEE) also played baseball in college, lettering at Belmont University in 2001-2002 and Birmingham Southern College in 2000-2001.
During his collegiate career, Lea was a member of the SEC Honor Roll and an All-Academic SEC honoree. He was also a John Wooden Cup finalist, a trophy awarded by Athletes for a Better World, and a National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame honoree. He earned a bachelors in political science from Vanderbilt in 2005 and a Masters in political science from Vanderbilt in 2007.

 

[timkay99]

Alex Hayes was our only GA recruit in 2012 and he committed to the new staff. Granted, he was a player that developed a relationship with SU under the old staff but with McDonald's connections to the south, I really doubt we're not going to continue to mine Georgia.

If McDonald is assigned the Carolinas, GA and FL, then you'll have nothing to worry about.

That is quite an area for the OC to cover. Florida, if you truly want to mine it for the best talent, requires one coach to monitor it at the very least. You need to have relationships with coaches (meaning, if you gave McDonald that big of an area, he would need to build personal relationships with 100+ coaches). While he already has these relationships in Florida, I haven't seen anything to relay he has these connections (at least in sheer #'s) in the other states discussed.

I rather he spend his time breaking down defensive film and devising an offensive game plan then spending time on the phone/emailing/reviewing video during the season with coaches.

I would expect that the "outlier" guys we get from secondary recruiting beats would be better than the Georgia guys we have been getting.

Can you expand on this? I am not quite sure what you mean?

- And, just to be clear, it isn't dissatisfaction. Merely, I am concerned with the amount of resources and time it will take to get into new recruiting territories and to have it pay off. Remember, Marrone tried to get into Texas from the beginning of his tenure and it didn't really pay any dividends until Year 4 (if he stayed).

 

[CIL]

Once again, why is anyone assuming we've stopped recruiting GA when we already have offered 7 kids?

 

[kcsu]

Once you get beyond the driving distance recruits Chicago is a direct flight Detroit Atlanta are directs IL makes sense to me