Is recruiting the reason for the OL struggles?

[OttoinGrotto]

Ravian Pierce must have watched Hay and said, "hold my beer!"

Similar mold yeah, although I think Ravian "Panther Paw" Pierce had a lot more talent.

 

[RF2044]

And to round that out, Addazio (west regions) along with the Nassau cc coach (East) were the prime movers under Marrone in bringing in jucos. Coaching, sure, but first you bring in help, aggressively. You get bigger kids, more ready to play, then you coach. It isn’t the best long range plan, but the alternative (depending on what you have) is taking lumps. Marrone plainly believed he needed help, and he found it in the lines, at LB and safety.

Marrone was so aggressive about it, in fact, that he hired John Anselmo -- the head coach of Nassau CC, which I think most will agree gave the program direct engagement to a JUCO program that it had never had before and hasn't had since.

Anselmo was the reason we landed Tiller, shortly after he got hired. And he's the main reason we landed Hay the next year [or the following, don't remember without looking it up].

I am 100% in favor of leaving no rock unturned. A program like ours needs to seek talent in unusual places -- mining Canada [for example], exploring transfers, looking for kids needing a second chance [i.e., Robinson], and even exploring JUCO [Tidale, Petry]. s But I believe that the historical data reinforces that it isn't anything more than a supplemental strategy for SU -- let's face it, Tiller and Hay were 10+ years ago. Who were the success stories on OL before them? Or since, frankly, prior to Tisdale?

LB, supplemental depth at S, other positions -- there are a lot more of those guys out there at the JUCO level who are P5 caliber than there are OL / DTs, and the linemen who ARE high major are recruited at a premium.

 

[kcsu]

Ravian Pierce must have watched Hay and said, "hold my beer!"

I miss the Rav Dog. Wonder what happened to him after SU.

 

[supp]

I was curious whether su recruiting in the OL was substantially weaker then other teams in the acc. I excluded FSU and Clemson in my calculations. I went back to 2016 Dino’s first recruiting class. We were towards the bottom but not last. There was also not a huge separation between su and the majority of the conference. Below is the results.

su - .8399
BC - .8375
Duke - .8575
GT - .8389
Louisville - .8643
NCST - .8480
NC - .8809
Pitt - 8506
Vir - .8515
VT - .8520
WK - .8404

now some of the programs have been stronger recently in their recruits but this is an average.

As you can see there is not a Substantial difference in recruiting among a majority of the programs. Not sure the exact reason for the OL play but it is not as simple as saying it’s all recruiting.

I'd like to see us hire a guy with significant experience scheming for an undersized and undertalented online. Someone at a lower division school or a Navy. The guys whose previous stops are Nebraska or the pros cannot make the adjustment needed. We will never compete for high level oline or dline recruits consistently.