New Director of HS Relations: Dennis Thomas

[blizz]

The fact that they are pulling kids from all over the country should be to their credit. It means they are going through a lot of film and trusting their own evaluations and process. That's what good coaches do. If you are paying any attention to recruiting you'll see that they go after a ton of high level kids from the immediate area, the first few rounds of offers are almost all NY, NE, PA and NJ. Unfortunately we havent landed many (maybe none?) of those kids. From what I have seen it's not from lack of effort from the coaches. The other thing to remember is that existing relationships that the staff has with the recruiting networks of coaches, analysts, and scouts dictates where a lot of offers end up going because they have a richer body of information and often a better path to get in front of some of these more coveted recruits. It was clear early on that Dino understood this and factored it into his hiring decisions. Lustig had strong ties to PA, Reno and Chip West to the DMV (while not particularly local, very talent rich given proximity), and Ahmad, Campinale, and now Thomas to NJ. Let's not also forget that NJ is a notoriously difficult region to crack in terms of recruiting relationships. That was a glaring resource that dried up when Robinson took over the program, that elite talent flow from NJ pretty much dried up over night with the departure of DeLeone and Coach P.

 

[TexanMark]

You recruit anyone that makes your team better. There is no guarantee that the extra amount of time recruiting northeast kids will lead to more of them choosing SU. Even if they choose Cuse there's no guarantee they pan out. Yes, you have to put the most time into your region but you also have to recruit other areas just in case. Its a mixed bag for us. Our best guys have been from states like Oregon North Carolina DMV, FL Canada and NYC/NJ. Lamson might be the heir apparent to GS and he's a Cali kid. You dont have to travel as much these days. You have satelitte camps, more quality video tools to evaluate. They have zoom, skype, face time, social media. Its not hard to recruit kids from far distance anymore. This is not exclusive to SU. Everyone does this.

SU being private should rely on former players and trusted alumni to help identify interested prospects in areas outside traditional areas. If former Starter or Walk on from '02 says his neighbor kid from Utah is interested in SU...they need to put him on the board. This kid might be a D2 or D3 player but he might also jump at a preferred walk on position too.

I think SU is figuring out that you need to embrace the former players. If SU had figured that out with GRob and Marrone we'd be in a much better spot.

Our track record with legacy recruits is appalling.

 

[SU68]

I always wonder why NJ has so many more quality players coming out of high school than NY, a much larger state. Why has NY de-emphasized football?

 

[Cuse'91]

I always wonder why NJ has so many more quality players coming out of high school than NY, a much larger state. Why has NY de-emphasized football?

More private Catholic schools with better football programs? Wonder if it's a better business environment in Jersey. I moved my business across the border into Orange County, because Los Angeles County is ridiculous in terms of expenses; even by California standards.

 

[CuseLegacy]

 

[money3189]

SU being private should rely on former players and trusted alumni to help identify interested prospects in areas outside traditional areas. If former Starter or Walk on from '02 says his neighbor kid from Utah is interested in SU...they need to put him on the board. This kid might be a D2 or D3 player but he might also jump at a preferred walk on position too.

I think SU is figuring out that you need to embrace the former players. If SU had figured that out with GRob and Marrone we'd be in a much better spot.

Our track record with legacy recruits is appalling.

You are absolutely right. I will just add that the legacy thing falls in line with the 20 year status of this program. They don’t want to go to losing programs. Also, the days of “I’m going here because my parents went there” are rare. Traditional methods are not as common. There’s way too many extrinsic factors now

 

[MSOrange]

You are absolutely right. I will just add that the legacy thing falls in line with the 20 year status of this program. They don’t want to go to losing programs. Also, the days of “I’m going here because my parents went there” are rare. Traditional methods are not as common. There’s way too many extrinsic factors now

Agree. I think Deon Maddox can be a tremendous asset with relationships with alums who are now high school coaches or who have leads on potential prospects. But winning is what will help us with legacy recruits.