Recruiting Reality | Page 3 | Syracusefan.com

Recruiting Reality

B what’s your evaluation of our current recruiting situation.
I've always waited until the class is complete in February before freaking out or getting upset. That being said, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned.

It's pretty clear what our staff's plan was this season, take kids they wanted that were willing to commit early (the campers) and then prove last year wasn't a fluke this season. The higher rated guys that were committing at the end of the season would see the progress and we'd be in a good position. Unfortunately with the way the season has gone, it's going to be tough to land a lot of those guys and we might end up scrambling.

Still time to turn this around, both on the field and in recruiting, so save the panic for February.
 
IF this was the last staff, all the guys we had verballed now would be 2-4" shorter, smaller, and slower, but "hard nosed". :rolleyes:
And the few who weren't short and slow would de-commit a week before early signing day.
 
BTW, we landed a blue chip center prospect two classes ago in Sampson; wish he hadn't screwed up on his recruiting trip -- think of how our OL depth [especially on the interior] would be improved if he hadn't made a dumb decision that caused him to be denied admittance.
We screwed up? What?
 
Ewe donut reed sew will.
ewe.jpg
 
I’m not sure what the answer is, but we still have a long way to go.

Your last statement is an interesting one because I think we're talking about two distinct finish lines or distances we need to travel. We 'have a long way to go' in terms of building a roster that compete with higher level teams and put us into position to win consistently. We're seeing that's true this season, obviously, as only the most optimistic of posters is feeling comfortable about any of the matchups we have remaining.

That goal, however, I see as different from landing top 300 kids and having a recruiting class that lands in the top 35 or so. I think that one is even further off. Consider:
  • We have very few inherent advantages as a program. We're certainly in better position financially than we would have been had we not joined the ACC, but we're never going to be the program leading the way in spending and facilities.
  • We have a strong history but even the more recent of our successes probably don't carry much weight with kids born after McNabb last played with the Orange and even after Freeney for the most part at this point.
  • We're located in the non-football capital of the US in the northeast
  • Our weather may be overrated but it's certainly not winning many people over if they have doubts.
  • The ACC touches many recruiting hot beds but we're a bit of a fish out of water if we're hoping to pull a bunch of kids from the Carolinas/Georgia/Florida. And, if those kids are bigger recruits, we're probably battling some SEC schools for them as well.
  • The Dome hasn't been a true draw for more than a decade at least. Now if it is upgraded, crowded and rocking, that might change things but that's a ways away and I, at least, am skeptical of what it will be and how well we'll draw.
I don't know ... long way to go is an understatement in terms of landing multiple top 300 type guys.
 
Yeah whats the deal on the recruiting front?
Not that I know/thought that things were looking up but it wasn't too long ago where it seemed very possible to bring in guys like Van Dyke, Poitier, Meiga, Pogorelc, Kinsler. I know Meiga and Van Dyke are committed eleswhere. But do we even have a chance at getting the likes of Poitier, Kinsler, Pogorelc. That is the kind of talent we need to turn this thing around.
All of their recruitments seem to be pointing in other directions.

From my distant opinion, 2020 recruiting class could be disasterous
 
Meanwhile friggin UNC signs the #2 player in the country.

A mediocre at best football program that’s nowhere close to a “football factory” that plays in our league and lost to us last year...signs the number 2 player.

Wow.
 
Meanwhile friggin UNC signs the #2 player in the country.

A mediocre at best football program that’s nowhere close to a “football factory” that plays in our league and lost to us last year...signs the number 2 player.

Wow.
Do you think recruiting happens in a vacuum?

Edit: he also is from NC.
 
Do you think you’re some kind of recruiting expert that’s telling me something here?

If he was from NY, he’d go to Penn State.
“ifs and buts were candies and nuts we'd all have a merry Christmas” anything can happen with any specific recruit. I’ll wait till the end of the class before passing judgement but I’m liking the kids we have committed now. If you want to act like we are getting 2 stars and people who can’t compete.
 
“ifs and buts were candies and nuts we'd all have a merry Christmas” anything can happen with any specific recruit. I’ll wait till the end of the class before passing judgement but I’m liking the kids we have committed now. If you want to act like we are getting 2 stars and people who can’t compete.

What does any of that have to do with anything I said?

UNC, of all programs, signed the number 2 recruit in the country. That’s what I said.

For some reason you’re rambling about somebody acting like we get 2 star recruits.
 
Our recruiting as it currently stands is not going to get us out of the hole we’re in. This season’s results are not going to get players’ attention for a February push unless we sell immediate playing time.

Other than Monroe our recruiters are pretty bad.
 
I live in Virginia, which along with the Carolina's turn out a ton of highly rated athletes. The press coverage is quite impressive as is the fan attendance and interest. There are individual high schools in and around Richmond that turn out more Division I players than you see in the entire western NY area. Not surprising that these athletes want to play for larger state universities as opposed to smaller private schools in the Northeast. Syracuse is perceived as more of a basketball school. It looked like we were moving toward changing that perception after last season's successes but it looks like those gains are short lived. A new dome might bring some more buzz back.
 
I live in Virginia, which along with the Carolina's turn out a ton of highly rated athletes. The press coverage is quite impressive as is the fan attendance and interest. There are individual high schools in and around Richmond that turn out more Division I players than you see in the entire western NY area. Not surprising that these athletes want to play for larger state universities as opposed to smaller private schools in the Northeast. Syracuse is perceived as more of a basketball school. It looked like we were moving toward changing that perception after last season's successes but it looks like those gains are short lived. A new dome might bring some more buzz back.

I would agree if you said Syracuse was "perceived" as a "small private school." It is actually about the same size as UVA and Clemson.
 
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This is just insane. Hate them all you want and the horrific things that have happened there but this is why recruits forget about the Joe P era and choose to go there. Crazy atmosphere and hard to compete for top kids in the north east with this kind of fan base/money as well as continued success year after year.

 
This is just insane. Hate them all you want and the horrific things that have happened there but this is why recruits forget about the Joe P era and choose to go there. Crazy atmosphere and hard to compete for top kids in the north east with this kind of fan base/money as well as continued success year after year.


But they’re playing old songs. That’s not what the players want according to adults on here.
 
Do you think you’re some kind of recruiting expert that’s telling me something here?

If he was from NY, he’d go to Penn State.
Exactly. Kids from our own backyard (Marquise Walker, Dorsey Levens, etc.) don't even come here.
 
This is just insane. Hate them all you want and the horrific things that have happened there but this is why recruits forget about the Joe P era and choose to go there. Crazy atmosphere and hard to compete for top kids in the north east with this kind of fan base/money as well as continued success year after year.


In fairness, the vast majority of those people are screwed. I don't know what kind of "honor code" there is among coaches, but I cant imagine PSU is neg recruited close to hard enough. Same with the southern schools. Full disclosure, I am not African American, but it is weird to me that kids from the North with offers from all over the place, chose to go to school at Clemson - the campus sited on, and is an homage to, the plantation of John C Calhoun, who was an ardent proponent of slavery.
 
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This is just insane. Hate them all you want and the horrific things that have happened there but this is why recruits forget about the Joe P era and choose to go there. Crazy atmosphere and hard to compete for top kids in the north east with this kind of fan base/money as well as continued success year after year.


yeah and we can’t even get an orange out right...

sadly I think part of the issue is people use syracuse games as a “status” in the area...

if everyone was into the game like they are at a lot of other schools in the dome we would have one of the greatest atmospheres in college football, if not the greatest

not sure if that’s something that’s ever possible at the dome
 
yeah and we can’t even get an orange out right...

sadly I think part of the issue is people use syracuse games as a “status” in the area...

if everyone was into the game like they are at a lot of other schools in the dome we would have one of the greatest atmospheres in college football, if not the greatest

not sure if that’s something that’s ever possible at the dome

Of course it is. But, you have to WIN. Dino proved it last year. SU went 10 - 3 and season ticket sales soared. Keep in mind that in the Northeast, football is entertainment. Watching a lousy team is not entertaining. In the South, they go to games to worship the team because it is religion.
 

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