18 Comments

  1. System Poster

    Unfortunately, two coaching changes and leaving Kliff on the hot seat for three seasons seems to have had a negative effect on our recruiting. As Tuberville (and Chris Beard and Kingsbury’s 2015 class) has shown, you can recruit talented kids to Lubbock with a good sales pitch and at least a little winning. But it doesn’t seem like Wells is or has ever been much of a recruiter, and I’m not convinced there’s going to be a lot of winning in the near future.

    • ianaboyd

      I noted at the time that Wells got some plus talent to Utah State by taking risky guys kicked out elsewhere. Then a story dropped during the season about Utah State’s unimpressive response when such a player was accused of villainy. Just not a good way to do things in the Big 12 right now.

      • System Poster

        Yeah, that was definitely troubling. The reporting on that was bad, though. The initial article insinuated that Wells allowed that guy to stay on the team after learning of the allegations and meeting with the guy, but looking the dates in the story (and Plaintiff’s petition) the meeting with Wells and the player was after the last game of his senior year, so the “allowed to stay on the team” part was inaccurate. Of course, as you point out, when you take on risky guys like he did, those sorts of things can happen.

        And now news is coming out that Tulane and Central Michigan rejected Jett Duffey’s transfer because of a second Title IX allegation that occurred in 2019. If it turns out that this allegation was initially made during the season and they allowed Jett to continue playing, that may be the end of the line for Wells. And maybe Hocutt too, depending on what he knew and how involved he was in that decision.

  2. Clayton Davis

    “They’ve repeatedly tried to be a team that imposes their will in the trenches, which is the inferior way to play the game”

    Bizarrely, there were some lean years (in the Charlie Strong era, I believe) where UT really bottomed out in line recruiting. And that’s after the OL really stopped producing in the late tenure of Brown.

    • System Poster

      That seems to be one of the biggest flaws in recruiting rankings is that the rankings don’t in any way account for the actual positional make up of a class. It’s like how in the Texas A&M Sumlin era, they were always rated pretty high in recruiting, but most of their blue chip players were offensive skill position guys.

      Just as a goof, I used the 247 class calculator to create a class comprised of only the top rated receivers. If a team signed only the 18 highest-rated receivers, it would have the number 1 recruiting class in the country. It seems like it wouldn’t be hard to build something into the algorithm to punish teams that over-recruit at certain positions. But I’m not a computer programmer or mathematician so who knows, maybe it would be.

      • quigley

        Wholeheartedly agree.
        As a start, why not just breakup classes into offense and defense? There are only about 5% of players you’d be wrong about.

        OL recruiting rankings should have 80% as 3-stars because development, nutrition, and technique are more important than “talent” so frequently.

    • ianaboyd

      Charlie kicked out all of the talented OL that Mack had recruited, then Joe Wickline replaced them in part with the sorts of kids he’d recruited at Oklahoma State. 2/3 star developmental types. Left a gaping crater in the roster that it took a while to fill in. The 2017 OL that Herman ended up fielding after injuries to Elijah Rodriguez and Connor Williams was amazingly bad.

      • Will

        Very glad that Holgo let Wickline just coach the line and recruit his son. By rep, he’s gotta be one of the worst assistant coach recruiters out there.

        That said, the line was pretty terrible last year so maybe Wick still held back recruiting. I guess we will see next year when the kids brought in over the last two years are playing everywhere.

  3. JB

    I always felt that Gundy was underrated as a coach and he is able to do more with less. Also felt that Ok. St would suffer mightily if he were to move on. I think the above numbers support my thoughts. Numbers don’t lie!

    Ian, I wanted to get your take on Herman’s QB recruiting strategy. Specifically, the reasoning behind taking 2 QBs in the same recruiting class. It looks like they took Rising and Thompson a few years ago and did that again with Card and Johnson. Johnson and Card seem to be different types of QBs, so I am assuming its more opportunistic recruiting? Hope that one of them pans out and move the other to a different position? In this age of the Portal, its pretty amazing that they are able to pull this off to begin with.

    • ianaboyd

      Card is the QB, JQJ is a pure football player that might end up being any number of things.

      Taking two in the next class that has Milroe is more bizarre.

  4. Andrew

    Right now BU has big question marks overall. The change of staff, including adding more recruiters, resources, & administrative support will be very beneficial. Going forward, this will increase the potential for much improved rankings going forward, most likely during 2022. At least compared to specific measurable Rhule wanted.

    The O returns a significant number of starters, but the D doesn’t have much in the way of starters. So, if BU can put some decent results on the field through player development, this will complement the improved recruiting BU wants to accomplish.

    • ianaboyd

      Baylor is in great shape for the next 5 years and then in iffy shape beyond that because of the threat of realignment.

      • Andrew

        As long as BU continues to make the necessary investments in their overall athletic structure, they’ll be fine. Rhoades made sure the regents understand the importance of making sure the athletics department, especially FB, have the necessary $ and on field success to ensure they won’t get hosed. Of course, we’ll find out what’s what the next 5-6 years. Stay tuned…

        • ianaboyd

          Investment isn’t the issue. It’s fanbase, they simply aren’t an attractive team when everything is driven by TV money. They need to expand their brand within Texas, which is tough.

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