Recruiting Younger and Younger Players

by DreadedOne on Sep 7, 2008 9:26 AM CDT Comment 5 comments

Last night, the broadcasters brought up the fact that UT already has 19 commitments for next year. While I like getting the jump on people, doesn't it bother anyone that we may be committing guys that still have lots of developing to do?

Perhaps we're getting commitments from guys that were monsters since diapers so the risk is low. On the other hand, what if the dude injures himself or lets it go to his head and starts hanging with the wrong crowd?

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Other Option Has More Downside

There are only so many guys that run 4.4 or lift 500 lbs. Better to risk giving the schollies to the talented guy who tails off than miss the talent all together. In addition, will get worse before it gets better – schollies now going to sophs.

by realmccoy on Sep 7, 2008 11:21 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm a lot...

….more concerned that some kids who can’t afford to travel to Austin or a family of five and only 1 car are not able to make it to Austin, thus receiving no further interest from Texas.

I’m much more concerned that Mack no longer travels to pitch the program in the livingroom of prospects’ mothers. I don’t believe it is a coincidence that as the frequency of being told “no” by OOS recruits increased, the number of OOS recruits being considered by the staff decreased in an even faster pace.

--- All roads to the Big-XII Championship lead through OU/RRS. It's not just another game! We're all about championships here. ---

by HornChamps on Sep 7, 2008 2:36 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

nothing new

Mack Brown has been doing this for many years now. I think it’s a fine strategy, though perhaps not to the extent that Texas does it. It’s easy to see that some recruits are beasts during their junior season. You take these kids whenever they are willing to commit. The earlier the better, in fact. Having a few studs commit early builds momentum for the rest of the class.

However, while getting some early commits is very good, I don’t think it’s necessarily wise to fill up the entire recruiting class by the end of the second Junior Day. Reserve some spots for late-bloomers in-state and for elite OOS prospects that don’t want to decide until they’ve taken all of their visits or until NSD.

Similar to what HornChamps said, I think the most legitimate criticism that can be leveled at Mack’s recruiting strategy is that it is not high energy/intensity. About 90% of our class right now is made up of kids who committed the moment they got an official offer. In other words, these are all kids who were probably enamored of Texas to begin with. MASSIVE kudos to Mack Brown for helping to place Texas in a position where it is such a desirable brand for elite Texas prospects. It’s a huge boon for recruiting.

However, the downside to this is the kids that don’t grow up enamored of Texas don’t play football here. Contrast the Texas approach with that of Urban Meyer. Meyer annually signs recruits who were leans or even commits to other schools, because he recruits the heck out of them. These recruits aren’t UF fans at the beginning of the process (or least not as much as they like another school) but Meyer and co. convince them that UF is the place to be. If Texas would combine their in-state dominance with more OOS tenacity, this program would become a nigh unstoppable juggernaut.

Grammar question: Is it “enamored of” or “enamored with”?

by andy_wooster on Sep 8, 2008 10:16 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

best website ever:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/enamored.html

by billyzane on Sep 8, 2008 10:31 AM CDT up reply actions 3 recs

Oh, great, another place to waste hours.

Actually I bookmarked it, bz. Fine site.

I have a problem with which/that, which, in the universe of grammar problems, is only a speck outside Pluto. But I worked with a grammar nazi once who pounced on every single which/that occurance and could explicate in a manner I didn’t realize was humanly possible. Worst of all, the sonofabitch was right about 99% of the time.

My only reprieve was that the guy was a computer idiot and with the old Apples we had, he would do such things as put the operating system in the trash and then delete it. With every single correction to his copy he would do a Save As and have 20 copies, and he’d forget which one was the final proof. Mindless, stupid shit which I could never reconcile – but that didn’t stop the torrent of abuse I rained upon him. He was as natural an aggie as I ever met, even though he wasn’t an aggie. I think he was Tolstoy’s original apprentice; he writing was long and boring – and absolutely correct.

by whills on Sep 8, 2008 9:14 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs