Re: I'm confused...damned if we do...damned if we don't?
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:23 pm
mustangxc wrote:PoconoPony wrote:After the JJ fiasco with ASU; did JJ give up recruiting and/or did recruits give up on SMU not knowing what JJ would be doing????
Klemm left for UCLA that offseason and that is when we lost most of the big-time prospects including Gabe Marks.
Here is a lowdown:
- June came on board bragging about how at Hawaii, he had no recruiting budget, and that he was able to evaluate kids on tape and do an awesome job.
- He made statements when hired around "just think about what I can do when I can actually go visit players".
- However, he set it up where he was the closer, he did no groundwork. On the initial staff, he hired a bunch of ex NFL scouts and continued to do tape evaluation. McKnight and JR did all the legwork.
- McKnight left and we brought on Klemm. He was really passionate about recruiting and was the only person on staff who understood the value of the recruiting services to help drive up interest.
- Klemm had great relationships with the gym community in southern California that got him the inside track on a lot of top players.
- Around the same time as the ASU fiasco, Klemm was also trying to earn a promotion to co-offensive coordinator, which I think we had 4 of on the staff. SMU refused. It had become clear that some shenanigans were going on behind the scenes with Klemm. If the CA recruits had stayed, the NCAA would have been all over SMU. Klemm left and the top recruits went with him, including several who were recruited cleanly by him.
- Klemm was replaced by people who didn't care about recruiting, so JR and Mason were the only people doing a ton of leg work at that point. There was a drop off.
- June got pissed at the recruiting services and told his coaches not to interact. That made it worse.
- JR decided to make a series of instructional tapes on how to defend against the run and shoot. June was pissed. Took JR off the recruiting trail and eventually he was let go.
- JR was replaced by Phillips, who was supposed to be a recruiting stud and fire things back up. He got us into Houston Lamar but ultimately pissed everyone off and was a detriment on the field and in recruiting.
- With Gantz, Klemm, McKnight, and JR gone there was nobody to stoke fire in practice and get things moving. Every practice the last two years was basically a walk through.
- We decided to hire one of June's old contacts for the weight program who was super old school. Half of the players bailed on weight training, and the other half got their own trainers and did their own thing. Many of our players lost upwards of 20 lbs before the start of June's last season. Even Moose hinted at the problem during the kickoff luncheon.
- In conclusion, I don't think June ever changed what he did, or got "lazier". He just did what he did. He was trying to make a point that recruiting could be done on the cheap. At the beginning, however, he had coaches on staff that were working hard to make up for that deficiency. At the end, the coaches who hit the trail hard had left and the results speak for themselves.