Mike Cavan's Recruiting Legacy

[Stallion]

3 other hits that Cavan doesn't get credit for all have something in common. For various reasons they were sidelined after their freshman are 1) Shanderick Charles, 2) that big ole Hispanic offensive lineman that had a great starting freshman year but suffered a career ending injury, 3) the DLM from the Golden Triangle who was outstanding as a freshman but left the university-Jerry? Also, Alex Pahulu was a nice player who left the university. Other schools might find ways to keep these kids in school which makes an SMU coaches' "talent evaluation" artificially low. Was a guy like Desmond Jones a hit or miss. I'd say he was a hit but he goes down as a miss for reasons that have nothing to do with "talent evaluation" This is a very real problem at SMU. Another thing I find very humorous is that every kid at UT is considered a miss who wasn't a multiple year starter. The same kid if he had choosen a CUSA West school might have been all conference. At schools like UT they might have 3-4 Gold Chips at the same position. Automatically some are going to be labeled a miss.

[SMUstang]

That is exactly why I don't understand why these kids go to tu. I'm sure that the few who make it to a starting role get more national attention and pro prospect attention than C-USA players do. But the ones that are on the bench for 4 or 5 years at tu have less of a chance at making it to the pro's than C-USA players. So they role the dice and most of them lose.

[smudad]

Tellis Redmon was an academic inquiry waiting to happen - at least in this market. He and Brewer are still looking for a couple of other guys with which to combine for a complete brain. Redmon leaving school early and declaring for the draft worked out really well for him.

[SMU Football Blog]

Outside of "freakish" circumstances, coaches rightfully should be judged on whether a player pans out regardless of the reasons they don't. Obviously, not every player will succeed, but there are too many reasons why they may not to start picking and choosing which ones are legitimately not a coach's responsibility for not identifying. Generally, if a kid is oft injured, there may be some injury history in HS or somethink about his physical dimensions that might limit the value as a prospect because of the likelyhood of injury. If a kid washes out b/c of grades, the coach should have known that was a possibility when he recruited him and a failure as a coach to discipline him or stay on top of his grades. If the kid turns out to be a head case or gets homesick, same thing.

I give Cavan a pass on Shanderrick Charles, the kid ruined his back playing pickup basketball in a freak accident.

On the flip side, coaches get to act like they were geniuses when they get more than they expected out of a kid. It works itself out.

[PerunaPunch]

3 other hits that Cavan doesn't get credit for all have something in common. For various reasons they were sidelined after their freshman are 1) Shanderick Charles, 2) that big ole Hispanic offensive lineman that had a great starting freshman year but suffered a career ending injury, 3) the DLM from the Golden Triangle who was outstanding as a freshman but left the university-Jerry? Also, Alex Pahulu was a nice player who left the university. Other schools might find ways to keep these kids in school which makes an SMU coaches' "talent evaluation" artificially low.

Stallion,

First off, the handful of "hits" you credit Cavan for is mighty slim pickings over the 5 years he was at SMU. You certainly can't field a good team with a half dozen "hits" over the span of 5 years. Second, I guess I'll have to keep making this point, because you seem unable to grasp it... It's the same point I made earlier... Which is... The big difference between Cavan and Bennett is that Cavan was crushed under the weight of recruiting restrictions. Those that say Bennett's job is easier aren't giving Bennett credit for changing those recruiting restrictions. Bennett was THE instrumental, driving force behind the loosening of these restrictions. Those of you who say Bennett couldn't have done any better than Cavan if they were working under the same constraints have made a LOGIC ERROR. They WERE working under essentially the same constraints, but Bennett got them changed. I don't know if I can state that any simpler.


Mickey,

You're dead wrong. Please don't post as fact something you obviously know nothing about. I don't think it's my place to comment on why Bobby went the JUCO route, but to think that a 6'4, 195 receiver coming out of high school with 4.5 speed who was first team All District, racked up over 800 receiving yards, was asked to play in the state All-Star game, and who was widely considered by coaches as the offensive MVP of district 8-5A drew no interest from recruiters is incredibly naive.

[Stallion]

Look I'm sorry changes made at SMU have really NOTHING to do with Phil Bennett. They have to do with 12 years of ineptitude, restless alumni and loss of revenue. If SMU officials had their way there never would have been any changes. Mounting pressure from the foregoing reasons had everything to do with it. The FACT is that major changes WERE MADE-you are wrong-under Mike Cavan. BUT because it took so long to happen only 1 player-Shanderrick Charles who was recruited under the new recruiting system played on a Cavan team. Let me summarize once more for you the biggest and important changes to this program occurred in Mike Cavan's last year-Phil Bennett admits this-Phil Bennett is reaping the benefits of those changes. That's the facts Pal.

[giacfsp]

Look I'm sorry changes made at SMU have really NOTHING to do with Phil Bennett....

I know we agree on some things and disagree on others, but that statement is simply inaccurate. Coach Bennett has done more behind-the-scenes work to change the scope of football's relationship with the university than any coach since football came back in 1989.

[SMU Football Blog]

Look I'm sorry changes made at SMU have really NOTHING to do with Phil Bennett....

I know we agree on some things and disagree on others, but that statement is simply inaccurate. Coach Bennett has done more behind-the-scenes work to change the scope of football's relationship with the university than any coach since football came back in 1989.

And Stallion knows it, too. He also knows that nobody can point to a press release or public statement saying as much, so he considers himself free to say what he wants regardless of what he knows to be true.

[SMUstang]

Look, I think Stallion is Mike Cavan's brother in law or something and I disagree with him a lot. I liked Cavan personally, but I thought he was a very narrow minded stubborn coach.

What really matters is the direction the program is going now. We should be the top Division 1-A non BCS school in Texas. We should get some of the best recruits in the state. These guys we are getting now were just babies when the dp hit. They could care less about ancient history. We have some of the best facilities, the best location, the best alums, and opportunities galore after graduation. An athlete with a little bit on the ball can end up set for life with a degree from SMU.

Go Stangs

[GoRedGoBlue]

A major difference between Cavan and Bennett is that Cavan's sleepers never panned out. Bennett's have. Bennett is, IMHO, a much better talent evaluator.

Yeah, that's why he decided to start Cedric Dorsey in Game 1.

Then, in Game 2, he played the Richuel Massey as his starter (or primary player)

Then, for most of the season, he plays his 4th string RB Demyron Martin.

During this run, he plays his RB converted to DB, now back at RB Fred Taylor as the primary backup.

And in his final two games, starting with being up 7-0 and in good field position after Demyron gets 5 yards, on 2nd and 5 he inserts - JOHNEY FITZGERALD (who loses a few yards, and we punt on that seried...this shows ALSO that Bennett has no 'feel' for game-time personnel decisions).

Finally, he uses JFitz extensively in the final game.

"We should have never moved him from RB" - Bennett

Nice evaluator of talent, I'd say. Looks more like trial and error.

[GoRedGoBlue]

Look I'm sorry changes made at SMU have really NOTHING to do with Phil Bennett. They have to do with 12 years of ineptitude, restless alumni and loss of revenue. If SMU officials had their way there never would have been any changes. Mounting pressure from the foregoing reasons had everything to do with it. The FACT is that major changes WERE MADE-you are wrong-under Mike Cavan. BUT because it took so long to happen only 1 player-Shanderrick Charles who was recruited under the new recruiting system played on a Cavan team. Let me summarize once more for you the biggest and important changes to this program occurred in Mike Cavan's last year-Phil Bennett admits this-Phil Bennett is reaping the benefits of those changes. That's the facts Pal.

Cavan received relaxed admission procedures (compared to Rossley).

Bennett got even better relaxed admissions standards and procedures than Cavan.

[SMUstang]

Look I'm sorry changes made at SMU have really NOTHING to do with Phil Bennett. They have to do with 12 years of ineptitude, restless alumni and loss of revenue. If SMU officials had their way there never would have been any changes. Mounting pressure from the foregoing reasons had everything to do with it. The FACT is that major changes WERE MADE-you are wrong-under Mike Cavan. BUT because it took so long to happen only 1 player-Shanderrick Charles who was recruited under the new recruiting system played on a Cavan team. Let me summarize once more for you the biggest and important changes to this program occurred in Mike Cavan's last year-Phil Bennett admits this-Phil Bennett is reaping the benefits of those changes. That's the facts Pal.

Cavan received relaxed admission procedures (compared to Rossley).

Bennett got even better relaxed admissions standards and procedures than Cavan.

If I remember correctly, "THE COMMITTMENT" came out while Cavan was still here. So the above statements are probably true.

[SMU Football Blog]

No, the "COMMITMENT" was "unveiled" shortly after Bennett was hired.

[JasonB]

A major difference between Cavan and Bennett is that Cavan's sleepers never panned out. Bennett's have. Bennett is, IMHO, a much better talent evaluator.

Yeah, that's why he decided to start Cedric Dorsey in Game 1.

Then, in Game 2, he played the Richuel Massey as his starter (or primary player)

Then, for most of the season, he plays his 4th string RB Demyron Martin.

During this run, he plays his RB converted to DB, now back at RB Fred Taylor as the primary backup.

And in his final two games, starting with being up 7-0 and in good field position after Demyron gets 5 yards, on 2nd and 5 he inserts - JOHNEY FITZGERALD (who loses a few yards, and we punt on that seried...this shows ALSO that Bennett has no 'feel' for game-time personnel decisions).

Finally, he uses JFitz extensively in the final game.

"We should have never moved him from RB" - Bennett

Nice evaluator of talent, I'd say. Looks more like trial and error.

But at least he didn't take over half the season to find ShanD, who was even more dominant than Martin.

I agree that Bennett has a lot to learn and improve at when it comes to in-game decision making. I wasn't commenting about that. But there can be no arguement that Bennett is a better evaluator when it comes to recruiting than Cavan. Period. Bennett, in his first few classes, has had to use a handful of scholarships on sleepers, just like Cavan did. But Bennett evaluates and finds talented players to fill those scholarships. Cavan was not able to do that.

There can be no argument that this roster is much faster and more athletic than it was under Cavan. Period.

[PerunaPunch]

SMU coach Mike Cavan said if he had known Charles was going to be so good, so soon, "we'd have put him in the first ballgame."

"I think you have to say we certainly are surprised," Cavan said.

By Matt Curry
Associated Press

- - - - -

The fact is that had not Keylon Kincade missed the SJSU game due to a concussion, we might never have even seen ShanDerrick. Prior to KK's concussion, he'd been riding the bench the first 4 games of '01.

- Punch