Duke gets top Texas recruit

[No Cal Pony]

I was sadden and shocked to read this morning that duke (of all schools) recruited a top d-lineman from Houston. He sounds like a bruiser that SMU should've gotten. How does this happen? Vince Oghobaase, a 6-6, 300lb. d-lineman from Houston Hastings signed with duke. His parents said it was as importnat to go to an academically quality school, as football. Yes duke may rank higher than SMU, but I believe even SMU could beat duke in football. They make SMU look great. On top of that, duke apparently is front running for another Texas kid. Martellus Bennett of Alief, Texas. A top tight end recruit. Anohter 6-6, 240 pounder. I thought Bennett was supposed to be getting these kinds of kids. What is up? Stallion, do you know anything? Anybody? Reading this news was crushing.

Go Ponies!

[Stallion]

15 years of naivete. No but Duke's a great school. Even I would have to pause to consider an offer from a Stanford or Duke over SMU. BTW where did you get the idea we were signing Top 50 type kids like the Big O and Bennett -this years class comes almost exclusively from the bottom half of the Texas recruiting stock.

[giacfsp]

I saw that, and how that happened is beyond me. Yes, Puke is a great school, but Miami's a good school, too, in the same conference, with a chance to win, and he chose to go to Durham? Freaky.

[SoCal_Pony]

Duke’s RPI ranking this season was 82 versus SMU’s ranking of 97. Last year Duke was ranked 73 versus our 116, so I wouldn’t conclude we are a better football team.

It is clear from his choice that academics far overrode football.

It’s like going to a bakery and looking at 2 very burnt cookies and saying, ‘Oh this one is definitely better than that one’ when you also have the choice of decent cookies. Now if we had a solid football program the outcome may have been different.

The real people who should be upset are those at Rice, whose academics are in the Duke stratosphere. Ours clearly is not; nor is Miami’s

[No Cal Pony]

Stallion, thanks, but I never said that we were signing the Top 50 kids, but should duke?

So Cal. Rankings aside, I've seen both teams. We would beat duke. Have you ever been to wade wallace to see duke? What a joke.

As for academics, duke is better, but depends on what you want to compare. In many areas SMU is just as good. And I still would go to Dallas, and SMU, than Durham (which is one messed up city) and the university of new jersey, durham campus.

Still, how does duke compare to getting Bennett, who apparently has been offered by miami, ok, ut, and cal? If the kid wants academics too, why not SMU?

Go Ponies!

[Stallion]

From past experience over the last 15 years SMU has rarely won recruiting wars with the Stanfords, Dukes, Northwesterns, Vanderbilts or even Tulanes and even for Texas players.

[DiamondM75]

Why are we all complaining so? Was this guy even on our radar? Did we offer him? Did he visit? etc. etc.

I have faith in Bennetts recruiting abilities, and if our coaches didn't have an interest in this guy, then there is a reason.

[50's PONY]

Stallion is right plus the ACC is now one of the elite conferences.

[Ikus]

It's hard to argue with his choice. He's going to a superior academic institution, in the best conference in the country, and living in one of the most beautiful areas in the country. I do hope that we at least tried, though. But I've never seen SMU mentioned in connection with this guy.

On another DT note, there's a guy in Killeen (I think) named Roy Miller, who by all accounts is among the top DTs in the nation. He committed to Oklahoma. Then there was a report that he's really excited about getting an offer from Texas. Then I read the other day that he's suddenly hot for UCLA. We've been on his list (albeit near the bottom of that list) all along. Is there a snowball's chance in hell of sneaking into the race?

[Stallion]

No

[Charleston Pony]

Having lived in Durham 4 years, I will second the comment about it being a beautiful area and wouldn't fault anyone for selecting Duke, even though anyone who does has to know it will be tougher to win there than it will be at SMU. As for our getting more competitive for top Texas talent, I believe it will happen if and when we can show that SMU can consistently compete for CUSA championships. Bennett still has a HUGE challenge ahead.

[EastStang]

That's why the Pye model hamstrung us. The only students we COULD recruit were of Rice.Duke.Stanford.NW.Harvard calibre and they were getting offers from those schools. We are a great academic institution and for some majors are better than Rice, Duke, Stanford and NW, but for most majors we just aren't at their level. In recruiting the academically minded student athlete we lose against these schools. Then for the athlete that was on our level, we couldn't recruit them until late when UNT, TCU, OSU, La. Tech, had already gotten them inked.