Is is just me

[davidsmu94]

but looking through rivals, it appears that our coaches are being more agressive in the athletes we are recruiting?

[smu diamond m]

About damn time?

[Stallion]

seriously in what way? We are the only school in Texas w/o a commitment. The school that is being more agressive in recruiting is Rice-they've already have 30 reported offers-they haven't had 30 reported offers in the last 10 years(not counting Graham) this early before. Only a slight exaggeration. Rice has clearly changed their admission process to identify prospective players who could be admitted much earlier-what SMU called streamlining the admission process which SMU did circa 2000. What's more I don't see SMU mentioned prominently among the few kids we have offered. Not a great sign. I see SMU listed with about 3 players in the Rivals Lone Star Recruiting Texas Top 100-and most of the kids on that list have some pretty big offer lists right now ie. SMU ain't in the Top 6-8 schools for 97% of the Top 100. Heck it looked like Rice and Tulsa for god's sake were listed on about 7-8 kids. Looks like bennett is playing the same old game of not even bothering to offer 95% of the Texas Top 100 probably because he can't get them to return SMU's phone calls. . Too early to jump off the bridge but I certainly don't think there is much evidence to say "what a swell job Coach is doing in recruiting" either.

[BUS]

Stallion, do you suggest he put his name and phone number on a hundred dollar bill and tack it up on the High School bulletin board?

That might get a few calls.

Bennett is the best recruiter we have had since we came back from football. He does the pre- ROAD work and is a good projector of growth.

He AIN't perfect but good.

[NickSMU17]

Bennet sucks....please bring someone new in so I can be optimistic again.

[Stallion]

Phil Bennett is a Big 12 Offensive Coordinator-he has never, and I think its safe to say, as he is well into his 7th recruiting season, probably will never have the charisma to grab the interest of the Texas High school recruit. Folks we see this year after year. He can't even get in the door of the best talent in Texas and Dallas. He may have better than average skills in evaluating players. I would think after we have seen a year of Matt Doherty some of you might be able to tell the difference between a coach with charisma and one without it. Why are our standards for Bennett so much lower.

[PhirePhilBennett]

Phil Bennett is a Big 12 Offensive Coordinator-he has never, and I think its safe to say, as he is well into his 7th recruiting season, probably will never have the charisma to grab the interest of the Texas High school recruit. Folks we see this year after year. He can't even get in the door of the best talent in Texas and Dallas. He may have better than average skills in evaluating players. I would think after we have seen a year of Matt Doherty some of you might be able to tell the difference between a coach with charisma and one without it. Why are our standards for Bennett so much lower.

Read my handle

The truth of the matter is that he came in here and 'learned on the job' to be a head coach...well, that took 3 years or so. By then we had a 3-9 and 0-12 season under his belt.

ANY recruiting euphoria PB might have enjoyed disipated faster than a crowd of Neiman Marcus perfume counter workers after BUS lets out one of his famous SBDs.

[CA Mustang]

Phil Bennett is a Big 12 Offensive Coordinator...

Wasn't he the defensive coordinator at KSU?

[Stallion]

Your special exception is noted-I'll amend my pleadings

[davidsmu94]

Well at least I stirred something up. My original comments are based on the fact that the kids we are shown as recruiting. I observe that the people we have offers to are also getting offers from some BSC schools. Before I noticed we were the only ones recruiting some of the kids.
JMO

[Stampede]

you are right and correct and Phil is making inroads with better recruits. Just wait and see.

And besides, with regards to recruiting, you know it is like everything else that I know of....whether recruiting football players or attorneys.... the big firms get the best prospective attorneys out of law school. Does that mean that an "middle-of-the-road" attorney can not grow into a GREAT "Perry Mason-esque" lawyer?

Absolutely not ... just ask the boys at Winn, Winn & Winn. Right Stalliion?

[PonyKai]

Personally I would rather not have to bank on the "hidden gem" rarity of an average player growing into an outstanding one which happens only once in a great while. Plus...THAT DOESN'T WIN GAMES. Sure Justin Rogers arrived as a 200 LB defensive end and wound up as an All Conference draft pick, but the 30 players surrounding him didn't. It's going to take two steps:

1.) The less talented squad that we have must outwork their opponents and play better as a team to win.

2.) Winning draws better recruits.

This program will not advance to the next step, much less the top 25 hoping to find a diamond in the rough once every 3 or 4 years.

[Ponymon]

Phil Bennett is a Big 12 Offensive Coordinator-he has never, and I think its safe to say, as he is well into his 7th recruiting season, probably will never have the charisma to grab the interest of the Texas High school recruit. Folks we see this year after year. He can't even get in the door of the best talent in Texas and Dallas. He may have better than average skills in evaluating players. I would think after we have seen a year of Matt Doherty some of you might be able to tell the difference between a coach with charisma and one without it. Why are our standards for Bennett so much lower.

What do you mean? He does a great job of getting top recruits from the previous year. The only problem with most of them has been that they have had major surgery on their knees before looking at us.

[expony18]

Personally I would rather not have to bank on the "hidden gem" rarity of an average player growing into an outstanding one which happens only once in a great while. Plus...THAT DOESN'T WIN GAMES. Sure Justin Rogers arrived as a 200 LB defensive end and wound up as an All Conference draft pick, but the 30 players surrounding him didn't. It's going to take two steps:

1.) The less talented squad that we have must outwork their opponents and play better as a team to win.

2.) Winning draws better recruits.

This program will not advance to the next step, much less the top 25 hoping to find a diamond in the rough once every 3 or 4 years.

rogers class was also PB's first class that was put together after cavan was dismissed, even with coach ringo doing what he could to secure to commitments that had been made. so one player so far has been drafted under "his" recruits, thats not bad considering the only one who was drated under cavan recruits was KG. and i know stallion loves to say cavan out recruited PB, but based on players drafted they're tied

[PonyKai]

I'm not comparing the two. I was just saying that over the past two decades, and during at the least, most of Phil Bennett's tenure, SMU has not had excellent atheletes and skilled polished football players lining up on both sides of the ball. What they have had are players that fly under the radar or come with caveats or baggage who emerge and turn into impact players. SMU has relied on the "diamond in the rough" which comes along every so often but it does not build a winning program.

However I also do believe that more recently SMU has attracted better atheletes and players who are STAYING at SMU and are contributing to the success of the football team. See Justin Willis, Joe Sturdivant, Adrian Haywood, Bryan McCann, Kennedy, and Vincent Chase. While these players are certainly not blue chip, they are recruits who can be depended upon (as long as all goes well) to contribute to the success of the team. They are not the 1 or 2 star nobodys who turn out to be weight room/practice fanatics who develop into impact players.