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Stallion should like this...added part is in bold

JJ was "...amazed at the talent level available. [SMU] received over 2000 tapes of players" most of whom were rated two stars or below and had no other significant offers, save a FCS offer or two

I will say I did a better job than the SID in finding POSITIVE information on these guys. Staffing low over there? Couldn't they at least read my posts?

Stallion wrote:I will say I did a better job than the SID in finding POSITIVE information on these guys. Staffing low over there? Couldn't they at least read my posts?

Any thoughts on this class now that it is official?

Not much more than I've said already. Basically, the top half of the class is fine-not great-few difference makers, the second half of the class are some serious sleepers who should thank June Jones for taking the SMU job and give them a chance to play DIA. But I can find some things I like about the sleepers especialy the physical talent of Drewery, Nwangwu and Whittington that I think translates to DIA level. Some of the out of state guys don't know much about-but they sure were short on offers. I'd just as soon have cut this list by about 6 and saved them for DIA transfers or late qualifiers.

What about the Jucos, what impression does that give you about the changes to the model? Would these guys have had trouble getting in out of HS?

Deyon MElroy was a non-qualier out of high school because he never took the SAT/ACT and that is unusual. This is where I wished Jones had more time to recruit the December as well as February JUCOs so we could more clearly judge. However, Odiari had his scrapes with trouble at OSU. I think Odiari and McElroy make us a better team in 2008 and hope to see more of these types of players. Never addressed some of our defensive weaknesses with immediate help though.

Stallion wrote:Never addressed some of our defensive weaknesses with immediate help though.

Really?

DL Ellison (already enrolled) had offers from Tulsa and Houston. Odiari STARTED 4 games for Okie State as a true freshman. 3-star DB recruit McElroy supposedly has NFL potential -- that coming directly from a former NFL head coach.

Given that Jones had 3 weeks to grab some JUCO help, I thought he did pretty damn good. Especially considering that it's SMU we're talking about. Maybe they have fixed some things in admissions.

Webmaster wrote:

Stallion wrote:Never addressed some of our defensive weaknesses with immediate help though.

Really?

DL Ellison (already enrolled) had offers from Tulsa and Houston. Odiari STARTED 4 games for Okie State as a true freshman. 3-star DB recruit McElroy supposedly has NFL potential -- that coming directly from a former NFL head coach.

Given that Jones had 3 weeks to grab some JUCO help, I thought he did pretty damn good. Especially considering that it's SMU we're talking about. Maybe they have fixed some things in admissions.

Odiari and McElroy are certainly guys that can have an immediate impact. However, it is not common for D-Linemen to make immediate impact their freshman year. It is probably a lot less common for them to make an immediate impact when the particular D-Lineman was a TE in highschool.

I think he is just saying it would have been nice if we could have scored another JUCO DT and LB to go with the two players we got. Thats all.

i think he views Ellison as a LB anyway . . . and Huahulu may have a shot to play early . . . big freakin wrestler!

Well Ellison is listed as DL on the official release and I would imagine they got those projected positions from the coaching staff and not from ponyfan popular opinion, but I could be wrong.

SMUshouldbebowling wrote:i think he views Ellison as a LB anyway . . . and Huahulu may have a shot to play early . . . big freakin wrestler!

I remember a undersized DLineman by the name of ALEX PAHULU who had a pretty good Freshman season.

The most impressive factor was that SMU played some very big Offensive lines that season. BYU, Utah, etc.

Maybe Huahulu can do the same his freshman year.

MustangIcon wrote:

Webmaster wrote:

Stallion wrote:Never addressed some of our defensive weaknesses with immediate help though.

Really?

DL Ellison (already enrolled) had offers from Tulsa and Houston. Odiari STARTED 4 games for Okie State as a true freshman. 3-star DB recruit McElroy supposedly has NFL potential -- that coming directly from a former NFL head coach.

Given that Jones had 3 weeks to grab some JUCO help, I thought he did pretty damn good. Especially considering that it's SMU we're talking about. Maybe they have fixed some things in admissions.

Odiari and McElroy are certainly guys that can have an immediate impact. However, it is not common for D-Linemen to make immediate impact their freshman year. It is probably a lot less common for them to make an immediate impact when the particular D-Lineman was a TE in highschool.

I think he is just saying it would have been nice if we could have scored another JUCO DT and LB to go with the two players we got. Thats all.

I hear what you're saying. But I also think that getting a big transfer LB in Odiari and a shutdown CB in McElroy will bring some immediate relief to a couple of the glaring holes we had last year. Rock Dennis returning to the backfield should help too.

And sure, yeah, I wish we could have found a couple of monster JUCO DTs. I am encouraged from what I hear about Huahula and Pittman though. At least both of them have the size to get into the mix pretty quickly.

But in the end, I think Jones did pretty well given 3 weeks, and I think the class took a dramatic upturn after his hiring. Jones received over 2,000 tapes from players after accepting the SMU job. Will be interesting to see if the surge of enthusiasm continues. If so, Recruiting Roundup '09 should be stellar -- even through Stallion's 3/4 empty glass.

Webmaster wrote:

MustangIcon wrote:

Webmaster wrote:

Stallion wrote:Never addressed some of our defensive weaknesses with immediate help though.

Really?

DL Ellison (already enrolled) had offers from Tulsa and Houston. Odiari STARTED 4 games for Okie State as a true freshman. 3-star DB recruit McElroy supposedly has NFL potential -- that coming directly from a former NFL head coach.

Given that Jones had 3 weeks to grab some JUCO help, I thought he did pretty damn good. Especially considering that it's SMU we're talking about. Maybe they have fixed some things in admissions.

Odiari and McElroy are certainly guys that can have an immediate impact. However, it is not common for D-Linemen to make immediate impact their freshman year. It is probably a lot less common for them to make an immediate impact when the particular D-Lineman was a TE in highschool.

I think he is just saying it would have been nice if we could have scored another JUCO DT and LB to go with the two players we got. Thats all.

I hear what you're saying. But I also think that getting a big transfer LB in Odiari and a shutdown CB in McElroy will bring some immediate relief to a couple of the glaring holes we had last year. Rock Dennis returning to the backfield should help too.

And sure, yeah, I wish we could have found a couple of monster JUCO DTs. I am encouraged from what I hear about Huahula and Pittman though. At least both of them have the size to get into the mix pretty quickly.

But in the end, I think Jones did pretty well given 3 weeks, and I think the class took a dramatic upturn after his hiring. Jones received over 2,000 tapes from players after accepting the SMU job. Will be interesting to see if the surge of enthusiasm continues. If so, Recruiting Roundup '09 should be stellar -- even through Stallion's 3/4 empty glass.

He did a GREAT job in 3 weeks in my opinion.

I like how he said : " I think he has a chance to come in and compete right away and we're counting on him to do that. Competition makes everybody better, and I think Bo Levi Mitchell will do that for our quarterbacks." about Bo so it will be interesting to see what happens with Qb next year

and "He will get his chance to play, and as I told all the quarterbacks, whoever the best player is, is going to play. " about Braden smith..

I also saw where it said " We see him as an outside linebacker and he has an unbelievable gear also to get to the football. " about Andrew Robiskie. I thought he was OL? cause according to http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/smu ... ingDay.pdf he is listed as OL

SMU21TCU10 wrote:I like how he said : " I think he has a chance to come in and compete right away and we're counting on him to do that. Competition makes everybody better, and I think Bo Levi Mitchell will do that for our quarterbacks." about Bo so it will be interesting to see what happens with Qb next year

and "He will get his chance to play, and as I told all the quarterbacks, whoever the best player is, is going to play. " about Braden smith..

I also saw where it said " We see him as an outside linebacker and he has an unbelievable gear also to get to the football. " about Andrew Robiskie. I thought he was OL? cause according to http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/smu ... ingDay.pdf he is listed as OL

The Robiskie quote is one of the more interesting quotes to me. I can't imagine an OLB at 275 lbs. Wonder what they see his ideal playing weight as? What kind of speed does he have? And whatr kind of defense are we going to run?????