Stallion / HFVictory Question

[SoCal_Pony]

If you were assigning a letter grade for JJ’s commitments last year and one for this year, what would they be?

Also, of our current 10 commitments, do only 2 have BCS offers……Michael O'Guin with Stanford and K-State offers and Connor Nichols with a Vanderbilt offer?

Thanks in advance for your response….you two are far and away the most informative recruiting posters on this board.

[SMU21TCU10]

Does Nichols have a Vandy offer?

[AusTxPony]

Are you implying that JJ has no idea how to recruit? Or that we are sunk before we begin? Or what are you thinking about our recruits?

[Mexmustang]

I certainly don't have the credibility of Stallion, but my opinion is so far so good. We still need 2-3 top recruits to move the overall ratings up and perhaps set the stage for 1-2 surprises. There are three players that I am scratching my head over and one that no one has ever heard of until Monday, whose film has got to excite everyone. My best guess is that we are signing a number of players for a positon that they don't currently play--specifically some offensive players that we don't recognize as outstanding at their current high school position, but have the chance to make good to great defensive players in college. Trying to guess the growth, matturity and atleticism of 17 year olds has got to be a formidable task, after the first 25-35 players in the state, it is very difficult to grade them before their senior season. Let's see how they grade out in November.
Remember, June identified a number of players early that didn't have 4-5 star pre-season ratings and while we haven't signed them, a number of big schools have now come around with real interest. I would bet that the same thing may happen with a number of these recruits. Just how I feel about how things are going.

[Stallion]

there is no such thing as a preseason 4-5 star since star ratings don't come out until Mid May. Most of these (Texas) guys who some claim were "identified" by June Jones were sure fire recruits all along-most in fact had already been identified in past Rivals/Scout stories as top players. Now the guys SMU has signed w/o other offers might fall in that category but I've yet to see their status upgraded since June Jones offered. Compare to some of the early commits TCU got. Even after their commitments to TCU-the Big 12 and BCS offers have been pouring in for all their players. One 6-6 OLM is up to about 10 offers now-most all of them BCS offers. I believe they all now have BCS offers.

UPDATE: TCU has 6 commitments now with 32 offers and just about every one of them except maybe Blake Roberts didn't have an offer when they committed to TCU. If any Coach can claim to have identified more hot recruits early I'd say its TCU Gary Patterson based on the results so far.


We'll see. I think Bordano, O'Guin are definite highlites. I was impressed by Swope's video from the very start even though he has some physical drawbacks. Ditto with Greenbauer-I'm just not sure they will excell in Division 1A but at their videos at the high school level I thought were impressive. I think Connor Nichols projects well as a LB but not so well as a Division 1A Safety-just my opinion after viewing his video. I'd rather have quick LB than a Safety that was a Step-slow but that's not been uncommon around here. I think Jeremy Johnson looks like a decent recruit-I'm surprised he doesn't have 2-3 offers. I'm intriqued by his teammate Ricky Collins based upon workout video-I bet there is some reason we don't know that he didn't play varsity until late in the season. You can bet I'll be following Johnson/Collins tandem weakly during their senior seasons. Most of the others appear to be sleepers-they maybe projecting to a different college position and there is very little to go on. For example the Hightower kid was obviously playing out of position in high school as a 6-1, 210 pound DT-but that may have been necessitated to get the best players on the field-it would be great if he was moved to a more appropriate position in his senior year but Hightower is loaded with Shaun Lewis and their highly recruited Safety Harvey Jackson. Just not enough information yet on a kid like that-that's Jones' job to identify those players.

I think the plan is finally in place for recruiting the top players in the state-but I think its been a tad disappointing we haven't hit on a real top recruit with other competing offers since O'Quin. I don't think its because of a lack of effort because I've been impressed with SMU's courting of most of the Top players in the State. Plus they are working hard in Louisiana and Oklahoma especially which make some sense since those states are within the CUSA geographical region. Also, the initial reception by even top recruits have been excellent-seems that we are just getting outgunned on many.

I don't beieve in the long run that a program can EXCELL(in capital letters) picking players that aren't well regarded by its competitors. I think a program might improve with good talent evaluation but it will be a much slower process and to reach that next level recruiting top players is necessary.

[SMU2007]

and explain how we are supposed to get players that ARE regarded well by bcs schools? people are supposed to pick a team that is absolutely in the toilet over a legit school? We have to win games this year to give any of our recruits a reason to come here

[davidpaul123]

dont you think that to some extent we wont know about some of the higher rated players that we've offered until the guys at the top-top of the rivals/scout lists make their decisions.

The trickle down ultimately will mean whether we land some of our players such as Kaiser and some of our RB offers.

Most of our verbal commitments have good highlight videos, especially the kids out of Tyler. Many of the recruits seem like good athletes and are fast. Its anyones guess where they may actually end up playing.

[ozfan]

I certainly don't have the credibility of Stallion, but my opinion is so far so good. We still need 2-3 top recruits to move the overall ratings up and perhaps set the stage for 1-2 surprises. There are three players that I am scratching my head over and one that no one has ever heard of until Monday, whose film has got to excite everyone. My best guess is that we are signing a number of players for a positon that they don't currently play--specifically some offensive players that we don't recognize as outstanding at their current high school position, but have the chance to make good to great defensive players in college. Trying to guess the growth, matturity and atleticism of 17 year olds has got to be a formidable task, after the first 25-35 players in the state, it is very difficult to grade them before their senior season. Let's see how they grade out in November.
Remember, June identified a number of players early that didn't have 4-5 star pre-season ratings and while we haven't signed them, a number of big schools have now come around with real interest. I would bet that the same thing may happen with a number of these recruits. Just how I feel about how things are going.

Must agree with you on this. It looks to me as if the last 5 work out as 2 lb, 1 cb, 1 s and a rb this goes with the lb we picked up earlier. the 2009 class had 6 cb , 3 lb and 2 s. This trend if I am right (have been known tp be wrong) adds to the D's dept. Now for three or four more linemen on the D and we should see some positive results in 2010/11.

The de commit is 6.2 height and 215 weight with 4.50 speed, with good weights he could be 245 without loss of speed that is a good d1 outside lb.

[PonyTales]

My assessment of Coach Jones' ability to identify talent comes from the number of guys who committed last year before they piled up offers, prompting a bunch of "who's that?" responses, only to collect a lot of offers before signing day. Seems to me he identified some players very early who a lot of other coaches later decided were worth offering. I have full faith in Coach Jones and his staff's ability to identify talent.

[2112]

hfvictory u must be his lover.....that s.o.b....doesn't even know what time it is

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

"Are you implying that JJ has no idea how to recruit? Or that we are sunk before we begin?"

Of course he is. Oh he'll deny it and hide...pretend it's just a "honest question", but it's all there in his posts his negativity towards this program. He should stick to his cheatin Trojans. But don't be surprised there are a bunch of guys on here that live in fantasy land like they know better than June Jones making way over a million dollars a year to coach football and took a team the Sugar Bowl in the last 24 months.

[AusTxPony]

I have to agree with '07 that the next big step in recruiting is winning. I am lighting candles this year for whatever good it may do that our defense can get some exceptional luck and win us some games. Sadly with the schedule we need to start strong. The middle of the season is brutal. So good LUCK boys and here's hoping you get more than your share of the breaks that can win college games. P.S. Thanks Stallion for your insight.

[Mexmustang]

Stallion, "there is no such thing as a preseason 4-5 star since star ratings don't come out until Mid May". Maybe my term is sloppy, but what do you call a 4-5 star recruit that has yet to play a down as a senior? Certainly, when this first group is rated, the services haven't had the time to complete the ratings on most of the 3 Stars etc. It ain't post season!

[HFvictory]

hfvictory u must be his lover.....that s.o.b....doesn't even know what time it is

I do to know what time it is, its 11:15, oh wait...

[George S. Patton]

2112112112112112112112112112112112112 = the angriest sunshiner I've ever seen. Drinks the kool-aid yet complains about its taste.