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So I decided to look back at this week's hero, Taylor Reed, on Rivals. Looks like he was a two-star that didn't show any offers except SMU. Assuming that's correct (and I don't know beyond what I see on Rivals as a non-subscriber), I find it very interesting that he is already on the field and making big plays at the D-1A level as a true freshman. Perhaps June and his staff do know a thing or two about talent-evaluation. Let's beat Wazoo!

You take the exception and I'll take the Rule and I'll wipe the floor with the exceptions 95% of the time. There are 85 players on every roster.

I'm just glad this two star came our way for I feel he will contribute continually. His attitude is great and some who watched him play in high school feel that he could play anywhere. Go Mustangs!

we need all the contributions from everyone

Stallion wrote:You take the exception and I'll take the Rule and I'll wipe the floor with the exceptions 95% of the time. There are 85 players on every roster.

I too would rather have the rule, but as you know, after two decades of sucking we don't have that luxury...........yet.

Stallion wrote:You take the exception and I'll take the Rule and I'll wipe the floor with the exceptions 95% of the time. There are 85 players on every roster.

Of course we'd all like to out recruit our competition for blue chip talent - that's pretty obvious but most BCS caliber kids aren't going to come here until we start winning like TCU does (without cheating to get them here).

Stallion thinks that it's impossible to evaluate talent any better than the crowd (his version of the Effecient Market Hypothesis). While I don't think anyone can identify talent significantly better than anyone else, I think we can have a marginal advantage and it's the marginal advantage that can be significant when applied to the entire roster and to every kid you're evaluating.

Taylor Reed is one example, Byron Brown's another. No other offers except for Southern, probably because he's 5'11". However, he's already 2nd team, playing and getting good reviews for his playmaking ability and 4.5 speed. It's also interesting to see June Jones have no interest in some blue chip players b/c he doesn't like their potential.

Besides Taylor Reed and Byron Brown, there will soon be a big body of evidence to judge JJ on since he signed a lot of guys that didn't have any other D1 offers or at least didn't have them until the very end of the recruiting process

You would think of all people, SMU fans would understand the difference between ‘diamonds-in-the-rough’ players vs. those with quality multiple offers…apparently not.

I’m just surprised Justin Rogers wasn't brought up in this thread.

SoCal_Pony wrote:You would think of all people, SMU fans would understand the difference between ‘diamonds-in-the-rough’ players vs. those with quality multiple offers…apparently not.

I’m just surprised Justin Rogers wasn't brought up in this thread.

Great idea! Let's get a bunch of 4 & 5 star athletes in here!

Of course that makes sense if you can get blue chip guys. Unfortunately, most of the kids we offered who had multiple quality offers didn't accept ours. That leaves you with picking the best of the rest until we prove to them that our program's on the upswing

Alaric wrote:

SoCal_Pony wrote:You would think of all people, SMU fans would understand the difference between ‘diamonds-in-the-rough’ players vs. those with quality multiple offers…apparently not.

I’m just surprised Justin Rogers wasn't brought up in this thread.

Great idea! Let's get a bunch of 4 & 5 star athletes in here!

NOBODY is asking for 4 or 5 * players

Some of us simply want to compete against teams other than LA Monroe.

It seemed like we were competing a lot with Army last year

SMU21TCU10 wrote:It seemed like we were competing a lot with Army last year

Don't forget WSU

SoCal_Pony wrote:

Alaric wrote:

SoCal_Pony wrote:You would think of all people, SMU fans would understand the difference between ‘diamonds-in-the-rough’ players vs. those with quality multiple offers…apparently not.

I’m just surprised Justin Rogers wasn't brought up in this thread.

Great idea! Let's get a bunch of 4 & 5 star athletes in here!

NOBODY is asking for 4 or 5 * players

Some of us simply want to compete against teams other than LA Monroe.

Of course we're not asking for 4/5 star guys, that was hyperbole but I do think some people's expectations of luring guys away from decent BCS teams is not realistic on a consistent basis. You're going to have to succeed in getting overlooked talent or we're going to have classes of 4 guys who have multiple offers and no one else.

Bottom line, we all (almost all of us) realize the team's going to have to continue upgrading talent to become competitive.

you mean that we just can't hope to ever compete with TCU? Because they've been consistently doing it for 12 years now from Day 1 when Franchione and then Patterson was hired. They compete with and beat Big 12 and other BCS schools for about 65-70% of their recruits. That's why they win consistently-they recruit better than just about every team on their schedule.

I wouldn't mind seeing some 4 or 5 star recruits sign with SMU. Why not?