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A couple of weeks ago, I was roundly chastised on this board for being realistic about recruiting. The point I was trying to make was some very highly rated recruits don't pan out once they get to a college campus. I alluded to the Dallas Morning News' practice of running an article recapping recruiting classes from 5 years ago as the basis for my argument. Today the Dallas Morning News ran their annual 5 year recap. Here are some names of players that were highly recruited that fell off the radar screen:
DeMario Wesley (TCU)
Marcus Mosley (SMU)
Choo Freeman (A$M)
Adam Dunn (U.T.)

You get my point, which is that recruiting is a very inexact science. With that said, I am excited about this year's class and will be at the recruiting recap Wednesday. Let's just do our best to continue the momentum for the next 3-4 years.

Bobby Burton’s List of Top 10 recruiting classes from 1997 were (from #1 to #10): Florida State, Penn State, Tennessee, Michigan, Southern California, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio State and Notre Dame.

While everyone should understand that certain “can’t miss” prospects may fail miserably, nobody should deny the correlation between recruiting and success.

"Choo" Freeman was a No. 1 Draft Choice in the Baseball Draft, Adam Dunn never played at UT because he sat behind the No. 1 recruited QB in the Nation Simms.-Didn't he transfer to San Diego St and play this year. Mobley flunked out so of course we'll never know how good he could have been. I lost track of Wesly-didn't he have admission problems. Of course, if the kids don't stay in your school recruiting ain't going to help you.

You're both right. That's why this class is so exciting. We may have had the occasional player who makes fans excited before, but this year, we have a wide array of talent coming in. Past history suggests that one or more of these guys won't develop, but the depth in this class is unprecedented in the post-D.P. era. There are the skeptics who will blast me for being excited, but they're way off-base. Nobody is predicting Heisman Trophies for these kids. But this is the best class we've had in 2 decades.

Stallion- you're thinking of Adam Hall. Adam Dunn stayed for 1 year, possibly 2, until he also left school for baseball after briefly moving to tight end for spring ball.

He is already in the majors (Reds) and is projected to be a star for a long time.

Hard to call 2 of the 4 busts since they both got big money playing another sport.

Demario Wesley didn't qualify at TCU and became the national champion of JC in the 60 and 100 Meter sprints. He now is back at TCU on a Track Scholarship and is one of the Top Sprinters in the Nation. I bet TCU would love to get him on the FB team.

Bottom line is you need depth and you need more than one good recruiting class to be an established winner. Think back to late '70s and early '80s. One great class ('79) put us on the right road, but it took 2 or 3 years of solid recruiting after that for us to become dominant. Stallion, how many scholarships will we have to offer next year? I'm guessing around 10, so in some ways won't next year be a more challenging recruiting situation for SMU?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by M Street Stang:
<B>A couple of weeks ago, I was roundly chastised on this board for being realistic about recruiting. The point I was trying to make was some very highly rated recruits don't pan out once they get to a college campus. I alluded to the Dallas Morning News' practice of running an article recapping recruiting classes from 5 years ago as the basis for my argument. Today the Dallas Morning News ran their annual 5 year recap. Here are some names of players that were highly recruited that fell off the radar screen:
DeMario Wesley (TCU)
Marcus Mosley (SMU)
Choo Freeman (A$M)
Adam Dunn (U.T.)

You get my point, which is that recruiting is a very inexact science. With that said, I am excited about this year's class and will be at the recruiting recap Wednesday. Let's just do our best to continue the momentum for the next 3-4 years.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I am not at all concerned that with natural attrition we will be able to give out at least 18-20 and probably more scholarships next year.

18-20? I've been reading that SMU has 9 or 10 next year. Are you saying that another 10 guys are going to disappear?

Seems like an awful lot.

One change Bennett seems to have brought to the program is that of DEMANDING dedication and hard work...and that goes for the off season training. Stallion is right; there will be more who aren't willing to sacrifice when it becomes obvious they won't be starters or even necessarily see playing time. I'm not sure it will be 8-10 guys, but I can easily see 5-6 more openings by next year.

...another way that numbers open up is when a guy is listed as a junior because of a redshirt year but he is a senior eligibilty wise. The coaches retain the right to determine whether those kids are given an extra 5th year of eligibility.

Adam Dunn fell off the radar screen?? He is only one of the best young power hitters in the bigs with the Reds.

I meant football. Read the article.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by LA_Mustang:
<B>Adam Dunn fell off the radar screen?? He is only one of the best young power hitters in the bigs with the Reds. </B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>