Recruiting - CUSA

[smupony94]

How are the other schools in CUSA doing?

[Stallion]

CUSA West is a vast wasteland of poor recruiting. Two schools Rice and Tulane due to coaching changes and Huricanes basically are still at the starting post. UH has 3 Three star players 2 of which are academic risks. Most of UH's commitments are at least pretty well known-they may be in the lead in CUSA West but have a small class so far. Some of their insiders claim that Rivals is unaware of as many as 8 or 9 commits to Houston-we will see. UTEP has done nothing to brag about but I bet they come up with some transfer surprises. The air has been deflated from Tulsa because of the loss of Todd Graham as coach to Rice. Tulsa has a few good players especially the Harrell kid at QB but you could hear a pin drop since Graham left. Rice's big target right now is QB Pierre Beasly who is a big strong QB who even made some Top 100 lists but hasn't got a lot offers. I don't think SMU needs too many more CBs but Rice might get a highly thought of CB Eric Griffin of Irving McArthur to fall in thier laps-he's had about 5 BCS offers including visiting KSU this weekend but they appear to be backing off. He is visiting Rice because his coach eas recently hired by Rice. If we need a CB it might be worth checking him out. In the east Southern Miss appears to have the best class in CUSA with 5 of its 14 recruits listed a 3 stars. UCF has a few nice players.

[gostangs]

Stallion - how would you rate us at the moment vs these teams.

Also it seems to me that today was a big day for the Mustangs - I would guess this pulls our class up considerably from where we were just yesterday?

[Stallion]

I'd say the last week has been promising with Burley, Johnson, McCann, and Thomas all getting some decent offers. Hurst is an undersized LB when what really need is some bigger guys but we are so short at LB that we really can't complain. I like the Gonzales kid and think he may very well have been overlooked-nice size and he's now considered a solid prospect I believe. The rest can only be described as sleeper as their offers or lack thereof will demonstrate. Add in Nuitei and I'd say we are pretty close to the top of CUSA West-but I really don't think that is saying much. I also think we a LONG way from solving our problems at LB-going to have to be some position changes there. I don't think SMU did a very good job of addressing its two major needs and that is immediate help at LB and QB. Most of TCU's class is pretty solid with 3 3 stars plus a highly underrated 2 star in Alex Ibuile who got 17 offers. Just about all of them are either 3 stars, had offers from BCS schools or at least multiple Division 1A offers although they lost that Booker kid today to Oklahoma St. Because of the solidness of the TCU class I'd definitely put them above SMU at this point although Nuitei would be a big big commitment. The top non-BCS classes would probably be a race between Utah, BYU, Southern Miss and TCU. However, if you add in Division 1A BCS transfers-which Rivals doesn't include in its rankings- that I've read TCU has gotten on campus then TCU could very well have an argument for the top non-BCS class and substantially ahead of SMU.

[OC Mustang]

Stallion wrote:

...TCU could very well have an argument for the top non-BCS class and substantially ahead of SMU.

They've been ahead of us. They still got beat. (Didn't write that to call anybody out or dispute what you wrote...just making myself feel a little better.... )

[JasonB]

Actually, I think the last couple of years we have rated ahead of TCU...

It will be interesting to see how this class turns out. Right now, I would have to agree with Stallion. If you figure that an average CUSA player is 2 star, 5.2 rating, that would be a C. A player offered by multiple BCS is a B, 4-5 star is an A, 2 star, a CUSA level offer, under 5.2 would be a C-, and no offers, no rating is an F.

Looking at what we have right now, I have us at a 1.7 GPA, which is about a C-. Some of that is up for discussion, because I rated Holmes and the JC QB low (D) because they weren't on the radar of anyone.

So, I would overall rate us as a little below average for a CUSA class. We have some really nice pickups, but we also have some true unknowns. That said, Bennett has indeed shown over the last few years that he certainly does his homework. Unknowns he picked up in the past include Bobby Chase, Hawkins, Lowery, McCray, Jaymond Cleveland, Pellerin, Warren, Burley, Peveto, Bonds, Dorsey.

We probably have a couple more unknowns this year than in the past, but we still have a couple of higher profile guys mixed in. And, at this point, I really do trust Bennett that when he finds an unknown, he knows what he is looking for. The guys recruited by Bennett who have flamed out haven't been the lower tier guys, they have been the upper tier guys who were over-hyped. Almost ALL of the "unknowns" have made contributions of some sort at this point.

And that isn't a problem with Rivals. Bennett is just a really good talent evaluator. He has his "A list" and his "B list". In almost every case, if an A-list player chooses a BCS schools, we do get the first player on the B-list.

[Stallion]

Actually you are COMPLETELY wrong-our classes in the last 2 years were nowhere near TCU's classes. Wasn't even close.

[Pony Fan]

Actually you are COMPLETELY wrong-our classes in the last 2 years were nowhere near TCU's classes. Wasn't even close.

I am not sure why anybody cares what you think, as you know nothing more than what you read on Rivals. People, quit asking this guy anything as he does not know.

[Stallion]

the fact is that TCU blistered SMU in recruiting the last two years by any measure you want to use.

[Pony Fan]

But not on the field this year, huh?

[Pony Fan]

the fact is that TCU blistered SMU in recruiting the last two years by any measure you want to use.

Again, based on Rivals, but that is your Bible, so you think what you want.

[ponydawg]

Well per rivals it shows us at an Average of 2 stars and TCU at an average of 1.75 stars.

Granted not sure how it works and it is not completely up to date, shows us at 10 commits and TCU at 11, and it prolly doesn't show transfers...

Still thought it was interesting........

http://dallasnews.rivals.com/commitlist.asp

[Pony Fan]

And it is based on somebody's ratings who likely has not even seen the kids' play. I look at Rivals regularly but it is there for people like us to puff our chest out about where we finished in recruiting each year. It finally paid off for Texas this year since they have been at or neat the top for many, many years.

[Stallion]

a person simply by reviewing Rivals and its predecessors over the last 17 years could easily predict the ineptitude of SMU football over the last 16 years without much difficulty. We are still waiting on PonyFans' theory that Rivals' doesn't know what it is talking about to be proven wrong. It's damn sure more than mere coincidence. Just as it was not mere coincidence that SMU was the winniest team in the nation over a 4 year period in the 1980's after at least 3 top 10 recruiting classes.

[Pony Fan]

a person simply by reviewing Rivals and its predecessors over the last 17 years could easily predict the ineptitude of SMU football over the last 16 years without much difficulty. We are still waiting on PonyFans' theory that Rivals' doesn't know what it is talking about to be proven wrong. It's damn sure more than mere coincidence. Just as it was not mere coincidence that SMU was the winniest team in the nation over a 4 year period in the 1980's after at least 3 top 10 recruiting classes.

Sorry pal, I don't really worry about what has happened over the last 17 years, let's see what happens over the next few. You spend too much time on the past, stallion ol' boy. You are too much of a frontrunner, why don't you be a UT fan and get away from real SMU fans. You are no more of an SMU fan than some of the people from other schools that show up on here.