What happened at UTEP?

[AusTxPony]

didn't I read where they had about 30 recruits on Dave Campbell and then ended up signing only 17 according to CUSA lists. What happened and Stallion, how does their class rate (not compared to ours, but in general)? Houston seems to have gotten a pretty good class, though. I would say we might have been 2nd to them in the CUSA - West.

[tmustangp]

Houston will always have a good class, b/c if you can spell your name (or have someone spell it for you) you can get in.. Briles has the luxury of an open door for recruits coming in.. But will they meet ncaa standards? I bet he loses 3-4 "good" recruits this year due to grades..

Thats another thing you need to remember.. Other schools might get these great recruits but you can bet that atleast 2-3 per class won't get into college b/c they cannot pass NCAA regulations.. Now of course that is different for Tulsa, who is our main competition right now.

[Stallion]

I'm glad Captain Cheerleader thinks Tulsa is our main competition-I thought that was Houston at the Top of the Conference rankings. Houston had much more talent than SMU last year and Houston has easily the most talent in the conference this year if you include the Division 1A Transfers. However, they will have to solidify the QB position. UTEP lost 6-7 commits this year mostly to BCS schools but they still had 7 three star recruits compared to SMU's 4. Early on UTEP was 5-0 against SMU in straight up duels but several of those kids ended up going elsewhere. They did get about 2-3 guys SMU wanted. Most of their 3 stars are out of state JUCOs though and its difficult to compare some of them to the recruits who get the most attention in Texas. But UTEP has 6 star WR Fred Rouse coming in from Florida St. and 4 star RB coming in from Oregon-who were much more highly thought of than anyone SMU has recruited in the last 20 years.

[Pony Fan]

I guess those studs that you are speaking of couldn't play for either of the teams they are transferring from, huh stallion?

[giacfsp]

I'm glad Captain Cheerleader thinks Tulsa is our main competition-I thought that was Houston at the Top of the Conference rankings. Houston had much more talent than SMU last year and Houston has easily the most talent in the conference this year if you include the Division 1A Transfers. However, they will have to solidify the QB position. UTEP lost 6-7 commits this year mostly to BCS schools but they still had 7 three star recruits compared to SMU's 4. Early on UTEP was 5-0 against SMU in straight up duels but several of those kids ended up going elsewhere. They did get about 2-3 guys SMU wanted. Most of their 3 stars are out of state JUCOs though and its difficult to compare some of them to the recruits who get the most attention in Texas. But UTEP has 6 star WR Fred Rouse coming in from Florida St. and 4 star RB coming in from Oregon-who were much more highly thought of than anyone SMU has recruited in the last 20 years.

The reference to Tulsa as "our main competition" dealt, I assume, with the competition for a certain kind of recruit. Don't know that the "Captain Cheerleader" is warranted, considering the parallel drawn dealt with the kind of recruits pursued by each school, not the outcome of games.

I was going to bring up Bradley Haynes, Julian Herron, etc., in response to to your reference to UTEP's 5-0 lead, but then I re-read it and saw the "early on" qualifier. Duly noted.

Who were the guys SMU wanted that ended up in El Paso? Not challenging your assessment -- happens to every school, every year -- just curious.

Which recruiting service ranks guys with six stars?

[JasonB]

I'm glad Captain Cheerleader thinks Tulsa is our main competition-I thought that was Houston at the Top of the Conference rankings. Houston had much more talent than SMU last year and Houston has easily the most talent in the conference this year if you include the Division 1A Transfers. However, they will have to solidify the QB position. UTEP lost 6-7 commits this year mostly to BCS schools but they still had 7 three star recruits compared to SMU's 4. Early on UTEP was 5-0 against SMU in straight up duels but several of those kids ended up going elsewhere. They did get about 2-3 guys SMU wanted. Most of their 3 stars are out of state JUCOs though and its difficult to compare some of them to the recruits who get the most attention in Texas. But UTEP has 6 star WR Fred Rouse coming in from Florida St. and 4 star RB coming in from Oregon-who were much more highly thought of than anyone SMU has recruited in the last 20 years.

THat 5-0 statement is just not true. If you look on Rivals at who we offered vs who UTEP oferred, you will find that we signed more players that they offered than the other way around. We won the overall recruiting battle against UTEP. And look at who offered their "three stars". It is the same as considering Columbus Givens a three star when only us and UTEP offerred the guy.

[Stallion]

Chasen Stangel, Gerald Gooden, Simpson Rushing and Chris Dowell all committed to UTEP over SMU early in the recruiting season. I believe there is a 5th who decommitted too but I'm having trouble who that was. Sometimes they remove offers when it gets down late in the recruiting season. I think I posted on this at the time it was 5-0.

[tmustangp]

I'm glad Captain Cheerleader thinks Tulsa is our main competition-I thought that was Houston at the Top of the Conference rankings. Houston had much more talent than SMU last year and Houston has easily the most talent in the conference this year if you include the Division 1A Transfers.

I do consider Tulsa our main competition b/c of their '05 Conf Championship and a certain coach named Todd Graham who gave Rice their first bowl appearence in 40 yrs. So yes Tulsa and Houston are our main competition..Stallion, thank you for the nickname Captain Cheerleader, but last time i checked, I actually played college football and I would love to hear your college football experience.

Now lets get down to your BS of bringing up all these 3 and 4 Star recruting talk.. Rivals was invented for people like you, who want to have something to talk about when it comes to recruiting.. Is it accurate, absolutely not, no one can really know how a 17-18 year old kid will do on the college level.. College football is not a game, its a business.. I have three points and then I will stop, b/c Stallion you are a lawyer and I am not going to get in a [deleted] contest w/ you, b/c all lawyers I know can twist any conversation their way..

Last years Heisman trophy winner: Troy Smith.. 2 Star recruit and last scholarship given by Ohio St in his class.. In his same class was heralded recruit Justin Zwick, Parade all american and golden boy QB out of Florida(pretty good HS football state).. I believe my Heisman trophy point on Troy Smith says enough..

Point 2:
The Dallas morning news looks back at each recruiting class after four years and rates them.. Read that every year, it is based on facts.. If anyone asks me what I think about this recruiting class, I will tell them all the same thing, "lets see what they do over the next 3-4 years"

Final Point:
I would love to hear what you said about Justin Rogers when he was recruited, or if you even bothered to research him since he was probably a 2Star recruit at the highest.. I think he proved everyone wrong, except the only person that counts.. Our head football coach Phil Bennett

[Stallion]

First of all you show total ignorance in saying Smith was a 2 star. He was a 4 star-No. 12 Ranked Dual Threat QB in the Country. Assuming you actually identified one of those one in a thousand Sleeper who turned out to be an All-American, all you are doing is waiting 5 years later and picking the exceptions to the rule and saying-see I was right all along. Nobody has ever said players can't improve themselves through hard work. No one has ever doubted there are sleepers. Was Rivals really wrong that a 6-3, 198 pound DE was not a blue chip 5 years ago or did Justin Rogers simply make that ratings insignificant through his own hard work lookinging backwards with 20-20 vision. What you don't want to deal with are all those years people like you have attacked Rivals and other recruiting services for rating SMU's classes poor to mediocre and in fact, they were correct. What really burns Captain Cheerleader up is that SMU has not been able to produce a single team in 17 years that proved the recruiting services were clearly wrong.

[SMUballboy]

I'm glad Captain Cheerleader thinks Tulsa is our main competition-I thought that was Houston at the Top of the Conference rankings. Houston had much more talent than SMU last year and Houston has easily the most talent in the conference this year if you include the Division 1A Transfers. However, they will have to solidify the QB position. UTEP lost 6-7 commits this year mostly to BCS schools but they still had 7 three star recruits compared to SMU's 4. Early on UTEP was 5-0 against SMU in straight up duels but several of those kids ended up going elsewhere. They did get about 2-3 guys SMU wanted. Most of their 3 stars are out of state JUCOs though and its difficult to compare some of them to the recruits who get the most attention in Texas. But UTEP has 6 star WR Fred Rouse coming in from Florida St. and 4 star RB coming in from Oregon-who were much more highly thought of than anyone SMU has recruited in the last 20 years.

If you look at most JUCO players on rivals you can see that 3 stars is the minimum that they get and alot of them only get 1 offer, so Rivals' JUCO ratings can be decieving. Also about Fred Rouse, he's been rolling joints since he hit puberty and don't be surprised if he gets in trouble off the field.

[tmustangp]

First of all you show total ignorance in saying Smith was a 2 star. He was a 4 star-No. 12 Ranked Dual Threat QB in the Country. Assuming you actually identified one of those one in a thousand Sleeper who turned out to be an All-American, all you are doing is waiting 5 years later and picking the exceptions to the rule and saying-see I was right all along. Nobody has ever said players can't improve themselves through hard work. No one has ever doubted there are sleepers. Was Rivals really wrong that a 6-3, 198 pound DE was not a blue chip 5 years ago or did Justin Rogers simply make that ratings insignificant through his own hard work lookinging backwards with 20-20 vision. What you don't want to deal with are all those years people like you have attacked Rivals and other recruiting services for rating SMU's classes poor to mediocre and in fact, they were correct. What really burns Captain Cheerleader up is that SMU has not been able to produce a single team in 17 years that proved the recruiting services were clearly wrong.

well my source is a die hard Ohio st fan who knows more about OSU football than you do about SMU footall..If you can show me where you found your info that Troy Smith was a 4 star then i might believe you.. To call me ignorant is not correct, once again your lawyerism comes out and you change the conversation to make your point "appear" correct..

I have never attacked rivals for giving smu a poor recruiting class, I would be ignorant to say that smu has been successful in recruiting.. My knowledge is called experience, unlike you I was recruited to play college football, unlike you I saw how crappy the recruiting business is, unlike you i saw guys that were rated higher than my college teammates who did nothing at their prospective school..I just get very annoyed when people act like Rivals and Scout.com is the know all and end all...

All you do is attack us and call us ignorant, why don't you address our valid points that we have made saying that Rivals offers good insight but there information on predicting the future of 17-18 yr olds cannot be taken seriously. Now like ponyfan said, if you actually have seen all these players play then your points would be completely valid.

Yes you are right about looking back four and five years, but if you wanted me too, i can reel off players who were not highly rated by rivals and did great things in college.. wes welker was a walk on at Tech, quentin griffin was not given a scholarship from OU until april when they had better recruits not be NCAA eligible, Dallas Clark was a walk-on turned all american.. I can go on and on, but i won't waste other peoples time..

[perunapower]

well my source is a die hard Ohio st fan who knows more about OSU football than you do about SMU footall..If you can show me where you found your info that Troy Smith was a 4 star then i might believe you..

Rivals.com. Ohio State Recruit Class of 2002. Troy Smith was a 4-star.
http://www.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp? ... pr_key=207

[ponyboy]

tmustangp may have been wrong about troy smith, but he's good some good points that anyone with any decency whatsoever would acknowlege. I will never understand the personal attacks on fellow fans by this guy. But he seems to especially relish disrespecting players and their families. Sad.