Did The Wait Hurt us or Not?

[PerunaPunch]

Funny... When did recruiting become all about stars and nothing about filling needs?

Just the way I see it, which doesn't mean much I guess, I'd tend to look at areas of major weakness and where seniors graduated (in our case OL, Receiver, DL, LB and DB) and see how those needs were addressed. Sure, I'd like to have a 3-deep like LSU, but in the meantime, I'd settle for 22 starters who can be productive.

Hey, I like stars as much as the next guy, but the rating system is highly biased, and the guys doing the ratings aren't in many cases what you'd call qualified talent evaluators.

[ponyte]

First, give thanks we have Stallion on this board. Without him, the topics of discussion would be reduced to which burger joint has the best burger or which taco stand is the most authentic.

Stallion may be absolutely correct about this class. His opinion is well position to cover a great deal of possibilities (on paper weak but with a lot of sleepers. Any of those sleepers end up All Americans, he can claim the sleeper to a princesses prediction). And the 'on paper' can indeed appear to be weak. If this then changes over time as players progress, then He can claim that Jones is a great developer of talent, gets the most out of kids, etc. Regardless of the outcome, Stallion is positioned to be correct depending on the assumptions.

Whoopty-fricking -do

That said, to me it is interesting that we signed two kids with former players as relatives. The generation of players that were among the best football players in the nation (late 70-mid 80s) now have kids that are college age. Does a June Jones help attract those kids? I know Craig James' kid went to TTU, but would SMU have been a consideration with a June Jones instead of Bennett?

[jtstang]

I was one who claimed the time it took to hire the head coach was killing recruiting for this year. I also think Jones was hampered by having 2 1/2 weeks to recruit, and if you don't agree, that you are a raving idiot.

Having said that, I think that this class, while not good, is probably better than anybody had a right to expect it would be. I am particularly heartened by the JUCO guys and the transfer with a restraining order. This shows that we are apparently committed to leveling the playing field in recruiting.

[Alaric]

Orsini had June Jones in mind and was delaying the search specifically for him. He wasn't delaying the search because he couldn't get someone to return his calls. Orsini was risking this years' recruiting class on getting June Jones and the fact we got a decent class this year was gravy.

The most important thing is where this program will be in 2-3 years versus where it would be if we hired someone like Franchione or someone else that was available.

Rivals does a decent job in a very inexact science. Stallion's going to defend his arguments forever btw no matter how crazy his original assertions become

[ponyboy]

Having said that, I think that this class, while not good, is probably better than anybody had a right to expect it would be.

Yes. It's always a tough situation for a new coach with first year recruiting. And those who said that the 71 day wait hurt us were right. But operating with 3 1/2 weeks, I'd say we made out well. And we ended up with one helluva upgrade at the coaching position.

[BrianTinBigD]

I would have much rather have waited for the coach we got than have a killer recruiting class this year. We never have a great recruiting class but a good coach would have won 6 games last year with the talent on the field.

[Big Hoss]

I think we are getting wrapped around the axle on this recruiting class. For instance, Stallion says that we can't judge a coach until his 4th or 5th year in the job, but then sounds like he's ready to throw in the towel because this class isn't as good as maybe he'd hoped for. Not trying to throw you under the bus here, because God knows a lot of folks do that on this board. But this is the kind of double-talk that has me a bit confused by posters like yourself and others.

Ultimately, I think I agree with EastStang and say that I'd rather have Jones as our coach with only 3 weeks to put together a class (one that beat half our conference and TCU, by the way) that includes players that fit his style of play, vs. Franchione, for example, with 2 months of recruiting. I think we are better off in the long run here.

And considering that the cupboard wasn't completely bare on our current team, and that Jones tried to address our weaknesses on defense as best he could, I think we will be competitive in CUSA right away. Probably not winning CUSA West right away, but we could easily have 6-7 wins next season (in other words, matching PB's best season over the last 6 years).

[SMU Football Blog]

To phrase the question another way, how much better could recruiting have been if we hired a guy December 1st versus what we ended up with?

SMU wasn't going to get a commit between October 29th when Phil was fired and November 24th when the season ended.

No matter what,SMU wasn't going to hire anybody before 11/24.

If SMU hired Paul Johnson December 7th (the day he signed with Georgia Tech), I don't know what the result would have been. Ga. Tech finished 49th per Rivals, BTW, which is probably worse than where they were the day before Chan was fired.

If SMU hired June Jones December 2nd (the day after the regular season ended), I think he would have done better than he did on January 7th.

If SMU hired Larry Coker (for example only) on November 25th, I doubt he would have done appreciably better than June Jones did given the additional time. It is pure speculation.

If SMU hired Larry Fedora (for example only) , given what Fedora did at USM after December 11th when they hired him, I think Fedora would have done better than June Jones did.

If SMU hired anybody else on January 7th, with only the possible exception of Fran, I think the class would have been worse: Coker would have done worse; Martz would have done worse; Neuheisel would have done worse; Barnett would have done worse.

I go back to what I said two weeks ago. I take solace in the fact that many of these kids, particularly the out of state ones, were kids Jones was looking at in Hawaii.

I take solace in the fact that Jones recruited many of the same kind of kids at Hawaii and acheived good things there in a similarly situated conference.

I have far more confidence in June Jones to recruit to his offensive system than I ever did in Bennett to recruit to any offensive system. Defense is another matter.

[mrydel]

While discussing unknown scenerios, what do you imagine recruiting would have been like had we beaten Rice in 2006, gone to a Bowl (assume we got beat by Troy), and Bennett's contract was extended. Where would we be today. Personally I am happy today and will continue to be as long as we can show on field improvement which in turn should equate to a better class next year and the next, etc. Until we see the on field play next year, the speculation can go in any direction you wish.

[ponyte]

While discussing unknown scenerios, what do you imagine recruiting would have been like had we beaten Rice in 2006, gone to a Bowl (assume we got beat by Troy), and Bennett's contract was extended. Where would we be today. Personally I am happy today and will continue to be as long as we can show on field improvement which in turn should equate to a better class next year and the next, etc. Until we see the on field play next year, the speculation can go in any direction you wish.

And we wish it to go in any direction!

[SMU_is_bowling]

it can only go up!

[jtstang]

it can only go up!

TWSS?

Gosh, that was fun!

[SoCal_Pony]

Given the circumstances I think we all can agree JJ did an acceptable job.

Better question is how will JJ do next year.

IF (and that is a big IF) we have a winning season, I will be more excited about next years’ class than any in 20+ years.

IF we only win 2 or 3 games? I don’t know, but past history tells us honeymoon periods at SMU are rather short. Could be even Doh is finding this out.

So PLEASE Coach Jones, please continue to get us much-needed JC help THIS YEAR.

[papawasamustang]

Lets take a look down the road in 3 to 4 years & we will have our answer.
No way of predicting how some of these kids will pan out.
I really like how JJ addressed the OLine. Hopefully he will hit a home run with a couple 2 or 3 of em.
I like the #'s at the DB & Ath positions too. Hopefully a couple of them will pan out as solid DB/S types.

It will be interesting to watch the impact JJ has on the Top Area & State players next year. Of course the first step is winning on the field & then we can start to get into these bogus recruiting championships.

[Get_Some_Ponies]

I say no. There were two other options, neither so hot. The first was we stick with PB and see what kind of class his 1-11, ax hanging over his head rep would have drawn. I'm thinking not much and probably not any kind of improvement on the year before. Option two was someone like Fran or Neuheisel who each bring their own problems. This class was probably a bust as soon as the season went down the tubes, and JJ seems to have gotten some good ones. Maybe better coaching will lead to these guys standing out more than they would in the old program.