Trying to put things in perspectve

[smudubs]

First things first, I don't like TCU and I don't obsess over everything they do in Fort Worth. They have built a successful football program at a small private school in the DFW metroplex and they should be applauded for that. We should be encouraged by the fact that if they did it, so can we.

That being said, some suggest we should already be out recruiting TCU. That belief is just unrealistic. In 1997, TCU won one game. The following year Fran came in as head coach. I will assume that this was year one of their rebuilding process. I went back and looked at their 2002 recruiting class per Scout. This represents year four of their rebuild. That year, TCU signed 10 players who had a total of 20 Division 1 offers and eight offers from AQ schools. In 2010, TCU played in its first BCS bowl game. That February they signed 18 players who held a total of 52 Division 1 offers with 22 of those offers coming from schools in AQ conferences.

In contrast, in year three of SMU's rebuild SMU signed 27 players. Those players had 103 Division 1 offers with 43 offers from schools in AQ conferences. Irrespective of who or how many coaches are recruiting or from where these players come, the simple fact is, we are ahead of where TCU was 10 years ago. In fact, our 2011 class was comparable to if not better than TCU's 2010 class--the class they signed within weeks of a trip to the Fiesta Bowl.

This staff has signed 78 players in the last three years--12 players from California, seven from Louisiana, and one player each from Missouri, Oklahoma, and America Somoa. That leaves us with 56 good ole', homegrown, corn-fed Texas boys. I say all of this to point out our foundation is and will always be Texas. Klemm is doing a great job in California, Reinbold is picking up the pace in Texas and Louisiana, and Odum seems to be making inroads into Florida.

The staff is comprised of humans; thus rendering them imperfect. We can be critical of how or when they do things, but we should at least acknowledge their successes.

[SMU 86]

I remember Coach Fran saying that while he was at TCU he tried to out-recruit the bottom feeders of the Big 12. He compete against the Iowa St's and Baylors. I think his thought process was if he could out recruit the bottom feeders of the Big 12 that would win in a non BCS conference and he was correct. We are doing it somewhat differently but we will see how everything turns out. Go Stangs.

[Stallion]

Ha I just checked that 2010 Class for TCU-you only missed the number of offers by 68. They had 120 offers not 52. What are you even looking at

[SMU 86]

He may have been looking at the Scout site. They only have a limited amount of offers that will show up per recruit (it used to be only 7 per recruit I think )whereas Rivals shows every offer they get. That could be the reason for the difference.

[Mike Coppage]

He may have been looking at the Scout site. They only have a limited amount of offers that will show up per recruit (it used to be only 7 per recruit I think )whereas Rivals shows every offer they get. That could be the reason for the difference.

We try to keep it around 8-10, but it does vary per recruit.

[gostangs]

you posted something somewhat positive and factually bssed. That will earn you the scorn of one Mr Stallion that is not in favor of positive since he is a second tier atty lfrom the Texas Tech law school who is still looking for love in all the wrong places and not a very happy person.

[smudubs]

Ha I just checked that 2010 Class for TCU-you only missed the number of offers by 68. They had 120 offers not 52. What are you even looking at

I looked at Scout. Here's the offer breakdown:
Michael Thompson 1
Clifton Murphy 1
Matt Brown 3
Chris Hawkins 7
Antonio Graves 2
Matt Anderson 2
Nykiren Wellington 1
Jonathan Anderson 1
Elisha Olabode 5
Kevin White 5
Curtis Carter 6
Ethan Grant 7
Sam Carter 5
Stephen Bryant 1
Travaras Battle 1
Marcus Mallett 2
Blake Roberts 1
David Johnson 1

That comes to a total of 52 total offers. In 2010, TCU signed three guys from the Rivals' Lone Star 100 list. That same year SMU signed one.

[smudubs]

I remember Coach Fran saying that while he was at TCU he tried to out-recruit the bottom feeders of the Big 12. He compete against the Iowa St's and Baylors. I think his thought process was if he could out recruit the bottom feeders of the Big 12 that would win in a non BCS conference and he was correct. We are doing it somewhat differently but we will see how everything turns out. Go Stangs.

According to Scout, last year we out recruited Baylor, Missouri, Kansas State, and Iowa State from the Big 12. We also out recruited Utah, Ucla, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington State, and Colorado from the PAC 12. Stallion is good and he brings a lot of good information and in site to this board. But a critical analysis of what's going on with respect to recruiting suggests that what he says is not always gospel. I'm not trying to call anyone out, my point is that when you look at this thing objectively, we are on the right track.

[PerunaPunch]

As long as smudubs pulled his information from the same recruiting service (i.e. both from Rivlas or both from Scout), the comparison should be valid.

[smudubs]

For clarification purposes, when I originally posted this, I pulled all the information from Scout. I went back and compared SMU's 2011 class to TCU's 2010 class on Rivals. Per Rivals, TCU's 2010 class had a total of 115 Division 1 offers with 56 offers coming from AQ schools. They only signed 18 in that class. It's fair to assume that if TCU had signed 27 kids, those kids would have held about 153 Division 1 offers with approximately 71 offers coming from AQ schools. Per Rivals, in 2011 SMU signed 27 kids who held a total of 120 Division 1 offers with 36 offers coming from AQ schools.

The bottom line, however, remains unchanged. SMU is making significant strides in recruiting and that is showing on the field.TCU has a ten year head start on SMU, but based on what these coaches are doing on the recruiting trail, I do not believe it will take SMU another ten years to close the gap on TCU. Beating TCU will not get SMU into a BCS conference, but it will give us a shot at out recruiting them assuming we beat others on our schedule.