Recruiting question?

[Centexpony]

Looking back the past 4-5 years recruiting has gotten worse every year since the departure of Klemm. Is this all on June and his lack of effort or does some of the blame land on the admissions policies/academic exceptions etc. etc? If I remember correctly the year Klemm left for UCLA was the same year that the three partial qualifiers (summer school kids) were told they got in but the school reneged or their admission. I wonder if that is why his efforts are poor. June doesn't want to fight with the admissions folks.

[CenTXpony]

Nice username... swear we're two different people.... think he beat me to the name though.

[SMU 86]

Looking back the past 4-5 years recruiting has gotten worse every year since the departure of Klemm. Is this all on June and his lack of effort or does some of the blame land on the admissions policies/academic exceptions etc. etc? If I remember correctly the year Klemm left for UCLA was the same year that the three partial qualifiers (summer school kids) were told they got in but the school reneged or their admission. I wonder if that is why his efforts are poor. June doesn't want to fight with the admissions folks.

I think Stallion can further elaborate on this but football and basketball have gotten players in that have passed the clearinghouse. Roderick Moore was signed and he was not recruited by Klemm and he did not qualify. But you take a Leslie Frazier that had eligibility issues and had to sit out his first year at SMU but he was admitted to SMU. Academics are not a major issue at this point. If you pass the NCAA Clearinghouse you are in at SMU from my undertsanding.

[CenTXpony]

June's efforts are poor though to answer your question. Read the reports on scout and such, more recently Daniel Greshams interview following his commitment to SMU.

"They never talked to me because they didn't think they had a chance at me."

Or something along those lines.

[Centexpony]

I was always under the impression that prospective student athletes at SMU are held to a higher admissions standard than what the AAC or NCAA sets. Then it is up to ??? who or how many academic exceptions are admitted. Example... hypothetically speaking Notre Dame during the Lou Holtz era allowed 20 compared to now its 10. I also assumed that conditions were set when June was hired that admission standards for football players would be lowered and his ability to offer potential academic exceptions would increase compared to what Bennett was able to do.

[SMU 86]

I was always under the impression that prospective student athletes at SMU are held to a higher admissions standard than what the AAC or NCAA sets. Then it is up to ??? who or how many academic exceptions are admitted. Example... hypothetically speaking Notre Dame during the Lou Holtz era allowed 20 compared to now its 10. I also assumed that conditions were set when June was hired that admission standards for football players would be lowered and his ability to offer potential academic exceptions would increase compared to what Bennett was able to do.

Stallion has pointed out that there has been no student who was not admitted to SMU that has been admitted anywhere else. Again, Stallion should be posting to elaborate on this. Seems like we have someone post this same question about once every 2 months. I believe one athlete had a 640 SAT and was admitted to SMU. Again, I believe Stallion can go into more detail on that.

[San Antonio Mustang]

I wonder if that is why his efforts are poor. June doesn't want to fight with the admissions folks.

The answer to your question is NO. If they get cleared by the NCAA, but are below SMU's normal admission requirements they are reviewed by a committee to see if the committee believe with the help of tutors they could potentially ultimately graduate. June does not have to fight for their admission - the athletic department sends the paperwork over. This procedure came into existence due to June's complaints before and right after he arrived. It has been in existence for several years and the committee appears to err on the side of admission as not all of the football players have maintained eligibility. There have only been 3 players who the committee refused admission and while those three subsequently recruited by other programs they were denied admission by those schools as well. None of the three ever played for a D1 team.

When June has been criticized for his recruiting methods he has continued to use this admission is tough excuse. This is one of the lies he has spread about SMU that really infuriates me. There are many reasons one could argue SMU is not an easy place to recruit athletes who have a choice, but admissions and facilities are not the problem.

[PerunaPunch]

San Antonio Mustang's explanation is correct.

The coaching staff has a fairly good idea whether or not a kid can or will not be admitted, so they don't spend effort [insert whatever negative sarcasm you want here] chasing kids they can't get in. If you go back through the interviews in the Recruiting Roundups, several times it mentions where a recruiter or a high school coach have communicated a student's academic standing. So they stay on top of that. There has been some frustration in the past with borderline kids (as mentioned above), but it appears to me that Admissions has been more willing to work with the coaching staff in recent years. Bulking up the support we offer our student-athletes undoubtedly has helped, as that gives us a better chance of catching those students up to the same level as the general population and allows them to stay in school and graduate.

We have had several kids in the last couple of years who were admitted, but couldn't play due to credits not transferring or similar issues. This has happened to at least 3 student-athletes I can think of in the last 2 years. This issue, again, leads me to believe that admissions isn't as big of a hangup as it once was. Some kids might not be able to get on the field, but at least we can get them in school, so we can work with them.

Lastly, SMU is still a challenging academic institution. The fact that we are a "liberal arts" school with a tough core curriculum and more limited degree programs (as compared to a large state school anyway) does, without question, present challenges. But that's a two-edged sword. A lot of kids choose SMU because they want a better education and a prestigious degree.

We lose kids every year to academics, MOST of which never get reported (or if they do, it's gets self-reported as something other than academics). Some people will argue that point; every school looses kids to academics, and SMU is no exception.

[SMUguy]

Looking back the past 4-5 years recruiting has gotten worse every year since the departure of Klemm. Is this all on June and his lack of effort or does some of the blame land on the admissions policies/academic exceptions etc. etc? If I remember correctly the year Klemm left for UCLA was the same year that the three partial qualifiers (summer school kids) were told they got in but the school reneged or their admission. I wonder if that is why his efforts are poor. June doesn't want to fight with the admissions folks.

I think Stallion can further elaborate on this but football and basketball have gotten players in that have passed the clearinghouse. Roderick Moore was signed and he was not recruited by Klemm and he did not qualify. But you take a Leslie Frazier that had eligibility issues and had to sit out his first year at SMU but he was admitted to SMU. Academics are not a major issue at this point. If you pass the NCAA Clearinghouse you are in at SMU from my undertsanding.

Leslee Smith?

[mrydel]

Marquis Frazier I believe.

[ghost]

It helps if you have people skills AND coaching skills

[JasonB]

Two of our most active recruiters (at least the two who most connected with social media, which is really important in the current age of recruiting) were Klemm and JR. JR had mixed success, he went after a lot of academic risks (not SMU academic, academic period). McKnight, before Klemm, also recruited a mixed bag of guys with academic issues or who got big injuries and never played. Then Klemm came, had big recruits, and then left and a bunch left with him. Klemm had some academic risks targeted, and those players never ended up anywhere for the most parts. But the best class he had was the year he left, and a ton of guys he had pulled into that class bailed when he did.

We replaced those guys with Phillips, who is an upgrade from JR in that he gets good players who can get in/stay in school. No replacement for Klemm. I think the young LB coach and ST coach were supposed to energize the recruiting effort a bit outside of Phillips, but I don't know if they have had any impact (don't know = haven't heard one way or the other and their names don't seem to pop up on Rivals).

The McKnight --> Klemm thing left a bunch of gaps on the OL (not blaming Klemm, we just lost those spots when he left), which is why our OL has been so young the last couple of years. The JR admissions issues are why we don't have Jr or Sr WR ready to step up, and the combo of all of it is why we are graduation so few seniors over the last couple of years.