PK wrote:Here is a thought that may have no traction, but not everyone is blessed with the same gifts in life. Perhaps some of these coaches are really great "coaches" but not so great "recruiters." Doesn't do any good to throw someone out there to recruit who can't. Perhaps their recruiting job is to evaluate player films, etc. and then let the "recruiters" go after the selected players. Perhaps not an ideal situation, but it may be the reality. Just a thought.
So you're saying Coach Jones is playing to his coaches' strengths? What a shocking approach!
Three coaches got the bulk of the recruits last year: Coach Klemm (6.5 - Conner Preston said he was recruited by Coach Klemm and Coach Morrison), Coach Mason (6) and Coach Reinebold (6). But the suggestion that the other coaches aren't pulling their weight is ludicrous. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. We don't know all of the responsibilities for each coach (i.e. the coach who works as an academic liaison between the team and the LEC has a huge, thankless job that doesn't get reported on those money-driven sites, but without the work he puts in with the LEC, some players will become ineligible), and it is absolutely right for the head coach to give more recruiting responsibility to the best recruiters.
You think Ed Orgeron is at USC because he's a great tactician for defensive linemen? No. He knows the position, being a former DL himself, but he's there because he's a raving lunatic who fires up the team on Saturdays ... and because he's a terrific recruiter. It's no accident that after Jordan Payton, the WR who committed to USC from the womb, started considering SMU, Lane Kiffin switched Orgeron over to recruit Payton the rest of the way. Recruiting is Orgeron's biggest asset to a team, and Kiffin - whacko that he is - is playing to the strengths of his staff.
Consider:
º Alabama's top three recruiters in the 2011 class appear to have been Sal Sunseri, Jim McElwain and Jeremy Pruitt, who were responsible for all but four of Bama's class, which is universally accepted as one of the nation's best. Obviously, Nick Saban is wasting money on his other assistants, right?
º At Texas Tech, someone named Robert Prunty is credited with pulling in 9.5 recruits, with 10 more coming from three other assistant coaches, so the other 8 assistant coaches pulled in just 9.5 recruits. Tommy Tuberville clearly needs to fire those 8 slackers.
º On the other hand, North Carolina traditionally recruits pretty well, and this year seemed pretty balanced; Sam Pittman is credited with landing 5.5 recruits and Troy Douglas 4.5, but six other assistant coaches got credit for at least one recruit - none more than 2.5. By the "everyone should be pulling his weight" theory, UNC should have a better class than Alabama, right?
Of course not. All of this is to say there are different approaches to recruiting. Coach Jones has had a number of very good players over the years, has sent a lot to the NFL and has won a lot of games. To get on here and suggest that he has a staff of some guys who work hard and some who don't is, at the very least, uninformed. Coaches have different strengths and therefore get assigned different tasks. It sounds like some of the people here have an axe to grind against some members of this staff who have given us our first two bowl berths in 25 years. It's tiresome to fans, and I would bet discouraging to players and recruits who read this board, too.
