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I'd be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on WHY we are in the recruiting situation we are in. The way I see it, we have the following options:

1. Ignorance - June does not know how to recruit. Quite possible given his NFL to Hawaii roots. Recruiting in Hawaii must be very different from the mainland.

2. Ego - June wants to win with the lower rated players to prove his system. Perhaps this could have been true early on, but surely his love of winning would win out and force change by now.

3. Hubris - Perhaps June believes he and his staff truly are the best judges of talent, and he believes we are getting the best players possible due to his ability to spot talent.

4. Strategy - Similar to #3, perhaps June believes he can spot underrated talent, and that this is superior to more highly sought after players due to lockerroom chemistry or other reasons. This is the "they need to want to play here" mentality.

5. Malice - This is the worst year yet based on offers, although the year is not over. Perhaps June has checked out and is intentionally not recruiting because he is soon to be gone. Or perhaps it is a "you won't give me what i need to recruit, this is the kind of player you get" passive aggression.

6. Martyrdom - June has loaded his staff with non-recruiting old buddies with career or personal problems. They didn't come here to recruit. Perhaps June's desire to help them outweighs his own goals at SMU, and is accepting their non-recruiting even though he knows he needs better talent. This doesn't explain the Jason Phillips situation, however.

7. ????????

Any ideas?

(#7) All of the above

I'm hoping its number 1, and that he's just use to gms giving him the players to coach up

Most likely 6 and little of the all of the above...

#7 laziness? - not having the ability to recruit at Hawaii and still being successful, he is used to not having to go after players and having them come to him. Maybe he is very comfortable in his office watching film and not having to get out in the field.

As to why he hasnt hired a young coach to do the hard recruiting work, ego. Maybe he doesn't want to be upstaged by a young hungry coach.

#2

#3 for sure. I believe JJ knows what he wants and knows which recruit can give it to him. That's called hubris, not ever thinking that you could be wrong. That being said, weren't his classes higher rated than previous coaches at SMU since the... you know when. Problem with his thinking is that Patterson has out recruited him with the same types (specializing in defensive players) and with a similar school and fandom.

AusTxPony wrote:#3 for sure. I believe JJ knows what he wants and knows which recruit can give it to him. That's called hubris, not ever thinking that you could be wrong. That being said, weren't his classes higher rated than previous coaches at SMU since the... you know when. Problem with his thinking is that Patterson has out recruited him with the same types (specializing in defensive players) and with a similar school and fandom.

I think the main reason he has out recruited previous coaches was the changes in standards and the star inflation. So far other than the new TE we picked up, everybody we have recruited has been offered by sub par non BCS schools and FCS schools

All of the above.

I think every one but malice is probably involved to some degree.

[quote="Treadway21"]#7 laziness? - not having the ability to recruit at Hawaii and still being successful, he is used to not having to go after players and having them come to him. Maybe he is very comfortable in his office watching film and not having to get out in the field.

As to why he hasnt hired a young coach to do the hard recruiting work, ego. Maybe he doesn't want to be upstaged by a young hungry coach.[/quote]

Bingo!

or
8. The kind of players we need to recruit simply do not want to come to SMU.

Just a thought...those of us that love SMU, appreciate the education we received, and are Mustang fans to the core can't fathom why a high school star would not want to experience what we have experienced. The sad fact is that has been one of the issues at SMU since the 1960s. The reasoning behind the pay-for-play times was that those same kids had other, more attractive choices. Hence money became a tipping point.

SMU can recruit high school 4 & 5 stars...but not without following/offering/building relationships with these recruits (and BTW, their HS coaches as well). That doesn't seem to be the modus opperandi, yet.

peruna81 wrote:or
8. The kind of players we need to recruit simply do not want to come to SMU.

+1

I do not believe the latter.

Arkpony, I presume you mean the ability to recruit 4 and 5 star players.

Navasota High School has and is consistently turning out Division 1 talent, and can't get a sniff from our coaches. There are two players that have the size, speed and interest in going to a school that runs an offense that places an emphasis on passing. Not a word, even when certain local alumni place a call to the football office. Not important? A certain agricultural and mechanical college up the road thinks they can play, and are actively building the relationships with those players and with Coach Fedora.

When we fail, I can live with it if the effort was expended. When we fail to try, well, that's another thing.

One thing not being mentioned is, June can't recruite because no recruite believes he is going to be here much longer.