I think there are some misnomers on here regarding recruiting strategy. There are two ways to go about having success in recruiting.
1) Recruit the high-end prospects, who are pretty much can't-miss, that every blue blood in the country is after.
- or -
2) Scour the country for lesser developed players who don't get as much exposure and high ratings, but are still elite-level athletes. Through player development, you turn a great "athlete" into a great football player.
Plenty of teams win as a result of either of these strategies. We have always had to succeed with #2, and most likely always will. Teams like TCU and Mizzou have had good success recently taking lower-ranked players, and turning out great football players. Just take TCU for example this year. Kavontae Turpin is a true freshman RB/Slot Receiver and primary return man. The kid can absolutely fly. He was a 2-star recruit from the state of Louisiana. Those are the types of guys we used to have on our roster. Not anymore.
We have a lack of talent and athleticism on this roster, and as a result, fans questioning recruiting. We are failing at strategy #2. The past few years, the unheralded recruits just don't seem to have the athleticism and upside past players have had. Our talent evaluation has gone down in my view. Why? I don't know. I personally think the staff is so much different than it was from 97-03, and LHCBS is now a lot older. It's not a leap to surmise maybe some of that skill has been lost over the years through staff turnover and LHCBS' age.
1) Recruit the high-end prospects, who are pretty much can't-miss, that every blue blood in the country is after.
- or -
2) Scour the country for lesser developed players who don't get as much exposure and high ratings, but are still elite-level athletes. Through player development, you turn a great "athlete" into a great football player.
Plenty of teams win as a result of either of these strategies. We have always had to succeed with #2, and most likely always will. Teams like TCU and Mizzou have had good success recently taking lower-ranked players, and turning out great football players. Just take TCU for example this year. Kavontae Turpin is a true freshman RB/Slot Receiver and primary return man. The kid can absolutely fly. He was a 2-star recruit from the state of Louisiana. Those are the types of guys we used to have on our roster. Not anymore.
We have a lack of talent and athleticism on this roster, and as a result, fans questioning recruiting. We are failing at strategy #2. The past few years, the unheralded recruits just don't seem to have the athleticism and upside past players have had. Our talent evaluation has gone down in my view. Why? I don't know. I personally think the staff is so much different than it was from 97-03, and LHCBS is now a lot older. It's not a leap to surmise maybe some of that skill has been lost over the years through staff turnover and LHCBS' age.
