2018 Recruiting Thread

[FearlessF]

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2017/12/18/16780636/best-recruits-2018-state-rankings

[FearlessF]

The huskers were going to have a small class this year.. it might be bigger with some transfers, but initially and how they recruited, it was going to be small.   UNL has the 4th best ranking per player in the BIG, which, if you believe in the ratings, means they have pretty good quality for a small class.  

small class and then the entire coaching staff changing
didn't keep a couple of the major recruiters of major position groups just to save some 4-stars
was speculation that the WR coach or the DB coach might be retained to hang onto those california 4 stars in the class
I think it's better to give up on a few recruits than hold a coach more a few months or a year then push him out. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Yeah, one of the things I *hate* about recruiting rankings is how big of a role class size plays. It's especially messy in basketball, where a team could have anywhere between 2 recruits and 5 recruits in a class depending on how their previous classes aligned. You can have two hotshot recruits but have a "poorly-rated" recruiting class due to size. 

Granted, that's usually not a big issue in football, as all classes are typically big, but sometimes a school gets their classes unbalanced. I remember a few years ago Purdue had a 12-man recruiting class. Not that it would have been highly-rated in general due to the sorts of recruits we filled that class with, but it was ranked far more horribly than it would have been with 20 equally-rated recruits coming in. Quantity is sometimes deemed more important than quality.

Sounds like that's the issue for Nebraska. Getting some high-quality kids, but a small class of them. So their recruiting rank of 46th (per the other note above) doesn't reflect the quality of the kids they're bringing in. 

[FearlessF]

once Frost and his staff are through with the peach bowl, they will be able to spend more time filling out the class

only 10 kids signed yesterday, so they can add another 7 or 8 in Feb.  Possibly more if there are transfers due to the coaching change.

[Mdot21]

late coaching changes always wind up with horribly ranked recruiting classes in that first class.

Just the way it goes. New staff doesn't have the time to build the relationships with recruits and their families. Price you pay when you make a late coaching change at the end of the season. Even moreso now that there's an early signing period.

[Mdot21]

Yeah, one of the things I *hate* about recruiting rankings is how big of a role class size plays. It's especially messy in basketball, where a team could have anywhere between 2 recruits and 5 recruits in a class depending on how their previous classes aligned. You can have two hotshot recruits but have a "poorly-rated" recruiting class due to size.

Granted, that's usually not a big issue in football, as all classes are typically big, but sometimes a school gets their classes unbalanced. I remember a few years ago Purdue had a 12-man recruiting class. Not that it would have been highly-rated in general due to the sorts of recruits we filled that class with, but it was ranked far more horribly than it would have been with 20 equally-rated recruits coming in. Quantity is sometimes deemed more important than quality.

Sounds like that's the issue for Nebraska. Getting some high-quality kids, but a small class of them. So their recruiting rank of 46th (per the other note above) doesn't reflect the quality of the kids they're bringing in.

lots of kids bust out, so quantity is also pretty important.

There are very few sure things in recruiting. IMO, there are maybe 5-10 kids every year who are really elite and obvious 5*'s. All the 5 and 4 *'s after those 5-10 or so is kinda interchangeable.

[betarhoalphadelta]

lots of kids bust out, so quantity is also pretty important.

There are very few sure things in recruiting. IMO, there are maybe 5-10 kids every year who are really elite and obvious 5*'s. All the 5 and 4 *'s after those 5-10 or so is kinda interchangeable.

That's a fair argument, but teams usually don't aim for 12-person classes because they REALLY like those kids and feel they don't need more, they aim for 12-person classes because due to redshirts, transfers, etc their rosters are top-heavy and only have a limited number of scholarships in a given year. 

[847badgerfan]

late coaching changes always wind up with horribly ranked recruiting classes in that first class.

Just the way it goes. New staff doesn't have the time to build the relationships with recruits and their families. Price you pay when you make a late coaching change at the end of the season. Even moreso now that there's an early signing period.

Almost always. Harbaugh's first one was ranked pretty high (player rankings). It was very small (13 maybe?) - too small to rank really high with the others. He probably had 6-8 4* players though.

[847badgerfan]

UW offered a JuCo ILB this week (tells me the staff thinks/knows TJ Edwards is leaving) and he will be visiting on 1/12. He was set to announce for UNL or Iowa yesterday, but changed his plans so he could see Madison.

I think UW gets him.

https://247sports.com/Player/Will-Honas-46049576

Heh. Announced for Nebraska today. The late offer really hurt UW in this one, as well as the late visit date. UNL starts school on the 8th, so waiting for a visit to UW would have killed enrolling early there. He took the sure thing, which is fine.

UW can always send him post cards from Indianapolis, so he could know what it looks like. 

[Mdot21]

Almost always. Harbaugh's first one was ranked pretty high (player rankings). It was very small (13 maybe?) - too small to rank really high with the others. He probably had 6-8 4* players though.

well that first class of his when he had like a month on the job to recruit was ranked 37th nationally, 5th in the B1G, and it had 14 commits.
6 of the commits were 4*'s, the other 8 commits were 3*'s. Of those six 4* commits, two Jim actually signed, Zach Gentry and Tyrone Wheatley. The other 4 were Brady Hoke commits that Jim convinced to stay on board. All the other highly ranked Brady Hoke commits like 5* WR George Campbell, 5* RB Damien Harris and 4* RB Mike Weber jumped ship.
In that 14 person class, 5 have left the program and one is going to try to come back in 2018 from a devastating injury, but it's 50/50 at this point. All depends on how it goes this spring. Which again, shows why quantity is also very important.
the 5 who left:
ATH Brian Cole - top 50 rated player nationally. highly talented athlete, couldn't keep his head on straight, got kicked out of school.
QB Alex Malzone - in all honestly probably should have never been ranked a 4*. Lacked the size and arm talent to play at a high level in FBS.
DE Shelton Johnson - 3* from FL that got booted, rumors are the ganja
CB Keith Washington - 3* from Alabama that was buried on the depth chart, transferred to JUCO then to WVU
K Andrew David - transferred to TCU
Then you have Grant Newsome who is basically 50/50 at this point if he'll play again. Could be looking at 6 guys gone out of a 14 man class. Wouldn't be surprised either if you saw a couple more from that class transfer before the start of 2018, because Nolan Ulizio and Rueben Jones have both basically proven themselves not capable of playing at this level and have been recruited over.

[847badgerfan]

Do you think Malzone would transfer?

[Mdot21]

Do you think Malzone would transfer?

he is transferring. And yeah, I thought he would transfer the moment they got Peters (4*, top 50 player nationally in 2016) and McCaffrey (4*, top 150 player nationally in 2017) in back to back classes. Adding a top 5 player and #1 QB from the 2016 class in Patterson and then 4* Joe Milton and 3* Kevin Doyle for 2018 probably didn't help.
No way he was ever beating any of those guys out. They are all physically bigger and have far more arm talent than he does. Malzone's arm is probably not even as good as McCaffrey's, and McCaffrey is rail thin and has the weakest arm of those other 5.

[Brutus Buckeye]

late coaching changes always wind up with horribly ranked recruiting classes in that first class.

Just the way it goes. New staff doesn't have the time to build the relationships with recruits and their families. Price you pay when you make a late coaching change at the end of the season. Even moreso now that there's an early signing period.

Urbs put together a fantastic class right after being hired. 

[847badgerfan]

Urbs put together a fantastic class right after being hired.

Yes, he did, but he was permitted to recruit immediately, even though OSU had a head coach (Fickell) and staff at the time to prepare for the bowl game.

That was a very weird arrangement and Urbs was able to do a lot of visiting and flipping as a result.