If We Could Just Recruit CT...

[uconnphil2016]

I know that getting the top prospects in our state is tough, but in watching Clemson last week I was imagining how awesome of a team we'd have if we were able to do this. Christian Wilkins is arguably Clemson's best player, and there are tons of other guys who are dominating high level CFB from our own state. Imagine if we were able to keep even SOME of these guys home:

-Luke Niang (starts for TCU)
-Christian Wilkins
-AJ Dillon (ACC freshman of the year)
-Tarik Black
-Andrew Steuber
-Ben Mason
-Will Levis

There are definitely more, but these are the guys making a big impact at P5 schools, or being heavily recruited in Levis' case. If we could land just a couple guys like this it would be huge. There's so much talent in CT and the level of talent is growing exponentially. I really hope we can continue to make more progress recruiting here and making this a place that kids wanna play.

 

[huskyrob1]

I know that getting the top prospects in our state is tough, but in watching Clemson last week I was imagining how awesome of a team we'd have if we were able to do this. Christian Wilkins is arguably Clemson's best player, and there are tons of other guys who are dominating high level CFB from our own state. Imagine if we were able to keep even SOME of these guys home:

-Luke Niang (starts for TCU)
-Christian Wilkins
-AJ Dillon (ACC freshman of the year)
-Tarik Black
-Andrew Steuber
-Ben Mason
-Will Levis

There are definitely more, but these are the guys making a big impact at P5 schools, or being heavily recruited in Levis' case. If we could land just a couple guys like this it would be huge. There's so much talent in CT and the level of talent is growing exponentially. I really hope we can continue to make more progress recruiting here and making this a place that kids wanna play.

Actually there is another QB in the state being recruited much more heavily than Levis. New Canaan QB Drew Pyne is only a sophmore and already has offers on the table from Alabama, FSU, Notre Dame, USC, Oklahoma, BC, Michigan and Ohio State. Right now for my money, the best QB in the state is David Summers of St Joe's. I hope UConn has a chance with Summers, and they actually might if Bisack can convince him to give Storrs a look.

 

[huskymedic]

Only one thing missing...

 

[Exit 4]

Baby steps. Have to win with Randy's diamonds first which will come from everywhere. Then, after a couple winning seasons you can have a much better shot holding onto the top local talent. Even then, you will only get some of it until the squad is perennially ranked.

Its also not helping us that some regional "talent" that has stayed has not excelled.

Randy's diamonds are the only way out of the bottom for now.

 

[06029]

Wilkens was going to a school that had a legitiate shot at a national championship. He was that good out of high school and keeping him in CT even if Uconn was winning the AAC/Top 25 was not going to happen.

Dillon, maybe if Uconn was winning more, there was a chance. The BC choice seems to be related more to Diaco and not even trying (yes he had an offer) and having no connection when he decided to de-commit to MI. The others, who knows.

Winning cures a lot of problems with fan support and recruiting but the 4 and 5 star kids coming out of CT and New England will always have great options in P5 conferences and Top 25 schools. Some kids also want to get away and see if they can make their mark in football country.

The key is 4 to 6 3 star kids (stars aren't everything but they say something) and kids with legit FBS/P5 offers primarily from New England, NY and NJ. Throw in some lower ranked skill players with speed (again with FBS offers) and some big kids that can add 50 ponds of muscle along the line, and you are building a winner.

 

[bc puckett]

I know that getting the top prospects in our state is tough, but in watching Clemson last week I was imagining how awesome of a team we'd have if we were able to do this. Christian Wilkins is arguably Clemson's best player, and there are tons of other guys who are dominating high level CFB from our own state. Imagine if we were able to keep even SOME of these guys home:

-Luke Niang (starts for TCU)
-Christian Wilkins
-AJ Dillon (ACC freshman of the year)
-Tarik Black
-Andrew Steuber
-Ben Mason
-Will Levis

There are definitely more, but these are the guys making a big impact at P5 schools, or being heavily recruited in Levis' case. If we could land just a couple guys like this it would be huge. There's so much talent in CT and the level of talent is growing exponentially. I really hope we can continue to make more progress recruiting here and making this a place that kids wanna play.

You can have Niang back anytime you want. He saw action in the first 4 games, started the next 8 due to OL injuries and didn't see the field in the Big XII championship game. On an OL that was a serious weakness he was to be kind "mediocre"

 

[Uconnalliance]

What was the story with Tyler Matakevich?

 

[noeynox]

CT produces a lot of talent. We've gotten our share Lutrus, Byron Jones, Trevardo. Sheet, we put 2 CT walkons into the NFL, Donald Thomas and Marcus Easly.

 

[Saab04]

You can have Niang back anytime you want. He saw action in the first 4 games, started the next 8 due to OL injuries and didn't see the field in the Big XII championship game. On an OL that was a serious weakness he was to be kind "mediocre"

Mediocre in the Big 12, but maybe a great player in the AAC. Who knows, but it’s two different levels of competition. Also in the high profile CT pool is Quansah and Harris for the blue devils. But like some of the guys are saying, we need to win games in order to attract these kind of players. I’ve spoken to players like Fortt and Silas Redd years back and they laughed when I pitched for them to commit to UConn. Players like them don’t take UConn football serious. Edsall and company has to change that perception.

 

[gioff23]

We need PP back!

 

[huskyrob1]

CT produces a lot of talent. We've gotten our share Lutrus, Byron Jones, Trevardo. Sheet, we put 2 CT walkons into the NFL, Donald Thomas and Marcus Easly.

We are getting better at it, HCRE is making an effort to improve our in state recruiting and his relationships with the better HS coaches in CT. That being said, the fact that Nico Ragaini didn't even have an offer from us, means UConn still needs to get better at tracking in state kids....

Football: Former Notre Dame-West Haven all-stater Nico Ragaini commits to Iowa

 

[huskysupporter]

I know that getting the top prospects in our state is tough, but in watching Clemson last week I was imagining how awesome of a team we'd have if we were able to do this. Christian Wilkins is arguably Clemson's best player, and there are tons of other guys who are dominating high level CFB from our own state. Imagine if we were able to keep even SOME of these guys home:

-Luke Niang (starts for TCU)
-Christian Wilkins
-AJ Dillon (ACC freshman of the year)
-Tarik Black
-Andrew Steuber
-Ben Mason
-Will Levis

There are definitely more, but these are the guys making a big impact at P5 schools, or being heavily recruited in Levis' case. If we could land just a couple guys like this it would be huge. There's so much talent in CT and the level of talent is growing exponentially. I really hope we can continue to make more progress recruiting here and making this a place that kids wanna play.

It’s simple. Look at our conference.

 

[huskymedic]

We are getting better at it, HCRE is making an effort to improve our in state recruiting and his relationships with the better HS coaches in CT. That being said, the fact that Nico Ragaini didn't even have an offer from us, means UConn still needs to get better at tracking in state kids....

Football: Former Notre Dame-West Haven all-stater Nico Ragaini commits to Iowa

UConn knew who and where he was...

 

[#1 PA Husky Fan]

It’s simple. Look at our conference.

Quality of play in conference - disagree. Lack of a local rival - agree. Can a player play for his home state team, play a quality schedule, and play in the NFL - ABSOLUTELY. BTW, as it relates to NFL, UConn does it better than most!

 

[huskyrob1]

CT produces a lot of talent. We've gotten our share Lutrus, Byron Jones, Trevardo. Sheet, we put 2 CT walkons into the NFL, Donald Thomas and Marcus Easly.

The fact that Nick Saban spent several days in our state going to some high school games, among other things, in our state recently says something. Recruited Casey Rogers recently, not sure if Rogers has signed yet though.

 

[huskyrob1]

UConn knew who and where he was...

Can you share how you know that? How come no offer?

 

[UCFBfan]

Can you share how you know that? How come no offer?

I have no info but I do believe the kid said in an interview after he committed to Iowa that he always wanted to be there. That, coupled with other P5 schools possibly looking at him likely made RE realize he could put his resources in better places.

Honestly, if anyone here seriously thinks we should be wasting time on commits we have no shot at landing due to the fact they have offers from hi caliber P5 schools, then I don't know what to say.

Our staff knows who they have a realistic shot with, who is a long shot but possible, and who is a never going to get. No reason to waste resources on a kid we have zero chance with just because the kid lives in CT.

 

[huskymedic]

Can you share how you know that? How come no offer?

Discussed ad naseum in 2018 Recruiting Thread in Recruiting Forum (and a separate commit thread) but the simple proof (outside of my personal knowledge) that UConn was aware of him was he was following and being followed by a number of UConn coaches on Twitter over the years and UConn staff have also attended quite a few NDWH/AOF games over the past few seasons.

Only Edsall can explain why UConn may have passed on offering...

 

[metsfan2323]

What was the story with Tyler Matakevich?

That is an easy question to answer. Piss Poor didn't think he was good enough.

 

[noeynox]

Discussed ad naseum in 2018 Recruiting Thread in Recruiting Forum (and a separate commit thread) but the simple proof (outside of personal knowledge) that UConn was aware of him was he was following and being followed by a number of UConn coaches on Twitter over the years and UConn staff have also attended quite a few NDWH/AOF games over the past few seasons.

Only Edsall can explain why UConn may have passed on offering...

All staffs miss on kids. Not saying that is the case here. We passed on Amarei Spivey, who went on to Iowa and the NFL. We've also hit on kids that no one else wanted. I'm beyond caring about this stuff. Just recruit good players and win.

 

[huskyrob1]

I have no info but I do believe the kid said in an interview after he committed to Iowa that he always wanted to be there. That, coupled with other P5 schools possibly looking at him likely made RE realize he could put his resources in better places.

Honestly, if anyone here seriously thinks we should be wasting time on commits we have no shot at landing due to the fact they have offers from hi caliber P5 schools, then I don't know what to say.

Our staff knows who they have a realistic shot with, who is a long shot but possible, and who is a never going to get. No reason to waste resources on a kid we have zero chance with just because the kid lives in CT.

Only other schools that showed an interest according to the article were Yale and BC, hardly P5 power houses. HCRE is not going to throw in the towel on a recruit if that's his only competition. My thinking here is HCRE was late to the party simply because he took the job only a year ago, and Ferentz maybe already had the advantage on UConn. That being said, why not make an offer anyway????

 

[UCFBfan]

Only other schools that showed an interest according to the article were Yale and BC, hardly P5 power houses.
HCRE is not going to throw in the towel on a recruit if that's his competition.

Could be bit you never know what other schools were looking at him. My guess is RE knew what the odds were at landing him and decided to move on. I have no problem with any of this

 

[huskyrob1]

Discussed ad naseum in 2018 Recruiting Thread in Recruiting Forum (and a separate commit thread) but the simple proof (outside of my personal knowledge) that UConn was aware of him was he was following and being followed by a number of UConn coaches on Twitter over the years and UConn staff have also attended quite a few NDWH/AOF games over the past few seasons.

Only Edsall can explain why UConn may have passed on offering...

Then he probably already knew Ferentz had the kid locked up. I followed Ragaini since his sophmore year at NDWH, saw him in a couple of games, always wondered why he was not more highly recruited than he was, even then. I never read the recruiting forum. Lol

 

[huskymedic]

Then he probably already knew Ferentz had the kid locked up. I followed Ragaini since his sophmore year at NDWH, saw him in a couple of games, always wondered why he was not more highly recruited than he was, even then. I never read the recruiting forum. Lol

The kid is indeed talented and had a nice high school career but he also got the legendary star bump last week upon committing on Monday after the Iowa offer came on Sunday night.

Here's how recruiting rankings work. Went from a no star recruit to a 3 star, #5 ranked recruit in Connecticut after committing to Iowa.

 

[huskyblooz]

CT HS football has improved drastically over the last 10 years. Harbaugh has signed atleast 4 kids in last 2 years. We need to sell the kids to stay home. Have to get on them early. Have to show love to kids who are thinking bigger.

With that, let's move onto 2019. I doubt we're getting Conley (OT from New Canaan), but I hate to hear we're not trying. But id like to get Bryce Sebastian (DB Cheshire Academy), Summers (QB from StJoes) & Jackson Mitchell (WR from Ridgefield).

 

[FfldCntyFan]

As impressive as that list may be, it has seven players on the. I'm not about to argue the quality of top players from here but I will argue the quantity of players capable of contributing at the level we want the program to reach.

Like it, dislike it, be indifferent, but one fact is that our backbone has to come from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia (and maybe a bit of Ohio). We need to build half of our roster (10-12 scholarships a year) from those states. We also will need to get about 25% of our roster from Florida, Georgia and other southern states (the Carolinas, Texas, etc.). The remainder coming from the northeast (New York, all of New England) and outlying regions (Canada, the remainder of the U.S.).

We will be lucky to land one out of ten in state recruits receiving legitimate attention from schools capable of competing for a title until at least the time we become a ranked team on a regular basis and even then we will lose more than we will keep. We need to understand this, but of more importance we need to understand the volume of quality players needed to really be a top football program.

 

[huskyrob1]

CT HS football has improved drastically over the last 10 years. Harbaugh has signed atleast 4 kids in last 2 years. We need to sell the kids to stay home. Have to get on them early. Have to show love to kids who are thinking bigger.

With that, let's move onto 2019. I doubt we're getting Conley (OT from New Canaan), but I hate to hear we're not trying. But id like to get Bryce Sebastian (DB Cheshire Academy), Summers (QB from StJoes) & Jackson Mitchell (WR from Ridgefield).

Summers is getting lots of attention from major FBS programs, hopefully Bisack can convince him to come to Storrs. UConn is recruiting Mitchell but maybe late to the party. Several B1G and one SEC school are recruiting Mitchell. Seen him play several times and saw him drop a pass only once, only a junior last year but even then seemed a man among boys.