IF (Coach) Jim Mora is going to REINVENT UConn Football, he must work with the dedicated coaches and remarkable athletes in the LARGE cities in the State. Get out of Storrs and offer clinics (football & off-season conditioning), provide advice for in-school academic support (see “Meriden Model” Academic Athletic Coaches Helping Meriden Students Achieve Their Goals), and establish relationships with ex-Huskies who can identify (future) 5 star players as early as the 8th grade.
In-State Recruiting is a MUST for Success
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How many 4 and 5 star recruits does CT produce per year? 27 total in the past 20 years (including prep schools). Roughly 50 3* and higher in past 20 years. So let's just say 2-3 players from CT are 3* or better each year.
stacker.com
You aren't building a good program off of those numbers. Sure it's great to snag some of those kids, but you need a LOT more. Those kids are in other states.
Highest-rated football recruits from Connecticut over the last 20 years
Stacker compiled a list of the highest rated football recruits since 2000 in Connecticut using rankings from 247Sports.
You aren't building a good program off of those numbers. Sure it's great to snag some of those kids, but you need a LOT more. Those kids are in other states.
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I fully believe recruiting in CT has to improve but it absolutely is not a MUST for success.
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If you're going to start landing 4 star players in this program it will likely be a highly rated kid, whose family prefer he stay close to home, think Travis Jones here, or Stefon Diggs when Randy was at Maryland. His mom was quoted saying she didn't care who the coach was, she wanted him at UMD.
hardcorehusky
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I watched Don Brown's press conference at UMass. He spoke about his relationship with the high school coaches in New England and especially Massachusetts. He said basically the same thing about recruiting Mass. He is an old-time ball coach and I am glad we got Mora.
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Please read the other threads on CT recruiting and it will open your eyes. A couple of points that you will find in those threads:How many 4 and 5 star recruits does CT produce per year? 27 total in the past 20 years (including prep schools). Roughly 50 3* and higher in past 20 years. So let's just say 2-3 players from CT are 3* or better each year.
Highest-rated football recruits from Connecticut over the last 20 years
Stacker compiled a list of the highest rated football recruits since 2000 in Connecticut using rankings from 247Sports.
You aren't building a good program off of those numbers. Sure it's great to snag some of those kids, but you need a LOT more. Those kids are in other states.
1) CT prep school football has taken off. Many of the kids are not from CT and many are not listed as CT HS kids. But, they are in UConn’s back yard.
2) There are >75 kids from CT playing FBS football including if I remember correctly, 7 at Michigan.
3) There are 6 CT HS QBs getting noticed in FBS; Van Dyke at Miami, Pyne at Notre Dame, Levis at Kentucky Taisun P at Clemson (portal), Tyler P at UConn, David Summers at Syracuse (portal).
4) UConn has had 28 players drafted by the NFL in the FBS era. Although there is rating inflation in recent recruits, only 1 of the players is listed by 247 Sports as one of UConn’s all time top 30 recruits. Most of the players drafted were from New England and New York. Many Northeastern recruits are less developed and not evaluated.
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Also we need to score touchdowns
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Can’t go just by stars. Kids from the northeast are always under appreciated by the ranking systems.How many 4 and 5 star recruits does CT produce per year? 27 total in the past 20 years (including prep schools). Roughly 50 3* and higher in past 20 years. So let's just say 2-3 players from CT are 3* or better each year.
Highest-rated football recruits from Connecticut over the last 20 years
Stacker compiled a list of the highest rated football recruits since 2000 in Connecticut using rankings from 247Sports.
You aren't building a good program off of those numbers. Sure it's great to snag some of those kids, but you need a LOT more. Those kids are in other states.
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They also can be late bloomers since they don’t have the year round playing. Kurt Warner was a late bloomer.
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We are recruiting his kid FWIW
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Calhoun had an eye for potential so I think the underrated kids or solid coachable kids are where it's at. I think Aaron Hernandez was going to join DJ at UCONN but then the gators came calling and that was that. I think we can change the culture in Connecticut to keep more kids here but 4 and 5 star kids will leave for the very top programs.
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If the NIL makes the money more transparent, maybe it evens things out.
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It's great if a talented CT kid goes to UConn, but we need to recruit nationally.
“No one ever goes there, it’s too crowded.”
Ummm……I could be wrong, but I don’t think the state of Connecticut has ever had a 5 star football recruit, many four stars yes, but a 5 star, no. Connecticut has had several 5 stars in men’s basketball, at least one of whom went to UConn and had his picture on the front page of Parade Magazine, that I remember. If there were 5 stars given back in the 60’s or 70’s for football there were several, Bobby V certainly, Pete Demmerlee, Kurt Horton, Sandy Osiecki. Not sure about Andrew Pinnock or Dwight Freeney, from Bloomfield but they certainly could have been. I’d like to say Tim Boyle, but I think he was a three or four star.
FfldCntyFan
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Out of curiosity, if we had been able to land 16 if the top 18 in state prospects each of the past five recruiting classes (assuming each also redshirted one year, making this nearly the entirety of the roster) how good does anyone think the program would be?
I love the idea that we are mending fences in state but to think any year that we should offer more than a few scholarships to Connecticut kids would be anything other than an exception is ridiculous.
I love the idea that we are mending fences in state but to think any year that we should offer more than a few scholarships to Connecticut kids would be anything other than an exception is ridiculous.
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Floyd Little from Hillhouse in New Haven might have been the closest thing to a 5 star player, but it goes back to a time where they may have not been rated on such a scale. I don't know that for sure. Unfortunately he went to that hated school in upstate New York. But what an amazing football player he was.
Hard to tell, because coaching also has to be a factor, but if players like Ben Mason, Will Levis, Nico Ragini, John Sullivan, Andrew Steuber, Rondell Boothroyd, David Summers, AJ, Barber, Jah Joyner, and Matt Gulbin had committed to UConn we’d have one hell of a team.
I forgot about him, my apologies, but with all due respect to FL, Bobby V was the greatest high school football player in state history, no if’s and’s or but’s. His high school games at Rippowam High and his records are legend. As big as he was, he held the high school state record in the 60 yard dash for years. He was recruited by all the great legendary coaches, John McKay was once quoted as saying if BV had played football at USC instead of baseball, he would have won the Heisman Trophy. He is the only high school football player in CT history to make the All State team all four years in HS. Rippowam High was the top team in the state BV’s junior and Senior years.
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Who was the big lineman(I think offensive lineman) that I believe went to Florida’s State maybe 25 years ago. Think he may have been from Berlin
Was he a 5 star.?
Also CT has had 5 star talent but not benefit of the rating system
Just found it- Forrest Conoly
Was he a 5 star.?
Also CT has had 5 star talent but not benefit of the rating system
Just found it- Forrest Conoly
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Well given that there weren’t 18 prospects a year from Connecticut, I’m not sure it would have helped much. Between2008 and 2019 there were on average 10.2 FBS signees. Picked up in recent years, 2017-17; 2018-14, 2019-18, but the five years before that it was 5,10,10,9,9. These are players who were recruited and signed a FBS LOI. Canada produces about 6/year.
I don’t know if people understand the difference between Connecticut high school football and Florida or Texas, for example. At at least some of the bigger Florida schools, football coach is a job. Not History teacher/football coach or gym teacher/ football coach. They look at high school football the way we look at FBS football. Connecticut looks at high school football the way Wesleyan looks at it.
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