The simple truth....about recruiting.... | The Boneyard

The simple truth....about recruiting....

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pnow15

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I own house that sits adjacent to Clearwater H.S. Florida. I can't literally see Clearwater's football team practice from my from my back porch.
These kids are the size of college/pro football players. They have an all star game at Clearwater's football field for Pinellas County. On most given years these guys are bigger and faster than UConn players.
In the summer I live near Ledyard H.S. I see these kids at summer practice. These kids look like shrimps compared to the kids at Clearwater.
In order to compete, Diaco literally would have to get the best player out of each league from the state of CT every year. He has to recruit Florida.
 

uconnbill

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Connecticut has maybe 10 players a year that are FCS caliber players, while Florida has three hundred and fifty players each and every year that play at this level. Big difference. One thing I would like to see is UCONN land a couple more high end players from CT year in and year out. I blame part of that on some of the high school coaches and some on UCONN being in the AAC. Hopefully Diaco can change some of that with winning games and winning over some of those coaches.
 

Bonehead

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I own house that sits adjacent to Clearwater H.S. Florida. I can't literally see Clearwater's football team practice from my from my back porch.
These kids are the size of college/pro football players. They have an all star game at Clearwater's football field for Pinellas County. On most given years these guys are bigger and faster than UConn players.
In the summer I live near Ledyard H.S. I see these kids at summer practice. These kids look like shrimps compared to the kids at Clearwater.
In order to compete, Diaco literally would have to get the best player out of each league from the state of CT every year. He has to recruit Florida.
Spot on!
 

FfldCntyFan

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Considering that (once we stabilize a roster) at least some recruits will redshirt and be five year players, even taking attrition into account, we should be bringing in ~ 20 scholarship kids with each recruiting class. It would be a rare event for CT football if more than 3-4 kids capable of performing at the level we want to reach were in one recruiting class.

Locals and HS coaches can cry all they want about how accepting to local talent UConn should be but the reality is that we need to be very good in other recruiting regions (NJ, PA, MD, VA, OH & FL) if we want to reach the level as a football program to attract attention from a P-5 conference.
 
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I lived in Texas and the difference between the south and here (at least in TX, AZ, CA) is that you're sport is a class and you practice literally every school day starting in 6th grade. In middle school (6-8 grade) we had a sports class, so if you played any sport you were put in that class, so we had like 200 boys who ranged from track to soccer all in one class training together. When you get to high school you're separated by you're sport because you have bigger facilities, I can tell you my school spent a lot on athletics ( we had 3 different basketball gyms, not courts gyms, one for the freshman, 2 for JV and Varsity). If you made Varsity you practiced 3 times a day before, during, and after school, staring the first day of school. So the main reason why kids in the south and pacific are so much better is because they like 200-300 practices even before the season starts unlike kids up here.
 
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I lived in Texas and the difference between the south and here (at least in TX, AZ, CA) is that you're sport is a class and you practice literally every school day starting in 6th grade. In middle school (6-8 grade) we had a sports class, so if you played any sport you were put in that class, so we had like 200 boys who ranged from track to soccer all in one class training together. When you get to high school you're separated by you're sport because you have bigger facilities, I can tell you my school spent a lot on athletics ( we had 3 different basketball gyms, not courts gyms, one for the freshman, 2 for JV and Varsity). If you made Varsity you practiced 3 times a day before, during, and after school, staring the first day of school. So the main reason why kids in the south and pacific are so much better is because they like 200-300 practices even before the season starts unlike kids up here.

I agree with you on this. Another example is hockey in Canada. Canada has a population of approximately 35 million, but makes up great than 50% of the players in the NHL. It's an insane stat when you really think about it. For comparison, that would be like players from Texas making up over 50% of the NFL.
 
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This is not some great revelation. Pretty much everyone on this board is aware of the fact that Florida has to be recruited.


recruiting-distribution.0.jpg
 

FfldCntyFan

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The above chart tells me two things:

1 - As there are only four states that follow us, we really need to rethink the importance of the Ct Coaches Association.
2 - Looking at the state that immediately follows us and their history, there is no reason for any of us to believe there is some limitation on how good we can become as a football program.
 
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The above chart tells me two things:

1 - As there are only four states that follow us, we really need to rethink the importance of the Ct Coaches Association.
2 - Looking at the state that immediately follows us and their history, there is no reason for any of us to believe there is some limitation on how good we can become as a football program.

It also shows only 40 , so there are 14 states worse than Conn. Closer to home, one of those states is WV.

Unless you put in the resources to do what they do in Florida I'm not sure anyone can expect Conn. HS sports to ramp up. On the other had, I recently had a family member move from Jacksonville to Conn., and the difference her children have experienced in the public school systems is night and day. Straight A's in Florida, the family had to hi9re daily tutors for 8 months to bring them up to speed. They are now once again straight A students, but they were a full grade behind CT level.
 

whaler11

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All I take from Pal's chart is that the Big 10 needs Florida State or Texas in the league 5 years ago. They are dead without a south or southwest recruiting ground.

Nebraska didn't like Pelini winning 9 games? 6 years and 3 coaches from now those will be the good ol days for the Huskers.
 

FfldCntyFan

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Pellini didn't get canned because of his record. He told an entire fan base (which may well be the best fan base of any school in the country) to go F themselves. The firing of Solich a decade earlier was a move that most fans of the football program were against. The then AD (who Pitt just canned) decided to spit on everything the football program stood for to bring in Bill Callahan (which was a move similar to Louisville hiring Kragthorpe or UConn hiring P, with the exception that Callahan wasn't replacing a coach who moved on).

I don't know if Riley is the right guy but the correct hire will bring Nebraska back to what they once were (the same can be said about Michigan). The idiotic claims that they can never become a power again could have been (and was) said about Alabama a decade ago and USC five years prior to that.
 
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UCONN can recruit successfully to compete for championships on a regular basis in the AAC. Recruiting talent to be a consistent top 25 team is another matter, but to compete in the upper third of college football programs - absolutely!

How do I know this? Because it has already been done and arguably during a more challenging phase during our development from 1AA to 1A and eventual entry into the Big East. At one point we had Butler and Branch as starting corners followed by guys like Howard, Wilson and Gratz. We had running backs in the program at the SAME TIME of Brown, Todman, Dixon, McClain and Frey. McClain, arguably one of the very best all around athletes to ever put on a UCONN jersey, was moved to corner partially because he couldn't break that log jam.

We had starting linebackers and DLmen who all saw the league and all conference selection in Lutrus, Wilson, Llyoyd, to say nothing of Lansanah and Fincher, Reyes and Williams. Athletes like Nick Williams, Marcus Easley, Griffin, Beaty, Sherman, Anderson, Ryan.......

None of those classes were highly rated by the scouting services and none of these kids were highly rated or taken much notice of by other programs. It was simply excellent work assessing and developing good athletes. There was no talk of prototypes.

I really hope Diaco took note of that process. He's recruiting big kids. I sure as hell hope they can run.
 
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I would like to see a similar chart which tracks recruits which ended up playing in the NFL. Let's start with 2000.
 
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Pellini didn't get canned because of his record. He told an entire fan base (which may well be the best fan base of any school in the country) to go F themselves. The firing of Solich a decade earlier was a move that most fans of the football program were against. The then AD (who Pitt just canned) decided to spit on everything the football program stood for to bring in Bill Callahan (which was a move similar to Louisville hiring Kragthorpe or UConn hiring P, with the exception that Callahan wasn't replacing a coach who moved on).

I don't know if Riley is the right guy but the correct hire will bring Nebraska back to what they once were (the same can be said about Michigan). The idiotic claims that they can never become a power again could have been (and was) said about Alabama a decade ago and USC five years prior to that.

Not exactly a true comparison. While Nebraska has great tradition, facilities, and fans, they are located in a geographic area that produces very little major 1A Talent. What is produced is fought over by a number of schools facing similar circumstances. Twenty years ago UNL could sell being on TV more than most, and having nicer facilities than nearly anyone. Today just about every P5 School can sell these things. The state of Alabama and California produce a multitude of elite athletes, and The Tide and Trojans typically get the pick of the litter. Add an elite coach to the equation and you get major results. Nebraska might get desperate enough some day to pay someone obscene money, but it won't solve its recruiting base problem.
 

FfldCntyFan

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I respectfully disagree dandy. Claiming Nebraska's recruiting base is the state of Nebraska is akin to claiming Notre Dame's recruiting base is norther Indiana. Every one of the above named programs can go into any household in the country and be known (and more often than not desired) by the recruit.
 
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I respectfully disagree dandy. Claiming Nebraska's recruiting base is the state of Nebraska is akin to claiming Notre Dame's recruiting base is norther Indiana. Every one of the above named programs can go into any household in the country and be known (and more often than not desired) by the recruit.

I'm not claiming that UNL can only recruit Nebraska, they recruit nationally out of necessity. My point is that they have nothing at home to hang their hat on. USC could never leave the state of California to recruit again, and they would still pull in top 10 classes every year. Alabama as a talent producing state is on the rise as well. When you have a base and can cherry pick nationally you can really build something. Nebraska is an extreme outsider everywhere they go to recruit talent. Will they get some of these kids? Yes. Will it be an uphill battle? Yes.
 
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Sat next to Mac Brown (as engaging and nice a guy as you could imagine) at Zingarellas in Southington and talked football and recruiting etc. He said Louisiana is, per capita, the most under publicized hotbed of football talent. Per capita produces the most NFL players.
 

CAHUSKY

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I own house that sits adjacent to Clearwater H.S. Florida. I can't literally see Clearwater's football team practice from my from my back porch.
These kids are the size of college/pro football players. They have an all star game at Clearwater's football field for Pinellas County. On most given years these guys are bigger and faster than UConn players.
In the summer I live near Ledyard H.S. I see these kids at summer practice. These kids look like shrimps compared to the kids at Clearwater.
.

Clearwater HS has 11 players over 200 pounds on the roster with 2 of those over 300
http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/clearwater-tornadoes-(clearwater,fl)/football/roster.htm

Ledyard HS has 17 players over 200 pounds with 2 of them over 300.
http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/ledyard-colonels-(ledyard,ct)/football/roster.htm

I didn't have the energy to breakdown the heights of each player but Ledyard appears to have larger players in terms of weight.
 
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Clearwater HS has 11 players over 200 pounds on the roster with 2 of those over 300
http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/clearwater-tornadoes-(clearwater,fl)/football/roster.htm

Ledyard HS has 17 players over 200 pounds with 2 of them over 300.
http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/ledyard-colonels-(ledyard,ct)/football/roster.htm

I didn't have the energy to breakdown the heights of each player but Ledyard appears to have larger players in terms of weight.
It would be hard to find HS teams anywhere else in CT, other than Ledyard, with that many kids with that kind of size, unless you might be looking at a prep school
 

pnow15

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It would be hard to find HS teams anywhere else in CT, other than Ledyard, with that many kids with that kind of size, unless you might be looking at a prep school
Your absolutely right. Diaco should just recruit from Ledyard and skip on the kids in Florida based on weight charts for one season.
You may be on to something. However, it should be noted Ledyard is 12-2 ranked 20. Clearwater team is 4-6 with 246 ranking.
So, this means that there are 19 better team in Ct and only 245 better teams in Florida.
Ledyard has one player with D1 size at 6'3''. C
 

pnow15

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Your absolutely right. Diaco should just recruit from Ledyard and skip on the kids in Florida based on weight charts for one season.
You may be on to something. However, it should be noted Ledyard is 12-2 ranked 20. Clearwater team is 4-6 with 246 ranking.
So, this means that there are 19 betters team in Ct and only 245 better teams in Florida.
Ledyard has one player with D1 size at 6'3'' wide receiver.;
Clearwater on a weak squad has 4 with D1 size. Topping out at that heights with 6'4'', 6'5. Plus a tight end at 6'2', 245.
In other words that given your example and prize stat, if appears that a D-1 coach has a better shot at finding a player
in a mediocre Clearwater team than a stellar Ledyard one. And I, as I have written, this is just a casual drive by.
A coach has to recruit guys who can grow to the task. This doesn't take in the speed or athleticism.
 
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Your absolutely right. Diaco should just recruit from Ledyard and skip on the kids in Florida based on weight charts for one season.
You may be on to something. However, it should be noted Ledyard is 12-2 ranked 20. Clearwater team is 4-6 with 246 ranking.
So, this means that there are 19 better team in Ct and only 245 better teams in Florida.
Ledyard has one player with D1 size at 6'3''. C
Didn't mean any of what you're saying... just pointing out the size part... that's all... talent is talent... if you can find it, you recruit the heck out of it....
 
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