…so it was not all good news in this first class. The early signing date, late hire, and so few scholarships hurt but it could have been better. They give indications they can be a strong recruiting staff in time, but other staffs in almost the same situation did better. Ole Miss, MissState, Florida, Ta&m, Nebraska, Florida State all made a stronger recruiting start than Arkansas. When you only have a few scholarships, leaving several unfilled is a very big issue. Not flipping OU and Ta&m commits is not the issue. Not having alternatives when you only win 2 out of 5 of your final offers is a big concern. If we get the JC DE, that will be a better finish with only one unfilled slot. If we don’t get him, let’s hope for a great graduate transfer or two to save the day. JMVHO
Where do you come up with slots to be filled? We will have to have more players leave with the 16 we signed?
You offer top kids in Texas knowing your chances are slim at SMU. I know they recruited guys like Tommy Bush and others but soon realized they didn’t have a chance and started focusing on others.
They get to Arkansas and get back in contact, but those relationships with other schools are very strong. That’s what they encountered this time. They’ll have a full year to get to know kids now and I expect 8-10 kids from Texas in the 19 class.
You had 70 to 80% less talent to choose from in Jan. Not the best situation.
Arkansas would have 38th if it had simply signed four more 3-stars to add to the 16 signees it got.
It’s average star ranking was higher than the average of the 10-year average per the 24/7 composite.
Also higher than the last two years.
The early signing period hurt, especially since the staff was largely not in place for any meaningful time prior. Everyone knew there would be attrition among the commits to the previous class, and everyone knew we could only sign a small class. There was general agreement that we were going to be behind the 8 Ball on recruiting this year.
So the he moaning over class rank and accusations that this staff failed in recruiting this year ring pretty hollow to me. If you are complaining now, show me where you were claiming in early December that there was some basis for believing this class was ever going to be much better.
I think they did a pretty good job, especially to bring in better talent on defense. I don’t know what backup plan you can have in February with the talent pool so small. Every body is after the same folks, just ask the schools we beat out to sign seven of those eight guys.
Well duh, CBB was a lazy recruiter… Slow to offer and not as many offers as the rest of the SEC was giving (he wanted “Uncommon”)
FYI: eight of the 10 CBB recruits who decommitted from Arkansas went to Power-5 conferences (SEC, Big 12, ACC [if you count Notre Dame]), one to juco and the other to Louisiana Tech. Would have liked to have had some of those, but you can’t blame CCM because of a short time to build relationships.
All that may be so and a new coach has to get his own guys but look at where our decommits from Bret wound up signing.
Many of those decommits were not wanted by Chad and his crew.
They clearly saw something in the tape of several that they did not like. That’s why several guys were never contacted, which is normal for a new staff, and a way of saying you aren’t going to fit or aren’t wanted.
Now the obvious big miss that we all wish they could have gotten is The OL from PA, but I don’t think he was going to beat out ND and the relationship they built.
As for Flanagan from charleston, he’s no where close to the two safeties we signed. I’ve seen and watched him, and know this to be a fact. We came out better by that decommit.
In any transition, especially in styles of offense and defense, some won’t fit what the new coaches want. I wasn’t trying to say anything one way or another except both staffs were good evaluators, but I agree that the previous staff didn’t throw their line in the water nearly as much as they maybe should have. There’s certainly nothing wrong with going deep-sea fishing occasionally.
Time will tell how good of evaluators this staff is. I know Chief is a fantastic evaluator.
As for the last staff, I sure wouldn’t say they are good, they looked to be below average evaluators, or bad developers one. Something went wrong and it was one of those two.
I would agree that most of the previous commitments that went elsewhere were not wanted by this staff. I think they wanted Bohannon, Jones, and Mincey. They went after Flanagan hard because he was an Arkansas kid, but they got as good or better recruits for his position so no harm there. For whatever reason, they did not want Gooden, Gibson, McCalister, or Hanspard. Ford, the tight end that went to Georgia was already lost before Morris got here. Same with Banks, the JC offensive lineman. So, I give them a B+ on handling the previous commitments.
They only got 4 recruits from Texas. 2 were already committed to them at SMU, one was Stephen Jones who was almost automatic, and the 4th was the JC runnning back, Boyd. Bumper Pool was already on board. They got a lot of interest from OU and Ta&m commits out of Texas, but did not flip any of them. Their Texas recruiting was a C at best. Should be and needs to be much better in the future.
Surprisingly, they did well in Louisiana getting Parker and Foucha and just OK in Arkansas. Flipping Bishop was very good but losing Jones hurt. I think they will eventually sign 18 in this class. The final two will be the JC tight end, graduate transfers, or walk-ons. It will be a much better class than it is rated right now and probably will end up about like Bielema’s and Petrino’s first classes. JMVHO
LOL! Morris didn’t want them but better P5 programs did!
That’s a fact that he did not contact several of them.
Not all coaches see the same things or have the same wants.
[quote=“Poin77”]
That’s a fact that he did not contact several of them.
Not all coaches see the same things or have the same wants.
[/quote]. Maybe he didn’t; maybe he did. We’ll never know. Still no reason to talk down an in state kid who chose to decommit & go elsewhere after the coaching change.
Nobody wanted Moody or Parker until Morris offered
[quote=“fatback”]
I’m not talking down on him. I’m stating what I’ve seen. Wouldn’t have hurt my feelings if someone told me in highschool I wasn’t going to be a P5 stud.
From all indications the new staff wanted him to stay, he wasn’t one of the ones I was talking about. I just felt that either way, we ended up with better safety prospects.
Flanagan is a good athlete, but he isn’t the recruit the two safeties we signed are. They are physically better built for the SEC. I’ve seen him up close, watched himc he’s a good ball player, but 3 A Arkansas is a pathetic division, possibly the worst, over the smallest classification 2A. I try to go watch the instate prospects every year and usually they jump off the page and stand out. He did, but not like Montaric Brown, or Ladarius Bishop (who I think was better than brown), or Koilan Jackson, Sosa - the best I’ve ever watched in highschool and a close second being Jamario Bell.
[quote=“Poin77”]
[quote=“fatback”]
I’m not talking down on him. I’m stating what I’ve seen. Wouldn’t have hurt my feelings if someone told me in highschool I wasn’t going to be a P5 stud.
From all indications the new staff wanted him to stay, he wasn’t one of the ones I was talking about. I just felt that either way, we ended up with better safety prospects.
Flanagan is a good athlete, but he isn’t the recruit the two safeties we signed are. They are physically better built for the SEC. I’ve seen him up close, watched himc he’s a good ball player, but 3 A Arkansas is a pathetic division, possibly the worst, over the smallest classification 2A. I try to go watch the instate prospects every year and usually they jump off the page and stand out. He did, but not like Montaric Brown, or Ladarius Bishop (who I think was better than brown), or Koilan Jackson, Sosa - the best I’ve ever watched in highschool and a close second being Jamario Bell.
[/quote] go back & read what you wrote about him & imagine what he would feel if he read it. There’s no reason to cut down a kid to defend Morris’s recruiting or lack thereof. Hopefully Morris is s bigger man & wouldn’t condone these tactics.
[quote=“fatback”]
All I’ve said is I think we are better off, and obviously he thinks he’s better off at Ostate.
Where were you when people were saying J.S.Jones didn’t have what it takes to play in the SEC? Hmm…
Nothing wrong with either.
You’re just an antagonist trying to get a rise out of anything.
[quote=“Poin77”]
Many of those decommits were not wanted by Chad and his crew.
They clearly saw something in the tape of several that they did not like. That’s why several guys were never contacted, which is normal for a new staff, and a way of saying you aren’t going to fit or aren’t wanted.
Now the obvious big miss that we all wish they could have gotten is The OL from PA, but I don’t think he was going to beat out ND and the relationship they built.
As for Flanagan from charleston, he’s no where close to the two safeties we signed. I’ve seen and watched him, and know this to be a fact. We came out better by that decommit.
[/quote] This is what you said about the kid earlier in the thread. Now you try to tone it down & distract from the point by bringing up Jones. Weak! BTW, just because you saw the kid play & think “he’s no where close to the two safeties we signed” doesn’t make it a fact…it’s merely your opinion. Furthermore, just because I disagree with your tactics does not make me an “antagonist”. But I assume it makes you feel better to label people.