Was he encouraged to do so? Or are we really just back to the ‘not enough winning culture to keep him home’ scenario?
They wanted him. Long relaltionship with OSU hard to overcome. Lack of a DC hurt even though that was addressed with him.
Not a fan of being committed up until the night of signing day. He should’ve decommitted when Bret was fired.
Wish him luck, but not a fan of the handling of this. Like many kids they can be inconsiderate.
Arkansas fired the coaching staff the kid committed to for so long.
It’s a consequence of that action.
When that happened, he became a free agent just like the coach.
I don’t blame the kid at all. He is going with a staff that has stayed in touch with him for so long.
Bye! He could have waited until February if he was concerned about the new DC.
Not that my opinion matters, but I agree with the others who say he should have de-committed if he was seriously looking around. Seems dishonest to stay committed and act like you’re staying home until time to sign.
Not a big miss. When we get this turned around he will regret it.
I don’t keep up with this, so this is a serious question. Has our recruiting ranking actually dropped since the new staff started recruiting? Not a criticism of the new staff at all, just a question. I just saw on 247/sports that they have Arkansas ranked 66th nationally. It was my understanding that the Hogs were 51st or 52nd nationally under the old regime. Neither ranking is worth boasting about. I’ve never been big on the star-system ratings, but just trying to figure out if we’ve gotten better, stayed the same or fallen off. Obviously, there’s plenty of recruiting time left and help may be on the way.
A lot of the recruiting rankings is a numbers game. Since we had a small class we weren’t expecting to be up very high. But remember under CBB we had a few guys that decommited like McCallister and Byron Hampsard (BH was rated a 4-star though his offer list wasn’t overly impressive). Flanagan was rated a 4 so we will drop again.
Just my opinion, this early signing period is going to lock up some of these kids that may not be totally ready for a decision. What if we end up with Vinables (Disclaimer: not saying this will happen… at all), do we think Flanagan would be signing tomorrow if he wasn’t getting pressure from OSU? Same with OU pressuring that kid exploring his options this weekend. Kind of feels like it is putting a lot of pressure on students right as they are coming off of football seasons and havent had a chance to relax.
I tend to agree. The early signing period sounded OK, but when you look at situations like ours, it doesn’t seem to help matters. Players have enough pressure, the addition of an early signing period looks like it has increased the pressure to sign early instead of having a chance to establish relationships with coaches. I don’t blame the coaches that are pressuring the kids; they have to win, too. But the NCAA needs to find ways to lessen the pressure on these young men rather than increase it.
Kids do this at other schools it’s not unusual, kind of like coaches not calling recruits that are committed to let them know that they are no longer needed it’s not unusual, what goes around comes around. WPS
OSU has always felt 2nd fiddle to OU. So he chose a 2nd fiddle program. A degree from OSU-that won’t be anything to write home about. He made a bad decision.
Mercy. Not a good recruiting week for the new staff. Glad they got Ferrell.
I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt because it’s a tough situation, but the last 2 staffs have done a better job of retaining and/or flipping in-state kids when they took over.
Joe Adams comes to mind.
This is a consequence of firing the old staff and then not having a plan other than chasing Gus’ skirt for weeks.
It just pretty much tacks a year on to the rebuild. But hey, at least Gus got what he wanted.
It’s still hard for me to imagine a local kid who has been committed forever wanting to go play out of state with a new, exciting staff.
I get all the relationship stuff. I’m just different, I guess. I’m a Hog through and through. I think at the very least I would want to wait until the late period and give the Arkansas coaches a chance to make their pitch.
But, it’s his choice and if he wants to go play for the enemy then that’s certainly his choice–at least it’s not a SEC school.
Evidently, Luke Jones got a bump after visiting ND. Noah Banks got a bump after Texas and Florida offered. I have no idea because I haven;t looked but just what I was told. There was another kid that Arkansas had a commitment or was recruiting got a bump but I forgot his situation. I think he got another big offer or something.
I am somewhat worried about this year’s recruiting. Losing Tanner McAllister and Flanigan to Oklahoma St. is a huge hit to our recruiting and the depth we need for our secondary. I do know that poor results on the field tend to reflect in the recruiting the following year. I do hope that we can be decent next year with an exciting offense that doesn’t expose our defense. Do worry that losing the above players and possibly losing Luke Jones and Noah Banks is tough on our talent levels.
Yes. It was a concern with firing the old staff but was really compounded by Malzahn playing us and the new early signing period. This class is going to be rough. It may actually help that we blueshirted some last year.
The good news is we were playing a ton of young guys, so there’s a chance they’ll make a move. We have already seen it with some like Harris and Curl. We need others with potential (Chevin, Montaric, Guidry, etc) to emerge.
I really don’t understand how any body could think that the coaching change would not result in a rough recruiting year in 2018. That’s part of the price you pay when you make a change, you lose commits and have little time to make up ground on new ones.
It was going to be worse this year with the early signing period, since for all the kids signing early Morris was hired on what would have equivalent to hiring a coach about January 17th for the previous February signing day.
So… CM has to win with Bret’s players next year, and probably will have to rely on them more than he will like in 2019. If we get a few early contributors out of this class, great, but mainly we just have to hope that most of the ones we sign can develop into SEC players by the 2019 or 20 season.
The first real indication we will get on CM’s ability to recruit will be the 2019 class. If we are struggling this time next year I will be concerned. But you just can’t make any judgments on recruiting ability under the circumstances that exist right now.
The kid should have done the honorable thing and de-committed prior to his ‘announcement’. IMO it shows that we are better off without his attitude on the program.
Only if they can’t replace a kid from a 3A school in Arkansas with someone of better ability. I suspect they will.