…I say baby steps because we are not seeing a huge leap forward, yet, on the field, but with no history at the UofA and no success, yet, on the field, this staff has recruited, so far, better than any staff @ Arkansas in 2-3 decades. That is exciting to all true Razorback fans. We need this class to stay together and finish strong because we got a long way to go. As good as this class may be, it will probably finish in the middle of the pack in SEC recruiting. That means this one class is at the bottom of the top half of the SEC and all of the classes before it @ Arkansas are much, much, worse. So, even if it finishes great, this class is just one little step up the ladder we have to climb if we want to COMPETE in the SEC. The dream scenario is that Kelley Bryant comes to play for us, a couple of really good JC offensive linemen commit (and play great right away when they get on campus), and an elite linebacker and cornerback or two sign on. An elite kicker would be very nice as well. So, still dreaming, all of that happens and next year we make it to a bowl and the next class is even better than this one. Do that again for a third year and maybe by then we can win some games against some of the elite programs in the SEC. It may take several more years to win the West and THAT is the best case scenerio that this Hog Fan can imagine. The hole this program has to climb out of is far deeper than Chad Morris or most of us fans realized and it will take a lot of climbing to get to where we want our program to be. JMVVVVVVHO
I agree.
Just have to get this roster turned over. Bret recruited conference USA talent and developed like a 2A Arkansas high school. (Slight exaggeration…maybe)
Regardless, we have amongbthe worst talent in all of P5, and when we get those players out and he’s more talented in we will begin to see a new standard. I’m hopeful. There are things I love about this staff, that’s recruiting, and things that severely concern me. But overall I’m optimistic, mainly due to their ability to recognize they aren’t “close” but instead far away, talent wise.
Most of Bret’s recruits had pretty good offer lists.
we will always haved to coach them up b/c we will never be able to out recruit 4-5 of these teams need to get very good players and Coach/scheme the heck out of them.
It doesn’t fit their agenda, you must have a scapegoat for the current season’s problems/losses. Now, we all know not all of them were top end guys, and some were stretches, but development and the natural hit/miss rate plays into it. I suspect not all of these guys(2019) with “good offer lists” will develop as we hope.
I understand that, also, many did not. Many had no business being offered.
Many did not, also. The average player rating for Bret’s recruiting classes combined was somewhere in the 86.xx range. I don’t remember exactly, I have done the math before though. Chads first class was in a horrible situation was as good or better than all of Bret’s classes, but I don’t give chad full credit because some were flpreciously committed.
Chads first class is currently in the 88.xx range, cumulative, much, much better than Bret ever had.
The ones with good offers, many did not work out, that’s why I also pointed to bad development.
No agenda, sir. Just pointing out what we all see on the field, and have for years. Pretty hard to argue that unless you’re blind.
Of course not all recruits hit. But they damn sure better hit more than they miss, and if they don’t, well, you probably get fired.
I would say the majority did.
We disagree on that.
Majority may have played, but in order for me to say they worked out, they would have to therefor be SEC level players.
If majority worked out by that definition, why did Bret get fired?
I think we all can agree we do not have enough SEC players, and have no depth.
That’s where they didn’t work out. They either were mis-evaluated as SEC caliber, or not developed into SEC caliber players.
All adds up to Bret getting fired and us having the worst talent in the SEC. not sure how that equals to majority being a success.
As often happens in a coaching change, we have had a few guys with good recruiting resumes rise from the ashes to have good years.
Watts looked like a bust before this season, but has played well enough to either get drafted late or be sought after as a free agent. Wallace has played better as the year has gone along. Storey, for all his limitations, became a starter. They also seem to have finally gotten the O’Grady light bulb to quit flickering and stay on all the time.
Limpert, who I recall had some other options when he walked on, has bloomed this year, after being really up and down in the past.
So some misses, some failure to develop by the deposed regime.
Richard’s continued defense of Bielema’s recruiting efforts is laughable … we have the worst talent in the whole league and he keeps talking about offers.
Worst talent in the league and any coach or NFL scout will tell you that.
Not as laughable as your obsession with the former coach.
Ex Mod:
Thought you were on hiatus after offending half of the free world ?!? LOL
Laugh all you want, but Richard’s assertion about the offers is correct.
He was not in charge of evaluation and development - that falls to the former staff.
But the offer comment is right.
Dudley I follow recruiting closely and I understand how the game is played with respect to “offers.”
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You have the “offer” that has no restrictions and the kid can commit on the spot and will be waited on. I suspect Catalon has one of those.
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You have the verbal “offer” that comes with restrictions - we like you and you have an offer, but before you commit we need you to come on an official, etc. Try to commit and the school starts stammering. Translation - the kid is on the board, but not at the top and the offer is only commitable if others don’t come.
We have a QB on our roster that was “offered” by Alabama. His offer was of the second variety. Too many of our players got offers from other schools that were of the #2 variety and not enough of the #1 variety. Have a few like that in this class too. For example Otey was verbally offered by Auburn but when he tried to commit he was not a take for them at the time. Does that mean Otey’s not a good pick up? Not at all, but he was not a #1 type offer either and something to keep in mind when evaluating the kid and setting expectations for him.
Anybody that follows recruiting knows what I’m talking about.
My comment wasn’t whether they worked out or not but they had good amount of offers.
Richard please define offers. For example are you saying Ty Storey had a commitable offer from Alabama with no restrictions? In other words after they verbally offered he could have called and said I’m coming and Nick would have accepted it?
In this day and age not all offers are created equal. I don’t consider a kid to have an offer unless it’s commitable without restrictions.
Our talent level is so poor because we have way too many kids that did not have a lot of fully commitable offers.
Impossible to know if all the offers were commitable types or not. You can check on some but not all.
I’m sure it’s impossible to check all, but with your contacts I’m sure for most kids you can call call your counterparts at other schools to find out if a kid is a take or not. I as a fan can go to other team sites - very easy to do on 24/7 network - and get a pretty good feel for whether a kid is considered a priority by that team’s recruiting writers and fanbase or if he’s not.
For example, the Walker kid that committed recently from Georgia I believe you reported he had offers from Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Did you attempt to find out if those were commitable offers? I did some checking on 24/7 sites and can say confidently they were not at least on the part of Alabama and Georgia. Does that mean he’s not a good player? Of course not!!!..but…I do check my expectations a bit. Getting a guy with a non-commitable offer to Alabama ( on their recruiting board, but not a priority) is different than getting a guy with a fully commitable offer and one that has their insider boards up in arms when he picks us.
Most on here are not “recruitniks” and merely read your articles and assume when you say we get a kid with offers from x,y, and z that they are fully commitable offers and we truly beat all of those schools. Then they wonder later why we are struggling on the field when we have so many kids with legitamite offers from other SEC heavyweights. Well, the reason is a lot- not all but too many - are not commitable offers ( top priority kids) but rather kids further down on the SEC heavyweight’s recruiting board. The number of kids in our team with legit, fully commitable Alabama or LSU offers is quite small.
Hope I’ve educated some of our less discerning readers just a bit…not every offer is equal and they need to educate themselves a bit lest they be disappointed about results on the field.
Good news - we do have more kids with commitable offers from big time programs than in past years.
Idk how true it is, but I’ve read somewhere that the only thing that held off the big boys from a committable offer on walker was his grades.
Like I said, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if so, certainly doesn’t take away from his football ability, just needs to mature a little perhaps.