We have one DL committed now & he’s not big enough to anchor the interior of a SEC line right now. Edwards is SEC ready with a little weight loss/conditioning. For us to chase down the top teams in the SEC, we need to sign the type players these teams have–top tier D talent. Disappointing. Going to be interesting to see who else they sign on the DL. I hope these 4 FR on campus now really take off & develop as players this spring. We are going to need them big time.
I’ve been real interested as well in d line tecruiting.
Hopefully we do well in this area.
Impressive offensive recruiting this week.
The real question -
How bad did Arkansas need Edwards?
If the Hogs badly needed to sign a noseguard in this class, why recruit only one junior college noseguard?
Why have no other options, no competition for that slot?
Was Edwards a “like to have,” or a “must have?”
Would Edwards have stepped right into the two-deep? Would he have started?
Edwards is a two-year player. Whatever you lose by not signing him, it’s two seasons max. Can you call that a critical failure?
If Arkansas absolutely had to get a noseguard in this class, this recruiting approach was a failure. But it does not look like noseguard was a high priority.
If you’re talking about the coaches recognizing a need late + chasing one juco player to fill it, then we have a different problem.
We’ll be fine… with his weight issues, he was a little bit of a project to begin with… we want players that want to be Hogs, (not literally though)
Boom! There it is. Kid commits elsewhere, we didn’t want him because he didn’t want to be a Hog and he was a “project.”
Looking forward to other February classics such as, “He’d never qualify” and “We backed off.” Who doesn’t love “There was no room on the bus” reason for a kid committing elsewhere?
I’m not saying he’s not a big miss, but…
We have Bijon back next year, with Capps ready to step in and contribute there soon.
And several guys that are pushing 300 pounds (Smith, Watts, Guidry, Marshall…) that may grow into that spot in a year or two.
I am more concerned with finding some rush DE’s than interior guys.
But that’s just me.
Melvin Johnson is far better player than Javier Edwards. Melvin we need.
[quote=“hog2009”]
Boom! There it is. Kid commits elsewhere, we didn’t want him because he didn’t want to be a Hog and he was a “project.”
Looking forward to other February classics such as, “He’d never qualify” and “We backed off.” Who doesn’t love “There was no room on the bus” reason for a kid committing elsewhere?
[/quote]Sorry, but I did not see any of the allegations you make in his post. What is more often seen is the wringing of hands and woe is me on every recruit we miss, as well as criticism of the staff. Other than Alabama and maybe when the bag is full, Ole Miss, who gets everybody they pursue?
Is this a joke? Seriously, it must be…
That didn’t take long.
All reasons have now been exhausted.
[quote=“KeithGuthrie”]
What do you mean you don’t see what he’s referring to? Hog N Das literally is using weight issues and his claim that Edwards is a project as an excuse. This thread is full of excuses and if you’ve been keeping up with recruiting on message boards for any length of time, you’d know that this is par for the course. There is often an excuse about why we don’t get a kid that the staff obviously wants very badly rather than just admit that they didn’t get the job done. Btw, no one said anything about getting everyone we pursue…except you that is
Say what you want guys, but not getting Edwards is a miss. We’ll probably be ok, but for us to be competitive & contend in the SEC-West, we need quality depth in both lines. You can’t survive in the SEC signing one down lineman on defense, and I know it’s early. I just think Edwards has a lot of upside & would definitely be in our 2 deep next year, minus some weight.
Hopefully our coaches will replace him with other comparable talents. And I agree we need some DEs next.
All you pearl-clutchers should be aware that we have people at the straight up nose. Notably, Jackson and Capps who are just beginning to tap their potential. I’m sure that Mr. Edwards is a talent. Wish him well. Move along.
Attackers just waiting to attack the attackers. Every durn year–you can bet on it. They are on their little soap box waiting to look down on that person that hints towards downgrading a recruit. Not sure which is worse–the downgrader or the pious guy.
At one point I thought I read where both Johnson and Edwards were told they’d likely redshirt.
CBB has been burned with JUCO players who take half the first season to adjust and grow into a spot on the field. We targeted not just players with a redshirt year but also those who could come in early (mid-term guys). They need to remake them physically and give them two springs to adjust. If they can contribute from day one, great. Let’s not ride the emotional rollercoaster about every commit, shall we? No one player is the key to a class.
Given that we don’t seem to have additional bodies in the pipeline we need to hope that Johnson was waiting for Edwards to make his choice (ie, that we had room for one, wanted Edwards first and told Johnson he’d have a spot if Edwards went elsewhere). Or, if that scenario about Edwards is false, that Johnson gets the full-court digital press and commits soon.
Boom! There it is. Fan believes recruiting means we get everyone we recruit and if we don’t we must have done something wrong! Not looking forward to February when the classic haters show up and call out the coaching staff for not getting every kid it had recruited.
[quote=“TheHuntinHog”]
Boom! There it is. Fan believes recruiting means we get everyone we recruit and if we don’t we must have done something wrong! Not looking forward to February when the classic haters show up and call out the coaching staff for not getting every kid it had recruited.
[/quote]Show your work here. I haven’t seen one person say UA should get everyone they recruit. In fact, I haven’t seen much in the form of criticism of our current recruiting. Yesterday seemed to be a very good day recruiting.
I just wonder why it is so hard for some of us to accept that other schools pay coaches to recruit as well and maybe, just maybe, someone who our staff wants decided to go elsewhere. No math angle, no “project” angle, no “we backed off” angle, but we just got out recruited. It happens.
Happens all the time, or schools wouldn’t put out 150-200 offers to sign 25 players.
My point exactly. And instead of recognizing that, the first thing on the board was “he’s a project,” “we only want players that want to be hogs,” “is it the math class,” and “Melvin is better.”
Never acknowledging that maybe the kid was convinced to go to Colorado by their coaches