(You brought this up yesterday and in some downtime I started looking at this in a little more depth last night at work.) The Dept. of Ed requires schools to report the amount spent on recruiting for men's and women's teams. They don't require these institutions to break it down per specific sport. Recruiting falls under athletic department expenses in these reports and Bama spends roughly .50 to .75 percent more than LSU depending on the class. In terms of dollars, it was roughly 900K more in the last fiscal reporting cycle. That said, looking at the amount of money a school spends on recruiting entails a lot of factors. As one example, in the 2014 class (25 signed) for LSU, player signed and from what state: Arizona- 1 Louisiana- 12 Mississippi- 1 Oklahoma- 1 Florida- 2 Illinois- 1 Texas- 7 Versus UA (26 signed Alabama- 6 California- 1 Georgia- 2 Louisiana- 4 Mississippi- 2 Oklahoma- 1 S. Carolina- 1 Virginia- 1 Arkansas- 1 Colorado- 1 Iowa- 1 Minnesota- 1 Ohio- 1 Texas- 1 If we just took airfare, both for coaches visiting and recruits coming on campus for official visits, how much of a difference is found right there? I didn't look it up, due to the amount of research it would entail, but I wonder how many airlines actually service TCL versus BTR? While it's not a great deal of distance, players flying into Birmingham versus Baton Rouge has to come into play though it's likely not that big of an expense—it is an expense though. The number of personnel working specifically with recruiting comes into play. While there's a limit on the number of visits a head coach can make, how often are schools sending assistants out to evaluate? What throws a real curve ball into all of this is why Florida spends almost a half of a million more than LSU. Tennessee, which leads the SEC in recruiting expenses, makes sense considering the area they have to recruit. I've come to the opinion that it's easy to say, "look at how much they spend on recruiting" it's simply not that easy to use as a determination of the success one school has versus another on the playing field. There are far too many factors to weigh. The one thing I've seen that holds true is the percentage of athletic expenses versus monies spent on recruiting. There's roughly a half of a percentage point difference between LSU and UA. That could easily be explained just from what you see listed above.
Case in point—another example of you talking out both sides of your mouth. On repeated occasions you've thrown out theories about how Rivals has a Bama influence. After being told repeatedly that isn't the case, now you've moved on to 247 doing the same. Your contention has remained those players signing with UA, and their rankings, are higher than they deserve to be. Yet here, you're saying the complete opposite of that. Now, this isn't a case of talking about of both sides of your mouth. I'll let you use your deductive reasoning to see where it's coming from. I follow, and I assuredly know, more about the quarterback situation at UA than you. I wouldn't dare suggest such about Coker. Quite frankly, I won't venture a guess until after spring camp and I expect a guess after spring will be very guarded.
Don't try to deflect. You were very specific. How is it that you know that Les writes the playbook and Cameron just follows it. You said it. You either have evidence or you are guessing.
How else do you explain the offense looking VERY similar through a gang of different OC's? Coincidence? They just happen to all like the same style? Seriously, all jackassery aside, how do you @red55 explain that?
It does not take Sherlock Holmes to use a bit of deductive reasoning. Let's see at OC we've recently had Crowton, Stud, and Cam. We've had one HC, Miles. I have little doubt that Miles has his hand in the playcalling.
It's similar to a lot of team's offenses. If you haven't seen some changes in LSU's offense over the years you haven't been paying attention. We threw a lot of bubble screens and power sweeps with Jimbo 8 years ago, we don't so much anymore. We ran the ball a lot out of the pistol formation, spread receivers, and a lot of shotgun pass plays with Crowton. We ran more option plays were most predictable with Studrawa. With Cameron and with stud running backs like Hill and Fournette, we are running more I-formation plays and pro-style drop-back with some read option. This is not the same offense every year. It just ain't. I don't pretend that I know. I sure don't make up something like "Les writes the playbook and the OC just follows it". That's just frustrated fanboy talk. Les damn sure doesn't pay a top OC $1.3 million and then do his job for him.
There has never been a head coach that doesn't have a hand in his offense and his defense, it is his team and his responsibility. But that's a long way from saying that Les does everything and Cameron does nothing. The idea is ridiculous. How many coordinators have quit in disgust? How many have complained about Les after they were terminated? Can you quote one player or coach who says that Les handicaps his OC and doesn't let him run the offense. Just one? This is just a tired old fanboy complaint with no real basis in fact.
The fact is the O has been very stale, with predictable play calling under three OC's. At first, under Crowton, OK you could make the argument Crowton was figured out or something. The second time, you could say Stud was in over his head. Now under Cam, a third OC. I just think he brought in Cam for a reason, give him more control in the gameplan. I get what you're saying that it is Miles' team so he will put his stamp on things. Maybe he should give more freedom to the OC like he did Chavis. Chavis used the same D at the end of games that lost several games. Yet Miles allowed him to continually use it. I understand you will hold back with a young QB. Still in all though you have to diverse your run game so the D does not know what is coming next based on personnel and formation. You also have to try to throw. Unless you have the Cowboys OL they had when Smith, Aikman, and Irvin were there then you have to mix things up.
