So i come back for a few hours expecting some good news with Mario Edwards/Tracy Howard/Cordarrelle Patterson but all are a no go. Thus far a disappointing recruiting class. Dang
I dont think that is fair to the kids who are coming to LSU and could not be more proud to wear the Purple and Gold. The kids we have are hardly disappointing. The ones we dont I could care less about. I know that is not what you meant. But I am celebrating the great kids who chose our school and ignoring the ones who didnt.
I just meant it doesnt feel like a typical LSU class without a big 5 star on the list. Now granted the star doesnt mean anything it gives you something to brag about to all the other SEC fans we have to deal. For the kids that commited all ready all i have to say is Mission to Miami starts on Feb 1 ! Geaux Tigers
I really think the depth and youth of our current team have had a lot to do with our recruiting class thus far. If you look at our most glaring position of weakness, which is LB IMHO, we have scored heavily with this class. Our class is solid, it just isn't what we've become accustomed to but if you recruit well year in and year out it is inevitable that you are going to have years when there are less positions of need on your roster. That said, I do wish we could have landed the JUCO WR Patterson.
Mario and Tracy were always long shots. We needed to have them on campus to have a shot. We did all we could do but family legacy wins out. Haven't heard anything of the sort on Patterson yet. Shea says after talking to him after the visit that he feels we are in that top 3. Have to see where we stand after the hype from the weekend wears off but he is also a guy we targeted very late. However, LSU has a very good class right now especially with filling needs and adding needed depth. This LA class is ranked low compared to more recent classes and as we know LSU's rankings mirror the state ones. We do not have a ton of OOS focus. But those are just rankings. Rivals does a poor job locally that is one reason I prefer Scout. They actually work very hard compared to others in LA. (Also Hill would be considered a high 4* if Rivals counted him.) The other reasons for some fans disappointment is that we finished 90% of our class months ago and the doom and gloom from the NC game wild theories taking over. Ripple effect among fans emotions basically. As for finishing the class early, get used to it because it will be that way for years to come. We have multiple guys in the class who will get significant playing time next year and the others in positions that are covered depth wise will be very good. Just underrated by recruiting services for the most part. But I have learned that this staff knows who to target and knows where the talent lies. We should see a bump in recruiting rankings for the fans next year though. 2013 class will be pretty deep and almost equal to the talent of 2011.
Bhelm you know I have TONS of respecdt for you in the recruiting, and in depth as far as teh program goes ...you have been a great and reliable source. This years class is very goo as usual, my only dissapointment is it seems like we are actually strugling to get to 25 with the guyas we had as top targets. It seems like the program has taken a hit over the last few weeks as for as a highly touted and respected program.....recruiting wise.
Another thing to consider is that some of the players are a bit raw. So they arent gonna rank quite as high as someone who is more polished. Kids like Hunter, Davis, Dural, etc have a lot of potential but are a bit raw in certain areas or need more size. Sure this class is lacking the big time names that we are accustomed to but its still a solid class.
Solid class? I always wait till after signing day, most times 2-4 years to make my judgement. With high school players, you never know who will step up, too early to tell.
regarding your concern about how we seem to be struggling getting new commits, recruiting is always slow like this. you typically start recruiting a prospect hard when he is a junior, and its rare to get them to commit that early because so many high profile programs are recruiting them hard. in this class, we only got Johnson and Granier to commit in 2010. This last year, 2011, we didn't get a commit until the first week of Feb when we got Davis, Feist, and Gordon. then two months went by before we got 4 commits in a 10 day period in early March in Dural, Lewis, J. Thomas, and D. Thomas. then another two months went by before we got 4 in late May / early June (Raymond, Sandolph, Hawkins, Holmes). then 3 weeks went by before we got Ferguson. then a whole month went by before we got 3 more (Edinburgh, Hunter, Mills) in late July. that was 6 months ago, and since then, we've only gotten 4 more commits: Alexander in mid October, Jones in early December, and then Phillips and Hill in the last week. as for taking a full 25, that's not a given that we even plan on doing that. you can only have 85 scholarships, and if you took 25 every year that would be 100. looking at the numbers LSUDad posted, we have 70 players returning, so you'd have to see how many of those we want to renew scholarships with, to see how many scholarships we have to give these new recruits coming in.
