O is supposed to be an elite recruiter. He is supposed to get you a Top 5 class almost every single year. He is supposed to turn around the OL and DL recruiting and play that truly caused Les Miles' downfall in Baton Rouge above all else including his ancient offense and terrible game management. He stopped winning big when the lines fell off. O addressed this in his campaign to become coach. He is supposed to hire the best coordinators money can buy and get out of the way and let them coach. He is supposed to bring the team together and fire them up on gameday and create a family culture where guys don't bolt for the NFL immediately like they often did under Les. This board has addressed almost all of these things and how O has succeeded and largely failed at many of these points which lends himself on the hot seat. Let's look at recruiting though. I knew when we signed it 2018 was bad. Really, really bad. I decided to go back and look at 18 and then I looked at 19 and you realize whoa, throw all the rest out of the window let's focus on Ed Orgeron the recruiting legend and only that. Kids from 2018 will be seniors on this team and form the foundation of leadership and the direction of your team. Kids from 2019 will be your junior leaders ascending and having their "money years" if you will to either make a name for the NFL Draft or get on the radar for a big senior season to follow. These will be listed from the highest rated recruit to the lowest rated in the class. The higher up the list obviously the more critical they should be to your team. 2018 Class: 5 star WR Terrace Marshall, Opt Out, NFL 4 star CB Kelvin Joseph, **Transfer Kentucky, NFL 4 star WR Ja'Marr Chase, Opt Out, NFL 4 star DE Jarell Cherry, Backup 4 star DT Chasen Hines, OL starter, poor 4 star DE Travez Moore (JUCO), **Transfer ASU 4 star LB Micah Baskerville, Starter 4 star DT Davin Cotton, **Transfer 4 star OT Badara Traore (JUCO), Backup, Graduated 4 star DT Dare Rosenthal, **Transfer Kentucky, OT 4 star WR Kenan Jones, **Transfer, backup 4 star RB Chris Curry, **Transfer, backup 4 star LB Damone Clark, Starter 3 star OT Cameron Wire, Starter OT if healthy 3 star C Cole Smith, **Transfer immediately 3 star WR Jaray Jenkins, Backup 3 star DT Nelson Jenkins, **Transfer 3 star DT Dominic Livingston, **Transfer 3 star TE Zach Sheffer, **Transfer 3 star OG Damien Lewis (JUCO), NFL Starter 3 star RB Tae Provens, **Transfer 3 star ATH Dantrieze Scott, **Transfer 15th Ranked Class Nationally 5th Ranked Class SEC Avg Rating 0.9011 22 Enrollees 5 Star: 1 (Opted Out, NFL) 4 Star: 12 (4 on team, 6 Transferred, 1 graduated, 1 Opted Out - NFL) 3 Star: 9 (3 on team, 6 Transferred, 1 NFL, 1 current starter if healthy) 2019 Class: 5 star CB Derek Stingley, All American, Injured/Opt Out? 5 star RB John Emery, Backup/Ineligible 5 star LB Marcel Brooks, **Transferred TCU 4 star OG Kardell Thomas, Backup 4 star WR Trey Palmer, Backup, Returner 4 star DB Maurice Hampton, **Transferred 4 star NT Siaki "Apu" Ika, **Transferred Baylor 4 star RB Ty Davis-Price, Backup? 4 star OT Ray Parker, **Transferred, Wanted to be TE 4 star LB Donte Starks, **Kicked Out of School, Starter 4 star ATH Devonta Lee, Backup, was a LB, WR, etc 4 star OG Anthony Bradford, Backup OL due to weight, starter due to injury 4 star QB Peter Parrish, **Transferred 4 star ATH Raydarious Jones, Backup 3 star OT Thomas Perry, **Transferred 3 star CB Jay Ward, Starting S 3 star LB Kendall McCallum, **Transferred 3 star C Charles Turner, Backup 3 star CB Cordale Flott, Starting Nickel 3 star DT Joseph Evans, Backup OL 3 star DE Soni Fonua, Backup 3 star TE TK McClendon, **Transferred 3 star DE Desmond Little, Backup 3 star K Cade York, All-American 3 star LS Quentin Skinner, Potential NFL 5th Ranked Class Nationally 4th Ranked Class SEC Avg Rating 0.9075 25 Enrollees 5 Star: 3 (1 All American Injured / Opted Out NFL?, 1 Transfer (starter), 1 Academically Ineligible as starter) 4 Star: 11 (6 on team (no starters unless injury), 4 Transferred (1 starter), 1 kicked out of school as starter) 3 Star: 11 (8 on team (2 starters/2 great specialists/4 backups), 3 Transferred) Anything I am missing? It's so much worse when you look it over. The last two classes have been so much better, but this is what happens when almost all your best players seem to be freshman and guys who were freshman in a pandemic truncated season.
Weed. Our compliance office kicks our starting left tackle out for weed. We handicap ourselves. Meanwhile kids are caught with handguns at Bama here in Louisiana and they get them back on the field. They play the game far better than we do.
In a slight defense to O, there seems to have been a national shift where kids are more ok leaving their local areas to go to the very top schools. 10 years ago, the rich weren’t this rich. We have actually benefitted from that, to the point that the last two classes have been outshining 2018 and 2019. That being said, 2018 and 2019 have turned out to be disasters. Could O have foreseen or prevented Chase from opting out? Stingley getting injured so much? He certainly has shit the bed on roster management, but a lot of the remainder is not his fault. And he has shown a willingness to correct it. Recruiting Ed Ingram back was not a small task. He’s still an elite recruiter, but so many transfers more than raises the eyebrows.
Look at those offensive line recruits. For goodness sake the you could argue some of the best OL were recruited as DL. They got moved to OL out of necessity. But the only reason Cregg lost his job was the cheating was found.
