Questioning Recruiting.....already

[MontyBurns]

With a program with tradition (Iowa is, whether or not people want to admit it) as well as a great I-AA program in the state, to think we can base our recruiting in Iowa and recruit southern states - states with a much greater focus on actual football development in the formative years for prospects - would be an abject disaster.

If we can't get recruits in our backyard away from the one other Div I school in this state -- with very little out-of-state competition -- we have no chance to compete 800 miles away with the 106 other Div I programs that all recruit in Texas.

If we go your way, we let players like Ben Barkema, Todd Blythe, Aaron Brant, Nate & Nick Frere, Ben Lamaak, Bret Meyer, Milan Moses, and even Iowa border players like Stevie Hicks and Nick Leaders all go to Iowa or somewhere else without putting up a fight. Luckily for those players and ISU fans, you were not in charge of recruiting.

[CrossCyed]

If we can't get recruits in our backyard away from the one other Div I school in this state -- with very little out-of-state competition -- we have no chance to compete 800 miles away with the 106 other Div I programs that all recruit in Texas.

If we go your way, we let players like Ben Barkema, Todd Blythe, Aaron Brant, Nate & Nick Frere, Ben Lamaak, Bret Meyer, Milan Moses, and even Iowa border players like Stevie Hicks and Nick Leaders all go to Iowa or somewhere else without putting up a fight. Luckily for those players and ISU fans, you were not in charge of recruiting.

Where did I say to ignore the state of Iowa? I'm saying you can't have that be the center of your recruiting and rely on Texas and Florida to fill in the gaps. Luckily for our program, we have a great focus on Florida and Texas.

And like I said, Texas produces 40 TIMES the D1 signees that Iowa does. And to say we're competing against 100+ programs isn't accurate either. The fact we are a BCS school in a big time conference puts a step ahead on all non-BCS schools.

I'm also not saying Texas/Florida players are better. I'm saying there's a pool of talent that's much larger to draw from.

As a program, we will continue to focus on Iowa, Texas and Florida the most. Of this I have no doubt. I'd imagine the rest of our active recruiting focus will be the plains states and across the rust belt to Ohio/Penn.

[Frak]

I will be impressed when those guys make an impact at this level. I didn't forget about them, but I'm not going to annoint them All Big XII level status just yet. I tend to go with the idea that a guy will not make a huge impact, until he shows me he will on the field. Hype/Hope doesn't get you a W on saturdays.

I'm far from annointing them. You asked for underated kids like VanDerKamp from TX/FL and I listed them. No recruit is a sure thing, not Iowa kids like Scherff or Hoch and not TX/FL/CA kids like Blanton, Woods, Scott, etc. Recruiting is going to be tough until CPR proves he has things on the right track. But if he can evaluate kids better than other BCS coaches, he'll be well on his way to turning things around. If any of these late signees avoid the redshirt, then we'll know that CPR really has an eye for talent. But that's a lot to ask. I will say that Taufoou being in the two deep already shows that the staff can find underlooked players that can help upgrade the talent level fairly quickly.

All that said, the jury's still out recruiting-wise IMO. And it will be for a couple of years.

[djcubby]

Yes, KMAC was excited about getting a commitment from a quality punter that none of us new about and is fairly new to punting. However to say that this staff can't evaluate talent just because the kid lives like 30 miles from Ames is silly. I know that Josh Shaw was mentioned earlier, who blew up bigger than a Macy's Thanksgiving parade balloon. Also, there was a 3* running back that committed to USC (as a CB) that we offered early on, Damion Payne from, the CB from TX, has received a lot more offers since we offered. Less we forget Sims who was a late find last year and most people that have seen him say he is the real deal.

I have a lot of confidence in this staff in finding the talent, now we just need to get some victories and land some of these guys!

[KMAC_ATTACK]

I personally am not being a "negative nancy" at all. I am happy we signed the kid

But it just shows how poor recruting has been SO FAR (key words there) when we have posters starting threads talking about the positives in recruiting.....and all they can mention is a Punter!

100% WRONG!!!!!

My emphasis was on the fact that i follow recruiting quite a bit, and i had not even heard of this kid from within our own state not to mention guys they might be looking at outside the state. But, my whole point was that the punter plays a bigger role single-handedly then any other player in terms of field position and unless your florida and not punting but 12 times a year, you better have a good-great punter or the opposing team will be working with a short field a lot.

Come on Clones85 - regarding recruiting....check this out - at this point last year, we had two committments in Lichtenberg and Blankenship. Considering everything in the press talks about our 10 game losing streak, our coach left us high and dry, 17 game road losing streak - what in amongst that would you take as motivating for a high school kid to commit early....maybe playing time....or offensive/defensive scheme.

I've said it before, i'll say it again.....this staff has several huge hurdles to overcome....
Coaching - i usually grant coaches some slack on players and their development. However, during Chiziks reign, the first year, it appeared the players were being coached because as the season went on, the team as a whole got better. I cannot make that same statement for last year, in actuality i think the defense got worse. So first and foremost this staff needs to get the most out of the players they have.
Second, they need to win and win this year. Win games this year because next years schedule is brutal!!!! Looking at Kansas as a template, you need to win games and develop those inroads for recruiting - be like Iowa (i hate to admit it) but show that you can develop a player for the NFL and kids take note of that....there's a reason why iowa continues to send Defensive players to the nfl - thats the side of the ball where they get the most talent because of their success in the NFL.

IMO we now have a staff with a proven track record, especially at the OC and DC which helps. Nothing against McFarland and Bolt i just thought they looked in over their heads - and thus the confusion both in coaching as well as game management.

I was a huge supporter of Chizik and his recruiting capabilities, but, it was more about Scott Fountain and Chizik was the figurehead....We need guys that can Coach first then recruit because if you can coach and win a few ball games, the recruiting becomes easier.

This staff has said it and i'm taking them for no BS guys when they say they have a plan. They've evaluated their team, they know the weaknesses, they know the strength.....that will change in actual game time situations, but, i feel they will have our team better prepared for game day then did their predecessors. If thats all we get out of this staff it will still be a huge improvement. Lets not forget these NO-TALENT kids from last years team lost 4 games by 1 touchdown or less, they lost 2 other games by less then 2 scores...they were blown away by Baylor, Nebraska, Okie State, Missouri.......

I know Rhoads and his staff has been talking about speed and talent and this and that.....thats called smart marketing of his team.
1. It drives the kids on this team to prove him wrong.
2. It lowers expectations...

Its smart and very much in the mold of a phil jackson comment......but the reality is this team was very close to being a surprise team in the big 12 because nobody expected them to be competitive and the close scores in 8 of our 12 games reflects our offenses talents and the scores also reflect the terrible position our defense put our offense. Lets not forget that our redzone offense was 108th out of 119 (ooops Auburn) and we didnt score on 15 trips inside the 20 yard line...thats gotta change....

If a reflection of how this staff is going to recruit was established last year, it clearly shows they will go after talent - lets look at who this staff received commits from after Rhoads hiring on Dec. 20th.
Money Reynolds 4*
David Sims
Jake Knott
Joshua Bellamy 3*
Walter Woods
Brandon Mims
Aaron Moore 3*
Donnie Jennert 3*
Jansen Watson
Willie Scott
Taylor Martin 3*
James Capello 3*
Keith Blanton 3*
Matt Taufoou 3*
Jacob Lattimer 3*

9 out of 15 recruits were rated as a 3* or above.....thats pretty good to me!!!!!

[mizouse87]

kmac, you are undoubtedly one of my favorite posters on this site. I've always enjoyed reading your thoughts.

[Clones85']

100% WRONG!!!!!

My emphasis was on the fact that i follow recruiting quite a bit, and i had not even heard of this kid from within our own state not to mention guys they might be looking at outside the state. But, my whole point was that the punter plays a bigger role single-handedly then any other player in terms of field position and unless your florida and not punting but 12 times a year, you better have a good-great punter or the opposing team will be working with a short field a lot.

Come on Clones85 - regarding recruiting....check this out - at this point last year, we had two committments in Lichtenberg and Blankenship. Considering everything in the press talks about our 10 game losing streak, our coach left us high and dry, 17 game road losing streak - what in amongst that would you take as motivating for a high school kid to commit early....maybe playing time....or offensive/defensive scheme.

I've said it before, i'll say it again.....this staff has several huge hurdles to overcome....
Coaching - i usually grant coaches some slack on players and their development. However, during Chiziks reign, the first year, it appeared the players were being coached because as the season went on, the team as a whole got better. I cannot make that same statement for last year, in actuality i think the defense got worse. So first and foremost this staff needs to get the most out of the players they have.
Second, they need to win and win this year. Win games this year because next years schedule is brutal!!!! Looking at Kansas as a template, you need to win games and develop those inroads for recruiting - be like Iowa (i hate to admit it) but show that you can develop a player for the NFL and kids take note of that....there's a reason why iowa continues to send Defensive players to the nfl - thats the side of the ball where they get the most talent because of their success in the NFL.

IMO we now have a staff with a proven track record, especially at the OC and DC which helps. Nothing against McFarland and Bolt i just thought they looked in over their heads - and thus the confusion both in coaching as well as game management.

I was a huge supporter of Chizik and his recruiting capabilities, but, it was more about Scott Fountain and Chizik was the figurehead....We need guys that can Coach first then recruit because if you can coach and win a few ball games, the recruiting becomes easier.

This staff has said it and i'm taking them for no BS guys when they say they have a plan. They've evaluated their team, they know the weaknesses, they know the strength.....that will change in actual game time situations, but, i feel they will have our team better prepared for game day then did their predecessors. If thats all we get out of this staff it will still be a huge improvement. Lets not forget these NO-TALENT kids from last years team lost 4 games by 1 touchdown or less, they lost 2 other games by less then 2 scores...they were blown away by Baylor, Nebraska, Okie State, Missouri.......

I know Rhoads and his staff has been talking about speed and talent and this and that.....thats called smart marketing of his team.
1. It drives the kids on this team to prove him wrong.
2. It lowers expectations...

Its smart and very much in the mold of a phil jackson comment......but the reality is this team was very close to being a surprise team in the big 12 because nobody expected them to be competitive and the close scores in 8 of our 12 games reflects our offenses talents and the scores also reflect the terrible position our defense put our offense. Lets not forget that our redzone offense was 108th out of 119 (ooops Auburn) and we didnt score on 15 trips inside the 20 yard line...thats gotta change....

If a reflection of how this staff is going to recruit was established last year, it clearly shows they will go after talent - lets look at who this staff received commits from after Rhoads hiring on Dec. 20th.
Money Reynolds 4*
David Sims
Jake Knott
Joshua Bellamy 3*
Walter Woods
Brandon Mims
Aaron Moore 3*
Donnie Jennert 3*
Jansen Watson
Willie Scott
Taylor Martin 3*
James Capello 3*
Keith Blanton 3*
Matt Taufoou 3*
Jacob Lattimer 3*

9 out of 15 recruits were rated as a 3* or above.....thats pretty good to me!!!!!

That's a lot of typing to prove a point you didn't need to. I am not mad at the recruiting at all. Like it has been said, we won 2 games last year and have a new coach. Our recruiting is probably going to be anywhere from 60-80 in the country this year by the scouting services. That's ok

All I am saying is you are not going to see me do backflips over a fricken punter. Over a DT, LB, or RB? Absolutely. Remember if we have good guys at those positions, we can dictate field position so much better than having to rely on a punter. Shoot we have a GREAT punter right now in Brantner and we still only won 2 games last year.

So my point again is, I am happy we have this kid but let's not hang our hat on him.

[Frak]

Location prevents ISU from rolling up the commitments early like most teams do. To get a commitment, you usually need a kid to visit. And most kids can't afford to fly to Iowa on their own dime. Official visits can't start until the season starts. That leaves local kids and for the most part, they are taking a wait and see approach. It is funny to me that ISU has some sort of stigma in-state that doesn't exist in TX and FL. That comes directly from the press and your local loud-mouthed squawk fan.

I do think that if they implement an early signing date and start allowing official visits in the summer, that would be an advantage to ISU.

[Clones85']

We have a new head coach who has yet to coach a game, coming off of 5 wins in two seasons, no bowl game since 2005 - our program has been a whirlwind for all those involved. To expect great things would not make much sense.

I agree and that is why I never said anything regarding that. At all