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Our high school WR recruiting has been really bad. Who have we hit on? Deshaunte Jones, Jalen Noel and maybe Daniel Jackson? Butler and Lazard were both brought in by the previous staff. I had high hopes for both Essex and Gaines and neither amounted to anything.
We've nailed down every other position but can't seem to figure out WR and OL yet. At least we've hit homeruns in the transfer portal so far, and Hutchinson from JUCO.
We signed lots and lots of projects over the years.
Scates was an academic gamble. He and Gaines turned out to be…bad fits. I’m just glad Joe managed to put together a decent year in…that was his sixth, right?
I suspect Essex decided there weren’t going to be a lot of balls to go around after Noel, Higgins, Alston, Jackson and Ngoyi. I honestly think he’ll help someone this year.
I thought Gaines, Essex and Adams were a step up in recruiting in ‘22, but they’re all gone now. Speaking of Adams, I’m pretty sure he had something else going on since his sophomore year, but no one ever talked about it—and I’m not going to speculate.
Ngoyi, Parkes and Black seemed like another half step up, and Beni certainly seems to be. Black was coming off a knee injury, and Parkes hasn’t played football for long, so we’ll see.
The ‘24 guys, Brett Eskildsen and Dom Overby at first looked like more of the same, or another half step up…but then then the 6’2” 175 Eskildsen just ripped off a 10.54 100m, and 6’4” 190 Overby a 24’7” LJ, a 47.07 (iirc) 400m, and has a 10.7 range 100m thus far.
Those are Kene, Abu and Darien type numbers.
The same kind of sheer athleticism Beni puts on display (without the track times).
And yeah, Jayden looks like a day 2 draft pick, and Isaiah Alston has that kind of utter athleticism.
The times, they are a changin’.
Oh…did I mention that Zay Robinson fits right in?
Grab that pitcher of Kool-Aid, boys and girls!