In my experience, jucos are not always the instant relief fans may think they are when they sign. Because they've been out of high school for a year or two, they are often more physically developed than HS guys so look great in pictures. But a wise coach once told me there's about 3 reasons kids go to juco and they're not always great ones.
Some times, a kid went that route as he felt he was good enough, needed to get bigger and was willing to work his ass off to get there. That's a great reason. Plus you can see it on the field and he's typically a fairly safe choice. Some times kids had academic issues that forced them to juco. This one is a little sketchier. If they've worked hard and got themselves in great standing, good for them. If they continued to struggle at the juco level, pretty big red flag. The other big one is character/off field troubles. This is a really tough one, as it isn't always apparent that they've been "fixed". It can manifest itself in a lot of ways once they had off to big boy football. And all of it is clouded by being tough to evaluate due to level of competition.
Without going into full analysis, I looked at TCU's juco class from last year as they were the top juco class for the year. They signed 6 top 80 juco players, including 3 of the top 9 (247 rankings):
- Taj Williams (WR) was the #6 overall player and was a 4-star recruit. Started opening day and #1 on the depth chart at the end of the year.
- Tyree Horton (OLB) was the #8 overall player and a 4-star recruit. Dismissed from team on October 18th.
- Ryan Parker (WR) was the #9 overall player and was a 4-star recruit. Not on depth chart either beginning or end of the year. Appears to have not made it or left due to grades.
- Markel Simmons (CB) was the #52 overall player and a 3-star recruit. Played sparingly in back up role. Recorded 5 tackles.
- Matt Boesen (WDE) was the #53 overall player and a 3-star recruit. Played as a backup in 10 games, recording 28 tackles, half of which were in a 2 game stretch where the starter was injured.
- Chris Gaynor (OT) was the #80 overall player and a 3-star recruit. Played in 4 games, started 0.
So, for TCU, it was a mixed bag. Iowa State actually had 4 top 101 juco guys in 2015 and had similar mixed results:
- Demond Tucker was the #38 overall player in that class.
- Jaypee Philpert was the #80 overall player in that class.
- Bobby Leath was the #95 player in that class.
- Kendall Williams was the #101 player in that class.
Not trying to dampen spirits here. Some of these guys will work out. But to start saying that a defensive line made up of all juco guys may be the best DL in a long time the day they sign is asking a lot, even with our history at DL.
