Another Decommitment
- Thread starter UKCats5
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At this point, you aren't dealing with a kid you can't trust, regardless of whether he has been open about his commitment. Think about it for a minute. Haven't you had enough demonstration of what can happen even when you have an open verbal?
If you have confidence in the kids you are assembling to complete the class, at this point, I think you keep everything on the DL, unless a kid is just determined to have his day in the sun prior to NSD for some reason. It would be my play.
Then, when you pull that fat out of the fire on NSD, you have turned lemons into lemonade, forcing everyone to ask, "How did we ever doubt you, coach?" Add to that, the kid gets to be part of a big NSD story, perhaps bigger than his individual commitment might have been, were it sooner had and expected. I give this staff credit for being pretty good at PR, so I am holding on to the hope that this is the final play.
It might not be a Top 25 class, in fact I am 99.999% sure it won't be. But, I am not prepared to say it won't be a class the program can be proud of and accomplish better things with in the future, or that our coaching staff won't have reason to be proud of how it handled what is some almost inevitable adversity after the way things looked on the backside of the season, followed by the Big Disappointment early last month.
Face it people. Sometimes you think you have a true believer on your hands, but when belief is tested, you find out you were wrong. You just had another front runner standing in front of you. There's your explanation for what happened in the last 30 days. Maybe our staff is out right now, finding some true believers, even if they are "only" 3-star rated. As long as they are that well considered, I am more concerned about their appreciation of the opportunity and commitment to the cause, than I am that 4th star.
Ohh, I am sorry... I suppose I was operating under the mistaken belief that this was a message board where we were supposed to discuss Kentucky football, and I was in fact discussing Kentucky football. I can't believe I made such a mistake and put you in such a terrible position to have to read my off topic posts.
Yet jokers classes where ranked in the 50s and 60s with 20-25 commits! We have 15 and still arent out of the top 50! Any 5 recruitswould put us at 35!
Also to.the fellow talking about Allens rankings, he was a WR in Alabama, switched positions to play DE. This could cause him to get overlooked! Btw AJ Stamps was a 2*
Except one, not all really good players do get found (Cobb comes to mind as does Travathan). I agree that most really good players probably do but if you watched Super Bowl Sunday yesterday you saw discussions around a lot of really good players who did not get found by power 5 conference schools.
Except two, he is not a 2 star. He is a 5.5 3 star.
I did watch the video when it was initially posted. I disagree on your 'looks like a low 2 star' review and evidently so did those who evaluate and rate players for a living as they gave him the ranking noted above.
He might turn out to be better than expected and then again he might turn out to be worse. It goes either way regularly.
For the record I never said, nor do I think anyone else said, to get hyped over him. My resposne is that he is not the kind of player to pan simply because he was not discovered.
So let's do understand what he actually is. He is a high school player whose coach raved about him and compared him more than favorably (i.e., said he was better) to former players he coached and sent to big time power 5 schools like OSU. He is a player who lead his state in sacks in his first year playing defense. He is a player that our coaches liked well enough to offer. And from what I have read on this sight regularly, our staff is pretty good at evaluating talent.
That said, it is a message board and we all have our opinions. I just disagree with how he has been treated so lightly.
Yea, its hard to trust 'under the radar' a lot of times but Allen at least has legitimate size and the stats to back it up against good competition.
I'll add that Strowbridge has some questions about him and wasn't the highest rated guy. I wish we had him for the numbers (be hurting in a year or two depth wise) but its not like he was a world beater....same for Riley. Keep in mind that UNC hire Gene Chizik as their DC. That helps, ALOT. He had an ace recruiter on him, Larry Porter (former LSU guy), and couple that with the Chizik name and it all seemed good for Strowbridge.
I do think the biggest factor in all of this was the negative recruiting. A few unique situations, but overwhelmingly the perfect storm hit with the big dogs needed second tier guys and getting them.
All in all this will be a good core class (small in size) but still solid and will probably finish right around 40.
Keep the faith people, the future is still very bright and whatever Jason Strowbridge/Tyrone Riley/ Dinson or Hamilton decided....it doesn't change next season and our chances of getting to a bowl game.
As for the Joker talk...we got more than few guys in this class that Joker could never get.
My hope is that in the next 2-3 days for some of you to have a family member that is aware of your delusion and either lock you up or hide all the guns, knives, and rope. Please don't get near any bridges or cliffs either. Take an aspirin and maybe just one sleeping pill and wait it out. lol
Some of you are not giving Stoops and staff any credit for any thing that he may accomplish in this class. There is no need to worry your head off for something you nor I have any control over. Its not worth all the stomach med's you will have to take.
I know that the class rating is down at the moment, but look at the quality of each player, it's head and shoulders over any that Joker ever brought in. Jauk has a better understanding of the numbers than most here seem to understand. The overall class is small but look at the number in between each. Take a look at who we are competing with in our conference alone, it's not chopped liver.
Just because osu won the title does not mean the big11-12 whatever they are is on top, it's not. The best is still SEC...,has been for the last 10 or so years and will not change in one year because of some national panel that votes. Well some were calling for a change and they got it, it's no better and maybe worse that the old BCS.
Now those kids are all wanting to go to either cheaters or get an easy degree where its given.
GoBB
Some of you are not giving Stoops and staff any credit for any thing that he may accomplish in this class. There is no need to worry your head off for something you nor I have any control over. Its not worth all the stomach med's you will have to take.
I know that the class rating is down at the moment, but look at the quality of each player, it's head and shoulders over any that Joker ever brought in. Jauk has a better understanding of the numbers than most here seem to understand. The overall class is small but look at the number in between each. Take a look at who we are competing with in our conference alone, it's not chopped liver.
Just because osu won the title does not mean the big11-12 whatever they are is on top, it's not. The best is still SEC...,has been for the last 10 or so years and will not change in one year because of some national panel that votes. Well some were calling for a change and they got it, it's no better and maybe worse that the old BCS.
Now those kids are all wanting to go to either cheaters or get an easy degree where its given.
GoBB
Its not just UK having issues with this, we have had 3 in the last week, very likely to have 3 more by the end of Wed and and have a couple more who are making their "final decision on Wed. On top of all that, the top guy on our board reportly gave UCLA a silent over the weekend. So UK isn't the only place going through this, its all over the SEC. SC has lost about 6, UT has lost 3-4, Bama has lost 3, OM has lost 3-4 kids and might lose another. So it just isn't happening to UK. Our class has gone from number 3 and if all things go against us Wed will likely be hard pressed to be in top 20.
But I still don't think an early signing period would stop it, all the kids everyone wants except a few exceptions, would wait till Feb so they could take all their offiicals. We have lost a DB, a WR and a JUCO RB, really no idea why he committed to us in the first place. We could lose another 2 DB, 2 WR and a LB on Wed. That leaves no chance to sign anyone else, but when one of your main recruiting rivals is AU, they go all out and see who has their hand out, or who might be willing to put it out.
Don't jump on your high horse just yet. Levi has a point and a damn good one. You aren't just having an honest discussion. You have an agenda to make this less than ideal situation out to be worse than it really is. You are picking and choosing the info and stats that show only the negative pieces of this class. What you are doing is called spinning. Why do you want us to think things are worse than they really are?Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Ohh, I am sorry... I suppose I was operating under the mistaken belief that this was a message board where we were supposed to discuss Kentucky football, and I was in fact discussing Kentucky football. I can't believe I made such a mistake and put you in such a terrible position to have to read my off topic posts.
You want to compare Stoops' worst class with Joker's best class. Why do you ignore that most of Joker's classes were rated much lower than even this incomplete class. Yeah, it is incomplete and you know it. Why do you speak of this class like it can't improve in the rankings? It most likely will. You state that we are losing recruits that have offers by the top programs in the country yet you fail to understand that since we are not a top program that it only makes sense for most of these guys to flip when offered. At least we are being considered by recruits of this caliber. Finally, when nearly everybody else points out these obvious flaws in your arguments, you say that we shouldn't be comparing this class to Joker's classes. Hello! it is you and the other negative nancies who keep making the Joker reference in the first place.
So yeah, this is a message board and you can post whatever you want. However, when you get on here and say a bunch of ridiculous crap that is false or one sided, don't get your panties in a wad when you get called out on it.
I've been a guy that tries to stay positive for a long time. I've bought into the stuff where we've all said, "I trust Coach fill in the blank." I have seen everyone here try to spin the "diamonds in the rough." Or more recently we've had people trying to spin the losses of these players as not a big deal. Some because we've replaced them with better players (those diamonds in the rough). Remember when Luke Heirs decomimtted? People, myself included, just wrote it off as being because he wasn't needed because Drake Jackson was coming in in 2016, and many said that we'd need scholarships at the end for actual needed positions so we decided to pull Heirs' scholarship (among other reasons). Now, we're at a late point in the season where it doesn't look like we will get to a full class. Another guy like Heirs to fill up a spot and add depth certainly wouldn't hurt.Originally posted by BigBluePhantom:
Don't jump on your high horse just yet. Levi has a point and a damn good one. You aren't just having an honest discussion. You have an agenda to make this less than ideal situation out to be worse than it really is. You are picking and choosing the info and stats that show only the negative pieces of this class. What you are doing is called spinning. Why do you want us to think things are worse than they really are?Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Ohh, I am sorry... I suppose I was operating under the mistaken belief that this was a message board where we were supposed to discuss Kentucky football, and I was in fact discussing Kentucky football. I can't believe I made such a mistake and put you in such a terrible position to have to read my off topic posts.
You want to compare Stoops' worst class with Joker's best class. Why do you ignore that most of Joker's classes were rated much lower than even this incomplete class. Yeah, it is incomplete and you know it. Why do you speak of this class like it can't improve in the rankings? It most likely will. You state that we are losing recruits that have offers by the top programs in the country yet you fail to understand that since we are not a top program that it only makes sense for most of these guys to flip when offered. At least we are being considered by recruits of this caliber. Finally, when nearly everybody else points out these obvious flaws in your arguments, you say that we shouldn't be comparing this class to Joker's classes. Hello! it is you and the other negative nancies who keep making the Joker reference in the first place.
So yeah, this is a message board and you can post whatever you want. However, when you get on here and say a bunch of ridiculous crap that is false or one sided, don't get your panties in a wad when you get called out on it.
I have no agenda. I see that this class has quality, but we are in the SEC. We need depth and quality in order to compete week in and week out. We have some quality right now on our roster, but what's our problem? Depth. Remember how everyone kept using the excuse that our guys were just exhausted from not having a bye week during our 5 game losing streak? Adding a class of 15 is not going to help that, especially if any number of them redshirt.
In terms of me saying anything false or one-sided. I don't think that is true at all. I cited Joker's first class that was ranked 50th, which was actually Joker's worst class by star ratings. Then I mentioned his other two classes, which were ranked in the 60s and were not littered with 2 star guys like some people would have you believe. I actually mentioned it because a lot of people were pointing out that Joker had terrible classes. They certainly weren't outstanding, but if you go by recruiting rankings right now (which is all we can go by because we aren't finished yet) then this class' ranking is closer to Joker's average of 58 in his 3 years than we are to Stoops' first two classes. If I had my pick... I'd much rather be closer to 29 than I would be Joker's 62/63/50 rankings.
Again... all I worry about is Kentucky and how this class might effect us in the future. I have no agenda. I am just discussing the football team that I love and follow wholeheartedly and expressing my concerns for an extremely important aspect of their success. I am not worried about what Joker did, but only about how UK compares to the teams it has to face in the future, mostly the SEC teams. I fully believe that we have to close a pretty big talent gap. In fact, I think that is obvious. To close that SEC talent gap we will need quality and depth. This class might have the quality, but the depth is not quite there, and we aren't going in the right direction to get there just two days shy of NSD.
I am sorry if I come off as trying to depress everyone. That isn't my intention. However, I also don't think we need to just blindly believe that everything is going to be sunshine and lollipops. The Harris decision and a lack of really good news over the past two months, not to mention the fact that we went 0-6 to end the season, have left me a little jaded. I'm usually quite the optimist, but it can be hard to take. I also feel that I am willing to discuss UK football with anyone. I felt that Levi, rather than discuss it with me just wanted to be insulting and rude.
I know it looks bad with the decommitts lately, but if we get Lewis, and maybe flip another couple of verbals, we could come in at 35th or so. That along with the 2 Nebraska transfers, and the return of Badet and Montgomery at WR, we should be fine !
I can't believe Joker's classes were as good as this one. What is Stoops thinking? How can we offer a guy that is a 1-AA commit? The sky is falling. I can't believe NSD has come and gone already. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Oh, wait, NSD isn't here yet and we are only ranked 50th because we've only got 15 guys so far. Oh, and wait, the guys we are losing are all going to power 5 schools and some of them are powerhouse schools.
If you want to recruit with the big boys, then you are going to lose some to the big boys. If you like to keep all of your commits because most of them aren't wanted by power 5 schools then you need to ask for Joker to come back.
This class will rank from the mid to low 30s after NSD.
Oh, wait, NSD isn't here yet and we are only ranked 50th because we've only got 15 guys so far. Oh, and wait, the guys we are losing are all going to power 5 schools and some of them are powerhouse schools.
If you want to recruit with the big boys, then you are going to lose some to the big boys. If you like to keep all of your commits because most of them aren't wanted by power 5 schools then you need to ask for Joker to come back.
This class will rank from the mid to low 30s after NSD.
Comebakatz3 posted on 2/2/2015...
I've been a guy that tries to stay positive for a long time. I've bought into the stuff where we've all said, "I trust Coach fill in the blank." I have seen everyone here try to spin the "diamonds in the rough." Or more recently we've had people trying to spin the losses of these players as not a big deal. Some because we've replaced them with better players (those diamonds in the rough). Remember when Luke Heirs decomimtted? People, myself included, just wrote it off as being because he wasn't needed because Drake Jackson was coming in in 2016, and many said that we'd need scholarships at the end for actual needed positions so we decided to pull Heirs' scholarship (among other reasons). Now, we're at a late point in the season where it doesn't look like we will get to a full class. Another guy like Heirs to fill up a spot and add depth certainly wouldn't hurt.
I have no agenda. I see that this class has quality, but we are in the SEC. We need depth and quality in order to compete week in and week out. We have some quality right now on our roster, but what's our problem? Depth. Remember how everyone kept using the excuse that our guys were just exhausted from not having a bye week during our 5 game losing streak? Adding a class of 15 is not going to help that, especially if any number of them redshirt.
In terms of me saying anything false or one-sided. I don't think that is true at all. I cited Joker's first class that was ranked 50th, which was actually Joker's worst class by star ratings. Then I mentioned his other two classes, which were ranked in the 60s and were not littered with 2 star guys like some people would have you believe. I actually mentioned it because a lot of people were pointing out that Joker had terrible classes. They certainly weren't outstanding, but if you go by recruiting rankings right now (which is all we can go by because we aren't finished yet) then this class' ranking is closer to Joker's average of 58 in his 3 years than we are to Stoops' first two classes. If I had my pick... I'd much rather be closer to 29 than I would be Joker's 62/63/50 rankings.
Again... all I worry about is Kentucky and how this class might effect us in the future. I have no agenda. I am just discussing the football team that I love and follow wholeheartedly and expressing my concerns for an extremely important aspect of their success. I am not worried about what Joker did, but only about how UK compares to the teams it has to face in the future, mostly the SEC teams. I fully believe that we have to close a pretty big talent gap. In fact, I think that is obvious. To close that SEC talent gap we will need quality and depth. This class might have the quality, but the depth is not quite there, and we aren't going in the right direction to get there just two days shy of NSD.
I am sorry if I come off as trying to depress everyone. That isn't my intention. However, I also don't think we need to just blindly believe that everything is going to be sunshine and lollipops. The Harris decision and a lack of really good news over the past two months, not to mention the fact that we went 0-6 to end the season, have left me a little jaded. I'm usually quite the optimist, but it can be hard to take. I also feel that I am willing to discuss UK football with anyone. I felt that Levi, rather than discuss it with me just wanted to be insulting and rude.
Problem is your not really being realistic, we have been historically bad for a long long time that doesn't change over 2 1/2 recruiting cycles and two seasons. We signed ten 4 star recruits last year and were able to hold on to that class in large part due to the efforts of Drew Barker who helped recruit a lot of those kids for us and made sure the class stayed together. Harris could have done this but chose not to, he could have committed early and got other kids to come and helped hold the class together but he didn't for that reason I don't believe he ever intended to sign with UK. We are not the only school this is happening to a fact that you don't seem to realize or conveniently seem to leave out of all your post. Again we will have a better season next year after we go to a bowl game next years class could be the best ever. Also you never know what will happen on NSD a lot of kids are still uncommitted we could still end up mid to low thirties and I'm fine with that. No one said we had to win the SEC east next year or even the year after that as long as were making progress and getting better then the classes will continue to get better but this isn't gonna be a 4 or 5 year project and we are not gonna be in the national title game any time soon or even the SEC title game that just being really unrealistic.
This post was edited on 2/2 9:57 PM by jarheadky
I've been a guy that tries to stay positive for a long time. I've bought into the stuff where we've all said, "I trust Coach fill in the blank." I have seen everyone here try to spin the "diamonds in the rough." Or more recently we've had people trying to spin the losses of these players as not a big deal. Some because we've replaced them with better players (those diamonds in the rough). Remember when Luke Heirs decomimtted? People, myself included, just wrote it off as being because he wasn't needed because Drake Jackson was coming in in 2016, and many said that we'd need scholarships at the end for actual needed positions so we decided to pull Heirs' scholarship (among other reasons). Now, we're at a late point in the season where it doesn't look like we will get to a full class. Another guy like Heirs to fill up a spot and add depth certainly wouldn't hurt.
I have no agenda. I see that this class has quality, but we are in the SEC. We need depth and quality in order to compete week in and week out. We have some quality right now on our roster, but what's our problem? Depth. Remember how everyone kept using the excuse that our guys were just exhausted from not having a bye week during our 5 game losing streak? Adding a class of 15 is not going to help that, especially if any number of them redshirt.
In terms of me saying anything false or one-sided. I don't think that is true at all. I cited Joker's first class that was ranked 50th, which was actually Joker's worst class by star ratings. Then I mentioned his other two classes, which were ranked in the 60s and were not littered with 2 star guys like some people would have you believe. I actually mentioned it because a lot of people were pointing out that Joker had terrible classes. They certainly weren't outstanding, but if you go by recruiting rankings right now (which is all we can go by because we aren't finished yet) then this class' ranking is closer to Joker's average of 58 in his 3 years than we are to Stoops' first two classes. If I had my pick... I'd much rather be closer to 29 than I would be Joker's 62/63/50 rankings.
Again... all I worry about is Kentucky and how this class might effect us in the future. I have no agenda. I am just discussing the football team that I love and follow wholeheartedly and expressing my concerns for an extremely important aspect of their success. I am not worried about what Joker did, but only about how UK compares to the teams it has to face in the future, mostly the SEC teams. I fully believe that we have to close a pretty big talent gap. In fact, I think that is obvious. To close that SEC talent gap we will need quality and depth. This class might have the quality, but the depth is not quite there, and we aren't going in the right direction to get there just two days shy of NSD.
I am sorry if I come off as trying to depress everyone. That isn't my intention. However, I also don't think we need to just blindly believe that everything is going to be sunshine and lollipops. The Harris decision and a lack of really good news over the past two months, not to mention the fact that we went 0-6 to end the season, have left me a little jaded. I'm usually quite the optimist, but it can be hard to take. I also feel that I am willing to discuss UK football with anyone. I felt that Levi, rather than discuss it with me just wanted to be insulting and rude.
Problem is your not really being realistic, we have been historically bad for a long long time that doesn't change over 2 1/2 recruiting cycles and two seasons. We signed ten 4 star recruits last year and were able to hold on to that class in large part due to the efforts of Drew Barker who helped recruit a lot of those kids for us and made sure the class stayed together. Harris could have done this but chose not to, he could have committed early and got other kids to come and helped hold the class together but he didn't for that reason I don't believe he ever intended to sign with UK. We are not the only school this is happening to a fact that you don't seem to realize or conveniently seem to leave out of all your post. Again we will have a better season next year after we go to a bowl game next years class could be the best ever. Also you never know what will happen on NSD a lot of kids are still uncommitted we could still end up mid to low thirties and I'm fine with that. No one said we had to win the SEC east next year or even the year after that as long as were making progress and getting better then the classes will continue to get better but this isn't gonna be a 4 or 5 year project and we are not gonna be in the national title game any time soon or even the SEC title game that just being really unrealistic.
This post was edited on 2/2 9:57 PM by jarheadky
Thats fair. I do think you are taking the last few days a little hard. Here is why. This class is really not much worse than the last two. It is the fact that we only have 15 that is dragging us down if the rankings. Depth is a major concern, particuarly at a few defensive spots. It would be ideal if we could sign 25 top prospects. However, I am ok if we only sign 20 this year for two reasons. First, I think we will win 6 or 7 next year which will allow us to attract a little better recruit for 2016. It should also help us to hang on to some of the early signees we lost this year. Second, the in-state class for 2016 is predicted to be much stronger than it has been the last few years. The key is to perform on the field and have a winning season with a bowl game. If that happens, I could see this staff pulling in 30 good recruits hopefully averaging around 3.75 stars. Thats is 15+ four stars and 1 or 2 five stars.Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
I've been a guy that tries to stay positive for a long time. I've bought into the stuff where we've all said, "I trust Coach fill in the blank." I have seen everyone here try to spin the "diamonds in the rough." Or more recently we've had people trying to spin the losses of these players as not a big deal. Some because we've replaced them with better players (those diamonds in the rough). Remember when Luke Heirs decomimtted? People, myself included, just wrote it off as being because he wasn't needed because Drake Jackson was coming in in 2016, and many said that we'd need scholarships at the end for actual needed positions so we decided to pull Heirs' scholarship (among other reasons). Now, we're at a late point in the season where it doesn't look like we will get to a full class. Another guy like Heirs to fill up a spot and add depth certainly wouldn't hurt.Originally posted by BigBluePhantom:
Don't jump on your high horse just yet. Levi has a point and a damn good one. You aren't just having an honest discussion. You have an agenda to make this less than ideal situation out to be worse than it really is. You are picking and choosing the info and stats that show only the negative pieces of this class. What you are doing is called spinning. Why do you want us to think things are worse than they really are?Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
Ohh, I am sorry... I suppose I was operating under the mistaken belief that this was a message board where we were supposed to discuss Kentucky football, and I was in fact discussing Kentucky football. I can't believe I made such a mistake and put you in such a terrible position to have to read my off topic posts.
You want to compare Stoops' worst class with Joker's best class. Why do you ignore that most of Joker's classes were rated much lower than even this incomplete class. Yeah, it is incomplete and you know it. Why do you speak of this class like it can't improve in the rankings? It most likely will. You state that we are losing recruits that have offers by the top programs in the country yet you fail to understand that since we are not a top program that it only makes sense for most of these guys to flip when offered. At least we are being considered by recruits of this caliber. Finally, when nearly everybody else points out these obvious flaws in your arguments, you say that we shouldn't be comparing this class to Joker's classes. Hello! it is you and the other negative nancies who keep making the Joker reference in the first place.
So yeah, this is a message board and you can post whatever you want. However, when you get on here and say a bunch of ridiculous crap that is false or one sided, don't get your panties in a wad when you get called out on it.
I have no agenda. I see that this class has quality, but we are in the SEC. We need depth and quality in order to compete week in and week out. We have some quality right now on our roster, but what's our problem? Depth. Remember how everyone kept using the excuse that our guys were just exhausted from not having a bye week during our 5 game losing streak? Adding a class of 15 is not going to help that, especially if any number of them redshirt.
In terms of me saying anything false or one-sided. I don't think that is true at all. I cited Joker's first class that was ranked 50th, which was actually Joker's worst class by star ratings. Then I mentioned his other two classes, which were ranked in the 60s and were not littered with 2 star guys like some people would have you believe. I actually mentioned it because a lot of people were pointing out that Joker had terrible classes. They certainly weren't outstanding, but if you go by recruiting rankings right now (which is all we can go by because we aren't finished yet) then this class' ranking is closer to Joker's average of 58 in his 3 years than we are to Stoops' first two classes. If I had my pick... I'd much rather be closer to 29 than I would be Joker's 62/63/50 rankings.
Again... all I worry about is Kentucky and how this class might effect us in the future. I have no agenda. I am just discussing the football team that I love and follow wholeheartedly and expressing my concerns for an extremely important aspect of their success. I am not worried about what Joker did, but only about how UK compares to the teams it has to face in the future, mostly the SEC teams. I fully believe that we have to close a pretty big talent gap. In fact, I think that is obvious. To close that SEC talent gap we will need quality and depth. This class might have the quality, but the depth is not quite there, and we aren't going in the right direction to get there just two days shy of NSD.
I am sorry if I come off as trying to depress everyone. That isn't my intention. However, I also don't think we need to just blindly believe that everything is going to be sunshine and lollipops. The Harris decision and a lack of really good news over the past two months, not to mention the fact that we went 0-6 to end the season, have left me a little jaded. I'm usually quite the optimist, but it can be hard to take. I also feel that I am willing to discuss UK football with anyone. I felt that Levi, rather than discuss it with me just wanted to be insulting and rude.
This recruiting period has followed the same path as the season did. Both started out with a bang and then fizzled out. The perception is alarming but the reality is that the season actually exceeded most people's predictions going in. Likewise, when NSD is a wrap in two days, you will be able to step back and look at this class. The final product, coupled with the transfers we have coming, is going to be very similar to what was considered a spectacular class last year.
I understand that. We aren't a great historic football team, but as I said, I think we have to continue to keep the talent gap as close as possible. I think at one point I said we need to be around the 20-30 range and occasionally jump into the 15-20 range. Getting above the 30s, really mostly above 35, can be really detrimental to us because that puts us really far behind the rest of the SEC. I don't expect us to get to the SEC title game or the NCAA title game... I just expect us to compete better than we have in recent years. I expect us to get back to bowl games and have some good winning seasons.
I agree that I don't know what will happen in the next two days. I can only speculate about the next two days. However, I have a negative outlook on the next two days because we are not going in the right direction. I know we are not the only school having decommits, but we are one of just 5 teams in the top 100 that have 15 or less recruits (Florida and Michigan being two predominant others). A lot of the other teams are losing recruits because they are running out of room to sign these guys. We, on the other hand, have plenty of room and we're still losing guys. I understand it is to big time programs, but it isn't happening at a good time.
Re: Another Decommitment[/URL]Chuckinden posted on 2/2/2015...
Sarcasm...for the Chicken Little's on this board.
A little melodramatic there aren't you?
Sarcasm...for the Chicken Little's on this board.
I think you are right. This is a high quality class, but I really do think that depth is important. I would be okay with a very solid 20, but I want to see us finish this class quite strongly and not just find diamond in the rough prospects to fill up spots. Again, I think in a class with 23-24 prospects then having Allen would be outstanding. However, in a class of just 15-20 he is a bit more risky. So, I am really hoping that we will finish extremely strong. Tomorrow should help to spring board us towards some better things, but hopefully we can keep what is in the fold and then add about 4 more strong guys.
I think we can definitely improve next year. I don't think the six losses hurt us as bad as many think. I think that 5 wins was about what people thought we were going to get. So, it wasn't a disappointing season in that respect. It was only disappointing because of the way we got those wins on the front end and not on the back end at all. So, in that regard we definitely agree. I am not saying that we cannot improve this class or that it will not improve. I have just expressed my current disappointment that we seem to be losing momentum instead of gaining it. Still, I am anxious for NSD. Last year it was kind of a meh day because we pretty much locked down the class before it. Hopefully this year is the exact opposite and Stoops brings us an extremely early UK football Christmas.
Player development matters more than class rankings, and this coaching staff has proven that they develop players. We don't need a Top 25 class, or be in the upper 1/3 of the SEC in order to win here. If the staff continues to perform like it has, I have absolutely no worries. I think we win 9-10 games next year, and that's when recruiting will really pick up.
This post was edited on 2/2 10:24 PM by CharlestownCat
This post was edited on 2/2 10:24 PM by CharlestownCat
Comebakatz3 posted on 2/2/2015...I understand that. We aren't a great historic football team, but as I said, I think we have to continue to keep the talent gap as close as possible. I think at one point I said we need to be around the 20-30 range and occasionally jump into the 15-20 range. Getting above the 30s, really mostly above 35, can be really detrimental to us because that puts us really far behind the rest of the SEC. I don't expect us to get to the SEC title game or the NCAA title game... I just expect us to compete better than we have in recent years. I expect us to get back to bowl games and have some good winning seasons.
I agree that I don't know what will happen in the next two days. I can only speculate about the next two days. However, I have a negative outlook on the next two days because we are not going in the right direction. I know we are not the only school having decommits, but we are one of just 5 teams in the top 100 that have 15 or less recruits (Florida and Michigan being two predominant others). A lot of the other teams are losing recruits because they are running out of room to sign these guys. We, on the other hand, have plenty of room and we're still losing guys. I understand it is to big time programs, but it isn't happening at a good time.
Actually we have 17 recruits the two transfers from Nebraska count against our 25 player limit and are not factored into the final ranking of the class. I do understand some of what you are saying but a lot of this is premature as I believe we already have the talent be in a bowl game next year actually we were a dropped interception and a blind referee from being 7-5 this year. Something to keep in mind is class and player star rankings are not always indicative of what you are gonna have on campus. Randle Cobb was a 2 star and a lot of the NFL is made up of former 3 star recruits, who were late bloomers or just weren't developed by their coaches or even were playing out of position in high school. A lot of what sets programs apart from us right now is the fact that they have the depth to red shirt a great majority of their classes if they need to, and this is huge when it comes to developing players.
I agree that I don't know what will happen in the next two days. I can only speculate about the next two days. However, I have a negative outlook on the next two days because we are not going in the right direction. I know we are not the only school having decommits, but we are one of just 5 teams in the top 100 that have 15 or less recruits (Florida and Michigan being two predominant others). A lot of the other teams are losing recruits because they are running out of room to sign these guys. We, on the other hand, have plenty of room and we're still losing guys. I understand it is to big time programs, but it isn't happening at a good time.
Actually we have 17 recruits the two transfers from Nebraska count against our 25 player limit and are not factored into the final ranking of the class. I do understand some of what you are saying but a lot of this is premature as I believe we already have the talent be in a bowl game next year actually we were a dropped interception and a blind referee from being 7-5 this year. Something to keep in mind is class and player star rankings are not always indicative of what you are gonna have on campus. Randle Cobb was a 2 star and a lot of the NFL is made up of former 3 star recruits, who were late bloomers or just weren't developed by their coaches or even were playing out of position in high school. A lot of what sets programs apart from us right now is the fact that they have the depth to red shirt a great majority of their classes if they need to, and this is huge when it comes to developing players.
Seriously folks, didn't any of you watch the last 6 games, we went 0-6 and were skunked several times - Stoops can only sell hopes and dreams for so long. I knew this would happen after the beat downs to end the season.
Why is everyone acting so surprised?
Why is everyone acting so surprised?
It blows my mind how many people obsess about class rankings as if that is the main gauge of Stoops as a coach. There is a lot more to it. You can tell the novices by how much they obsess over class rankings, which are like judging a new car by how much it costs. A kid's offer sheet is more enlightening than his rating, but even that does not tell us whether he will go to class and stay healthy. The best teams have coaches who bring in sharp, reliable kids with skills and put them in positions to win. Stoops is taking a bunch of crap now because a handful of teenagers didn't keep their word. This is a sign of the times. We will be fine, and Stoops' critics will come out looking like novices.
We have the talent to get to a bowl game, but with the current format that isn't a huge improvement. What we really need is the talent to compete. The talent that keeps us from getting blown out against Tennessee. The talent that keeps us in games against almost all SEC teams. I know that players can come from anywhere (Cobb was actually a 3 star recruit, but I get your point), but what teams are having the most success? Teams that are filling up with 3 star guys or teams that are hauling in 4 and 5 star talent? Yes, the NFL finds the cream of the crop, but you know who has produced the most active NFL players? USC (West), Florida, Georgia, Miami, FSU, LSU. Teams that have had amazing recruiting throughout the years. Wisconsin had the most players in this year's super bowl. Where are they ranked in recruiting most years? Top 25. Sure, the meat and potatoes are three star guys, but we can't live off diamond in the rough, under the radar players if we want to be really competitive in this league.
I completely agree with player development and redshirting. Adding depth is huge. That is part of my concern with this class. Part of it is also just the signing day blues I suppose. I live just south of Knoxville and hear a lot about how great UT recruiting is going, and I can't talk much about any new guys UK is picking up because we're losing recruits instead. However, today is a new day and hopefully we get a big time commitment this evening and that spring boards us to more success tomorrow!
Dear lord bless you my son, I didn't know you had to endure Viles fans, but you do have to keep in mind we are not gonna be able to recruit like them now or honestly anytime soon. They have had the facilities and commitment to football around a lot longer than we have, say 40 years longer. I believe we can get there, with the recent uptick in recruiting, the buzz around the program the last couple years and the resources being given to the program it's just gonna take time. I know it's depressing to some that we are loosing all these players, I just don't believe one mediocre class out of the last two is gonna hurt us that bad.
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