Just read on Ohio preps where Snell is looking for some offers from some Big 10 schools,said he got his first off from one on Tuesday,is he a soft verbal to UK
Benny Snell
- Thread starter ukgolfnut1
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He had an Iowa offer before he comitted to UK. BIG Tin schools will probably continue to recruit him. I would not call his verbal soft. But realistically this early in the process anything is still possible.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Most of our decommits last year came in Ohio. Stump, Hamilton, Wells, the Dowells. Then Rob Dowdy telegraphed his intention to commit to Kentucky, but ended up at West Virginia instead. We still signed 5 good players from Ohio. But if I had guessed in October, I would have expected us to sign twice that many Ohioans. In 2014, we signed 10 players from Ohio. So we may have gotten a little wakeup call in the Buckeye State. Maybe that had something to do with Marrow's flirtation with Michigan, or maybe not. Something wasn't quite right. In 2016, our recruiting in Ohio will be the canary in the coal mine.
Football recruiting has always been interesting for me to study and keep up with. Until now. So many recruits just use schools like us as a safe fall back in case they don't get an offer from a more tradition rich football school.
The more successful football schools love the way recruiting is set up because they can pick and choose the top recruits and if they lose a commit to another big program they can just snag one of our recruits at the end.
The only way to slow down kids from 'using' schools and stop schools from 'using' kids in a way that should not be is to have an early signing period. Even then, these early commits will mostly be 'soft' and they can still flip at anytime but at least the last week before signing day flips will be less impactful on the schools.
The more successful football schools love the way recruiting is set up because they can pick and choose the top recruits and if they lose a commit to another big program they can just snag one of our recruits at the end.
The only way to slow down kids from 'using' schools and stop schools from 'using' kids in a way that should not be is to have an early signing period. Even then, these early commits will mostly be 'soft' and they can still flip at anytime but at least the last week before signing day flips will be less impactful on the schools.
I know that is a popular view here on this board, and with the media. But it doesn't make sense. It does not come down to a few wins or losses in a given season. It comes down to coaches. I doubt there is a high school player in America who will sign with Kentucky if we win 6-7 games, but will sign with Michigan State or North Carolina if Kentucky only wins 5 games. They pick a school for 4-5 years, based on their relationship with the coach. They want to make a difference. Unless they are morons, they won't make their school choice based on the outcome of a couple of games played a year before they get here. Some fans think that way. But Rigg, Rose, Ross, Snell, Walder have already disproven the theory. We already have 11 verbal commitments for 2016, and 5 of those are from Ohio. These 11 kids aren't concerned about the 5-7 record in 2014 or the 2016 record. Before you say they will decommit, I predict that most of them will sign with a Kentucky a year from now. It's early, but there is already a difference between Ohio recruiting in 2015 and 2016. Our coaching staff is more settled than last year. Marrow is settled. The stadium upgrades are a visible signal of growth and commitment in the program. Our program is headed in the right direction. Our 2015 class was pretty good. Our 2016 class will be Stoops' best yet.
This post was edited on 2/27 4:03 PM by Blue Decade
As always a word of caution. All a verbal commitment means is that you have a good chance to sign that recruit. Some verbal's are more solid than others but none have much standing in the college football game of sometimes musical chairs.. One must remember that the recruiters are dealing with players 17-18 years olds. Try to remember what you were like at that age? I do not remember long term commitments being high on my agendas and I could change my mind in a flash.
If I was a recruiter I would not feel safe with any recruits unless they were recruits that were long time fans of my team and even then some silver tongued recruiter might slip in on you. Its a tough game and it is even tougher for the recruiters that are recruiting for teams without the big football traditions.
I think UK is on the right track with its trying to establish a family type atmosphere at UK. A feeling of family and belonging can mean a lot to kids that age. That is why we have the teenaged gangs. It is also a big part in how the military gets these young kids to risk their lives fighting in wars. The patriotism thing is OK but the real reason that you can get those young men to fight and die is because they are fighting for their young buddies that they consider brothers and family.
If I was a recruiter I would not feel safe with any recruits unless they were recruits that were long time fans of my team and even then some silver tongued recruiter might slip in on you. Its a tough game and it is even tougher for the recruiters that are recruiting for teams without the big football traditions.
I think UK is on the right track with its trying to establish a family type atmosphere at UK. A feeling of family and belonging can mean a lot to kids that age. That is why we have the teenaged gangs. It is also a big part in how the military gets these young kids to risk their lives fighting in wars. The patriotism thing is OK but the real reason that you can get those young men to fight and die is because they are fighting for their young buddies that they consider brothers and family.
I agree with you. The majority of the kids will sign where they feel the most comfortable, that may end up being with the school, the players or the coaches but there has to be a big comfort level. A few will sign with the hot school at the time because its feeds their egos to get an offer from that school. Very few of them, if any, decide where they are going to spend the next 3-5 years of their life on the outcome of 1 or 2 games. Any college they attend can get them to the NFL, look at how many kids come from FCS schools in the NFL, many very high draft choices.
Some coaches are just better at selling that comfort than others.
Some coaches are just better at selling that comfort than others.
Meh, if he starts sniffing around too much for other offers, I hope Stoops pulls his offer. Either be all in or get out! When a kid starts looking around, 99% of the time he is going to screw you anyway. So screw him first.
That said, I don't necessarily think that is what is happening in this case. I've not seen anything that would indicate his interest in UK isn't genuine, or that he is trying to use us to get better offers. I'm just talking general what-ifs. If and when kids starts to eye other programs, as we witnessed with the previous recruiting class, you end up losing nearly all of them.
That said, I don't necessarily think that is what is happening in this case. I've not seen anything that would indicate his interest in UK isn't genuine, or that he is trying to use us to get better offers. I'm just talking general what-ifs. If and when kids starts to eye other programs, as we witnessed with the previous recruiting class, you end up losing nearly all of them.
My advise to any recruit is if you want to look around do not commit. Keep your option open and don't burn bridges to teams you might need in the end to fall back on.
If I was a coach and a kid committed to me than decommitted I would think long and hard before I trusted him again.
Let me equate this to male female relationships. If you are engaged it is not well thought of if you are out playing the field. What would you think of a person that after a long term engagement suddenly without warning up and married someone else that only wanted them because they were jilted by someone else that they preferred.
This post was edited on 2/27 3:31 PM by C1180
If I was a coach and a kid committed to me than decommitted I would think long and hard before I trusted him again.
Let me equate this to male female relationships. If you are engaged it is not well thought of if you are out playing the field. What would you think of a person that after a long term engagement suddenly without warning up and married someone else that only wanted them because they were jilted by someone else that they preferred.
This post was edited on 2/27 3:31 PM by C1180
I totally agree with most your points BUT I do believe that, over time, most "good" players want to go to a "winning" program. Without question, there are exceptions. Sure, the "comfort level" has to be there but there is a reason why, year after year, the majority of the "best" players end up going the "best" programs.
For example 138 of the Rivals 250 ended up going to just 12 schools. And even though several of those schools (e.g., AU, ND, TN) are coming off "bad" years, even a bad stretch in UT's case, they are still among football all time winningest programs. And even having a few great years does not elevate a UK or UofL to the same status as the entrenched traditional powers. Now there are always some exceptions for specific reasons but I believe "winning tradition" is what limits UK and UofL in many recruiting battles with the more established programs.
Regarding the OH kids, OH and PA were once the recruiting grounds on which Bear Bryant built his success. But, in more recent times, recruiting-wise, OH has been pretty much dominated by tOSU, ND, MI and more recently MI State. Recruiting OH hard seems like a good strategy but I guess we have to wait a few more years to see how it plays out on the field. There are plenty of good players in OH every year but UK likely faces an uphill fight against those 4 schools for the best in that state.
In 2014 UK signed 11 Ohioans but only 4 of those kids had an offer from any those 4 teams. In 2015, UK lost every recruiting battle (18 total) for an OH kid with those 4 schools. Conversely, none of the 2015 kids UK did sign had offers from those 4 schools. So far, none of the 2016 commits have offers from those 4 schools. (Data per Rivals profiles)
All of which leads me to another observation about recruiting, kids seem to "identify" with the schools that are in the same conference as the "main" school in the state. If a GA kid does not get a GA offer, he probably leans to any SEC offers he might have. If a AL kid does not get an AL or AU offer, he probably leans to any SEC offers he might have. If an OH kid does not get an OSU offer he probably leans to any BIG offers he might have. The exception is FL which produces so many prospects that many high talent players "escape" and head all over the country. All, of course, JMO.
Peace
Tennessee has had 5-7 win seasons for the last seven years. Tradition is there for sure, but none of the high school kids committed to them probably remember much of the last time UT even had a good season (good by UT standards, and 7 wins aint that)
UK isn't beating Ohio State, ND, Mich for recruits, but they are beating a lot more D1 programs than they used to.
UK isn't beating Ohio State, ND, Mich for recruits, but they are beating a lot more D1 programs than they used to.
I think some are minimizing what those 1-2 wins means in our exact situation. 1-2 wins is the difference between sitting at home all Chriatmas and going to a bowl game where our guys will get a gift bag full of stuff at potentially playing in an NFL stadium. For UGA if they win 8 games or 10 games it doesn't matter because they are still going to a good bowl game and they have a winning tradition. No player wants to go to a school that isn't winning football games and leaves you wondering every year whether or not your coaches will be back. The Vols are a completely different animal than us. They have a 100k seat stadium and probably top 3 nicest practice facilities in the country. Our facility upgrades will make a big difference for us once the kids can actually see them. Right now we are recruiting kids that can go several other programs with facilities to match us AND they win a lot of games every year. If we want to recruit top 15 classes you need to be ranked like a top 15 team on the field.
It's not that 6 or 7 wins will win us anything on the recruiting front, rather 6 or 7 (IMO 7) is necessary in order to demonstrate that the program is continuing to climb out of the cellar and moving towards being competitive in the SEC. What many of us have been saying is that without a minimum number of wins the recruing is lilkey to fall off significantly. You can only sell the future so many times, and the 4th year for this staff it probably won't fly without some tangible proof.
agreed, we are recruiting against mich st, wisc, miss st, vandy, wvu, nc state, nc, miami and that type team with the rare bama/osu/fsu guy. to keep landing those kids we have to prove that they can have the same level of success as those schools are having. plus, some of you need to understand how bad the sec is talked about in ohio... if we dont win... its easy to see why kids flipped... they heard from everyone for months that they needed to stay in the big country.
