Recruiting, first or worst?

[Sycamore Proud]

It seems that many, maybe half or more, of the tweets from high scool athletes who are announcing their college offers say they are getting ther first offer or first D1 offer from Indiana State. This kinda makes me wonder if we are ahead of everyone else on the good side of the process or if we are looking at the kids no one elso want's. It's actually someplace in the middle of these extremes I believe. Burt there are times I wnder about it.

 

[region rat]

Not bad based on the circumstances and limitations!

 

[Jason Svoboda]

It seems that many, maybe half or more, of the tweets from high scool athletes who are announcing their college offers say they are getting ther first offer or first D1 offer from Indiana State. This kinda makes me wonder if we are ahead of everyone else on the good side of the process or if we are looking at the kids no one elso want's. It's actually someplace in the middle of these extremes I believe. Burt there are times I wnder about it.

IMO, it depends on the timing. I had a major problem when signing day was fast approaching and we were offering kids that had no other Division 1 offers in the 2017 class. Those are kids that had 3-4 years to be evaluated by college coaches and nobody thought they were good enough to get a D1 offer. We'll see how many of those kids stick as Mallory and staff bring in future classes. That said, recruiting timelines for football usually works out like this:

1) Elite kids start getting offers during or before their sophomore years.

2) Most D1 offers start coming around their junior year, right after signing day when coaches start focusing on their next class and remain hot and heavy into the summer as kids hit the camp and combine circuits and head into their senior years.

3) Then you'll have fringe D1 players, late bloomers, kids that moved, small town kids and other unfortunate circumstance kids getting offers during or as they finish their senior season.

4) Finally, you have coaches scrambling in the last couple months leading up to signing day reaching on kids -- sometimes because of coaching staff turnover or some that just aren't good at recruiting and find themselves compounding mistakes at the 11th hour.

Since Mallory and staff is offering a bunch of 2018 kids, many of whom are getting their first D1 offer, they've still got the rest of their junior high school year, Summer and their entire senior year to get more. Quite a few of the kids we offered have already picked up more I believe so these guys are still sitting in the #2 group above. If a kid goes through the rest of summer and all the way up to signing day and we're still their only offer besides maybe D2/D3 offers, then who knows. We've had some kids with multiple offers come in and flame out and we've had some kids with few offers come in and become stars. I will say in my decade plus following recruiting, kids with multiple offers typically pan out more often than those single offer kids. Take that for what its worth.

 

[niklz62]

pretty good post. I didnt envy the position the coaching staff was in when they got hired but I guess that's part of the game. I really like a lot of what I see right now.

 

[WhenSycamoresWereIndians]

There is an old school of thought that says FCS schools don't want to offer early because it puts the kids on the radar of the FBS schools. Recruiting is a copy-cat game. I'm not a fan of this strategy as I know how important that first offer is to the kids.

Another thing I don't like is the strategy that over-emphasizes a player's height. Our offensive line is full of guys who look like NFL linemen that can't block to save their lives. Meanwhile kids who are 6'2" don't get a sniff despite how good they are. Teams like Marian and St Francis are making a killing in NAIA with these players. I'm not suggesting we should ignore size but we need tough players more than we need tall players. Especially if we are going to run the ball like I think we will. I'm not saying to fill your roster with short guys...I'm saying that Mallory would be wise to pick a kid here and there that the other D1 schools don't want simply because they don't fit into the cookie-cutter mold.

 

[Jason Svoboda]

There is an old school of thought that says FCS schools don't want to offer early because it puts the kids on the radar of the FBS schools. Recruiting is a copy-cat game. I'm not a fan of this strategy as I know how important that first offer is to the kids.

Totally. I've heard this before from coaches and I think once you hear it, you may as well pack their bags because they're in the wrong profession in the Information Age. This may have flown back before the Internet and accessibility of players but has been gone since the early 2000s -- I joined my first Rivals site back in 2001.

With Rivals/247/Scout/ESPN recruiting portals, Hudl, YouTube and social media, kids and coaches are going to get seen and going to self-report interest for ego, validation, etc.

 

[TwoMinuteDrill]

There is an old school of thought that says FCS schools don't want to offer early because it puts the kids on the radar of the FBS schools. Recruiting is a copy-cat game. I'm not a fan of this strategy as I know how important that first offer is to the kids.

Another thing I don't like is the strategy that over-emphasizes a player's height. Our offensive line is full of guys who look like NFL linemen that can't block to save their lives. Meanwhile kids who are 6'2" don't get a sniff despite how good they are. Teams like Marian and St Francis are making a killing in NAIA with these players. I'm not suggesting we should ignore size but we need tough players more than we need tall players. Especially if we are going to run the ball like I think we will. I'm not saying to fill your roster with short guys...I'm saying that Mallory would be wise to pick a kid here and there that the other D1 schools don't want simply because they don't fit into the cookie-cutter mold.

Some Coaches wont even talk to you if you don't check a certain height/weight box. We had a neighbor kid that played football and graduated from Georgia Tech a few years ago. His dad asked during the recruiting visit, what are you looking for in a player? The coach responded instantly by pointing to the wall that had a framed list of nine must haves for the position. #1 was certain height #2 certain weight #3 certain 40 time #4 certain GPA, etc, and #9 was Can play football. His dad joked that he thought number 9 might be listed first. The coach immediately responded I can teach football but I cant teach size, and speed. He also said, if your son didn't check box 1 & 2 we wouldn't be sitting here today even if #9 was good.