I believe Kanavis had a hand in Walker and Crawley too. Brown closed those two, but Kanavis was everywhere last year.
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OL recruiting - a big problem
- Thread starter sackman
- Start date
I believe Kanavis had a hand in Walker and Crawley too. Brown closed those two, but Kanavis was everywhere last year.
Fair enough, Tini. Rep sent. Earlier today someone posted the Stewart Hail Mary against Michigan. Sadly, the guys on that team look like SEC athletes. We're a long way from that.
At that time we were the equivelent of a top SEC team now. We were getting multiple guys off each team that were first round draft choices. virtually everybody we had who was a regular starter got at least a training camp look and we normally had 7-8 guys drafted each year. Even a few of our backups were getting looks by the NFL. It was very normal to see us have guys who just blew other teams away athletically.
Huge difference to last year when we saw a team that was usually smaller, slower, and less skilled at almost every position compared to the teams we played. Last years class plus the next couple need to come through just for us to be on even ground with other teams in the conference much less better.
Out of curiosity, who are we after (that we have a chance with) that projects as a legit left tackle prospect?
Maybe Alex Mayes, but I think that might be a stretch.
That's definitely what I've noticed. Very few are tackle prospects at all, but the ones who are seem like pure RT types (Nowland, Daimler, Graham, etc).
Cal fans have been groping for their problems for several years. Getting rid of Marshall didn't do it. Bringing in Kiesau didn't do it.... The mystery remains intact. I think their OC has been the problem personally.
Marshall has moved around a bit, but so do a lot of coaches who aren't part of highly successful programs. If you look where he was at, the whole staff got canned most of the time. Look at Kiesau's resume. I don't see it as a negative.
I honestly think the issue is that Embree is rebuilding and a bunch of top Colorado kids were O-Linemen last year and they didn't consider CU. We only lost them to places like Ohio State, Nebraska, and two to Auburn. Thus, we got a bit of a stink associated with us... I'm not sure anything but the top OL recruiters in the country would have saved those guys.
Marshall has moved around a bit, but so do a lot of coaches who aren't part of highly successful programs. If you look where he was at, the whole staff got canned most of the time. Look at Kiesau's resume. I don't see it as a negative.
I honestly think the issue is that Embree is rebuilding and a bunch of top Colorado kids were O-Linemen last year and they didn't consider CU. We only lost them to places like Ohio State, Nebraska, and two to Auburn. Thus, we got a bit of a stink associated with us... I'm not sure anything but the top OL recruiters in the country would have saved those guys.
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Jaximus
Club Member
I think a lot of the frustration here stems back to the lack of OL recruiting success that Hawkins had as well. We're just tired of seeing below average and average OL recruiting classes. I'm right there with everyone.
But I just went to rivals to take a look at how the other PAC schools are doing in recruiting and I'm feeling a lot better. Forget about the top 6 schools for a second (USC, Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Cal and UCLA)
Our 2013 class is stacking up pretty well against the other 5. Utah, UA, ASU, WSU and OSU. These are the schools we need to start beating on a regular basis in the next couple years. Once we're there, we can focus on higher goals.
Most of us understood that this would be a few years in the making and we're through one so far. We should expect more wins each year on and off the field. But we can't be too upset that kids are picking those top 6 schools above us right now. It won't be that way in a few years!
But I just went to rivals to take a look at how the other PAC schools are doing in recruiting and I'm feeling a lot better. Forget about the top 6 schools for a second (USC, Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Cal and UCLA)
Our 2013 class is stacking up pretty well against the other 5. Utah, UA, ASU, WSU and OSU. These are the schools we need to start beating on a regular basis in the next couple years. Once we're there, we can focus on higher goals.
Most of us understood that this would be a few years in the making and we're through one so far. We should expect more wins each year on and off the field. But we can't be too upset that kids are picking those top 6 schools above us right now. It won't be that way in a few years!
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CUFan
Welcome back
Jax. OL has been awful for years. The seemingly poor OL recruiting from this staff is a real problem. This staff is supposed to be all about recruiting. They seem to be doing a good job at other positions. The OL excuses need to stop. We need to see some recruiting wins for the OL. Winning some battles against the bottom 5 is okay, but overall not good enough.
Really cannot agree with your post, Jaximus. I think the OL recruiting under Hawkins was actually not that bad. There were some misses for sure, but he did leave Embree's staff some nice pieces (legit starters at both tackle spots and center). The depth is certainly an issue, but that is what makes the OL recruiting under the new staff all the more concerning.
Second of all, why is there a need to concede every single recruit to that "top 6"? I understand that it is unlikely to beat most of those teams consistently, but no reason we cannot go toe-to-toe with Cal and Washington for some recruits every year.
Finally, as CUFan says, it is time for the coaches to deliver here. We are not talking about getting the 5* and 4* players now. We are talking about getting the solid 3* types that will either play for us or another PAC-12 schools.
Last class, that included guys like :
Gavin Andrew (Oregon State)
Steven Moore (Cal)
Travis Averill (Boise State)
Garrett Weinreich (Oregon State)
Stephon McCray (Arizona State)
This class, it includes the following players:
Colin Sutton (believe some other PAC-12 offers eventually would have come his way)
Blake Nowland (looks good)
Dane Crane (Washington)
Sean Harlow (not looking good)
Cameron Hunt (not looking good)
J.D. Hinnant
Alex Redmond (favors Washington and Boston College)
Chris Borrayo
Riley Sorenson
Cannot continue to strike out on players like the ones above and expect everything to work itself out.
Second of all, why is there a need to concede every single recruit to that "top 6"? I understand that it is unlikely to beat most of those teams consistently, but no reason we cannot go toe-to-toe with Cal and Washington for some recruits every year.
Finally, as CUFan says, it is time for the coaches to deliver here. We are not talking about getting the 5* and 4* players now. We are talking about getting the solid 3* types that will either play for us or another PAC-12 schools.
Last class, that included guys like :
Gavin Andrew (Oregon State)
Steven Moore (Cal)
Travis Averill (Boise State)
Garrett Weinreich (Oregon State)
Stephon McCray (Arizona State)
This class, it includes the following players:
Colin Sutton (believe some other PAC-12 offers eventually would have come his way)
Blake Nowland (looks good)
Dane Crane (Washington)
Sean Harlow (not looking good)
Cameron Hunt (not looking good)
J.D. Hinnant
Alex Redmond (favors Washington and Boston College)
Chris Borrayo
Riley Sorenson
Cannot continue to strike out on players like the ones above and expect everything to work itself out.
Jaximus
Club Member
I'm not saying that we should concede every player to the top 6. I can think of a few players we've gone toe to toe with UW and Cal and won. The only ones I don't think we'll win toe to toe with for recruits is USC, Oregon and Stanford.
I agree that I'd hope to see us getting solid 3 star talent. And I think we will see another one or two more. I want to see us beat out the schools I mentioned for those players. Basically, I don't get upset that Dane Crane picks UW. But I sure as hell won't like it if Hunt chooses ASU over us.
I agree that I'd hope to see us getting solid 3 star talent. And I think we will see another one or two more. I want to see us beat out the schools I mentioned for those players. Basically, I don't get upset that Dane Crane picks UW. But I sure as hell won't like it if Hunt chooses ASU over us.
I have to agree. Kinda hard to get a 5* to come to Boulder when they could join a team with a legitimate chance at a NC. But I have faith we'll be there in 3-5 years! Go Buffs!
Fair enough. We should have a better idea of where we stand as the summer winds down and players start scheduling official visits.
Sure, but none along the OL, which is really the point- we can compete at other positions, but not at OL. It's just become a disturbing trend that doesn't appear to be getting substantially better. And Boulder didn't mention a guy like Jordan Roos who decided he'd be better off at Purdue. Add in the complete failure in-state last year (say what you will about where those 4 ended up, at one point CU seemed to be a clear leader at least for Thurston and Callahan before getting beat out) and there's definitely reason to wonder if we'll have the bodies up-front to compete in the Pac-12, especially when trying to build a power-running offense.
Jaximus
Club Member
Right off the top of my head I can tell you that we flipped Nembot and Asiata from UW.
They both had a lot of PAC offers as well. Nembot had a USC offer. Mustoe also had numerous PAC offers.
Kough and Irwin from last year did not have a PAC offer. Irwin had a host of other school out east. I'd imagine Sutton would be offered by quite a few PAC schools if they thought they had a shot.
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Fair enough with Asiata. I was only looking at the last two years. And Nembot was initially recruited at DE, I believe, but point taken.
FLounder
Think Positive and life will be Positive.
:lol:
No, our coaches are just plain failing right now at recruiting O-Linemen. I'm not going to look it up but Michigan recruited something like 6 4* OL last year and already have a number of commitments this year (including probably the best OL prospect in Colorado,) they aren't afraid of the competiton.
For some reason what CU is selling isn't being bought by the better prospects on the OL. I'm not in panic mode yet. Signing day is a long ways away and O-linemen are notoriously hard to project on the next level. At the same time if things don't improve this year then Embree has a decision to make about who his OL coach is in the future. You can't win football games without talent up front and we aren't getting it right now.
Im not making any excuses for Marshall, he isnt getting it done, thats clear. Michigan is a bad comparison though, for a number of reasons. I wont get into all those but they just had a BCS appearance too which didnt hurt them any.
Michigan is relevant because that's we're Fox went. Auburn is another good example since Callahan went there and they signed a top 5 OL class last year.
I understand why Michigan was mentioned, still think its a bad comparison in terms of where CU is right now compared to Michigan. Besides, its not like Fox was CU's to lose. Marshall isnt getting his job done, Im on board with that. The 2 teams mentioned have had pretty big success recently though. Michigan going to a bcs game and Auburn winning the whole damn thing. It's no excuse for Marshall at all and, winning recently isnt the only factor, id say it is a factor however. CU hasnt been to a bcs bowl since 2002, these recruits were pretty damn young then. He needs to go if things dont improve but there are more things missing here than Marshall's recruiting ability.
I only mentioned Michigan in response to the comment about the kids not being willing to have to compete. There are any number of schools that are very deep at OL, already have more highly rated guys committed, and still continue to add more highly sought after kids.
Gotcha.
