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2010 Recruiting Class - Does it stack up?

BuffMania

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Another commit who no one else offered...this is getting old.

A lot of players get injured, yet still have options. Was he injured before his Sr. season? A lot of players are offered well before their senior season. Some of you have so much faith in this coaching staff, and I just don't see where it's coming from.
 
Guys without other D1 or BCS offers have really not worked out for CU lately. Some guy named Speedy, West, WillJeff, Hansen, Cunningham, Pericek...... It seems like the less they are recruited, the earlier they play these days here.

I'd love guys with USC offers but the ONLY thing this staff has done right the last few years is grab guys that others didn't want and they've gotten off to a good start here. I'm sure these aren't our first choices either, but it's where we are at. Boise State has 6 commits and nary a "name guy".
 
Another commit who no one else offered...this is getting old.

A lot of players get injured, yet still have options. Was he injured before his Sr. season? A lot of players are offered well before their senior season. Some of you have so much faith in this coaching staff, and I just don't see where it's coming from.
Look at who was looking at him. It's not like it was SW Hawaii Tech!! I don't think anyone on this board has "so much faith" in anything about this coaching staff. I think it's more like hope.
 
While I agree it is very odd that not a single team in D1 offered some of these guys, I'll disagree that the staff doesn't know what it's doing when recruiting underrated players. Their best recruits have been the unknown guys that have offers from MAC or WAC schools and we swooped in and got them. Speedy comes to mind, Lockridge, Kai, Pericak, Beatty, Chappelle Brown, Jalil Brown, etc. From all reports last year Olatoye and Thornton have been great in practice. Forrest West and Will Jefferson didn't have many options and they certainly worked out. Jefferson alone beat out two much higher recruited guys who had been in camp a lot longer for a chance to play as a freshman.

I'm not saying I'm glad we've been able to steal a bunch of prospects this cycle that have all of zero offers or offers from random FCS schools, but I think there is a precedent for this staff being able to say we've brought in some decent kids that were lightly recruited.

I realize the counter to my argument is we went 3-9 last season and that's unacceptable. I guess you can blame the recruits and players, but I honestly think there is some decent talent on this team, it's the coaching staff and their schemes that caused us to be 3-9 imo, not the recruits that had zero Big 12 offers.
 
You have a good point with most of those guys, except I would strike Cunningham and Jefferson from the group. Cunningham had several offers and Will Jefferson played some as a true freshman but really did not do much.
 
I'm not trying to say that Hawk has done a grade A awesome job at recruiting, I'm just trying to hope that some of these zero offer guys are going to work out.

One difference between this year and years past is we're basically filling up the entire class with unknowns, not grabbing a few to sprinkle in amongst our other highly rated recruits that held offers from other D1 programs.

And yeah you're right, Jefferson didn't do much, but he played and I figure that's something. They saw enough of him in 2 weeks or whatever it was that they felt he was closer to being ready than either Ussery or Darden who had been in Boulder for the entire summer.
 
Guys without other D1 or BCS offers have really not worked out for CU lately. Some guy named Speedy, West, WillJeff, Hansen, Cunningham, Pericek......

Cunningham had offers from: Arizona State, Kansas, Stanford, Washington State, Utah and others
Speedy had offers from Toledo (DOH!) and some other MAC schools...but he committed relatively early.

To be 3 weeks from signing day, and to have NO OFFERS. probably speaks volumes.
 
You are correct about Cunningham as he had an ASU offer to go with Mountain West only options. I didn't recall the ASU offer.

Will Jefferson - the jury is out but the fact that he played as a true-freshmen and was a complete unknown I think supports my position.

Look at Boise State's 2010 class (7 commits)! Pretty much the type of class that Riddle, Bandison, Hawkins, Collins and Tucker recruited while at Boise and yet they were very successful. I'm pretty sure Chris Peterson didn't make all the recruiting decisions back then when he was the new guy hired by Hawk when Koetter left. These guys made their living picking thru the leftovers. And we are recruiting the leftovers - there's no doubt about it.

This guy appears to be a complete unknown. Based on recent experience, he will play a lot in 2010!!!
 
Getting by in the WAC/MAC/MWC (ect) with leftovers is one thing. Getting by in the Big12 is a completely different story. That probably has something to do with Hawkins having success at Boise as a HC, but ZERO success at CU as a HC.
 
Come on holic, Cunningham had three Pac-10 offers and another Big 12 offer. He was a good player who was considered undersized, but he did get invited to the UA game. He was rated one of the top 5 players in the state. To act like he was a complete unknown is a stretch. Was it a surprise to see him play as a freshman? Yes, but let's not make the guy out to be a diamond in the rough. He was not.
 
Scout doesn't show those offers for Cunningham. Just ASU. If you don't have a Rivals subscription, he wasn't heavily recruited.....

Speedy was NOT an early commit. CU didn't know about him until late in January, thanks to Rippy.
 
He was an Under Armour All-American. Good luck convincing yourself he was an unknown. You have a solid point for the most part, but putting Cunningham in that group just does not fit.
 
This is said all the time. Do you really believe that most of the Big12 would have beaten TCU and Boise State this year? Boise State went undefeated and handled Oregon pretty well. At some point, they have to get some due. Do they have the depth to handle a B12 schedule - not likely. But they got a lot of good players that could play in the B12 North right now and improve those teams.
 
I already said you were right about Cunningham. His offer list on Scout doesn't show any BCS offers other than ASU. Sorry!

The point is that just because this guy doesn't have offers doesn't mean he will suck. Our 3-9 record has us looking for players in places that other top D1 schools are not. People shouldn't be depressed about this in January.
 
I hope he can make an early impact, we need his help at RB. But I do feel a bit uneasy about the two RBs in the class each having some hurdles. One has some issues with grades, the other is recovering from a major injury. But I guess that is about all we can hope for right now.
 
I hope he can make an early impact, we need his help at RB. But I do feel a bit uneasy about the two RBs in the class each having some hurdles. One has some issues with grades, the other is recovering from a major injury. But I guess that is about all we can hope for right now.

You hit the nail on the head. For the most part this cycle, we're choosing between guys who have ability with some risk attached to them... or guys you can't win with on the Big 12 level. A lot of this class has something going on (academics, injury, late bloomer, etc). But I'd rather go with that than recruit guys who project as solid MAC players with no potential for being special. It just sucks that we are having to take so many risks with this year's class. Heck, even the 4* guys we lost (Spond and Mister) were major risks. The first is one hit to the head away from never playing football again and the second may not get through the NCAA Clearinghouse. I like the potential of this class and am very high on Trea as I've said, but we definitely need to follow it with a nice, safe class in 2011 of 4* and 3* prospects that other BCS programs are competing for.
 
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But you'd think that if the guys we're taking risks on were so talented, that lesser programs would also take a risk on them.
 
But you'd think that if the guys we're taking risks on were so talented, that lesser programs would also take a risk on them.

What is your point? It doesn't take a genius to see why our recruiting has suffered. Should the staff just dump the entire class and start over? This is our class, and frankly it looks better than I thought it would in September. We're probably not getting 15 all-conference players here, but if a handful can become significant contributers with the rest providing some depth, I'd take it and hope we can add some more elite talent in 2011.
 
The point is Hawkins can't win with what we've had, and I don't see how he's going to win with what we're getting. I've seen nothing out of this staff that leads me to believe they're better evaluators than the majority of staffs around the country. We're getting players that aren't coming here because of the quality of the program or because of our rich tradition...we're getting players that are coming here because this is their only option.

Dangerous waters we're treading on...
 
The point is Hawkins can't win with what we've had, and I don't see how he's going to win with what we're getting. I've seen nothing out of this staff that leads me to believe they're better evaluators than the majority of staffs around the country. We're getting players that aren't coming here because of the quality of the program or because of our rich tradition...we're getting players that are coming here because this is their only option.

Dangerous waters we're treading on...

I get it, so Hawk can't win with good players and he can't win with bad players. If that's the case then why do you care so much about who else offered these kids? If you're point is that Hawk sucks, there are a hundred other threads devoted to that - don't come on here and pollute this one, which should be about a pretty darn good RB who actually wants to be a Buff.
 
I get it, so Hawk can't win with good players and he can't win with bad players. If that's the case then why do you care so much about who else offered these kids? If you're point is that Hawk sucks, there are a hundred other threads devoted to that - don't come on here and pollute this one, which should be about a pretty darn good RB who actually wants to be a Buff.


Take another chug of kool-aid.

There's a reason why no one else in the country are offering some of the guys we are offering.
 
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Buff Mania, your point has been made. I am certainly not chugging kool-aid on this class, but no need for five more pages of you saying the same exact thing. Deal?
 
Buff Mania, your point has been made. I am certainly not chugging kool-aid on this class, but no need for five more pages of you saying the same exact thing. Deal?

If people quit asking me to elaborate, then we have a deal. That is, until the next commit we get who no one else wants. ;)
 
I'm not going to bash any recruits, hell, they haven't played a snap yet. We aren't doing much with 5 star or 4 star players around here anyway. Now, if you were to ask me if this class is more likely to graduate then bring a north title or big 12 championship, I would say yes, as it looks on paper.

The only concern imho is that hawk is trying to run his boise company here in the big 12 and so far, he's enron.
 
Will Pericek was a 3* linebacker who committed early. I don't know what his offer list looked like, but he would have had several offers had he not committed early. I think he committed in September.
 
I think one point needs to be made about next season. That is, we really need Hawkins to start out well. If we are sitting at a record like 1-5 or 2-5 in October, we probably cannot afford to wait out the entire season. Otherwise, we are risking of throwing away another recruiting cycle. With next year's instate class, we should be able to salvage a class even if we see a repeat of 2009 (provided there is a new staff in this scenario).
 
You are correct about Cunningham as he had an ASU offer to go with Mountain West only options. I didn't recall the ASU offer.

Will Jefferson - the jury is out but the fact that he played as a true-freshmen and was a complete unknown I think supports my position.

Look at Boise State's 2010 class (7 commits)! Pretty much the type of class that Riddle, Bandison, Hawkins, Collins and Tucker recruited while at Boise and yet they were very successful. I'm pretty sure Chris Peterson didn't make all the recruiting decisions back then when he was the new guy hired by Hawk when Koetter left. These guys made their living picking thru the leftovers. And we are recruiting the leftovers - there's no doubt about it.

This guy appears to be a complete unknown. Based on recent experience, he will play a lot in 2010!!!

Getting by in the WAC/MAC/MWC (ect) with leftovers is one thing. Getting by in the Big12 is a completely different story. That probably has something to do with Hawkins having success at Boise as a HC, but ZERO success at CU as a HC.

The point is Hawkins can't win with what we've had, and I don't see how he's going to win with what we're getting. I've seen nothing out of this staff that leads me to believe they're better evaluators than the majority of staffs around the country. We're getting players that aren't coming here because of the quality of the program or because of our rich tradition...we're getting players that are coming here because this is their only option.

Dangerous waters we're treading on...

I have harbored the suspicion Boise is able to do what it does by being the "plan B" for Pac 10 kids. Recruits who may be on the cusp of being a Pac 10 player, have grade issues or injury histories that cause a Pac 10 school to back off have been ending up at Boise. Thus Boise has a talent edge over the rest of the WAC. It would appear the tendency to "recruit around the edges" was brought to Boulder. It isn't working because those guys...well you get my point.

I do give DH credit for bringing in some big time guys. It's not like everybody is a "diamond in the rough" (Pericak, Katoa, Miller, Givens, Rippy, Mohler, Scott, Kasa, Major and others were highly thought of). The problem is this class looks like a Boise class, and if DH hasn't cut the mustard with the talent now on the roster...it doens't look good. IMO, the talent on the roster is a hell of a lot better than 3-9.
 
I think one point needs to be made about next season. That is, we really need Hawkins to start out well. If we are sitting at a record like 1-5 or 2-5 in October, we probably cannot afford to wait out the entire season. Otherwise, we are risking of throwing away another recruiting cycle. With next year's instate class, we should be able to salvage a class even if we see a repeat of 2009 (provided there is a new staff in this scenario).

My biggest fear would be going 2-2 OOC and finishing 5-7. If we start out fast and have a Bowl season, great. If we start the season like last, I think we make a change mid-season as you suggest and salvage what we can.

A 5-7 season is a tricky beast. It would probably mean Hawk finishes the season, but we miss out on a bowl...again. And I would fear that it could be seen as enough of an improvement by the powers that be to justify keeping him another season.
 
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My biggest fear would be going 2-2 OOC and finishing 5-7. If we start out fast and have a Bowl season, great. If we start the season like last, I think we make a change mid-season as you suggest and salvage what we can.

A 5-z season is a tricky beast. It would probably mean Hawk finishes the season, but we miss out on a bowl...again. And I would fear that it could be seen as enough of an improvement by the powers that be to justify keeping him another season.

The thought of keeping Hawk for '11 sends shivers down my spine. My hunch is the empty stadium will make that impossible. Even if the team were togo8-4 or better, which I doubt, unfortunately, I have noconfidence Hawk can produce a winner at this level. He needs to go back to the mid-majors.
 
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