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CU recruiting

Buffnik

Real name isn't Nik
Club Member
Junta Member
I'm noticing some definite trends in the perception of the CU program differing greatly depending on where we are recruiting.

On the east coast, they don't know much about us so it's kind of fresh with the new staff and the kids' parents remembering CU greatness.

In Pac-12 country, CU is the cool new guy with the slick unis and the good neighborhood.

We're doing very well in those places.

However, in Big 12 country we took such a media beating from our "friends" in the media around the conference that the perception of our program is ridiculously low compared to actual results. You'd think our 5-7 last season was 0-12 and that we finished last in the conference every year (we never did, fwiw).

In Colorado, Hawkins seemed to poison everything as far as CU's relationship with high school coaches around the state and even our relationship with players. Remember, the top in-state guys we are recruiting this year were first exposed to CU under Hawkins and they were treated like crap (see quotes by Clay Norgard).

There's so much to be rebuilt with Colorado and Texas recruiting. Don't be surprised if we see a lot of our top ranked commitments come from California, Arizona and Hawaii... we miss on more of the top Colorado prospects than we expected... and that in Texas we continue to take lesser known prospects as we rebuild our recruiting network and reputation there.
 
Yeah, seems like we're having trouble getting off the ground in Texas. The locals seem like they want to see what else is out there, that's for sure.

How many guys do you expect us to sign out of Texas this year?
 
Yeah, seems like we're having trouble getting off the ground in Texas. The locals seem like they want to see what else is out there, that's for sure.

How many guys do you expect us to sign out of Texas this year?

I think we'll end up taking 4-6 guys out of Texas and they'll all be 3* prospects with maybe a 2* in the mix.
 
I don't disagree with you, but I thought that is why we brought McGhee and Kennedy on board. Hopefully they can overcome those feelings in Texas.
 
I think our failures in recruiting have more to do with losing then it did with Hawkins. More and more of the comments, like Clay's, came out in Hawkins' final two seasons here at CU.

jmo.
 
I think our failures in recruiting have more to do with losing then it did with Hawkins. More and more of the comments, like Clay's, came out in Hawkins' final two seasons here at CU.

jmo.

Two sides of the same coin, man.
 
Two sides of the same coin, man.
If Embree can't turn it around quickly, you'll hear the same kind of comments. Then we'll all be talking about how much of a horrible coach he was for CU. :lol:

And for the record, I hope Embo does well here. I'm tired of losing.
 
If Embree can't turn it around quickly, you'll hear the same kind of comments. Then we'll all be talking about how much of a horrible coach he was for CU. :lol:

And for the record, I hope Embo does well here. I'm tired of losing.

Of course. It will be different, though. Embree is at least rebuilding the winning culture that works at CU (as Cabral started to do at the end of last season). He may prove to be a poor head coach once the results are in, but I have no doubt that CU will be CU again.

Reminds me a bit of Pelini after Callahan. Pelini may have reached his ceiling there and prove to be unable to get them back, but he has rebuilt the foundation after it was torn down. Embree will at least do that for us, imo.
 
If Embree can't turn it around quickly, you'll hear the same kind of comments. Then we'll all be talking about how much of a horrible coach he was for CU. :lol:

And for the record, I hope Embo does well here. I'm tired of losing.

I see what you're saying and winning would certainly help (we seem to be losing guys to schools that have a very recent history of winning: Oregon, Wisconsin, TCU, Utah) but it also seems like we're getting some pretty favorable reports about guys in Cali. In Texas we have been in on some guys early and the love is shown, yet they still aren't overly into CU.

It also seems like the games being played in their home states is a much bigger factor than I ever assumed. The P12 guys love that we'll be in Cali numerous times, while we're lagging on guys like Crane because we won't be in Texas.
 
Of course. It will be different, though. Embree is at least rebuilding the winning culture that works at CU (as Cabral started to do at the end of last season). He may prove to be a poor head coach once the results are in, but I have no doubt that CU will be CU again.

Reminds me a bit of Pelini after Callahan. Pelini may have reached his ceiling there and prove to be unable to get them back, but he has rebuilt the foundation after it was torn down. Embree will at least do that for us, imo.

I hope your right Nik. The CU I knew, and grew up with were winners. The past decade of CU football has been pretty depressing.
 
CU is on the rise again, Rome was not built in one day. The Colorado HS talent is few, as long as we get 3 or 4 of the top 8 guys in the state we are good shape. Although it is good to have good relations with coaches in Big 12 country, perception of CU i believe is not the main reason for our poor recruiting in Texas . Teams like TCU, Baylor are now competiting with CU and they are winning a lot of games. Texas could be a tough recruit for Colorado untill we put together a few bowls games in arow.
 
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Texas is over recruited IMO. You have the entire Big XII, half the Big Ten, half the SEC, plus TCU and now SMU recruiting there.
 
Seems like a bit of an overreaction to a kid who a) wanted to stay closer to home and b) TCU's been highly ranked lately.
 
Texas recruiting is all about relationships with high school coaches and getting on the radar prospects early (i.e, during their junior year). Hawkins flat out failed in both aspects when recruiting Texas and that is why we find ourselves struggling down there. Hiring Bobby Kennedy was a good first step to repairing our image down in DFW and hopefully McGhee can do the same in Houston.

I will agree that losing was the overriding reason for our lack of success in California and the rest of Pac-10 country, but Texas was just a flat-out failure by the previous coaching staff because they did not understand how recruiting works down there.
 
I think our failures in recruiting have more to do with losing then it did with Hawkins. More and more of the comments, like Clay's, came out in Hawkins' final two seasons here at CU.

jmo.

From what I've read here, it was the losing but also Hawk and company basically shutting down the recruiting business once the writing was on the wall that he was done here.
 
The other thing that impacted recruiting severely was the fact that Hawk wouldnt press guys to recruit early, he wanted the kids to enjoy the process more than he wanted the kids to commit to CU.
 
From what I've read here, it was the losing but also Hawk and company basically shutting down the recruiting business once the writing was on the wall that he was done here.

...how do you separate the two? Hawkins == losing
 
It will take more than 6-12 months to regain the ground that was lost in recruiting Texas these past few years. Maybe not as strong as we were now that we can't guarantee TX kids a few games in front of the family every year, though. We'll make quicker progress in Cali/west coast because of that, but TX will come around after they see us winning and back in some bowl games again.
 
I wanted Catalon as a Buff. He would bring a measure of speed and athleticism to the backfield that the team could really use and he has the potential to be a difference maker. That said I am not shocked that he stayed in Texas and his decision is not the end of the world for us.

As far as the RB position goes we have offers out to some other players who while they have different skill sets may bring the same or more impact to the offense. Catalon is a good but not elite prospect. If we were losing an elite prospect then I would be more concerned.

As to Texas. It is generally accepted that Texas has more HS talent than any other state in the nation and a strong presence there would go a long way in helping bring the program back. At the same time as has already been stated Texas also has more competition for talent than any other state as well. If we were getting shut out in Cali I would be a lot more worried but we seem to be doing well there and when it is all over I think we will have some Texas talent as well. I am hoping for the Irwin brothers and think we are in good shape for them, add a couple of others including a lineman and a DB or a WR who can contribute and we will be doing better than we have in recent years.

As our coaches get the opportunity to develop the relationships with HS coaches in Texas then I don't see us not getting more talent out of the state but Texas is not a place where you just show up and sign guys, it takes time and work. The number of schools that recruit the state means that quality players don't slip under the radar and have to be worked for. In time we will be fine there.
 
If I had to guess who had more potential to make an impact on the program between Dillon or Catalon, I'd take Dillon every day of the week. I also like that we have offers in to so many top safeties. Seemed like Hawk would focus in on one or two guys, and didn't really have a backup plan when those guys went somewhere else. The Texas thing is bothersome, but winning will take care of that. I think we're actually a better bet to start luring some guys out of there if the Big Mack conf starts going down the tubes like the SWAC did after UT ran it into the ground.
 
not surprised

Don't be surprised if we see a lot of our top ranked commitments come from California, Arizona and Hawaii... we miss on more of the top Colorado prospects than we expected... and that in Texas we continue to take lesser known prospects as we rebuild our recruiting network and reputation there.

That's about what I expected. We should have a chance in places where they have PAC12 TV, with an added appeal in places where we'll be playing. That would make it more likely that we do well in the Southern division areas (i.e., SoCal, Arizona and Utah), but the fit between the Boulder area and the Northern division areas seems too good for us to remain shut out for long.

I didn't expect that Texas would remain strong, and it hasn't really been strong lately anyways. However, the number of recruits there is just too high to ignore the state. McGee's connections in Houston are the possible saving grace.

Things are shaky enough at the SoCal schools to make that area worth concentrating even harder on. And Arizona produces a large amount of recruits, so there's a good reason for focusing on that area. I also wonder about places such as Nevada We would seem to be a good alternative for recruits from there who want to play in the PAC12. My thinking has been that we should appeal to areas of the mountain west and far west because we have certain advantages over those areas, besides similarities on some key features. Any athlete who doesn't mind "scenic Nebraska" isn't attuned to the things that would bring him here. And the ones who appreciate the natural beauty of places such as the northwest, southwest or mountain west should find the Boulder area appealing.
 
Will the fact that we no longer will be playing in Texas hurt our recruiting there? I should say "hurt our chances of reviving recruiting there" since we haven't recruited well there in forever. I know there are a lot of Texas kids that go out of state with no guarantee of playing college games there. Those kids are generally the 4/5 star kids who go places like Miami, Michigan, etc. Those, then, would be the kids we would have to go after and, to get them, we will have to turn this ship around.
 
Will the fact that we no longer will be playing in Texas hurt our recruiting there? I should say "hurt our chances of reviving recruiting there" since we haven't recruited well there in forever. I know there are a lot of Texas kids that go out of state with no guarantee of playing college games there. Those kids are generally the 4/5 star kids who go places like Miami, Michigan, etc. Those, then, would be the kids we would have to go after and, to get them, we will have to turn this ship around.

Yeah. There will be fewer opportunities to have family and friends see Texas kids play during regular season and no conference championship game at Jerry World.

But the new conference and TV deal will appeal to some Texans. Not everyone living in Texas is from Texas. Some of the left coast immigrants would love the excuse to travel to P12 destinations to watch their kids play. And one thing about Texans...many do enjoy traveling.
 
We didn't really get a bump from being in the Big 12 North. Pac12 has a better rep in Texas than the B12N, so we're in no worse position than we were, maybe better. We just have some repair work to do. Kennedy and McGhee have solid relationships down there, so it should get going pretty quickly. I just think it will lag a bit this year.
 
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