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January is going to be very interesting

We need more walk-ons like we need Hawk back. Lunchpails and juiceboxes all around! :woot:

What we NEED are guys that every other D-1 school is trying to get.
 
sackman said:
We need more walk-ons like we need Hawk back. Lunchpails and juiceboxes all around! :woot:

What we NEED are guys that every other D-1 school is trying to get.
Click to expand...

+1

Walk ons need to be a focus after you fill your class. We are far from filling the class.
 
Buffalo Brad said:
+1

Walk ons need to be a focus after you fill your class. We are far from filling the class.
Click to expand...

I think you have this backwards. You want to fill your core class with walkons (not just any walkon, of course but the "preferred" variety). And then you look to see where the gaps lie, and fill those nooks and crannies with your scholarships. Also, I don't think that scholarship athletes should be permitted to eat at the training table unless there's class conflict, but that's just my opinion. Also, I think walk-ons should have their tuition payed for. Just more opinon.
 
Buffalo Brad said:
+1

Walk ons need to be a focus after you fill your class. We are far from filling the class.
Click to expand...

They need not be the focus, but you need to show some PWOs the love now, if you want them to be seeing themselves in a Buffs uniform in the fall.
You can still offer official visits, for example, without offering a scholarship.
 
We do need walk-ons, but the kind of walk-ons we need are guys who are good enough to play other places (maybe one level lower like FCS or WAC/Sun Belt Conference) but who can't get schollied right away because we have an excess of BCS quality players coming in.

The thing that makes it work is being good enough that decent players want to be here badly enough to be willing to come without a schollie at least initially. These guys can help out by providing quality athletes for special teams (Jafee, Smart,) depth in the event of unusual concentrations of injuries at a specific position, and most importantly quality opposition as part of the scout teams making the regulars better players.

It seems like a lot of the very good teams have at least a couple of walk-ons playing key roles but if you are counting on walk-ons you are in trouble.

If Hawkins hadn't run him off we could have used Seth Lobato this year when we got really thin at QB. A decent WO DB would have been nice to have for depth when we had the string of injuries at nickelback this year.
 
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The Walrus said:
I think you have this backwards. You want to fill your core class with walkons (not just any walkon, of course but the "preferred" variety). And then you look to see where the gaps lie, and fill those nooks and crannies with your scholarships. Also, I don't think that scholarship athletes should be permitted to eat at the training table unless there's class conflict, but that's just my opinion. Also, I think walk-ons should have their tuition payed for. Just more opinon.
Click to expand...
rong font asshole
 
Yep, Florida, Alabama, etc. are all building there programs on walk-ons. If you have a lot of walk-ons breaking into your two deep it means your recruiting sucks. The days of large walk-on programs are over. Even Nebraska does not do as much and the reason is???? Title IX makes it difficult to have more than 100 players on your roster - leaving room for only a handful of invited walkons per year.

Most coaches are not looking at walk-ons as being anymore that practice fodder...other than the kicking positions. So you have about 4-5 walk-on kickers and maybe a long snapper, that leaves about 10 openings.

If we think we are going to get into the Top 25 by building a walk-on program (which I think only one believes that) then we are wasting time and money. And Hawkins had way more former Walk-ons in the two deep than Barnett ever did. It amazed me last year with the talent we had picked up at WR to see Espinoza on the field in key 3rd down situations....

Jeff Smart was brought in by Barnett and is a good example of how the walk-on program usually works. Smart was a Boulder kid that came on in his senior year of HS - being local it is easy (affordable) for him to walk-on at the local University and he was one that Blossomed into a great player.
 
buffaholic said:
The model I've observed is that (generally) the first class is a tough one.
The 2nd year is a lot better and can be very good. If the team performs poorly on the field in 2011, there is usually a "pass" given and the coaching staff can still sell recruits on the vision.
If 2011 shows promise on the field, that 2012 class could pop big time.
Click to expand...

Moratorium on Hawkinisms?
 
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