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Coach Macs best advice

who gave coach Mac his best advice


  • Total voters
    40

Unleash Hell

Well-Known Member
According to coach Mac himself, does anybody know who gave Coach the best advice when he got here?

The advice was, "Whatever you do, you must recruit Texas and California." Who said this?
 
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Someone in the recruiting threads did some research about our recruiting in Texas. The point being we've never had a strong presence there and probably never will. I think the most kids we signed in one class was about six? I could be off on this, but I really disagree with the notion that we have to somehow recruit Texas to be successful. We've had some great players from Texas, but we've never really been to consistent there imo.
 
I dont think we need to pull six or more a year there. That would be great but unrealistic consistently. We need 3 to 4 consistently and they need to be impact types. All just talk till we win some games.
 
It wasn't Gordon Gee that's for sure. According to Mac's bio he and his family really wanted the SMU job but Gee talked him out of it. I appreciate what McCartney did for Colorado but I think that staying at CU put an end to his career. In the end he just wasn't a good fit for Boulder. He would have shrived in Texas to the point where he could still be coaching.
 
CU didn't put an end to his career. Mac did. But I do agree with your opinion on him coaching in Texas. It would've been a perfect fit. Especially at a christian school like SMU.
 
Yea. Mac left for family reasons. It had nothing to do with CU. This Chuck Fiarbanks quote was actually in a recent thread though


Edit---Ok. So it had nothing to do with CU as an organization. The family ties to players IE sal may have had something to do with it
 
The H-boys, Art Walker, Chris Hudson, Bryan Stoltenberg, Lee "Hit Man" Hipp...ok, lee was a better quote than he was a lineman, but still...Texas players made an impact during the Mac Years.
 
The H-boys, Art Walker, Chris Hudson, Bryan Stoltenberg, Lee "Hit Man" Hipp...ok, lee was a better quote than he was a lineman, but still...Texas players made an impact during the Mac Years.
I agree. I think my point is that it doesn't make or break our team.
 
Fairbanks may have said it, but Eddie did it. Out of the 70 or so guys on the 1971 team who were sophomores, juniors and seniors at least 20 were from California or Texas. About 31 guys were from Colorado. I don't have any info on the freshmen as they were not part of the varsity back then.
 
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I agree. I think my point is that it doesn't make or break our team.

I respectfully disagree with you. CU has to effectively recruit Texas. It is not the number of players it is the quality that you have to watch for in recruiting. If you consistently take 4 to 5 players a year out of Texas and they are quality players, it gives your team a solid core. Just like California. Historically, Texas has been the number 3 place for CU recruiting (behind Colorado and California) so you cannot ignore it as a natural recruiting ground for CU.

I don't know who is feeding you the numbers but they are off - for example the 2003 class had 8 Texans including difference makers like Crosby, Wheatley, and starters like Harrison and Boye-Doe. The 2002 class had 7 from Texas(Vickers, Dawn)....So 6 as a maximum is low. Mac signed a lot of players out of Texas...CU had a good presence down there with Crowder and later McCartney.
 
Gurode was another Texas player. While a slightly different point, seemed to me at the time that having J. Weisinger (ATM) and Ryan Nunez (UT) transfer back to Texas was going to be fodder for negative recruiting for us down there when UT was still struggling some and CU was still a national player. Neither player really set the world on fire after leaving but were both highly regarded out of HS. I felt like, and remember talking with others, that that was a crucial time in transition from Mac to Neu in keeping the recruiting active in Texas. Losing those two guys seemed to set us back quite a bit.
 
Gurode was another Texas player. While a slightly different point, seemed to me at the time that having J. Weisinger (ATM) and Ryan Nunez (UT) transfer back to Texas was going to be fodder for negative recruiting for us down there when UT was still struggling some and CU was still a national player. Neither player really set the world on fire after leaving but were both highly regarded out of HS. I felt like, and remember talking with others, that that was a crucial time in transition from Mac to Neu in keeping the recruiting active in Texas. Losing those two guys seemed to set us back quite a bit.

Losing Coach Mac set us back quite a lot.
 
I respectfully disagree with you. CU has to effectively recruit Texas. It is not the number of players it is the quality that you have to watch for in recruiting. If you consistently take 4 to 5 players a year out of Texas and they are quality players, it gives your team a solid core. Just like California. Historically, Texas has been the number 3 place for CU recruiting (behind Colorado and California) so you cannot ignore it as a natural recruiting ground for CU.

I don't know who is feeding you the numbers but they are off - for example the 2003 class had 8 Texans including difference makers like Crosby, Wheatley, and starters like Harrison and Boye-Doe. The 2002 class had 7 from Texas(Vickers, Dawn)....So 6 as a maximum is low. Mac signed a lot of players out of Texas...CU had a good presence down there with Crowder and later McCartney.

4-5 players don't make or break your team. Everyone wants quality players from Texas, but we're never going to be a major player in Texas. So the statement that UH said above doesn't really ring true. The last time we really were able to really do well in Texas is when Mac was here. And we all know that Mac was a tremendous recruiter.
 
Valdezj:

I guess we will continue to disagree on this point. First, I believe you have to have focus in recruiting. Texas produces ~300 division 1 Football players per year. Approximately 1 in every 7 players at the FBS level is from the state of Texas. Texas produces more Div 1 talent than any other state. Five players a year can make or break your program. Every team tries to have 85 scholarship players, if you have a good pipeline into a fertile recruiting grounds it is going to help.

You say 5 players a year is not going to make a difference - it certainly will unless you are getting 5 better players elsewhere. And CU has been a player in recruiting Texas in the past - so I disagree we have never had a foothold down there, both Barnett and Neuheisel were successful recruiting in Texas. The first thing the new basketball coach said about recruiting was that we had to get down to Texas and recruit and that is in basketball.
 
4-5 x 5 years is 20-25 players on the roster from texas. you trying to say that wouldn't help?
 
4-5 x 5 years is 20-25 players on the roster from texas. you trying to say that wouldn't help?


I guess the one guy is Crosby. Other than that the list isn't too impressive. Texas recruiting still doesn't make or break our team. I never said it didn't matter at all. I just said it isn't as big as some people try to make it.

Edit: I'm talking about our Texas recruiting since Mac left.
 
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I guess the one guy is Crosby. Other than that the list isn't too impressive. Texas recruiting still doesn't make or break our team. I never said it didn't matter at all. I just said it isn't as big as some people try to make it.

I guess I am trying to get my head around what list you are talking about...

Off the top of my head - Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee, Arthur Walker, Micheal Lewis, Andre Gurode, Mason Crosby, Tyrone Wheatley, Lawrence Vickers, Koy Detmer...I think there are plenty of players from Texas who have had impressive careers at CU.
 
I agree. I think my point is that it doesn't make or break our team.
I agree with you, the overall recruiting with Mac was very good. In his later years he was getting blue chip players from Texas, California, and Louisiana. That's alot harder to do now that Brown and Miles have shut that door. Once one door closes another opens up.
 
Fairbanks may have said it, but Eddie did it. Out of the 70 or so guys on the 1971 team who were sophomores, juniors and seniors at least 20 were from California or Texas. About 31 guys were from Colorado. I don't have any info on the freshmen as they were not part of the varsity back then.


My dad was on that freshman team, he has some good stories from what the coaches used to tell them back then.
 
I agree with you, the overall recruiting with Mac was very good. In his later years he was getting blue chip players from Texas, California, and Louisiana. That's alot harder to do now that Brown and Miles have shut that door. Once one door closes another opens up.

I don't think the door is shut, there is way too much talent in those states to be cherry picked by a handful of teams. If you out the effort in, ANYBODY can recruit studs in those states.
 
I agree with you, the overall recruiting with Mac was very good. In his later years he was getting blue chip players from Texas, California, and Louisiana. That's alot harder to do now that Brown and Miles have shut that door. Once one door closes another opens up.
Miles, Brown and Stoops. I'm not trying to take away anything Mac did in the late 80's and early 90's, but it certainly helped out that all of those programs were in their down years.

I'd give anything to be able to hear Mac's recruiting pitch back then. He was one of the best.
 
Miles, Brown and Stoops. I'm not trying to take away anything Mac did in the late 80's and early 90's, but it certainly helped out that all of those programs were in their down years.

I'd give anything to be able to hear Mac's recruiting pitch back then. He was one of the best.
When Mac would recruit Compton and the hoods of he worked with man who lived there and was regarded as a mentor or trusted advisor by the residents. Mac and him had a system worked out in sign language - when Mac was talking things in the wrong direction, his partner would give him a sign to backoff or go somewhere else. Mac was a pro at recruiting the worst neighborhoods of LA. Alot of people forget, but in Mac's last years he always had a Top 10 recruiting class.
 
Mess-With-Texas-Mens-Tee.JPG
 
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