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How big a blow is this week?

Rome was not built in one day. We are actually doing better than i had expected.

We already have a blue chip QB commit, rivals have him rated as the 7th QB in the nation, rated 4 star.

We have a stud DT 3 star rating

We have a stud ILB 3 star rating

We have a talented WR recruit 3 star rating


Apart from 2007, this is the best start to recruiting since 2000. Don't know why people are calling it doomsday.

Who on here is talking doomsday? I see plenty of people acknowledging that we are not doing well in-state and that top prospects at positions of need like TE (which you rather bizarrely think is not a need) are committing to divisional rivals.

As far as the best start to recruiting since 2000, is that really saying all that much? Dan Hawkins flat-out did not believe value early recruiting and Barnett stopped putting as much effort into recruiting as time went on. We have had success here and there, but nothing sustained, for a variety of reasons. The expectation for the coaches on this staff considering their track records in recruiting should be higher. I am very happy with the Dillon commit and we have some good players committed, but take a look around the conference (i.e, the teams we will be playing on the field and going up against in recruiting) and we are right in the middle of the pack with several other teams. Being better than the last five years in recruiting is a low standard.
 
I agree that recruiting battles matter and that stars matter but how many 3 or 4 (or even a notable 5) star guys have we managed to land only to have them flame out spectacularly or fade out with a whisper?

I think Mac's quote is important because a guy who ends up somewhere else may not help you but doesn't really hurt you either. The guy who takes a scholarship but then flames out takes away a spot from somebody who could contribute. That's much worse, IMHO.

I don't disagree with this. It's why I believe strongly in guys with high football character who fit the system. I think that's the core of your team, even if they're not 4* or 5* prospects. You sprinkle in the 4*/5* you can get who also fit the culture and maybe take a couple risks with some of those guys so that you also have the game changers & play makers you need. I'll go to war with a team like that every time against a team made up of all 4*/5* guys because that bluechip team is going to have a number of players who feel entitled, a bunch more who are out for their individual goals over the team goals, and a group that has fragile chemistry.

But when you find those 4*/5* guys who fit your system and culture, have them interested enough to name you among their leaders (or the leader), and then you're unable to close... it's a disappointment and it hurts. There aren't a lot of those guys available.
 
I see a lot of rationalizing going on here. The bottom line is that there's no excuse for us to have lost Thurston. None. I don't care what anybody says. That kid should be a Buff. Plain and simple.
 
I see a lot of rationalizing going on here. The bottom line is that there's no excuse for us to have lost Thurston. None. I don't care what anybody says. That kid should be a Buff. Plain and simple.

But Thurston wants to study Journalism, we don't have school of Journalism anymore at CU. Evan Baylis is the big loss amongh instate recruits, but it is not over, we can still flip him.
 
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But Thurston wants to study Journalism, we don't have school of Journalism anymore at CU. Evan Baylis is the big loss amongh instate recruits, but it is not over, we can still flip him.

We still have a journalism major. I'm still annoyed at CU for getting rid of the school, but the major is still there. Embree and whoever is recruiting Thurston need to tell him about this. Is Fowler allowed to meet him during a trip?

I think this recruiting season is going okay, but this week was very annoying. I'm still not closing the book on Callahan or Thurston, but things are still disappointing. The staff was supposed to be all-star recruiters, and simply put, they aren't living up to the billing. Are there reasons for this, sure. But the entire notion of the staff pulling in big time recruiting classes seems to have been premature at this point.
 
We still have a journalism major. I'm still annoyed at CU for getting rid of the school, but the major is still there. Embree and whoever is recruiting Thurston need to tell him about this. Is Fowler allowed to meet him during a trip?

I think this recruiting season is going okay, but this week was very annoying. I'm still not closing the book on Callahan or Thurston, but things are still disappointing. The staff was supposed to be all-star recruiters, and simply put, they aren't living up to the billing. Are there reasons for this, sure. But the entire notion of the staff pulling in big time recruiting classes seems to have been premature at this point.

I guess recruiting Colorado is important to folks here, alot of disapointment on this board. I undertand where you are coming from, but there are a lot of good OL prospects in 2012, the OL position is deep.
 
I guess recruiting Colorado is important to folks here, alot of disapointment on this board. I undertand where you are coming from, but there are a lot of good OL prospects in 2012, the OL position is deep.

:facepalm:
 
I think guys are jumping the gun a little here. this staff only had 3 commits when it took over for hawkins and they flipped a bunch of kids and got a fairly good looking class so i think people need to relax. These are 18 yr old kids they can not sign untill feb. kids change there minds.
 
I was under the impression Embree and EB strong suit is recruiting. This is a big blow to that theory.


On the fence on how big of a blow this is. Its going to take time to rebuild the program but its going to be tougher if you can't land the top players from Colorado. Hell even dumbass Hawk got Ryan Miller.
 
I was under the impression Embree and EB strong suit is recruiting. This is a big blow to that theory.


On the fence on how big of a blow this is. Its going to take time to rebuild the program but its going to be tougher if you can't land the top players from Colorado. Hell even dumbass Hawk got Ryan Miller.

You have to go through the course work, take the final examination before you get a grade. Can't pass out final grades at the begining of the semister. Too early, lets wait untill Febuary 2012 signing day before we give out final grades.
 
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I was under the impression Embree and EB strong suit is recruiting. This is a big blow to that theory.


On the fence on how big of a blow this is. Its going to take time to rebuild the program but its going to be tougher if you can't land the top players from Colorado. Hell even dumbass Hawk got Ryan Miller.

This is what makes fans look bad. The guy hasn't coached a game yet, we haven't had a winning season in almost 6 years, we have media who puts the program down and you just expect a good in-state kid to commit automatically? It's a blow, but to say it blows the theory that Embree and EB are great recruiters is very premature. People just need to relax.
 
This is what makes fans look bad. The guy hasn't coached a game yet, we haven't had a winning season in almost 6 years, we have media who puts the program down and you just expect a good in-state kid to commit automatically? It's a blow, but to say it blows the theory that Embree and EB are great recruiters is very premature. People just need to relax.


Stop blaming the media. They have had nothing to do with the ineptitude of CU football the past 6 years.

Agree with the other stuff to an extent
 
Stop blaming the media. They have had nothing to do with the ineptitude of CU football the past 6 years.

Agree with the other stuff to an extent
You can blame the media when even something good happened they had a negative article.
 
Stop blaming the media. They have had nothing to do with the ineptitude of CU football the past 6 years.

Agree with the other stuff to an extent


They switched the pledge of a 4 star WR from us to Oregon a couple years ago for doing a bad article on us. Ya, Media does not win or lose games for us, but it does hurt the program when they write bad stuff on us and potential prospects see that. And Jackson isn't the only one that has been swayed by the media. I HATE HATE HATE the Denver sportswriters!
 
If you believe Embree and Bienemy are what most of us think they are, then you need to sit back and let recruiting take care of itself. Back when Mac was getting started, John Regal used to say "the first step is to get into their (4/5 stars) homes." I don't follow recruiting that much, but it looks like we are at least getting some serious attention. It'll take time. Also, no one has signed a LOI yet. Don't give up.
 
How many top instate recruits did Mac get his first year? I know they didn't quite have the ratings out just yet, but who were the CO guys signed that year? He had to rebuild too after the Fairbanks era.
 
Agreed. How can we expect Embree to sign anyone worthwhile, even in state kids, with them not being sure if Embree is actually going to field an American football team vs Hawaii. I mean, there's just so much unknown about this entire thing. Do we execute the forward pass? I figure we should wait until all 4*s are committed elsewhere, then start recruiting the under the radar types.

Even a top 75 class seems like you're pushing it, though. We had Hawk, he burned this thing to the ground. It'll be 10 years before the talent level is where Embree wants it to be.

So I am wondering if White Rabbit misssed BB's sarcasm font, or if I missed White Rabbit's sarcasm font?
 
Bieniemy and Embree haven't recruited in around 5 years. McGhee has never recruited at the DI level before. I wonder why we're off to a slow start....
 
Bieniemy and Embree haven't recruited in around 5 years. McGhee has never recruited at the DI level before. I wonder why we're off to a slow start....

I think this has much to do with it, plus some unrealistic expectations among some of the faithful. I am not bashing Embree at all but there's a reason that SI game the hire a D. Many of us feel like he is the right person for the future of the program but the perception outside the B&G is that he's a stretch. You know that other coaches are going to use that in recruiting.

Bottom line, I do not have high expectations for recruiting until the coaching staff proves their worth on the field.
 
Bieniemy and Embree haven't recruited in around 5 years. McGhee has never recruited at the DI level before. I wonder why we're off to a slow start....

We haven't had a winning season in 6 years.

I laugh how everybody thinks the sky is falling. When is the last time we've had this many commits this early with the addition of a blue chip QB? Ya we've lost some in-state talent, but it's still early with a lot of talent still out there. I think they are doing a good job right now and we are gonna have to see more production on the field before we see any dramatic changes in recruiting.
 
Define "slow".

My definition of slow is like last year when we had what 1 commit by this time, and like no interest from any legit BCS quality players. I see a completely different story this year. Our program is not gonna be fixed overnight with recruiting and on-field performance, and fans are gonna have to accept that, but this years recruiting is off to a fast start compared to the last couple years IMO.
 
All this stuff about having five recruits and a 4* QB is window dressing. It's a distraction from the real issue here. I could put up with losing a guy here or there - that happens. It's part of the game. But there are some players you simply must land. Thurston is one of those players. Losing him is the cause of my concern. I've said it before and I'll say it again - you don't go from being "in the lead" to not even being mentioned in the top three in a span of four months without something happening. Somebody screwed up, big time. Whether we stopped recruiting him, thinking he was already commited, or whether we told him we were going in a different direction and didn't want him, or whether our sales pitch just sucked to high heaven, I don't know. Whatever it was, we need to figure it out and correct the problem. Then we need to be calling the Thurston household and doing everything we can to flip him.
 
All this stuff about having five recruits and a 4* QB is window dressing. It's a distraction from the real issue here. I could put up with losing a guy here or there - that happens. It's part of the game. But there are some players you simply must land. Thurston is one of those players. Losing him is the cause of my concern. I've said it before and I'll say it again - you don't go from being "in the lead" to not even being mentioned in the top three in a span of four months without something happening. Somebody screwed up, big time. Whether we stopped recruiting him, thinking he was already commited, or whether we told him we were going in a different direction and didn't want him, or whether our sales pitch just sucked to high heaven, I don't know. Whatever it was, we need to figure it out and correct the problem. Then we need to be calling the Thurston household and doing everything we can to flip him.

Some people just dont want to stay close to home, some people want to play for an instant national title contender. It's June Sackman, chill the **** out! Bryce Givens was a Colorado kid that verbaled to Nebraska early, but he ended up here (ok that was because the ship sailed in Lincoln and I don't see that happening now), anyway, you are too worked up about a 17 year old kid making a college decision. This staff has been in place for half a year with no games played yet.
 
Some people just dont want to stay close to home, some people want to play for an instant national title contender. It's June Sackman, chill the **** out! Bryce Givens was a Colorado kid that verbaled to Nebraska early, but he ended up here (ok that was because the ship sailed in Lincoln and I don't see that happening now), anyway, you are too worked up about a 17 year old kid making a college decision. This staff has been in place for half a year with no games played yet.

If he didn't want to stay close to home, then why was CU "in the lead" in February? I wouldn't freak out over a kid just deciding to go someplace else. Callahan is going to Auburn. I'm disappointed, but I'm not freaking out. Especially with Mullen kids, you never know what they're going to do. Thurston is a completely different story. I'm admitedly "freaking out" because this is a huge red flag for me.

Remember when Hawk came in and made Cox the starter over White? We were all like "Well, that's weird, but he's a coaching genius, right? I guess he knows what he's doing." Well, one side effect of the Hawk years for me is that when I see something that ain't right, I am not giving the staff the benefit of the doubt. They haven't earned the benefit of the doubt.
 
If he didn't want to stay close to home, then why was CU "in the lead" in February? I wouldn't freak out over a kid just deciding to go someplace else. Callahan is going to Auburn. I'm disappointed, but I'm not freaking out. Especially with Mullen kids, you never know what they're going to do. Thurston is a completely different story. I'm admitedly "freaking out" because this is a huge red flag for me.

Remember when Hawk came in and made Cox the starter over White? We were all like "Well, that's weird, but he's a coaching genius, right? I guess he knows what he's doing." Well, one side effect of the Hawk years for me is that when I see something that ain't right, I am not giving the staff the benefit of the doubt. They haven't earned the benefit of the doubt.

Here is why I am not worried, maybe you should ponder this...
Hawk did a good job of getting instate guys. How did that work out for him? Assuming the worst case that all of the in state guys committed to OOS programs stay that way, it is still not a determinative fact. Until this class looks absolutely ****ed, there is no reason to react strongly.

Another general rule: Never react strongly to recruiting in June. Life is too short, and kids are crazy.
 
Here is why I am not worried, maybe you should ponder this...
Hawk did a good job of getting instate guys. How did that work out for him? Assuming the worst case that all of the in state guys committed to OOS programs stay that way, it is still not a determinative fact. Until this class looks absolutely ****ed, there is no reason to react strongly.

Another general rule: Never react strongly to recruiting in June. Life is too short, and kids are crazy.


Hawk and staff couldn't coach. Bad example.
 
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