Recruiting Analysis

[WestSideRabbit]

I know some of you are skeptical about our recruits and choose to take a "wait and see" approach. I think you have good reason to be. I went back and looked at the past few years. It is somewhat startling all of the misses we have had and we are still one of the best FCS teams.

[NWHSUandSDSU]

Re: Recruiting Analysis

JT Nettleton never signed, I believe he grey-shirted at UNLV and last known to be at Mesa CC and was teammates with shakial Taylor

[Nidaros]

Re: Recruiting Analysis

I know some of you are skeptical about our recruits and choose to take a "wait and see" approach. I think you have good reason to be. I went back and looked at the past few years. It is somewhat startling all of the misses we have had and we are still one of the best FCS teams.

This is another excellent utilization of your parental leave, and it shows that we loose a bunch of guys every year. The first year I was able to follow SDSU Football closely was 1986 when I moved to Nebraska, not wanting to waste my time trying to get Cornhusker tickets, I just jumped in the car and headed to Brookings. What I noticed about the 1986 roster was there was only eight or nine seniors. What happen to the rest of them? Your chart tells me that we still have tons of turnover for tons of reasons. I would say that 99% of those departures are often due to injuries and changing interests of that individual. They no longer have the passion to go out and get their bones crushed by some big dude across the line.
I think it takes passion to stay with the program four years, often getting limited playing time. The game is changing and so is the roster. We no longer have players playing offense and defense both as we had in Ralph Ginn era, its an age of specialization.

[bigticket1]

Re: Recruiting Analysis

There is no doubt that this chart shows a lot of attrition in the last few classes. But if other schools would be looked at, I believe you would find a lot of the same situations. Injuries, academics and just finding out that many don't have the talent or commitment to play football at this level eats into most schools recruiting classes. It would bother me more if we were losing a large number of players because they are "bad" people, but I don't think that is the case.

[Nidaros]

Re: Recruiting Analysis

There is no doubt that this chart shows a lot of attrition in the last few classes. But if other schools would be looked at, I believe you would find a lot of the same situations. Injuries, academics and just finding out that many don't have the talent or commitment to play football at this level eats into most schools recruiting classes. It would bother me more if we were losing a large number of players because they are "bad" people, but I don't think that is the case.

This is what I was trying say. Rep pts given. The bad people, you can count on your fingers, thanks to good judgement on coaching staff over the years.

[WestSideRabbit]

Re: Recruiting Analysis

There is no doubt that this chart shows a lot of attrition in the last few classes. But if other schools would be looked at, I believe you would find a lot of the same situations. Injuries, academics and just finding out that many don't have the talent or commitment to play football at this level eats into most schools recruiting classes. It would bother me more if we were losing a large number of players because they are "bad" people, but I don't think that is the case.

Absolutely! I didn't create this list to disparage anyone. It was more to highlight how well we have done with the players we have hit on. There are a lot of names on this list that we were all excited about who never played a down for us. From what I can see the PWO route is a long shot but we have also found some great Jackrabbits.

This was more just for information then argument. I love the players we have. They represent the program well both on and off the field AND in the classroom.

[GopherHole]

Re: Recruiting Analysis

I was looking at this year's senior class and found it interesting where they stood as recruits.

- 15 Seniors on current roster
- 13 were on the roster in the fall of 2013
- 2 were transfers (Anthony Washington, Thomas Hopp both joined in 2016)
- 6 were offered scholarships as part of the 2013 signing day class (Dalton Douglas, Jake Wieneke, Nick Farina, Mason Leiseth, Jacob Ohnesorge, and Charlie Harmon)
- 2 were 2013 signing day walkons (Kane Louscher, Brady Mengarelli)
- 5 were on the 2013 roster during the season, but were not part of the group that signed on signing day (Chris Balster, Caleb Lang, Dallas Goedert, Jacob Menage, and Kellen Soulek) (Soulek committed to the Jacks on signing day but was not part of the class as reported on GoJacks.com)

That last group of five is what impresses and puzzles me. All five have played a big role in our success with two of them being absolute elite players for the Jackrabbits. The coaches obviously didn't quit recruiting after signing day and our team would not have experienced the success we have without those five. When you compare that group to those that received scholarships on signing day, it proves the point that signing high school seniors to scholarships is important but not the end all. We only have four seniors who return as starters that received scholarships as freshmen on signing day.

This year's senior class has ten returning starters. (I've included Louscher as starting fullback.) Of those ten, only four were scholarship players their freshmen year. Five were walkons/late signees and Anthony Washington is the only JUCO/transfer.

So is recruiting as important as the media attention it receives? Debatable. While we only still have four starters that received scholarships as freshmen recruits from that 2013 class (Cole Langer and Jesse Bobbit were part of the class but have graduated), it ultimately produced 11 starters, a valuable backup QB, and depth at other positions. I'd argue that class was very successful!

I'd like to thank Westside for creating this thread as following recruiting is something I really enjoy. Congrats on the new baby!

[Nidaros]

Re: Recruiting Analysis

Absolutely! I didn't create this list to disparage anyone. It was more to highlight how well we have done with the players we have hit on. There are a lot of names on this list that we were all excited about who never played a down for us. From what I can see the PWO route is a long shot but we have also found some great Jackrabbits.

This was more just for information then argument. I love the players we have. They represent the program well both on and off the field AND in the classroom.

I am anything but disparaged. Your point is well taken. Most of our past athletes are indeed model citizens. I recall riding in a golf cart with Erik Eideness, a few years back at an outing in Volga. I had several questions about recruiting. There was a running back from UND that I asked him about and was told that during a home visit, they spotted all sorts of bad signals, so that tells me that Coach Stig does a lot of looking around the house during those home visits and when negatives are found they move on. That is why I said we can count the bad apples on our fingers.