One Whole Recruiting Class Lost!!

[Orlando Bull]

The great and powerful Alabama has done this in the past...see Ford, Mike.

If there is a player that you think can help your team, and you can't convince a better player to come here, you take a risk. It's as simple as that. Everyone does this.

The better recruiting schools have their choice of 4-5 guys for each slot, so they may not do it as much since they have the option to weed out the more "risky" guys. However, you're going back to 2005 when we absolutely had to take a risk if we wanted to BUILD a BCS program that could compete.

I think the bigger statement is that there have been very few casualties once on campus. Guys that don't make it are not an issue IMHO, it's the guys that find themselves ineligible once here that are a problem. CJL did a good job keeping his guys eligible once they got here. At one point, our graduation rate was one of the highest in the country.

In any event, again, it's a tough spot. You want to compete at the BCS level, CJL was caught between a rock (inferior but smart athletes) and a hard place (more risky, but bigger upside athletes).

OK, move on to the next reason to ***** about the coach that built the program instead of moving forward with the new coach...

[bulldozier1]

You're right. CJL would have been fired years ago. Thanks to the high risk players he recruited. To bad he stopped developing talent like he use to. 23 players that didn't make is a lot. Was it Jim who was pissed off at the commitee for not allowing some players through last year?

[Who'sYourData?]

It appears early on that the Skip Holtz approach will be different.  He seems to be going after somewhat safer recruits.  Easier to do now that we are gaining a reputation and can start getting some of the better talent.  But it will only work if we can keep winning, thus getting solid recruits.

[SANJAY]

It appears early on that the Skip Holtz approach will be different.  He seems to be going after somewhat safer recruits.  Easier to do now that we are gaining a reputation and can start getting some of the better talent.  But it will only work if we can keep winning, thus getting solid recruits.

I don't know about that.  So far he's shown that he doesn't want to take on other people's headaches/projects (Both Bellamys, Carnes, Rose).  We will know better next season how many chances he takes.  I think he will have to take a few every year.

[bulldozier1]

With Carnes, was he a risk? Or Coach Holtz saw more in Gunsby like UF and other schools did.

[dabull80]

Really hard to have much of a feel for Holtz and how he is going to recruit.  We know he screwed up once already - anytime you make the newspaper/bloggs for dropping a player's scholly and having the HS coach burn you in public it is a mistake.  I don't think anyone knows yet how he will do but we all hope for the best.  

Will he properly re-evaluate the level of talent he needes to win the BE vs C-USA ?

A blessing in diguise may be the fact that he really didn't have to get many players for this class and has a year in the BE to see what he feels is really needed.

[Bull Dozer]

With Carnes, was he a risk? Or Coach Holtz saw more in Gunsby like UF and other schools did.

UF saw Gunsby as an athlete that would be playing somewhere besides QB.......

[Guest Scherdin]

Really hard to have much of a feel for Holtz and how he is going to recruit.  We know he screwed up once already - anytime you make the newspaper/bloggs for dropping a player's scholly and having the HS coach burn you in public it is a mistake.  I don't think anyone knows yet how he will do but we all hope for the best.  

Will he properly re-evaluate the level of talent he needes to win the BE vs C-USA ?

A blessing in diguise may be the fact that he really didn't have to get many players for this class and has a year in the BE to see what he feels is really needed.

There are players that get schollies pulled all the time all over the country.  As someone posted ealier, there were some big names and big schools that dropped some 4 and 5 star players.  Are those players or high school coaches making threats at the likes of UF, Auburn and others heck no.  Holtz is trying to set USF as a legitimate program, one that doesn't allow recruits or high school coaches to jerk the program around.  He wants kids to come here with a purpose, be part of a winning program, to graduate and then go on to better things (maybe playing on Sunday's or something else).

JL had to do what he had to with some of these kids, and it worked (since we are looking at 6 new possible NFL players) but for only so long.  Now that Holtz is here and we are scoring some good recruits, I think our reputation will only get better.  Winning and the right attitude can bring a lot of intangibles to a program.

[PingBull]

With Carnes, was he a risk? Or Coach Holtz saw more in Gunsby like UF and other schools did.

UF saw Gunsby as an athlete that would be playing somewhere besides QB.......

according to Greg Auman, that statement is not correct...

Recruiting: QB Gunsby officially commits to USF

He'd told us three days ago he intended to commit on his official visit, so it's no surprise that Jamius "Jay" Gunsby, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound quarterback from LaGrange, Ga., told USF coaches he will be signing with the Bulls on Wednesday.

"The coaches were so warm, made you feel welcome there," Gunsby said. "I felt like this was the place I needed to be. It was my kind of environment. I'm very excited."

More on Gunsby -- his high school coach, Steve Pardue, says Florida recruited Gunsby "really heavy" and as a quarterback -- "nobody has looked at him as anything other than a quarterback," he said.

If you're counting, Sunday's commitments from Gunsby and safety Reshard Cliett give USF 13 commitments by my count, in addition to the four players who enrolled for spring classes. A few more notes ...

-- One that got away from USF was Gainesville cornerback Devont'a Davis, whose visit was cut short by a family emergency, forcing him to leave Saturday morning, according to Gainesville coach Ryan Smith. Davis will stick to his commitment to Miami, Smith said.

-- Frostproof cornerback Nickell Robey, who visited USF during the week, then Southern Cal this weekend, will choose between USC, USF and West Virginia, his high school coach Brad Metheny said Sunday.

-- Miami Northwestern defensive tackle Todd Chandler, who visited this weekend, updated his cell-phone voice mail to let reporters know he isn't giving any interviews until Wednesday. He says "my recruiting process is over" and he'll choose Wednesday between USF, Louisville, Syracuse and Colorado State.

-- USF might be back to Thomasville often in the next year, trying to get in the mix for Thomas County junior defensive end Ray Drew, who already has an offer from the Bulls, along with SEC powers like Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

-- The Times' Keith Niebuhr talked with Plant safety Eric Dungy (yes, Tony's son) who is still considering USF among five final schools after a weekend trip to Oregon.

-- There's hope for your Wednesday office productivity after all -- Skip Holtz's signing day news conference won't be until 5:30 p.m., but yes, we'll have updates here throughout the day ...

http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/2010/01/recruiting-qb-gunsby-officially-commits-to-usf.html#comments

[Bullpride08]

yeah and HS coaches never lie. : 

Please, there's still question whether the kid had a UF offer, let alone his ability to play QB.  UF has 26 commits and are waiting on 4 four and five star studs...

next some of you delusional fellows will tell us we stole him from UF.

The fact is he had some UF interest as an athlete.  An insider at UF has made it very clear they considered him as a TE nothing more. 

A nice pick-up of a jumbo athlete that can probably fill-in at a number of positions and be successful, but don't make him into a true blue QB.  There were delusional folks on this board a year ago crowning Isaac Virgin too as the next Culpepper. :  He'll start his career behind center but I'd bet he never finishes his USF career there.