Overall thoughts, grade for this years class

[Reliable Source]

1) Thought it was extremely solid while addressing key needs on the lines, CB and RB.

 

2) Loved the steals from Southern Florida. Everyone recruits down there. Few are successful. We are building great new relationships in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade. Will only bode well in the future. May even come into play if some guys want to leave after sanctions are levied.

 

3) Despite the losses with Prima Donnas and a solid player in Orlando we closed strong there with McCray and Childs.

 

4) Starting to really cultivate local talent and building school by school relationships. I feel that we are really starting to build a wall for the first time ever. Love the emphasis on local relationships with Scott and Tags.

 

Not to sugarcoat it, we could have had some bigger scores at the end, but we had so many great flips before that, I think we got a little spoiled. Tags pulled all this out on the fly, half of it w/o assts. This is gonna be fun I think.

[GaUSFBull]

What's your grade, Bill?  

 

Based on all the needs we filled, I'd go with a solid B+.  

[Ruger7mmmag]

For a transition year?  A. 

 

To keep it an A next year, we'll need to improve though, but I have full faith we will.  People can't underestimate how big a factor it is when the head coaches at these highschools LIKE your head coach.  CJL had local ties and did pretty well, but he didn't have what Taggart has now and Skip wasn't even on the same planet.  These kids don't care about your last name, they are looking for someone they can bond with/trust/learn from.  Taggart fits the bill so I expect big things on the recruiting front next year.

 

I just left a high profile meeting here in Mobile, AL and when they asked me who I rooted for when they knew I wasn't from here and said USF, the first thing the two Bama fans said was...You got Taggart from WKU right?  That guy was a beast.  Really gave us a run for our money.  That guy should kill it down in Tampa if he could do what he did at Western Kentucky against the team we had this year...

 

How about that?  When fans of the national champs know your coach and think it was a homerun, that tells you something.

 

PS-I'd have liked to have a second QB, but when I consider our conference situation and our record this past year with a transition?  Expecting two get two GOOD QBs would've taken a miracle in my opinion. 

Edited February 6, 2013 by Ruger7mmmag

[SRQ]

B seems right to me due to lack of second qb.  great start!

[charsibb]

This is kind of a hybrid class.

All were initially contacted by Skip's staff, some committed to Skip and some to Tags, and Tags even ran off a few of Skip's commits.

Compared to what this class would have looked like had Tags not turned it around, I'll give it an A+

Compared to what next year's class better look like, I'll give is an A-

Edited February 6, 2013 by charsibb

[nobull.Bulls]

B

Kinda bummed we didn't pull at least Coley or Valdes today, but still a pretty solid class. Hope to hear of a transfer or two in the offseason

[Bulls On Parade]

Considering the past season we had and a new coach I would give it a A.  If we can have a decent year this year and get atleast 6 wins and show improvement 

then next years class could be our best ever.  If he has an awesome year and we get like 8 or more wins which will be very hard, but if that happened

no doubt we have a top 25 class next year.

[J-Pop]

B

...kirkland would have been huge

[Flowers4Heisman]

I give it an A+

 

Why? I never expected USF to grow something it never had and took the boot to Holtz the Program Destroyer. In an alternate universe Holtz would still be coaching at USF and we'd be all pretty miserable right about now.

 

Given that possibility, this is an A+. The miracle continues (the miracle in that we have a new coaching staff and we actually had fun as fans following recruiting).

 

GO BULLS!

[TallyBull]

I give it a B+ overall, which I think is amazing all things considered (conference and HC change issues, losing record last year, etc.) I'm very happy about the number of recruits from the Tampa Bay area. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall seeing so many in any particular class. This is what I THOUGHT CSH was going to accomplish, but never did. Taggart has a clear advantage with local recruits, having been one himself. Anywayas, it's good to build those relationships. We got a few blue chippers this year but I expect the number of blue chippers from local schools to increase over the next few years. Not too upset about Travis Johnson leaving. I understand it if a kid wants to leave home. We shouldn't presume local talent will ALWAYS want to stay, or play for USF over more traditional schools like UF and FSU. We just need to try to get our share of them, and I think this year was a good start. GO BULLS! \m/