How about that Spartan recruiting strategy huh?

[Dawg-gone-dawgs]

Nm

[Big4Dawg]

Agreed. Stars matter.

@DanWolken: This is a pretty familiar fate for teams that “develop three-stars into five-stars” in championship-level games.

[MarketingBully]

Stars matter and when our basketball and baseball programs get to the Final Four and win a CWS respectively maybe we will get it in football.

[Taog Redloh]

Agreed. Stars matter.

@DanWolken: This is a pretty familiar fate for teams that ?develop three-stars into five-stars? in championship-level games.
Yep. The only way around it is to get a guy like Cam Newton. A 'great' guy like Dak won't cut it. Has to be an elite guy, and 9 times out of 10 it has to be a dual threat QB.

I hope Watson and Clemson can pull it off.

[maroonmania]

Exactly, programs with mostly 5 star talent that develop players routinely beat programs with mostly 3 star talent that develop players.

[GreenheadDawg]

The developmental/redshirt program has taken us as far as it can. To get to the next level you have to have elite talent and I just don't think we will ever get to that point with our current recruiting strategy

[MarketingBully]

The developmental/redshirt program has taken us as far as it can. To get to the next level you have to have elite talent and I just don't think we will ever get to that point with our current recruiting strategy

I think we get to a Final Four and win a CWS before we win the SEC in football. We have elite coaches in basketball and baseball that are also elite recruiters. After this year, which I think we split, Howland will own Andy Kennedy like Stans did. Stars and recruiting matter.

[ShotgunDawg]

SB Nation Recruiting ‏@SBNRecruiting 5m5 minutes ago
50% 4/5-star recruits is the standard for a national title. Clemson is close at 47%. Bama at 78%. Oklahoma and Michigan State NOT close.

[OurState]

Yep. The only way around it is to get a guy like Cam Newton. A 'great' guy like Dak won't cut it. Has to be an elite guy, and 9 times out of 10 it has to be a dual threat QB.

I hope Watson and Clemson can pull it off.

Don't be a halfwit.

The problem wasn't Dak. It was the lack of talent around Dak.

[Taog Redloh]

Don't be a halfwit.

The problem wasn't Dak. It was the lack of talent around Dak.
dont be a quarter wit. That's not what I said. Had nothing to do with MSU (MS version)

[Coach34]

The SEC is a LOS league. Until our offensive line can block the top DL's in the SEC- it doesn't matter what we have anywhere else. We have lagged badly there

Our DL was controlling Bama- but they weren't getting a break from our offense. No
monentum to get hyped from. We have been close on the DL- but our OL talent has to get better to have a chance

[MarketingBully]

The SEC is a LOS league. Until our offensive line can block the top DL's in the SEC- it doesn't matter what we have anywhere else. We have lagged badly there

Our DL was controlling Bama- but they weren't getting a break from our offense. No
monentum to get hyped from. We have been close on the DL- but our OL talent has to get better to have a chance

Next year we start Rankin at one of the tackles. We will get Lashley. We no longer have a converted TE starting at LT. We will actually have a decent OL next year. Williams and Lee will be good. Next year's offense will be explosive. I hope Staley wins the job in the spring as he has the most potential IMO to make this offense the best we have ever seen under Mullen.

[Todd4State]

The SEC is a LOS league. Until our offensive line can block the top DL's in the SEC- it doesn't matter what we have anywhere else. We have lagged badly there

Our DL was controlling Bama- but they weren't getting a break from our offense. No
monentum to get hyped from. We have been close on the DL- but our OL talent has to get better to have a chance

The offensive line is the biggest thing we must improve as a program to go to the next level. If Jackie can get o-linemen to MSU, then Dan can do it too.

[PendingTransaction]

I'll be the first to say that our coaching has left a good bit on the table. But our SEC record over the last few years corresponds with our talent.

[Todd4State]

Next year we start Rankin at one of the tackles. We will get Lashley. We no longer have a converted TE starting at LT. We will actually have a decent OL next year. Williams and Lee will be good. Next year's offense will be explosive. I hope Staley wins the job in the spring as he has the most potential IMO to make this offense the best we have ever seen under Mullen.


We still are going to need even more than that. We at a minimum four 4 star guys on the o-line a year.

[msstate7]

2013 -- big 10 champs, rose bowl win
2014 -- cotton bowl win
2015 -- big 10 champs, playoff appearance

I'd say it's working well

[ShotgunDawg]

‏@max_olson
When Alabama sent their No. 2 offense into the game tonight, 8 former ESPN 300 recruits took the field. For real.

Serious question: does anyone know how to any of these guys to come play for us?

[msstate7]

‏@max_olson
When Alabama sent their No. 2 offense into the game tonight, 8 former ESPN 300 recruits took the field. For real.

Serious question: does anyone know how to any of these guys to come play for us?

Hire Saban or Meyer

[Coach34]

Next year we start Rankin at one of the tackles. We will get Lashley. We no longer have a converted TE starting at LT. We will actually have a decent OL next year. Williams and Lee will be good. Next year's offense will be explosive. I hope Staley wins the job in the spring as he has the most potential IMO to make this offense the best we have ever seen under Mullen.

Lashley is going to RS. Rankin is going to have to beat out Jenkins. He couldn't do it in August- we'll see what happens this Spring.

[ShotgunDawg]

Darren Rovell ‏@darrenrovell 31 Dec 2015
4 & 5 star recruits on current roster: Alabama (66), Clemson (37), Oklahoma (29), Michigan State (20)

Stop complaining about play calling, about who Mullen plays, & about why our DBs give the WR cushion.

Worry about what matters

[msstate7]

Darren Rovell ‏@darrenrovell 31 Dec 2015
4 & 5 star recruits on current roster: Alabama (66), Clemson (37), Oklahoma (29), Michigan State (20)

So bama has 19 3*'s (most likely)... It'd be interesting to know how many actually play

[cheewgumm]

Jimmys and Joes.

No more " we find 3 stars and turn them into 5 stars" bs.

[confucius say]

The SEC is a LOS league. Until our offensive line can block the top DL's in the SEC- it doesn't matter what we have anywhere else. We have lagged badly there

Our DL was controlling Bama- but they weren't getting a break from our offense. No
monentum to get hyped from. We have been close on the DL- but our OL talent has to get better to have a chance

Absolutely correct

[OurState]

‏@max_olson
When Alabama sent their No. 2 offense into the game tonight, 8 former ESPN 300 recruits took the field. For real.

Serious question: does anyone know how to any of these guys to come play for us?

$ell them on: the beauty of the campu$, the quality of the $staff and the quality of the faciliti$.

[engie]

News flash: We're not signing 70 4 and 5 star players -- and turning down hundreds of other 4 and 5 star players to do it...

We can definitely recruit better -- but our fanbase has gone full retard on some of this stuff.

[msstate7]

News flash: We're not signing 70 4 and 5 star players -- and turning down hundreds of other 4 and 5 star players to do it...

We can definitely recruit better -- but our fanbase has gone full retard on some of this stuff.

The only thing holding us back from recruiting like bama is mullen's laziness, hev, and bracky***

[sleepy dawg]

Nm

It's like I was saying yesterday, it's a really good system, and it can get you far, but it's not the best system. You'll be able to beat most teams with this system, and beat a few teams you probably shouldn't have, but you won't be able to constantly beat Alabama and teams like them (although there aren't many like them).

Teams that have super elite talent and coaching just can't be beat consistently, but there's also very very few teams that can do what Bama does consistently. College football is more like MLB than it is the NFL. It is not a level playing field. Some teams just have more resources than others. It's easy to say teams like us and Mich. State can spend what Bama spends, but then they'll just double that again if you try. You can either try to be Bama, which is almost impossible, or you can try to think of the game in a different way and beat them that way (also extremely difficult). That's what teams like Mich. State and Mullen are trying to do.

[DanDority]

News flash: We're not signing 70 4 and 5 star players -- and turning down hundreds of other 4 and 5 star players to do it...

We can definitely recruit better -- but our fanbase has gone full retard on some of this stuff.

THANK YOU!

[cheewgumm]

Know your role Dawg fans. Be happy with 4th or 5th on the West.

No reason to expect more.

[RougeDawg]

The developmental/redshirt program has taken us as far as it can. To get to the next level you have to have elite talent and I just don't think we will ever get to that point with our current recruiting strategy

I'll say it here, as I have in every other recruiting thread, we will not consistently recruit top talent as long as Mullen applies his "developmental" strategy to them as he does the 3 and under star guys. Chris Jones had training wheels his entire freshman season while Kinchee was turned loose rom snap 1. Our best safety this season, Bryant, only got to see significant PT due to injuries. These two and many others including Dear, Peters, Lewis, etc. are why elite players a rarely look for us. They see us babying them to PT or needing an injury ahead of them to play meaningful snaps, even if they are the better player. They see teams like Bama getting their more talented freshman PT early and often from game 1 than we do.

As shotgun said in other threads, that we played more freshman than most every other SEC team. But he fails to mention that most weren't playing significant time or snaps early in the year and only had the opportunity due to injuries to upperclassmen.

Until we start "walking the walk" Sept-Dec with playing these guys when it counts, we can "talk the talk" year round recruiting and nobody will take us seriously.

And if our scheme is more complicated than Bama and the other top programs, and these top talent guys cannot grasp it until late October of their freshman years, then that is also on our coaches.

Bottom line is this...... In order to sign improved talent, you have to to show the Highsxhool guys that they will get to play game 1 of freshman year and not be a 1B or #2 even though they are the most talented player. If I were a 5* player I would have taken very keen notice to the way Chris Jones was babied along and said I'm not going there, I'm going to one of the other West teams where I can display my talents Labor Day weekend.

This is the next step that our coaches and hard headed HC have to take in order to upgrade town overall talent. Stop playing favorites to upperclassmen and play to win, on the field and recruiting trail.

ETA iPhones suck on the mobile version typing!!!!!

[BB30]

Chris played a good bit his freshman year and his stats were comparable to Kim he also wasn't nearly as polished as Kim was coming out. Not every program plays 5* players their freshman year. The jump from Houston high to the sec is ridiculous. Very few kids come to the sec ready to contribute a lot immediately. You have to be very special to make a big impact as a freshman. Not saying it doesn't happen but you don't see it very often. Playing time is not the reason we aren't landing more 5*s.

[Dawg-gone-dawgs]

The SEC is a LOS league.....

THIS^^

[HoopsDawg]

News flash: We're not signing 70 4 and 5 star players -- and turning down hundreds of other 4 and 5 star players to do it...

.

We don't have to, but we need to start signing 8 or 9 4 star players per year to really have a shot at winning the West.

[GreenheadDawg]

I've just come to terms with the fact that we are a middle of the pack SEC team and a bottom SEC west team and will continue to be there. It is what it is. But hey, we used to lose to Maine. Right Liverpool? **