Late but Great WR pickups

[Reason2succeed]

I don't know if any of these guys can come in and compete for playing time this year but I am impressed with the late work that our coaches have done with the X receiver. Bear's decision to go pro and Fred Brown's dismissal from the football team hurt us badly. When we missed on those receivers on signing day I thought we were sunk. Fast forward and we have picked up two quality receivers recently that should be able to develop.

Personally, I like the speed and fluid play of Reggie Todd. I think a guy at 6'5 with athleticism like his is actually a really good get especially at the last minute. He has more wiggle than Bear. With Coach Brewer working with him and his basketball skill set I think that he could see the field this year if needed.

Osirus (I love that name) Mitchell reminds me of a Bear clone. He has more weight so I hope he excels at blocking and "boxing out" like Bear did for jump balls. He seems more developed that Bear was coming out of high school.

And then let's not forget Jamal Couch who signed with us on signing day. Half of his highlights are of him absolutely blowing up DBs blocking. The other half are short screen passes which makes it seem like the offense he was in limited his production and maybe even his development in HS. Get this kid here in Mullen's offense and under billy G and we may just have a stud that other's overlooked because of the talent around him.

I admit that it sucked that we lost Bear and Fred Brown. It sucked that we came in second place with a lot of the WRs on signing day. But our coaching staff has done a great job of addressing the issue and actually getting the X receivers on campus at this late date. This is something I have never seen from our coaching staff before and I am excited about it. In the past we would have just settled.

[Westdawg]

Brewer is no longer here - hasn't been for a few years now. Billy Gonzales, who coached WRs at Florida when Mullen was OC there, is our WR coach And passing game coordinator

[louisvilledawg]

lolz

[thf24]

It definitely feels like something has changed with recruiting. Between hiring all the new recruiting specialists and getting creative to fill these positions of need late, I think there might really be something to the idea that Mullen has gotten a second wind in recruiting now that UNM is finally going to be forced to operate on a somewhat level playing field.

[Coach34]

If we could only find some OL guys now

[Jack Lambert]

It definitely feels like something has changed with recruiting. Between hiring all the new recruiting specialists and getting creative to fill these positions of need late, I think there might really be something to the idea that Mullen has gotten a second wind in recruiting now that UNM is finally going to be forced to operate on a somewhat level playing field.

And you probably don't have Ole Miss paying people to stay away from us.

[Johnson85]

If we could only find some OL guys now

Can't say anything has changed until we do. Even though we've usually had one weak link somewhere other than OL, we've recruited well enough to win at an 10 win clip everywhere but OL. Filling some glaring needs late is nice, but our ceiling for the next two years is probably already set low by inadequate OL recruiting. Can't get too excited until we fix that.

[Reason2succeed]

Brewer!? Wow! That's what happens when you wake up and post at 3:40AM. At least I acknowledged that it is Billy G at the end.

[maroonmania]

Brewer!? Wow! That's what happens when you wake up and post at 3:40AM. At least I acknowledged that it is Billy G at the end.

And were you talking Brewster? I don't know of any Coach Brewer.

[jumbo]

Todd has a shot at some PT this year. Mitchell likely redshirts

[Dawgcentral]

When Mullen arrived, he stated that he wanted a rotation of six wide receivers minimum. From what I've seen, it's a great situation for incoming recruits that want immediate playing time. One example is Dear from last year. Dude has legs like tree trunks and has deceptive speed. It just doesn't look like he's moving that fast, but he defiantly has " the quicks".

We've got multiple QB's that can get the ball to these guys. But damn,..it's always the offensive line. If we ever get the guys who can open up gaps in the middle and keep DEs off the QB in the passing game we'll stand a chance against the upper tier in the west. Looking forward to Dan letting the QB run again instead of making 3 checks downfield. Not exactly as an exclusive tactic, but it would be nice to see some Superman Relf action out there again.

[bulldawg28]

If we could only find some OL guys now

We have 3 Olineman committed.

[Reason2succeed]

It's also interesting to note that we recruited 3 HS WRs instead of going the Juco route. I know the argument of using the deep pool of JUCO players in our backyard but JUCOs are only here for two years usually and it takes them one to catch on. If just one of these guys develops into a stud down the road we're doing good. However, the fact that we just picked up 3 freshman WRs over 6'4 is amazing within itself. Put that with the other talent we have and will continue to get and our receiving core could be nasty for a while in Starkville.

[Bothrops]

Todd is gonna be a big time player for us, barring injury in his first 2 years. I've seen 4* rated receivers with less ability. He was also a top 100 basketball recruit, by espn I believe.

Mitchell needs a little more physical development, but I expect him to be pan out, if his legs and knees remain healthy.

Two very important pickups, nonetheless.

[blacklistedbully]

If we could only find some OL guys now

This all day long! We don't even need elite guys. I'd be happy with average SEC linemen. It just really sticks in my craw that we seem unable to get them on a routine basis.

We are a damn SEC team, and have shown we can actually get to #1 rankings, we can get to the Orange Bowl, etc. How on EARTH are we not able to convince enough decent O-line recruits to come here? Surely they can see how close we've come without elite talent. How utterly shitty must our O-line recruiting or Hevesey's rep be for us to have this problem?

It's really pissing me off!

[Johnson85]

We have 3 Olineman committed.

We needed 5, and we needed some that could realistically step in and be solid by next year in order to not spend the next two years limited by our OL recruiting. Short of getting a couple of good JUCO recruits ready to play immediately in 2017, or finding the rare blue chip recruit that can play as a true freshman, our ceiling is going to be limited until 2018.

[1bigdawg]

We have 3 Olineman committed.

Actually just 2. Jackson is projected as a NG. And we need 6, preferably 2 JUCO and 4 HS. We planned on signing 5 to 6 last year and ended up with 3, none of whom were very high profile guys.

Currently, there is only the top JUCO guy in the nation among the ranked OLs and he is not considering us. There may be another player in the MS JUCO ranks who turns out to be great, but it was not evident from last year's play.

We have one HS OG, Gainier. As far as I know we are his only offer. It does not take a great recruiter to land a player who has no other offers. He may turn out to be an all-American player, but we did not use a lot of persuasion to get him. It takes persuasion to get the top guys who can help quickly.

Our top 5 remaining "targets' are from out of state. Three of them are "crystal balled" to Alabama and two of those are from Alabama. Another of the 5 is from Florida and CBed 86% to Florida and 14% to Miami. We are the only SEC offer for the 5th who is from Georgia..

The point is that it will take great persuasive recruiting to win these battles.

Last year should have been an easier year to have a great OL class. But we lost 2 top OL recruits who grew up in MS and close to campus. It is hard to see how we are going to improve.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

Actually just 2. Jackson is projected as a NG. And we need 6, preferably 2 JUCO and 4 HS. We planned on signing 5 to 6 last year and ended up with 3, none of whom were very high profile guys.

Currently, there is only the top JUCO guy in the nation among the ranked OLs and he is not considering us. There may be another player in the MS JUCO ranks who turns out to be great, but it was not evident from last year's play.
We are hard on D'Marcus Hayes at Gulf Coast. He's originally from Madison Central. He hasn't been rated yet but has offers from MSU, Arkansas, Auburn, & Louisville so far. We are doing well with him.

We have one HS OG, Gainier. As far as I know we are his only offer. It does not take a great recruiter to land a player who has no other offers. He may turn out to be an all-American player, but we did not use a lot of persuasion to get him. It takes persuasion to get the top guys who can help quickly.
We are Gainer's only Power 5 offers but he has other lower level offers USM, ULL, Memphis, MTSU, etc.

Our top 5 remaining "targets' are from out of state. Three of them are "crystal balled" to Alabama and two of those are from Alabama. Another of the 5 is from Florida and CBed 86% to Florida and 14% to Miami. We are the only SEC offer for the 5th who is from Georgia..
Not sure who the top 5 you are listing but OOS guys such as Cordavien Suggs (FL), Case Cook (GA), & Josh Cooper (LA) all have very high interest in MSU & you could say we lead for those 3. All have other Power 5 offers with Suggs & Cook having several & multiple SEC offers. We are in the top 5-7 for higher named OL such as Obinna Eze (TN), Kendall Randolph (AL), & Adrian Ealy (LA). It will take a great effort to pull 1 of those just saying we are in their final group. A few other guys that I wouldn't say we lead for but are definitely in their top 2 or 3 are Toryque Bateman (AL), Caleb Chandler (GA), & Dwayne Fisher (LA). Again we have to close on some of these guys but we're right there with some very solid SEC caliber OL.

The point is that it will take great persuasive recruiting to win these battles.

Last year should have been an easier year to have a great OL class. But we lost 2 top OL recruits who grew up in MS and close to campus. It is hard to see how we are going to improve.

N

[Reason2succeed]

I love how a thread about WRs turned into a gripe thread about OL.

My question would be what is keeping us from closing consistently on SEC caliber OL and don't just say Hevesy?

[thf24]

The issue with OL recruiting is that you can count the number of "sure things" each year nationwide on both hands, and the number of sure year 1 contributors on one. The elites (and blatantly cheating bastards) are going to get those, and past that it's an extremely hard position to evaluate, arguably harder than kickers in my opinion. Hevesy doesn't help us, no doubt, but I think a lot of the blame lies with Dan's diamond-in-the-rough approach. While it's worked out very well for us at other positions, it doesn't seem to translate well to OL. Projects don't seem to have as much of a chance of coming to fruition when the vast majority of OL prospects are practically projects to begin with.

[AlmostPositive]

The thread title makes it sounds as if they are deceased.... I am relieved we are pursuing live recruits.

[1bigdawg]

The top 5 HS to which I was referring are from 247:

Kai-Leon Herbert - The Florida/Miami early battle
Kendall Randolph - Alabama CB
Obina Eze - Alabama CB
Toryque Batman - Alabama CB
Caleb Chandler - only SEC offer

Case Cook and Josh Cooper may be great players but they have no other power 5 offers currently. Suggs may be a player in the long run, but none of these three are as highly regarded right now. One of my points is that we need to do better in recruiting to get these higher rated guys from the serious competition.

You mention Adrian Ealy, but he supposedly has an LSU offer. He is from LA and is CBed to LSU. Tough pull. Dwayne Fisher is a highly rated guy who might work out.

The problem is that even given the best realistic scenario where we pull Ealy and Suggs who do have other P5 offers and then Hayes pull one of the other highly rated HSers, we still will probably have the worst OL class in the SECw on paper. It may be the best in the long run, but not on paper.

For them to be better, one has to believe that we are better at analyzing talent than everyone else. I contend that recent history and our current roster does not support that belief.

We may be stepping it up this year in recruiting OL. Let us be clear that we need to.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

The top 5 HS to which I was referring are from 247:

Kai-Leon Herbert - The Florida/Miami early battle
Kendall Randolph - Alabama CB
Obina Eze - Alabama CB
Toryque Batman - Alabama CB
Caleb Chandler - only SEC offer

Case Cook and Josh Cooper may be great players but they have no other power 5 offers currently. Suggs may be a player in the long run, but none of these three are as highly regarded right now. One of my points is that we need to do better in recruiting to get these higher rated guys from the serious competition.

You mention Adrian Ealy, but he supposedly has an LSU offer. He is from LA and is CBed to LSU. Tough pull. Dwayne Fisher is a highly rated guy who might work out.

The problem is that even given the best realistic scenario where we pull Ealy and Suggs who do have other P5 offers and then Hayes pull one of the other highly rated HSers, we still will probably have the worst OL class in the SECw on paper. It may be the best in the long run, but not on paper.

For them to be better, one has to believe that we are better at analyzing talent than everyone else. I contend that recent history and our current roster does not support that belief.

We may be stepping it up this year in recruiting OL. Let us be clear that we need to.

Not sure what you're looking at

http://247sports.com/Player/Case-Cook-79288

Cook has SEC offers from MSU, Kentucky, Missouri, & Vanderbilt. Along with offers from Miami, Penn St, Louisville, West Virginia, etc - 13 Power 5 offers

http://247sports.com/Player/Caleb-Chandler-78849

Chandler has SEC offers from MSU, Florida, & Missouri. Along with offers from Louisville, Virginia Tech, Maryland, etc - 8 Power 5 offers

http://247sports.com/Player/Cordavien-Suggs-88887

Suggs has SEC offers from MSU, South Carolina, & Tennessee. Also offers from Virginia Tech, West Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, etc - 16 Power 5 offers

Yes Bateman has a Bama CB from almost 9 months ago but no Bama offer & very little Bama interest. He's listed us in his Top 3. He has 4 SEC offers & 10 Power 5 offers

Josh Cooper also has a TCU offer.

Again we have to close but there are some very solid OL in this class that we have a legit shot at.

[Johnson85]

For them to be better, one has to believe that we are better at analyzing talent than everyone else.

Or we have to be better at developing them. I think we are pretty good at development. We usually get pretty good production out of pretty poor thought of recruits (Senior, Malone, Day, Beckwith, Clausell, and hopefully Calhoun and Jenkins etc.). If we could sprinkle in a good target or two above what we are currently doing, we'd be fine. Maybe not dominant, but our line would rarely dictate our results before the season even starts. But not only are we not grabbing some solid recruits here and there, we don't even replace them in sufficient numbers with long shots. If we are going to be stuck with the dregs, we need to sign an extra lineman or two each year and process the ones that don't work out.

[Johnson85]

Not sure what you're looking at

http://247sports.com/Player/Case-Cook-79288

Cook has SEC offers from MSU, Kentucky, Missouri, & Vanderbilt. Along with offers from Miami, Penn St, Louisville, West Virginia, etc - 13 Power 5 offers

http://247sports.com/Player/Caleb-Chandler-78849

Chandler has SEC offers from MSU, Florida, & Missouri. Along with offers from Louisville, Virginia Tech, Maryland, etc - 8 Power 5 offers

http://247sports.com/Player/Cordavien-Suggs-88887

Suggs has SEC offers from MSU, South Carolina, & Tennessee. Also offers from Virginia Tech, West Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, etc - 16 Power 5 offers

Yes Bateman has a Bama CB from almost 9 months ago but no Bama offer & very little Bama interest. He's listed us in his Top 3. He has 4 SEC offers & 10 Power 5 offers

Josh Cooper also has a TCU offer.

Again we have to close but there are some very solid OL in this class that we have a legit shot at.

With our traditional closing percentage on OL, it looks like we're on pace to sign maybe one OL with other offers and a couple of guys that are far enough down our board that nobody will hear their name until after December.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

With our traditional closing percentage on OL, it looks like we're on pace to sign maybe one OL with other offers and a couple of guys that are far enough down our board that nobody will hear their name until after December.

I'm a lot more optimistic on a few of these guys but until they actually commit I totally understand that thought process.

[1bigdawg]

Not sure what you're looking at

http://247sports.com/Player/Case-Cook-79288

Cook has SEC offers from MSU, Kentucky, Missouri, & Vanderbilt. Along with offers from Miami, Penn St, Louisville, West Virginia, etc - 13 Power 5 offers

http://247sports.com/Player/Caleb-Chandler-78849

Chandler has SEC offers from MSU, Florida, & Missouri. Along with offers from Louisville, Virginia Tech, Maryland, etc - 8 Power 5 offers

http://247sports.com/Player/Cordavien-Suggs-88887

Suggs has SEC offers from MSU, South Carolina, & Tennessee. Also offers from Virginia Tech, West Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, etc - 16 Power 5 offers

Yes Bateman has a Bama CB from almost 9 months ago but no Bama offer & very little Bama interest. He's listed us in his Top 3. He has 4 SEC offers & 10 Power 5 offers

Josh Cooper also has a TCU offer.

Again we have to close but there are some very solid OL in this class that we have a legit shot at.

Looks like my research was faulty and I appreciate the correction. I will be very happy if we can close on some highly sought after OLs.

[Reason2succeed]

The thread title makes it sounds as if they are deceased.... I am relieved we are pursuing live recruits.

Haha! I see that too now that you mention it.

Let's be clear that we don't just want more Damian Robinson types. Everyone including me was excited about what he was going to do but...

[Coach34]

I love how a thread about WRs turned into a gripe thread about OL.

My question would be what is keeping us from closing consistently on SEC caliber OL and don't just say Hevesy?

Hevesy is the common denominator. T-Buck came on board late and added an OL recruit to the mix from his Fla State connections- without that late addition- Hev would have had 2 OL signees last Feb. That's pathetic

[maroonmania]

Hevesy is the common denominator. T-Buck came on board late and added an OL recruit to the mix from his Fla State connections- without that late addition- Hev would have had 2 OL signees last Feb. That's pathetic

Yep, I will believe Mullen is actually serious about winning on a big time scale when he makes a move with Hevesy. Until then its obvious he is content with going to minor bowl games and keeping his buddies around is more important.

[1bigdawg]

Yep, I will believe Mullen is actually serious about winning on a big time scale when he makes a move with Hevesy. Until then its obvious he is content with going to minor bowl games and keeping his buddies around is more important.

It is no coincidence that Hevesy interviews for HC jobs at smaller schools every off season. Dan knows the problem, but Hev is his friend. He will try to help him move on (up?), but not push him out.