Irondawg
10-24-2013, 03:02 PM
With all the incessant threads on Hud and how we need him to combat Freeze in recruiting i started to think about how large an impact the HC actually makes on recruits these days. Not being personally tied to any top recruits to get inside scoop, I have no real idea. But unless we're talking any coach other than Saban, I'd have to guess not that much.
Seems that it really comes down to how much a schools restricts its boosters and how much the local boosters are willing to do for a certain player in most cases. There are of course exceptions as location, prestige of school and opportunity for PT do play factors.
But specific to us the general consensus is that Freeze is a top recruiter (and I have heard from several second hand reports that he is very good with the in-home visits) and Mullen sucks. But what about Mullen's predecessor?
Considering Croom was the ONLY and FIRST black coach in the SEC at the time, was a decent public speaker which i would assume translated that he wasn't horrible on in-homes, and came with a NFL pedigree from the second or third most popular franchise in the area at the time, he should have easily been able to draw a couple of top recruits his first couple of recruiting classes. Instead they were worse than we were used to. Why? Did the boosters not support him? Did he not let them? Was he just outright terrible when talking to recruits and their families?
By comparison to Croom's classes, Mullen is a recruiting machine (except for the OL issues).
So how would you rate the importance of the HC when compared to boosters and other factors?
Seems that it really comes down to how much a schools restricts its boosters and how much the local boosters are willing to do for a certain player in most cases. There are of course exceptions as location, prestige of school and opportunity for PT do play factors.
But specific to us the general consensus is that Freeze is a top recruiter (and I have heard from several second hand reports that he is very good with the in-home visits) and Mullen sucks. But what about Mullen's predecessor?
Considering Croom was the ONLY and FIRST black coach in the SEC at the time, was a decent public speaker which i would assume translated that he wasn't horrible on in-homes, and came with a NFL pedigree from the second or third most popular franchise in the area at the time, he should have easily been able to draw a couple of top recruits his first couple of recruiting classes. Instead they were worse than we were used to. Why? Did the boosters not support him? Did he not let them? Was he just outright terrible when talking to recruits and their families?
By comparison to Croom's classes, Mullen is a recruiting machine (except for the OL issues).
So how would you rate the importance of the HC when compared to boosters and other factors?