THE 2020 MSU Football Recruiting Talk Thread

[Westdawg]

Saw where Gene said we are looking at this kid. It was VIP so I couldn’t read it, but might be worth a flyer on if we need an insurance QB. Intriguing prospect to me.

https://247sports.com/Player/Alijah-Martin-46053070/

https://www.hudl.com/profile/5432520/Alijah-Martin

If that's a backup plan, I'll take it.

[Todd4State]

Honestly, if we sign most of our guys Wednesday without any major surprises going against us, I'll consider it a win.

Last year, I think we signed around 13 in the early signing period, so we still had roughly half our class to hold on to until February. Knocking most of them out early just allows you to focus on on a couple of targets (like Cooper and an OL or 2).

I think this class is well-rounded and addresses most of our needs, except at OLB, but Joe has until February to get that fixed.

Exactly. Losing Hill at OL and needing to find some LB's are the biggest things we need to work on right now.

[Todd4State]

The 85 scholarship rule allows the blue bloods to eat so much of the available talent that it makes it almost impossible for a mid-tier team to build a complete, balanced roster with capable players

We have to be smarter with our roster management than we were under Dan. We can't just keep recruiting a class with one OL that qualifies while letting guys like Saahdiq Charles go unchecked basically, completely whiff on the WR position, somehow end up with freshmen only DT's, and etc.

No- we'll never have Alabama type depth but we're different. We need our juniors and seniors to be SEC caliber while our freshmen and sophomores basically need to be guys that we are developing unless we get a rare Jeffrey Simmons type of player. We can't expect to compete in the SEC with several freshmen expected to start and play significant snaps unless they are the exception as noted.

[MetEdDawg]

Dolcine officially off the board now. Switched his commit to FAU.

So that puts us at 21 commits with Patterson I would assume not being one we take a commitment from. So 20 spots filled as of right now it seems.

Hopefully Wednesday locks almost all of this part of our class up.

[ShotgunDawg]

We have to be smarter with our roster management than we were under Dan. We can't just keep recruiting a class with one OL that qualifies while letting guys like Saahdiq Charles go unchecked basically, completely whiff on the WR position, somehow end up with freshmen only DT's, and etc.

No- we'll never have Alabama type depth but we're different. We need our juniors and seniors to be SEC caliber while our freshmen and sophomores basically need to be guys that we are developing unless we get a rare Jeffrey Simmons type of player. We can't expect to compete in the SEC with several freshmen expected to start and play significant snaps unless they are the exception as noted.

That sounds great in theory but the talent level in HS football isn't deep enough for most all of the mid tier teams to field a complete, competent roster.

Sure, we'd love a balanced roster but when faced with the option of taking a bad OL prospect vs taking an athletic safety prospect that MAY have a chance, you take the safety.

My point remains. You can have the smartest recruiting people in the world, but when they can create more adequate prospects to recruit.

[Cooterpoot]

We have to be smarter with our roster management than we were under Dan. We can't just keep recruiting a class with one OL that qualifies while letting guys like Saahdiq Charles go unchecked basically, completely whiff on the WR position, somehow end up with freshmen only DT's, and etc.

No- we'll never have Alabama type depth but we're different. We need our juniors and seniors to be SEC caliber while our freshmen and sophomores basically need to be guys that we are developing unless we get a rare Jeffrey Simmons type of player. We can't expect to compete in the SEC with several freshmen expected to start and play significant snaps unless they are the exception as noted.

Charles was always going to LSU and Moorhead screwed up our RB and LB recruiting last/this year. WR is basically more of the same. We?ll be getting a new coach next year and starting over again.

[Ari Gold]

Charles was always going to LSU and Moorhead screwed up our RB and LB recruiting last/this year. WR is basically more of the same. We?ll be getting a new coach next year and starting over again.

Charles was going to LSU as long as Hevesy was at state.
I wouldn’t say CJM screwed up RB recruiting last year . We went fishing for a Big one and we ended up with Witherspoon who might turn out to be a really good player. The screw up with RB was the previous 2 years with Dan and crew
With LB we have some young guys just have to see how they develop. And getting Wheat this year bridges that gap for those guys esp If Willie returns

[Ari Gold]

Charles was always going to LSU and Moorhead screwed up our RB and LB recruiting last/this year. WR is basically more of the same. We?ll be getting a new coach next year and starting over again.

Charles was going to LSU as long as Hevesy was at state.
I wouldn?t say CJM screwed up RB recruiting last year . We went fishing for a Big one and we ended up with Witherspoon who might turn out to be a really good player. The screw up with RB was the previous 2 years with Dan and crew
With LB we have some young guys just have to see how they develop. And getting Wheat this year bridges that gap for those guys esp If Willie returns

[HailStateSZN19]

Are Caleb Ducking, Tulu Griffin, or Jaden Walley expected to contribute much next season? We need another impact WR to go with Heath. What we bring back from this year ain't gonna cut it. We need to be shopping the grad transfer market hard for a WR if we aren't already....

[Todd4State]

Are Caleb Ducking, Tulu Griffin, or Jaden Walley expected to contribute much next season? We need another impact WR to go with Heath. What we bring back from this year ain't gonna cut it. We need to be shopping the grad transfer market hard for a WR if we aren't already....

I think Tulu will because he is a slot guy and I think he might return kicks as well. The other two- maybe. Ducking could surprise some people. Walley looked good in the ASG practices so I wouldn’t rule him out.

[Todd4State]

Sounds like Dylan Spencer might be moving up our board. OL from Madison Central that is committed to USM but is signing in February now. Per Paul Jones.

[HancockCountyDog]

Quietest day before signing day that I can remember since I followed recruiting in the late 90s.

Can anyone remember a quieter one?

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

Bottom line for us is that we are a developmental program. Until we start signing a 5 star every other year and ten 4 stars every year, which most likely won't ever happen unless things change, we need to be redshirting just about every freshman and utilizing them as 5th year seniors instead of true freshmen.

We need to be smarter with our true freshmen in not wasting a year as I explain below, but also letting them get their feet wet with the new 4 game rule. We aren't utilizing that aspect of it as well. We have true freshmen not getting in ANY games at all. I know it's hard to get them all in, but if they didn't get in ANY games this year with what all we had going on, you know JoMo isn't going to get them in when we have a full roster eligible.

Case in point on wasting a year, Lee Witherspoon. He lost his redshirt by playing in 5 games. His fifth game?....Abilene Christian where he had 1 carry. So instead of possibly having him a full season as a 5th year senior, we lost that by having him carry the ball 1 time against Abilene Christian. To me, that is unforgivable and just plain stupid.

Let's see how he progresses and take a look after what will now be his senior year and think to ourselves that this could have been his junior year and we'd have another year of his services. We've done this with other players in the past as well.

[Bdawg]

Quietest day before signing day that I can remember since I followed recruiting in the late 90s.

Can anyone remember a quieter one?

Eerily quiet!! First year I recall with no talk of flips and shenanigans. Like I said, eerie.

[msstate7]

Bottom line for us is that we are a developmental program. Until we start signing a 5 star every other year and ten 4 stars every year, which most likely won't ever happen unless things change, we need to be redshirting just about every freshman and utilizing them as 5th year seniors instead of true freshmen.

We need to be smarter with our true freshmen in not wasting a year as I explain below, but also letting them get their feet wet with the new 4 game rule. We aren't utilizing that aspect of it as well. We have true freshmen not getting in ANY games at all. I know it's hard to get them all in, but if they didn't get in ANY games this year with what all we had going on, you know JoMo isn't going to get them in when we have a full roster eligible.

Case in point on wasting a year, Lee Witherspoon. He lost his redshirt by playing in 5 games. His fifth game?....Abilene Christian where he had 1 carry. So instead of possibly having him a full season as a 5th year senior, we lost that by having him carry the ball 1 time against Abilene Christian. To me, that is unforgivable and just plain stupid.

Let's see how he progresses and take a look after what will now be his senior year and think to ourselves that this could have been his junior year and we'd have another year of his services. We've done this with other players in the past as well.

^^^like

[HoopsDawg]

Case in point on wasting a year, Lee Witherspoon. He lost his redshirt by playing in 5 games. His fifth game?....Abilene Christian where he had 1 carry. So instead of possibly having him a full season as a 5th year senior, we lost that by having him carry the ball 1 time against Abilene Christian. To me, that is unforgivable and just plain stupid.

That's criminal. Gross negligence.

[Lord McBuckethead]

That's criminal. Gross negligence.

Yep. That is downright stupid. 1 carry for a guy that could be a 12-15 per game kid as a senior. We just costed that kid 175 carries in his career with 1 carry.
Good management there. We could have put KT in the game for that snap.

[BrunswickDawg]

Bottom line for us is that we are a developmental program. Until we start signing a 5 star every other year and ten 4 stars every year, which most likely won't ever happen unless things change, we need to be redshirting just about every freshman and utilizing them as 5th year seniors instead of true freshmen.

We need to be smarter with our true freshmen in not wasting a year as I explain below, but also letting them get their feet wet with the new 4 game rule. We aren't utilizing that aspect of it as well. We have true freshmen not getting in ANY games at all. I know it's hard to get them all in, but if they didn't get in ANY games this year with what all we had going on, you know JoMo isn't going to get them in when we have a full roster eligible.

Case in point on wasting a year, Lee Witherspoon. He lost his redshirt by playing in 5 games. His fifth game?....Abilene Christian where he had 1 carry. So instead of possibly having him a full season as a 5th year senior, we lost that by having him carry the ball 1 time against Abilene Christian. To me, that is unforgivable and just plain stupid.

Let's see how he progresses and take a look after what will now be his senior year and think to ourselves that this could have been his junior year and we'd have another year of his services. We've done this with other players in the past as well.

That's criminal. Gross negligence.

Except that it isn't true. Witherspoon played in 10 games - some of it on Special Teams. He had 5 games where he had carries (USM, KS, AU, Ak, ABC), 2 games with a reception (LSU, Bama), and 1 game with kick return (A&M).
While I agree that it would have been best to RS him, this was one of the impacts of the Tutor 10. We had to sacrifice a couple of RS this season in areas where it hurts.

[Ari Gold]

Except that it isn't true. Witherspoon played in 10 games - some of it on Special Teams. He had 5 games where he had carries.
While I agree that it would have been best to RS him, this was one of the impacts of the Tutor 10. We had to sacrifice a couple of RS this season in areas where it hurts.

Agree.. it is a shame we didn’t get to redshirt him or give him more carries.. same was done with Collin Duncan. Basically played every game but took very few snaps at his position DB But played in almost if not all games on special teams..
it’s the nature of the beast when guys are suspended / hurt / bad previous recruiting at certain positions/ ect..

But I agree the roster could have Possible been managed better to maybe save those guys redshirts..

[BrunswickDawg]

Agree.. it is a shame we didn’t get to redshirt him or give him more carries.. same was done with Collin Duncan. Basically played every game but took very few snaps at his position DB But played in almost if not all games on special teams..
it’s the nature of the beast when guys are suspended / hurt / bad previous recruiting at certain positions/ ect..

But I agree the roster could have Possible been managed better to maybe save those guys redshirts..

Totally agree.