Is Freeze's recruiting class falling apart?

[notsofarawaydawg]

IDK, people realized that they aren't very good.

More like they have realized that Freezus is not the coach he and his boosters make him out to be. He might can baptize and provide white whores, but he's lost on the field.

[Todd4State]

The recruiting style of Orgeron/Freeze lends itself to decommitments. All along, though, a lot of Ole Miss and State fans have just assumed they would close like they did last year, and that's just not realistic.

First, it's a lot easier to sell a kid on, 'I'm a new coach, and we're going places now. I just took a terrible team to a bowl game, and just wait until you see where we will be,' than it is on, 'Well, I've been here two years now and we're in the Music City Bowl but I promise that we are going places if you give us time'.

Also, last year was a perfect storm, as many have pointed out. They were always getting Conner, but Nkemdiche, Treadwell, and Tunsil mostly went to Ole Miss together because they were all thinking about playing together and it developed a lot of momentum. Ole Miss sold them all on being a package and taking Ole Miss to new heights.

Well, it helped that it was already a great fit for Nkemdiche and Treadwell because of family/friends and that they had Conner, too. Now, they don't have any ready-made 5-stars from South Panola, and they don't have connections with the top guys they had last year. So it's a lot harder to get several top guys to buy in when it's just them and there doesn't seem to be as much momentum among elite prospects.

ETA: They also used up their official visits on some of their top guys early, presumably to get them in the boat earlier, but it may have backfired. They banked last year's class on everybody coming in for the same weekend, and it helped promote that feeling of momentum and that they could have so many top guys actually go to Ole Miss. But that's not an option this year; they swayed guys like Tunsil and Golson late almost solely based on that last visit, and it won't happen the same way this year.

Exactly. No way in hell they get Nkemdiche without his brother. There's a reason why they do the brother package deals. And if they don't get Nkemdiche, I highly doubt they get Tunsil, Treadwell, or Golson.

Their party still wasn't enough to get them Chris Jones, Shumpert, Herron, Carr, Lawson, and Daniels.

[Todd4State]

Freeze certainly didn't do himself any favors in the last episode of the Season.

Don't think that stuff isn't being used against.

By the way, on 247, a guy is proclaiming that CJ Hampton wants to go to MSU, and he is persistent about it.

I'll believe it when he sets up and goes on an OV to MSU. That said, I don't think that's too far out there because he is allegedly related to Tyler somehow.

[mic]

Check out their OV's.. a lot of the kids they are losing or missing out on have already visited too. They have their one "BIG WEEKEND" but the names right now aren't anything like normal.. I am hearing they are pushing for JT Gray hard now.. A while back they"didnt have room and didn't need him"...

[engie]

I'll believe it when he sets up and goes on an OV to MSU. That said, I don't think that's too far out there because he is allegedly related to Tyler somehow.

CJ is an EE. His decision will be officially made very soon...

[ShotgunDawg]

CJ is an EE. His decision will be officially made very soon...

What's an EE?

[Coach34]

early enrollee

[slickdawg]

Early Enrolee, Electrical Engineer, Electric Eel

[fishwater99]

But how many best friends from highschool and big brothers do they have this time around?

So true... I don't see another Top 5 class this year, maybe Top 20.

[Westdawg]

can you imagine the meltdown that would ensue should CJ enroll at MSU??? Oh my, I would dream like a little kid the night before Christmas..... Rebel tears would fall like a spring shower!!!

[Todd4State]

CJ is an EE. His decision will be officially made very soon...

I did not realize that.

[ShotgunDawg]

early enrollee

Sorry, I wasn't caught up on recruiting text speak

By the way, there are some that truly believe that Bryant is better than Hampton anyway. Not saying they are right, but when you watch the videos, Bryant is just as big, as fast, and shows more versatility and play making ability.

Hampton is rated higher due to track record and playing against better competition.

[Pollodawg]

Do we have a serious shot at Hampton? Just curious?

[maroonmania]

Early Enrolee, Electrical Engineer, Electric Eel

Funny, reminds me of a lot of the girls on campus when I was in school that would say they were Double Es (--- elementary education).

[engie]

It's my opinion that we have no shot at Hampton whatsoever... We haven't been a serious player at any point in his recruitment.

Would love to be wrong -- but I just don't see it... We got beat in the 2014 class over a year ago -- and we seem to be returning the favor in the 2015 class...

[ShotgunDawg]

It's my opinion that we have no shot at Hampton whatsoever... We haven't been a serious player at any point in his recruitment.

Would love to be wrong -- but I just don't see it... We got beat in the 2014 class over a year ago -- and we seem to be returning the favor in the 2015 class...

Agree, the good thing is that it looks like we may have a chance to really whip them in 2015 class in a year with far more players.

[Todd4State]

It's my opinion that we have no shot at Hampton whatsoever... We haven't been a serious player at any point in his recruitment.

Would love to be wrong -- but I just don't see it... We got beat in the 2014 class over a year ago -- and we seem to be returning the favor in the 2015 class...

If he flipped to us, it would probably in all honesty be the most surprising flip I have seen in years. Since we know he is going to be an EE, the only hope I see us possibly having would be for our guys at the All-Star game to get into his ear. And then Dan, Hughes, and Collins all go in and get the last home visit and have it go really well.

[hacker]

Hampton is supposed to be announcing next week.

[smootness]

The thing that I would worry about as an Ole Miss fan is that Freeze's strategy, as we saw last year, can lead to insane results. They go really hard after several elite guys and spent a lot of their energy doing that. Most of these kids are out-of-state, and they publicly stated last year that they specifically targeted guys with connections to something/somebody at Ole Miss (nothing wrong with this, it's how we got Fred Ross last year).

But when that is the entire basis for your recruiting strategy, it also has the potential to backfire in a pretty big way.

For one, you are relying a lot on evaluations of players from before their senior year in HS. Ole Miss makes a list of specific targets to go after, and they obviously do this early in the game. This means that if a player doesn't continue to develop like you expected, you may have wasted quite a bit of time on him. Also, it means you spend less time scouting and trying to find overlooked guys. People have made fun of us for recruiting 'diamonds' but it's pretty clear that we have brought in some darn good players this way. Brandon Bryant is one, even Chris Jones was a result of this kind of recruiting. They could never overcome the lead we had because we were on him way before anyone else. Add guys like Taveze Calhoun in as well. Ole Miss may get their share of 'projects', too, but I can pretty much guarantee you the low-rated guys we get are players our staff feels good about, but most of the ones they get are filler guys they had to get because they missed on their top targets.

Two, as I said, you're relying on going after a good bit of out-of-state kids, and you run the risk of losing your footing in your own state. Could we be seeing this manifest itself with the 2015 class? We'll see, but it's obvious that MS is still the absolute primary focus of our staff, and I'm not sure that's the case at Ole Miss. Once you lose the foundation in-state, you're left scrambling and fighting an uphill battle for guys with little connection to your school. You also risk not building the same kind of relationship that our coaches have with the HS coaches in the state, which goes back to part of the first point...you're less likely to discover guys, and coaches are less likely to both tell you about a kid or nudge him your way.

Three, once you go a couple years without great connections with any top guys, you're left hurting in a big way. Let's say, for example, that there are no real good prospects from Treadwell's HS next year (they may not get Morgan anyway this year); and let's say none of their players next year have family members that happen to be studs. What do you base the strategy on then? You don't have the same kind of foundation in-state, and it's harder to come crawling back and try to pick off top guys in MS at that point. You better win and keep winning, or once those connections dry up for a period, you're going to have very little luck trying to get elite guys out-of-state.

So you see, it's a three-pronged approach of failure. Pretty obvious.

[thf24]

Current recruits aside, does anyone think it's possible that any of last year's big star out-of-state recruits look to transfer once they realize that the carriage is turning back into a pumpkin? I know it's pretty rare for a football player to transfer for reasons other than academics or disciplinary issues, but combining the circumstances of their recruitment (family/friend connections, "playing together" hype) along with the realization they're playing for a possibly inept coach who's perfectly willing to throw them under the bus, I could see it happening.