Thursday, January 16, 2014

Making the most of Mass

Massachusetts is not Texas or Florida. That's pretty obvious on many fronts, but is especially noticeable in college football recruiting. If BC coach wants success on the field, he is going to have to recruit far beyond the state border. But Massachusetts has provided a good foundation for some of BC's best teams. That is why is was so frustrating to watch some of the states best players not commit to BC in recent years. Considering this is his first full recruiting cycle, Addazio seems to have a better grip of Massachusetts recruiting than his predecessors. With the early enrollees serving as a the most recent reminder, BC has nearly every elite Massachusetts target they recruited this year. Take a look at Rivals Top 10 Players in Massachusetts:

1. Connor Strachan -- 4 stars | Boston College
2. Johnathan Thomas -- 3 stars | Penn State
3. Jon Baker -- 3 stars | Boston College
4. Isaac Yiadom -- 3 stars | Boston College
5. James Hendren -- 3 stars | Boston College
6. Kevin Cohee -- 3 stars | Boston College
7. Tom Rodrick -- 2 stars | UConn
8. Lubern Figaro -- 2 stars | Wisconsin
9. Miles Wright -- 2 stars | uncommitted
10. Kevin Bletzer -- 2 stars | Boston College

Of the Top Ten, the only player who BC aggressively recruited who went elsewhere was Figaro. Thomas was highly rated, but many of the experts rank our incoming RB recruits higher.

I don't know if BC will ever get to the point where they take all of the Top Ten but this is progress. And if tradition holds, these guys will be key to our success over the next five years.

3 comments:

Matt said...

I definitely agree. I have been generally pleased with Addazio's recruiting. Boston College is a great school. Heck, I left my home state of Arizona to attend BC. The fact that we failed to land even the local football talent in previous years baffled me. I am glad this does not seem to be nearly as much of an issue anymore.

Legal Eagle said...

I am guessing this is night and day compared to the last couple of years. Does anyone know the exact numbers from 2012 and 2013. Did we get any?

Legal Eagle said...

I was curious enough to answer my own question.
2013
We got #3 Tevin Montgomery and #7 Mackay Lowrie. I believe both have already left the program.
The rest of the top 10 went to ND, Mich, Virginia, Wake, UConn, UMass, Nova, and Bryant.
2012
We got #7 Tim Joy and no one else.
2011 was the last year we really had any impact in MA.
We got
#1 Brian Miller
#2 Albert Louis Jean
#6 Liam Porter
#10 Manny Asprilla

2010 we had 4 of the top 10 and 2009 we had 3.

Long story short, Addazio is recruiting MA in a way we havent seen in quite some time. For him to have gotten 5 of the top 6 kids in the state is huge. Too bad there isnt more talent in MA.