Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Why is recruiting picking up now?

Michigan LB prospect Marvin Ham became the second player to commit to Addazio's 2019 recruiting class this week. He has a good mix of offers and a respectable rating from the services. He should be a good addition to the class. Although Addazio likes to lock in his class relatively early, the sudden uptick in verbals is interesting. There are probably a few factors in play.

1. BC has pushed the timetable. Addazio views BC as a "developmental program" so he is not trying to fill out his class with all five stars. Instead he is looking for committed kids who BC can get on early. Now that there is an Early Signing Period, BC's desire to get on kids early has moved up a month or two. Kids who used to verbal in summer are now likely to verbal in March.

2. There is momentum and promise during spring ball. Spring ball is when every program has hope and promise. BC -- with a new football building rising up next to Alumni -- can really sell that idea. So when a kid is visiting the school during his spring break and gets the hard sell from Addazio, he is likely to commit.

3. There is a bit of musical chairs among the kids. All the kids track each other's offers and commitments on social media. They see other guys commit. They have coaches tell them there are only X amount of spots at a position. There is pressure to find a spot and hold onto it. So when a good offer comes along, they take it. This leads to the occasional decommitment, but I think the coaches are willing to take the risk.

24 comments:

mod34b said...
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Shabby1011 said...

Mod - BC class in 17 had AJ Dillon and Petula, those two alone make it a top 5 recruiting class in ACC. Dillon going to win Heisman before he is done. Stop saying it’s a bottom class it’s not.

On another note word is BC going to hire Amanda Butler as it’s next women’s coach. Was coach at Florida for a number of years prior to being let go last year. Somewhat of a name in wbb and interesting hire. Shows MJ wants bigger splash

mod34b said...
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Shabby1011 said...

Mod - Agree BC should be in top 10 of ACC in rankings. However facts are In a 20 man football class, 5 won’t make it to spring ball freshman year, 5 will never be better then special team/backups, 5-6 you hope are solid rotational starters by junior year and 4-5 are good to great potential All Conference players

Next year BC has 3 potential All Americans in Dillon, Allen & Denis and 6 more potential All Conference players:
- Dillon
- Allen
- Denis
- Harris
- Petula
- Lindstrom
- Strachan
- Sweeney
- Palmer (ST)

This is his most complete and deep roster. They have a chance to win 9-10 games. If that happens great for BC and everyone. If he is 8-5, 7-6 then I’ll be right behind you losing my mind. However I think we have to see how it plays out, there is real optimism around the program right now.

Thomas said...

Any word on Anthony Brown? Our success is going to be tied to his health...

knucklehead said...

Mod Adazzio isn't your father. You don't have to hate him.

knucklehead said...

Who the fuck cares about the recruiting rankings. They are put together by idiots who analyze high school football.

knucklehead said...

Do you know what the ranking methodology is?

mod34b said...
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ObserverCollege said...

Serious post--This women's basketball search interests me quite a bit, as it's the first time Jarmond is making his own hire. Butler seems to have the nuts and bolts down for coaching on the court. She improved greatly upon her predecessor's team when she arrived at UF, and UF dropped from 15-16 to 11-19 upon her departure. The latter, though, could reflect the cupboard being more bare than Butler made it out to be (see below).

Butler's bio is here: http://floridagators.com/coaches.aspx?rc=78

Despite her overall record, I'm concerned about Butler's ability to be flexible, to work with kids who don't fit the mold. All indications are that Butler is "likeable", but what does that mean? Addazio is "likeable" as a "dude", but I can't stand him. As a coach you need to be able to meet your players where they are and help them grow, rather than just be a "personality".

It's positive that Amanda Butler shadowed Brad Stevens as a coaching intern during training camp this fall. Stevens is the model of a "likeable" coach who seems to work very hard to connect with each player. Stevens told the Globe her input was "helpful": https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2017/10/25/brad-stevens-had-special-coaching-intern-celtics-camp/S9YufOtOthHE0darP7zyPL/story.html

However, Jarmond better have done his homework on how she worked with players, given the frequent disappointing seasons. See http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/18838776/florida-gators-fire-women-hoops-coach-amanda-butler

The Eleanna Christinaki transfer situation is particularly troubling, as it indicates Butler perhaps has difficulty reaching her players so they work together--especially those outside the norm. That would lead to disappointing seasons.
Article upon Christinaki quitting the team for refusing to accept a suspension related to violation of "team culture": http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/18258964/eleanna-christinaki-florida-gators-quits-team

Also see articles on transfer to Maryland (note Brenda Frese pointedly did not bother reaching out to Butler or her staff): https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/eleanna-christinaki-chose-maryland-over-greece-and-the-terps-are-happy-she-did/2018/03/17/8083a66e-2a1e-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html?utm_term=.e15576a23cbf
and http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/tracking-the-terps/bs-sp-maryland-coppin-state-eleanna-christinaki-20171219-story.html

Finally, this article on Sydney Moss's transfer out of Florida indicates that the coaching staff would not allow her to visit her ailing grandfather, with whom she was very close, in late November 2012. Moss still made the SEC All-Freshman team and dropped 22 on Tennessee, but still she felt homesick and transferred away. Link is here: https://www.foxsports.com/ohio/story/more-to-sydney-moss-story-than-just-last-name-030514
Also see: http://www.alligator.org/sports/columns/article_ad2738e2-db5f-11e2-bdcf-0019bb2963f4.html

We don't fully know what work Butler has done during this sabbatical. We know she's interned with the Celtics and visited other teams. Has she looked within herself, to examine her strengths and shortcomings? How will she deal with kids moving forward? That's where Jarmond will have to be very careful, to tease that out and make a judgment from there. Butler seems to be a competent coach, but this is no slam dunk.

NYCEagle said...

Mod I would also like to point out that several recruiting websites had AJ Dillon listed as a 4 star recruit, and subsequently dropped him to a 3 star when he decommitted from Michigan to attend BC. A 6 foot 240 pound running back who can run a 4.5 had his ranking reduced solely because a rumor spread Michigan said he couldn’t be a running back in the Big Ten. That same kid has the potential to be one of the best running backs this conference (a more prestigious one, by the way) has ever seen

NYCEagle said...

In regard to Petrula. He was a 3 star recruit and proved he was severely underrated. I don’t understand how you can give credence to rankings that shift based solely on what schools make offers! Every kid Clemson offers gets a boost and every kid we offer gets a reduction. Funny how that works

NYCEagle said...

Lastly Shabby’s point about the number of recruits that pan out per class is extremely relevant. A successful program only needs 6-8 recruits per class to become starter level players. After all, there’s only 22 starters split between 5 classes of recruits (including redshirts). A program that is good at development (which BC undoubtedly is) likely only needs a couple of 4 star recruits per class to compete at the highest level. Kids like Tommy Sweeney (a 2 star recruit) and Lukas Denis (also a 2 star recruit) clearly are playing well beyond their rankings after a couple years of maturation

CT said...

Nobody really cares if you run for 1,800 yards on an 8-5 team. The Heisman talk should probably slow down since it’s tied to a team’s relevance. Also, will the QB be able to throw the ball? That would help.

I’ve done plenty of reading on high school player ratings and do feel like the services have a pretty good read on the best players, but existed as a cottage industry to absorb the unused energy for football come Spring. A sound business model. Now that the main signing period is in December, it will be interesting to see how they are affected wrt subscriptions and print purchases during the actual football season. I can’t imagine they will improve their numbers with this change. There is just too much going on around Christmas and the bowl season.

I think I have used up all my energy for women’s basketball after that post.

You really can’t judge a recruiting class two years in anyway. With the redshirts and the natural physical development that occurs at that age, it’s smarter to be patient, although when the same agenda is represented in every post, it makes sense. Literally every post. I know, I know...shut up, bitch. More insightful analysis from the rankings guy. I miss the days when I didn’t have to read any of that.

ObserverCollege said...

Sorry about the women's basketball focus; I just see it as an indicator for how Jarmond will handle the football and MBB searches that will be coming.

To Amanda Butler's credit, she co-authored a very thoughtful piece on her growth process over this past year. http://www.gofollowlead.com/365-days.html?platform=hootsuite

I just hope Jarmond probes beyond the script, and follows up by delving into the uncomfortable topics.

knucklehead said...

Andre Williams ring a bell?

knucklehead said...

1800 yards should have been 2200. He didn't play early and the school didn't give him skates for the bowl game.

knucklehead said...

Mod you aren't talking to anyone.

Geezer eagle said...

We need a minimum of 8 wins and a bowl victory. Anything less and Dazoshit must go.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

Hey Observer - nice posts re WBB. I agree with most of what you said. A little cloudy - but clearly not a terrible choice at this stage. Has to be a huge improvement over Johnson - but that's a pretty low bar. Let's hope for the best as this was an important first hire. It would be interesting to know how many people were interested in the job.

mod34b said...
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downtown_resident said...

The recruiting ratings are flawed, but that doesn't make them meaningless. Take a look at the ratings on an annual basis and you will generally see that the teams that do well in the rankings are the ones who do well on the field. I also recall a scientific study that showed that the rankings do a good (not perfect, but good)job projecting eventual college success for individual players.

Regardless, I think we can all agree that what happens on the field is the ultimate metric for evaluating football programs and coaches. And of course, Steve Addazio's record speaks for itself: 7-6, 7-6, 3-9, 7-6, 7-6.

Gerry said...

Felisha Legette-Jack is another name being talked about in regards to the WBB position. Amanda Butler may be in line for the Ole Miss Job. Legette-Jack is the current head coach at Buffalo, where she had led her team to the Sweet 16 and the best record in school history, and was an assistant at BC in the early 90's under Margo Plotzke. She has also tabled potential contract extension talks with UB. On the negative side, she was head coach at Indiana, but with pretty terrible results.

knucklehead said...

Mod nothing you say means anything. Who should the next HC be? Football and Men's basketball.

Don't look at the internet.

See if you can answer.

Know nothing, crybaby.