carney2
April 21st, 2011, 10:04 AM
BUCKNELL = 50
Each year there is one recruiting class that The Committee anticipates just a little more than the others. This year it's Bucknell. This is Joe Susan's first real recruiting class. What direction is he taking? Smurfs in pads will be history. Right? Will the Buffaloes sharpen their horns and prepare to gore some of their tormentors or will they continue to be what's for dinner? Has Coach Susan begun the long climb to respectability? In The Committee's opinion, the answer to that last question is: not so much. Most people, we believe, expected better than this.
Working in Bucknell's favor is the fact that no one in the Patriot League has exactly blown the top off the recruiting meter in 2011. Still, if this is even a relative step forward, it's a small one. A member of The Committee asks if perhaps – just perhaps – Susan may be working with one hand tied behind his back. Is he getting complete institutional support? This Committee member opines that
2 (lackluster results)
+2 (geographical distribution – or non-distribution – of the recruits, with all but one coming from Pennsylvania or a contiguous state)
=4, where the following marching orders may very well have been issued: “Joe, you can recruit anywhere you want – as long as you can get there and back on one tank of gas.”
One man's conspiracy theory, but some small piece of information to bear in mind when the scholarship flag is raised again, with Bucknell something of a swing vote, and a lot of people convinced that the Bison will vote “Yea” because, after all, President Bravman is from Stanford where he once attended a football game.
THE GOOD
- Apparently the Smurfs have joined the triple option in the rear view mirror. This group includes 5 OL and 3 DL, with 2 additional hyphenated TE/DE recruits. Although not of sufficient size to inspire awe in a League where the offensive linemen are approaching the unthinkable (one team currently shows a two-deep that averages – averages! - in the 310 range), the Bucknell OL recruits are of sufficient size (3 of the 5 are jumbos) to consider it a step in the right direction.
- 29 is a real nice size for a Patriot League recruiting class where need based aid leads to something less than a feeling of contractual servitude, and players come and go a little more easily than in the scholarship programs.
THE BAD
- This will be discussed at greater length in the next section, but The Committee did not have a strong feeling of “quality” with this group. If we had to attach one word to the class as a whole, it struck us that “leftovers” might fit. There are not many individuals where Susan and staff had to out-recruit stronger, or even equal programs, to land them. Now, the Patriot League does not get many of these higher level recruits, but the achieving programs get a few – enough to potentially make a difference. The Committee feels that, with this group, high achievement will be left to luck, late blooming, and “coaching up.” This, of course, is not unusual in the Patriot League, but The Committee sees little here to indicate a head start.
QUALITY = 14: 36% of the Quality points rest with one individual, a 2-star who is not only unconfirmed, but is not even given a nod of existence by two of the three rating services used for this analysis. This makes the 2-star rating highly questionable. The remaining rated recruits (9) received only minimal ratings. What this means, of course, is that they were not highly recruited.
CLASS SIZE = 6: 29 recruits.
DISTRIBUTION = 7: No recruit at RB. In addition, there is one TE recruit and two additional who are listed as TE/DE. You are reminded yet again that TE is no longer considered in Distribution.
SPEED = 10: The usual disclaimer – not much information and The Committee probably missed a few here.
TRIGGER = 0: One QB recruit, and two listed as QB/DB. None with star ratings. In fact, none rated at all.
JUMBO = 5: Three OL and two DL recruits meet the jumbo classification requirements.
NEEDS = 10 (of 12)*:
OL = 4 (of 5): The Bison recruited five OL candidates, 3 are Jumbos (270+) and one is rated. Points have been awarded for the large number of recruits and the reasonable size thereof, but one has been withheld due to the paucity of Quality points.
DL = 3 (of 4): There are three DL recruits along with two additional TE/DE candidates. Two of the recruits meet the Jumbo standard (250+) and two are rated. This appears to be a fairly strong group and only 1 recruit and/or 1 Quality point away from garnering all 4 Needs points.
LB = 3 (of 3): Five recruits is a good number. Two are rated; one the previously mentioned 2-star. Size may be a problem for a few of these guys.
*There were no responses from Bucknell supporters to the call for Needs. The Committee was left on its own recognizance.
COMMITTEE ADJUSTMENTS = Minus 2
The Committee felt that it had lots of cause for deductions, but determined that this recruiting effort should be downgraded simply because it does not give an indication that things are on the upswing, or that the folks in Lewisburg are operating with any sense of urgency.
THE RATINGS RACE with 1 to go:
71 Fordham
60 Holy Cross
57 Colgate
54 Lafayette
50 Bucknell
43 Lehigh
Each year there is one recruiting class that The Committee anticipates just a little more than the others. This year it's Bucknell. This is Joe Susan's first real recruiting class. What direction is he taking? Smurfs in pads will be history. Right? Will the Buffaloes sharpen their horns and prepare to gore some of their tormentors or will they continue to be what's for dinner? Has Coach Susan begun the long climb to respectability? In The Committee's opinion, the answer to that last question is: not so much. Most people, we believe, expected better than this.
Working in Bucknell's favor is the fact that no one in the Patriot League has exactly blown the top off the recruiting meter in 2011. Still, if this is even a relative step forward, it's a small one. A member of The Committee asks if perhaps – just perhaps – Susan may be working with one hand tied behind his back. Is he getting complete institutional support? This Committee member opines that
2 (lackluster results)
+2 (geographical distribution – or non-distribution – of the recruits, with all but one coming from Pennsylvania or a contiguous state)
=4, where the following marching orders may very well have been issued: “Joe, you can recruit anywhere you want – as long as you can get there and back on one tank of gas.”
One man's conspiracy theory, but some small piece of information to bear in mind when the scholarship flag is raised again, with Bucknell something of a swing vote, and a lot of people convinced that the Bison will vote “Yea” because, after all, President Bravman is from Stanford where he once attended a football game.
THE GOOD
- Apparently the Smurfs have joined the triple option in the rear view mirror. This group includes 5 OL and 3 DL, with 2 additional hyphenated TE/DE recruits. Although not of sufficient size to inspire awe in a League where the offensive linemen are approaching the unthinkable (one team currently shows a two-deep that averages – averages! - in the 310 range), the Bucknell OL recruits are of sufficient size (3 of the 5 are jumbos) to consider it a step in the right direction.
- 29 is a real nice size for a Patriot League recruiting class where need based aid leads to something less than a feeling of contractual servitude, and players come and go a little more easily than in the scholarship programs.
THE BAD
- This will be discussed at greater length in the next section, but The Committee did not have a strong feeling of “quality” with this group. If we had to attach one word to the class as a whole, it struck us that “leftovers” might fit. There are not many individuals where Susan and staff had to out-recruit stronger, or even equal programs, to land them. Now, the Patriot League does not get many of these higher level recruits, but the achieving programs get a few – enough to potentially make a difference. The Committee feels that, with this group, high achievement will be left to luck, late blooming, and “coaching up.” This, of course, is not unusual in the Patriot League, but The Committee sees little here to indicate a head start.
QUALITY = 14: 36% of the Quality points rest with one individual, a 2-star who is not only unconfirmed, but is not even given a nod of existence by two of the three rating services used for this analysis. This makes the 2-star rating highly questionable. The remaining rated recruits (9) received only minimal ratings. What this means, of course, is that they were not highly recruited.
CLASS SIZE = 6: 29 recruits.
DISTRIBUTION = 7: No recruit at RB. In addition, there is one TE recruit and two additional who are listed as TE/DE. You are reminded yet again that TE is no longer considered in Distribution.
SPEED = 10: The usual disclaimer – not much information and The Committee probably missed a few here.
TRIGGER = 0: One QB recruit, and two listed as QB/DB. None with star ratings. In fact, none rated at all.
JUMBO = 5: Three OL and two DL recruits meet the jumbo classification requirements.
NEEDS = 10 (of 12)*:
OL = 4 (of 5): The Bison recruited five OL candidates, 3 are Jumbos (270+) and one is rated. Points have been awarded for the large number of recruits and the reasonable size thereof, but one has been withheld due to the paucity of Quality points.
DL = 3 (of 4): There are three DL recruits along with two additional TE/DE candidates. Two of the recruits meet the Jumbo standard (250+) and two are rated. This appears to be a fairly strong group and only 1 recruit and/or 1 Quality point away from garnering all 4 Needs points.
LB = 3 (of 3): Five recruits is a good number. Two are rated; one the previously mentioned 2-star. Size may be a problem for a few of these guys.
*There were no responses from Bucknell supporters to the call for Needs. The Committee was left on its own recognizance.
COMMITTEE ADJUSTMENTS = Minus 2
The Committee felt that it had lots of cause for deductions, but determined that this recruiting effort should be downgraded simply because it does not give an indication that things are on the upswing, or that the folks in Lewisburg are operating with any sense of urgency.
THE RATINGS RACE with 1 to go:
71 Fordham
60 Holy Cross
57 Colgate
54 Lafayette
50 Bucknell
43 Lehigh