A Simple Question to Ponder on LOI Day Eve
As LOI Day is upon us a simple question has come to mind that will likely help to explain Penn State's relative lack of recruiting success this year. Head Coach Joe Paterno has made exactly one off campus visit to a recruit this year (the publicity laden visit to Terrelle Pryor last week). Offensive Coordinator Galen Hall has made zero off campus visits to recruits this year.
Here is the simple question: Can anyone anywhere name another school in the nation at any level (Division 1, 1AA, II, III, NAIA, JUCO) at which the head coach and Offensive Coordinator combine to make one off campus recruiting visit in an entire recruiting year?
If anyone can provide an example of another place where this ridiculous notion is a reality please enlighten us here at Laschout.
Here is the simple question: Can anyone anywhere name another school in the nation at any level (Division 1, 1AA, II, III, NAIA, JUCO) at which the head coach and Offensive Coordinator combine to make one off campus recruiting visit in an entire recruiting year?
If anyone can provide an example of another place where this ridiculous notion is a reality please enlighten us here at Laschout.
St. Joes. University
Reply to this
Can the example be before 1950? If not, all I have is SMU during the death penalty years.
Reply to this
Sure does seem to be an unusual way to do things. I guess "relative lack of recruiting success" would be correct without considering Pryor. I think we are still in it.
If not, I will be just as depressed as everybody else.
Reply to this
UNC Charlotte...
Reply to this
I think some high school coaches might spend more time recuriting
Reply to this
Hey Beezer,
In Pgh the Private school HS coaches sure do. Of course they have no boundaries and can wave tuition ( i.e. give scholarships.)
Oops..............wrong vent!!!!!!!!!
Reply to this
I can even name a Big 10 school that answers the question:
The University of Chicago
Reply to this
sounds like that one in home visit for the old man hit a home run...and pryor will be taking an official to psu before deciding
imagine if he had visited any one of kenny tate, deion walker, jimmy bennett, dalton freeman, or cam saddler at home...
Reply to this
Can think of no other school. Yes it seriously hinders our recruiting. At least one of the two should be out recruiting, preferably the HC. Unfortunately for PSU he is old and I am sure the wear of travel is a hinderance. I guess the school has to weigh the good with the bad. There are schools where the HC is a great recruiter and that is all he is good at. I believe this subject has been beaten to death over the past year. Anyone hearing your voices except the people here?
Reply to this
He's the ulitmate CEO who delegates these things to the people he manages. He's just a figure head anyway. JayPa is the real head coach and runs the program.
Reply to this
And your point is...he is 81...if you are even around when you're 81 we will all be suprised...and dissapointed
Reply to this
The point is Matt, that every other school has their high profile coaches out recruiting talent. Recruiting is part of the job and if at 81 you can't perform one of the key functins it is time to consider if "Still Having Fun" is enough to keep your job.
Reply to this
Recruiting is and always has been done primarily by the position coach.When you phone a friend and get a clue you will better understand...Pryor is an exception as was Morelli and we all know how that turned out.
Reply to this
Matt, why then is it such a BIG deal that Paterno made only one in--home visit? I thought having the lengend visit these recruits in their home with Mom and Dad present was the key to the whole deal. I guess I don't have a clue.
B/w Dick Anderson recruiting only at PSU combines, JayPa forgetting to return calls, and Hall not doing much of anything other than picking his nose and chewing his nails its a wonder PSU has trouble recruiting on the offensive side of the ball. Lots of dead weight to overcome.
Reply to this
You guys have talked a lot of shit on Penn State's recruiting job this year... What do yout think about this:
Pryor said Penn State assistant coaches Tom Bradley and Jay Paterno have dealt more with his parents than any other school.
"Penn State has done a lot," Pryor said. "They showed up a lot more. They recruited me a lot more. They've sent pages upon pages of handwritten letters."
Reply to this
This would be a GREAT strategy: IF WE WERE RECRUITING HIS PARENTS!
Reply to this
Parents have more of a say than you think...some are more controlling than others but they do have a say. The key is to read the parent child relationship and go from there.
Reply to this
Hey Mark, wake up and smell the coffee buddy. PSU's class is going to end up being ranked in the 40-50 range by both services. We couldn't fill a class in a year where we had 15-17 ships available. That speaks volumes. When Pryor selects OSU, don't kill yourself.
Reply to this
Mark
just to clear things up Pryor also said he didnt know what offense we ran as he didnt talk to our offensive coaches which he was briefed on last week. This should have been done 12 months ago and to wait until a week before signing is borderline retarded.
I will admit that we went after him hard which any program would do for a #1 recruit in their backyard but we didnt go after him in an intelligent way per his quote about not explianing our offensive, which he has said at least 20 times is very important to him
Now to lose Shaw to Michigan this class is one of the worst Ive seen at PSU. We couldnt even fill out our schollies, which is unheard of for a school that has 2 NC and 110k fans every week.
Im praying TP commits to us but I just dont see it as he wanted to be part of a top class an we will struggle to have a top 50 class and a 5th class in the Big Ten
Something is very very wrong with our program and Im so frustrated about it.
I cant believe how much this bugs me but I love my PSU and hate how we have slipped to a top 40 program from a top 10
Thank god for my giants as I should be able to enjoy them for the next few years
Reply to this
He attended 4 games at State College this year alone...was he paying attention to the game ....you chuckleheads take every word that comes out of this 18 year olds mouth as though it were sacred...he is forced by his popularity to talk to the press...does not mean he is even paying attention to what he says...just means he is expected to say something and does.
Reply to this
TOTAL FAILURE!!!COMPLETE AND TOTAL, 100% FAILURE BY THE STAFF!! FIRE THE FU#KING STAFF!!!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE??
YES I"M YELLING!!!!!!!!!
Reply to this
Matt,
The offense he was watching the last 2 years is not the offenive spread philosophy he would be running at PSU. So I dont understand your post.
I dont know why it took so long for one of our OC's to come see him and in a very detailed manner break down the offense philosophy he would run at PSU.
TP has seemend fairly honest in all his quotes and there is no reason for me to question his statement that he didnt fully understand our offensive philsophy when he would be QB at PSU.
Reply to this
nobody with any money or claut has any ballz to do anything about this travisty we call a coaching staff??
NOBODY!?? the millions of fans we have, you're telling me nothing can be done about this sham??
Reply to this
Don't get me wrong...I'm not saying that the year was a success by any means in terms of recruiting. But our class is much smaller this year than most of the classes ahead of us which factors into the rankings.
For instance, the top class has 32 commits compared to PSU's 14. I'm not making excuses for a poor ranking...I'm just trying to put things in perspective.
I'm also just trying to look at ONE or TWO positives from this entire recruiting season...the fact that our staff has put forth more of an effort than any other program to snag Pryor is a positive. The fact that despite a disgraceful season and poor excuse for an offense we're STILL in the Pryor sweepstakes is a positive.
I don't mind the negativity as it is often warranted...but there ARE some good things in this mess.
Reply to this
Matt,
I like Lynn Stank Pannell and our LB's.
Unfortunately we just dont have any offensive playmakers (please Pryor commit) and that is why we cant win big games on the road or beat MU and OSU cuz its very difficult for us to make those 40-60 yd plays that super athletes make. MU and OSU have these superior athletes on Offensive and our record vs them reflects this.
I guess there are a few good things but aren't you concerned that we couldnt fill our 16-17 schollies, even after 2 big reaches in Ware and Farrell, I mean we are Penn State.
Kids just dont want to come here and play anymore.
I do think there is hope in that somehow with 18 returning starters we can finish in the top 10 and with possibly 25 schollies next year can reel in a top 10 class like in 06, but I have lost alot of faith in this staff to win big games on the road and with next years schedule a 9-4 season is very likely and if that happens and the continued uncertainity around JoePa, then things will continue to spiral downward. If I were a betting man, which I am, I think the odds are more likely for us to experience another downturn than an upturn in the near future with the main hope being a great season next year and/or 08 being Joe Pa last
Reply to this
How good will Pryor look in a Penn State uniform while he's lying on his back because our O-line recruiting sucks? We did not meet our needs once again. Hey, at least we're likely to retain the title of Linebacker U.
Reply to this
Galen Hall is Jay's babysitter. He wasn't brought to PSU to recruit. He's here to mentor Jay and absorb blame for PSU's inept offense.
Joe is too old, too stubborn, and too entrenched to bother recruiting anyone these days.
Reply to this
here are some stories to cheer ya up: 2 years ago, vidal hazelton was between PSU/USC...dad wanted PSU, vidal wanted USC - after not signing on LOI day b/c dad said wait, he ended up at USC. Last year, broderick green was a 5 star RB between USC/PSU...mom said PSU, he wanted USC, went to USC
reason for this...pryor's dad might want PSU, but history shows, kid's wishes win out and terelle doesn't want psu
also, i understand the bad recruiting year, etc. etc. - but i think we can ALL agree the biggest problem at PSU is the misuse of its talent, not the lack of it...not enough talent to be Nat'l Champ, but enough to be Big 10 champ...if that were the case, recruitin would become MUCH easier
Reply to this
What about Deion Walker he wanted PSU and Dad ND, where did he go?
Staff went after Pryor hard and even said PSU recruited him harder than ever. His whole deal on picking a school wasnt based on facts, any facts. The whole spread in his public comments became a big deal when RRod left WVA. If he was not really giving us the time of day, how can we get our offense to him. It took until his visit to Michigan until he was explained by RRod what kind of offense they would put in and tweak for him. I really do not believe the kid had any idea of how to systematically go about picking a school and basically was doing everything superficially based on these other recruits like me, I like WVU because of the spread, that is all changing now with Batch and his Dad. If you for one think that TB and Jay didnt tell them about the offense you better think again. Even if they said well we ran a version of the offense with Michael Robinson and TP never asked questions, you or they would think he understands what he may have seen in 2005 but then again maybe he didnt. If you are trying to sell someone and they do not ask pointed questions about your program or show concerns to you about the offense, the dorm sizes, temp of Creamery Ice Cream, you have no idea what is running through that person's mind. He just saw our offense this year and said it was bad. His whole process of analysis of this recruiting process tells me that a RS is a must. We do not want another QB who is not prepared mentally to take the field. This is not HS football where you can just get by on talent at QB and run around a lot, especially if you have visions of the NFL.
Reply to this
While I agree we could've finished better, we actually filled a few needs. Lynn fills a big need. The OL recruits of Pannell and Stankie fit the bill nicely. We are actually in pretty good shape with the OL as Eliades and Wiz are keepers. If one of the incoming guys fills in, Pryor (or Devlin) will not have to worry about being on their back. The OL was a major concern last year but THE STAFF DID AN OUTSTANDING job here. I'm looking for the rest of the pieces to come together. Also look at incoming class PLUS redshirts they need to be judged together. We had quite a few RS freshman (Green, still sukay, moye, etc) that haven't used up any eligibility yet.
If TP doesn't come for an official or accept the coaches offer to meet with him, how is a coach suppose to relay how an offense might work? When was the chance? They've sold him on coming on a visit and they will talk ALMOST as much about academics and the other things as they do football. PSU is just as proud of everything else as they are football. Parents and advisors see this. Look guys like Eddie Drummond got their NFL shot, Omar Easy, Kenny Watson, Ethan Kilmer outside of PSU fans how many fans know these were PSU players? If you have the talent regardless of how well you are used, the NFL will find you. How about Willie Parker? Bottomline is TP will go to the NFL if he shows enough. At what position is another story although he reminds me so much of Randall Cunningham more so than Vince Young.
Reply to this
good post -makes too much sense for the "realists" and haters
Reply to this
im a "realist" and i also think that was a good post - i think having 2 opinions on the state of PSU is also good - if everyone thought the same way the decision would be easy and the conversations would be boring...there are problems at PSU, many of them, but their honor, or at least attempt at honor, is very admirable - it is obvious that parents of the recruits love this approach
so don't put everyone in ith the SJ just because they might not think PSU is 100% terrific right now...
Reply to this
golferhhi
good post
But what I still dont understand is we have been recruting this kid for 2 to 3 years, he has been to many games. I dont understand why Jay or Galen didnt spend 1 hour min. with him, throw in an MROB tape, break down the film and show what we did and explain the tweaks we would add specifically due to his skillset. I still dont understand why it took until last week for something like this to happen when our coaches have had many opportnities previously to address this issue with TP.
Regardless I hope we pick him up and while our chances have improved, I still think there is a >50% chance we dont land him. If we did our offensive recruiting next year would improve dramatically.
In regard to the post about us being Big Ten champs, I think we match up fairly well against Mich and OSU talent wise (esp on D) except they have those super athletes on offense (Ginn, Edwards, Manningham, Wells, Gonzalez, Smith etc.) that are the differnce makers and ultimately win the game for them. Those NFL lineman they produce dont hurt either
The one year we had a guy similiar to the above we did very well offensively and thus competed with them much better.
Reply to this