BillySee58

Yup. Vito words it like Sam Rice started snapping after practice and then relegated Barr to the bench once he got the hang of snapping. Rice had been getting reps at center all fall camp and I think back in spring as well. The way I remember it, Barr was the starter and Rice was the starting guard/backup center, then moved over once Barr was injured.

I get that, but I don't think his risk of injury becomes significantly higher by playing a full season of safety plus returning 40 or so kicks than it would be just from playing a full season of safety. Lance Dunbar hasn't been able to stay healthy at any position in the NFL, and we both know that. If he is our best guy for the job then I hope he's our guy back there. I just don't see injuries at the kick returner position frequently enough, especially in college and at the CUSA level, for it to scare me about having our best player back there anymore than having him at safety a full season scares me in terms of injury.

When was the last time one of our return men was injured returning kicks (or punts)? I think it's a relatively low injury-risk position, across the board. If he's our best returner then I want him returning kicks.

That reminds me, anybody remember this guy? https://mobile.twitter.com/EddieUNTtickets

UTSA is not getting picked over SMU just because they are a conference foe. It's close enough where that helps, just helps, push UTSA over the edge among a few other factors. Iowa vs a conference opponent in this question is such a huge gap in favor of Iowa that getting a conference win doesn't push it over the edge in that case. And the fact that we're losing more recruits to SMU than UTSA illustrates that it *should* be a much more winnable matchup for us in recruiting. We are on a more level playing field with UTSA, so a win against them could help swing the pendulum in our favor with recruits. I don't think right now a win against SMU is swinging the pendulum in our favor in recruiting. And yeah, of course we need sustained winning and not just individual wins against specific opponents, but isolating these wins ceteris paribus I think UTSA does more for us where it matters. Within our conference and in recruiting, because basically no one cares about us outside of that realm unless we're beating a P5 or going undefeated/close to it.

Didn't seem to in 2014

Exactly. Plus, UTSA counts as a win overall and a conference win. Helps our standing in our division, conference, and with recruits against the school we maybe go head to head with the most. We beat SMU and lost to UTSA all in a 5-game stretch at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014. The win against SMU did nothing for us going forward, both in recruiting or that season. The loss to UTSA prevented us from going to a conference championship game. That should illustrate the impact that these games really can hold for us.

Maybe it's because people are so use to 4-3 defenses here, but there needs to be a much better job delineating between a Jack and a second level linebacker in this scheme when discussing linebackers on this board. It's about as different as a corner and safety, if not more different. Yet still a lot of people on here have been referring to all linebackers as if they're all second-level guys.

I think Ben's point is that it's disrespectful to think any kid we get that recruiting evaluators like should not just be called a steal because they come here. That we should be able to get kids like this and it not be considered a steal. I agree that it's not a steal, but for a different reason. Mine revolves around how I perceive the use of the word. To me, in professional sports, a steal is someone who you were able to get who turns out to well exceed the capital you surrendered to get him. Like the Rangers getting Michael Young, their career hits leader, for Esteban Loaiza. Or the Tennessee Titans getting the AFC's leading rusher in 2016, Demarco Murray, for merely moving back 12 spots in the fourth round. Dirk for Robert Traylor, Spurs getting Kawhi Leonard for George Hill, Pats getting Brady in the 6th, etc. Those, to me, are steals. Just like someone saying the car/truck they bought for several thousand less than the value they perceive it at was a steal. In both the vehicle and sports cases we aren't using the literal definition, but rather hyperbole. So for me, the recruiting equivalent would be getting a stud player without giving up much capital which, in recruiting, to me is effort and time recruiting that player. Brelan Chancellor and Brandin Byrd were steals. All we had to do was offer and we got them, instead of spending countless hours outrecruiting other FBS schools to get them. Tee Goree was not a steal, IMO, because we had to bust our tails outrecruiting schools like La Tech, UTSA, and Colorado to get him. For a similar reason I would say Gibbs was not a steal because it looks and sounds like we did spend a significant amount of time and effort trying to get him on board with competition from multiple other FBS programs including a P5. So I think it just comes down to perception of the use of the word.

Just goes to show the meaninglessness of splitting hairs between a 2-star and low 3-star ratings based on recruiting sites. You can literally just ask them to raise a rating and they will. I thought I saw someone else on here so that as well. And there's nothing wrong with that. Big programs' fan bases have been doing that for years. Both on sub-sites and twitter. Also not saying Gibbs doesn't deserve the rating. But it certainly doesn't help credibility once you get past the P5 commits, and certainly past the top 250 or 300/whatever the top listing is.

Very nice! Congrats @GMG24

Based on which comment?

Wait, you think OP is a UAB fan?

I don't think he legitimately signed an LOI. Was never announced, plus the plan was for him to blueshirt and since he never made it in he basically amounted to a decommit. And thanks for the heads up on Wheeler. I didn't think we were his only offer, but I didn't see any verification of other offers when I looked

Is that the new report? I didn't see him on their roster

Hoston doesn't need to be added to that post because I never included him in my class evaluations, since he never actually signed with us. Davis played a season at Kilgore, didn't have a great year, and I don't think he ever played after that. It's a shame since he was so good in high school.

Only if he can prove that he took his initial redshirt at Kansas State in 2015 due to injury

Same age as Junior QB Quinn Shanbour

Yeah, he was on the roster all year last year. I believe he took a redshirt

Take out: 2011 - Jamone Greer 2013 - Justin Manu 2014 - Fonzale Davis 2015 - Xavier Grindle, Brian Ochs 2016 - William Johnson, Cody Hayes That's it. Doesn't change the percentages much, and the classes remain in the same order

We're not doing name calling

For the people dissecting individual recruits out of these classes and pointing to which lowly heralded recruits did well and which highly recruited players didn't produce much, look at the 2012 and 2013 classes. When you sign classes like that back to back, and then have them as the upperclassmen on your roster, that's how you go 1-11.

Note that these offers are ALL of the offers these recruits accumulate throughout the recruiting process. Not just who is actively recruiting them at the time they commit to us. I look at that to determine who our coaches are truly winning head-to-head recruiting battles against.

You can also see that Mccarney's first class was better than his next two. Significantly better than his first "full" class both in terms of offer lists and how the players panned out. I've said before that I don't subscribe to the idea that coaches get a pass on whatever they get in their first signing class on short notice. For the simple fact that coaches should get an inherent bump just for being new and being able to offer early playing time since incumbent players were not signed by them. Thank you, sir

As many of you know, I put a lot of emphasis in recruiting on offer lists of our players in our class as a whole to determine how well we do in recruiting each cycle. It both shows, to varying degrees, how well our coaches did recruiting against other FBS schools for the same players, and which players who we bring in were deemed FBS caliber by other coaches. I started tracking it around 2014, and have gone back and done previous classes as well. I also came up with a letter grade system, inspired by Greg Goedecker, to differentiate between our recruits based on their offer lists. Here is the grading scale again: "C" recruit has no other FBS offers "C+" recruit has one other FBS offer "B" recruit has 2-4 other FBS offers "B+" recruit has 2-4 other FBS offers but they are quality offers (i.e. P5, Boise State, Houston, etc.) "A" recruit has 5-9 other FBS offers "A+" recruit has 10+ FBS offers Note that these offers are ALL of the offers these recruits accumulate throughout the recruiting process. Not just who is actively recruiting them at the time they commit to us. I look at that to determine who our coaches are truly winning head-to-head recruiting battles against. Here are the lists year by year to back up the percentages illustrated in the graph below: Mccarney's first class - 2011 C - 8 (Jimmerson, Ellard, Mcnulty, Laramie Lee, Mason, Stojkovic, Osborn, Shaw) C+ - 6 (Jamone Greer, Cooper Jones, Whitfield, Polk, Marcus Smith, Micah Thompson) B - 3 (Akunne, Austin Orr, Alex Lincoln) B+ - 5 (Brooks, Sampson, Kerry Swarn, Freddie Warner, Andrew Power) A - 1 (Lemon) A+ - 0 9 out of 23 B or better (39.1%) 2012 class C - 14 (Watson, Marshall, Mcdorman, Haboul, Lancaster, Clark, Roberts, Jarvis, Rollins, Lewis, Wallace, Harris, Lajaylin Smith, Devante Davis) C+ - 5 (Rentfro, Schrapps, DQ Johnson, Dilonga, Tucker) B - 4 (Horton, Feldt, Busby, Trussell) B+ - A - 1 (Xavier Kelly) A+ - 5 out of 24 B or better (20.8%) 2013 class C - 6 (Ellis, Minor, Sorge, Walker, Fortenberry, McKinney) C+ - 6 (Shilleci, Reinhardt, Smiley, Dajon Williams, Loving, Nelson B - 2 (Quenton Brown, Fred Scott) B+ - 3 (Manu, James Jones, Moore) A - 1 (Chad Davis) A+ - 6 out of 18 B or better (33.3%) 2014 C - 2 (Jalen Montgomery, Trevor Moore) C+ - 2 (Mcclain, Rutherford) B - 7 (Tillman Johnson, Josh Greer, Akii Smith, Means, Andrew Jones, Tauaalo, Wilson) B+ - 1 (Garner) A - 3 (Adams, Ivery, Davis) A+ - 3 (Goree, Miles, Chumley) 14 out of 18 "B" or better (77.8%) 2015 C - 3 (Ozougwu, Robinson, Thompson) C+ - 6 (Dam. Smith, Bendy, Brooks, Munden, Woodworth, Dak. Smith) B - 9 (Bradley, Preston, Murray, Gray, Howard, Harrison, Wegmann, Grindle, Ochs) B+ - 1 (Young) A - 2 (Barr, Combs) A+ - 2 (McNair, Dillman) 14 out of 23 "B" or better (60.9%) Littrell's first class - 2016 C - 7 (Tyler Wilson, Khairi Muhammad, Mason Fine, Baulkman, Wheeler, Ejiya, Wyche) C+ - 1 (Jameel Moore) B - 6 (Hamilton, Anthony, Hair-Griffin, Darius Turner, Hayes, Jalen Thomas) B+ - 1 (Nic Smith) A - 3 (William Johnson, Henson, Jenkins) A+ - 1 (Rico Bussey) 11 out of 19 B or better (57.8%) 2017 class: "C" - 7 (Newman, E Johnson, Roberts, Thornton, Novil, Hall, S Mose) "C+" - 4 (Pahinui, Pearson, Weatherspoon, Fulp) "B" - 7 (M Mose, Sanders, Davis, Krasniqi, Brammer, Parish, White) "B+" - 3 (Guyton, C Johnson, Siggers) "A" - 1 (Darden) 11 out of 22 "B" or higher (50%) 2018 class "C" - 7 (Leblanc, A Johnson, Carroll, Kason Martin, Brown, Nixon, Redfearn) "C+" - 2 (Hunt, Vada King) "B+" - 2 (Bean, Kameron King) 2 out of 11 "B" or higher (18.2%) Take this how you will. Personally I would like to see us in the 70 percentiles every year of "B" or better. Save some room for guys like Chancellor, Carlos Harris, McClain, Brooks, etc but still fill your class with "B" or better guys who have higher chances to pan out like Zach Orr, Cyril Lemon, Lance Dunbar, Bellazin, Y'Barbo, Jeff Wilson, etc.