ODU is recruiting well against its football peers

[Harry]

Let me start this by saying it’s very early in the college football recruiting process. Old Dominion has eight commitments so far from high school players, and the Monarchs hope to sign approximately 20 players this winter.

So it’s hard to judge the class of 2014 with much accuracy.

But so far, at least, ODU is doing what it needs to do to be competitive in Conference USA – it’s luring good recruits away from peer schools.

ODU’s class is ranked among the best in Conference USA and, considering that ODU has yet to enter the Football Bowl Subdivision, surprisingly high among FBS schools.

The 247 Sports recruiting Web site has ODU ranked 71st out of 118 FBS schools and third among the 16 schools in C-USA, behind No. 59 Rice and No. 70 Tulsa.

ODU will join Conference USA and begins playing FBS football in 2014. While the Monarchs technically will be in the same NCAA classification as the ACC, SEC and the other power conferences, C-USA schools rarely beat the big boys for recruits.

C-USA is at the same level as the American Athletic Conference (formerly known as the Big East), the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West, and to a lesser extent, the Sun Belt. Those conferences largely compete for the same pool of players.

Two years ago, ODU rarely beat a Big East or MAC team for recruits. ODU was content to snare the best recruits in the Mid-Atlantic away from Delaware, James Madison and Towson.

However, half of ODU’s eight recruits this spring and summer had offers from American Athletic Conference and/or Mid-American Conference schools. The other half were recruited largely by FCS schools.

Without speaking to individual recruits – something he can’t do under NCAA rules – recruiting coordinator Ron Whitcomb said the biggest difference between this year and last “is that we’re beating some teams that in the past we haven’t beaten very much.

“We had a tough time against some of them.”

Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/07/odu-recruiting-well-against-its-football-peers

[Mean_Green09]

Their two top prospects are outta stater’s too. They were able to go down to South Carolina and New Jersey and pluck away some guys. What's more surprising is comparing their recruiting class from last year to ours. I'd say they would have been ranked higher.

Here's a question: I know that we have tons of talent right here in Texas, but do you feel that we may be able to do just as well recruiting out of state? I mean we can't do any worse. Recruits here don't know to much about UNT anyways just like the out of state kids.

[H-towngreen]

Their two top prospects are outta stater’s too. They were able to go down to South Carolina and New Jersey and pluck away some guys. What's more surprising is comparing their recruiting class from last year to ours. I'd say they would have been ranked higher.

Here's a question: I know that we have tons of talent right here in Texas, but do you feel that we may be able to do just as well recruiting out of state? I mean we can't do any worse. Recruits here don't know to much about UNT anyways just like the out of state kids.

No. We tried like hell the last couple of years to get into LA with not much luck. DFW is one of the best hotbeds for talent you will find. I would say look for a gem or two from OK, then focus on DFW, Houston, Golden Triangle and the Piney Woods.