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Post by brother on Feb 7, 2024 18:11:13 GMT -6
If he is as good as his Dad........
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Post by brother on Feb 7, 2024 18:16:34 GMT -6
Added a second QB from the Transfer Portal. Welcome former Presbyterian and Furman QB Tyler Huff! Huff is a grad transfer, so we only have him for a year, but he's our most experienced QB on the roster, having earned the following awards as a starter at both FCS schools: 2023 All-Southern Conference (2nd Team) 2023 Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Week (Sept. 18, 2023 and Oct. 16, 2023) 2023 Preseason All-Southern Conference (2nd Team) 2023 Team Co-Captain 2023 Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll 2021 Pioneer Football League Academic Honor Roll 2020 Pioneer Football League Academic Honor Roll (season played in spring '21) 2020 Pioneer Football League Offensive Player of the Week (Mar. 16, '21) 2020 Academic All-Pioneer Football League (1st Team) 2020 All-Pioneer Football League (2nd Team) That SoCon PoW honor from Sept. 18 bears special mention. Hugg earned it after rushing for 79 yards and 4 TDs and completing 24-of-32 passes for 237 yards, as the Paladins defeated a school with a certain nocturnal mascot of the avian variety, located just northwest of Atlanta. He's a dual threat so will probably fit the offense. With this many QBs, we are certain to lose some after spring training.
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Post by funkychicken on Feb 7, 2024 19:42:38 GMT -6
How does the Jax State NSD class stack up against the rest of C*USA? Asking for a friend.
FC
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Post by Cleburneslim on Feb 7, 2024 21:38:26 GMT -6
How does the Jax State NSD class stack up against the rest of C*USA? Asking for a friend. FC Ask me again next January.
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Post by smith79jordan on Feb 8, 2024 9:05:19 GMT -6
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Post by Whup Em All on Feb 8, 2024 10:32:40 GMT -6
How does the Jax State NSD class stack up against the rest of C*USA? Asking for a friend. FC Ask me again next January. This is the best answer. We've discussed the failings of the recruiting services before, but I noticed something this recruiting cycle which hammers it home. If a non-P5 coach wants to finish at the top of the recruiting rankings, he either needs to have a solid contact at a recruiting service (in order to "steer" that service toward a player he wants to recruit) or he needs to -- and I can't believe I'm saying this, but here we are -- use a single recruiting service as the primary source for his "big board" of recruiting targets. Example One: I've just been hired at Tiny Rock U, an FCS college in rural west Alabama. My assistants have told me about Johnny Bigthighs, a stud running back at Lonesome River High, a nearby 2A school. Small school competition, to be sure, but this kid is the real deal. D-I quality size and strength, blistering speed, and he's academically qualified. But he's completely off the radar. No one knows about him but me and my staff. Sure, this can be a good thing -- we can offer him and know with a high degree of certainty that he'll end up signing with us. But when the recruiting rankings come out, he counts as an "NR" when recruiting classes are compared. I can't have that. So I pick up the phone and call my friend who's a scout at 247Sports. "Hey, man. You think you can get over to Lonesome River in the next few weeks? They've got a running back there we've been scouting. Looks like a good one." "Sure thing, my guy." And a month later, Johnny Bigthighs is a 3-star recruit on 247. He's still not even on the radar of Rivals, ESPN, and On3, and probably won't be. But that doesn't matter. According to 247, we've got another 3-star in the fold. Boom. Not every signee will end up with three stars, of course, but at this level, you just need a few to soar up the rankings. The evening of National Signing Day, 247sports lists Tiny Rock U as the top ranked recruiting class in the conference, and among the leaders in the entire subdivision. Excuse me while I run and add another gold star to my resume. Example Two: The next season, I take a job at Metro U, a G5 school in a medium sized city. My staff and I gather to discuss the upcoming recruiting class. We have a big list of players who've contacted us, and a smaller list of guys our high school coaching contacts have told us about, and an even smaller list of prospects we've seen firsthand. But when it comes time to make the big board of targets, we open up 247sports.com and start searching for stars. A kid may be the greatest player you've ever seen, but if he's not ranked, and there's another player interested in us who has three stars, the three-star kid gets the higher position. It doesn't mean we won't recruit the non-ranked kid. Of course we will. But landing that 3-star is our top priority. Understand, this is not just about recruiting solid players who *happen* to be ranked because they're solid players. It's about explicitly using the recruiting service to rank our prospects and establish our priority targets. We end up signing several of those guys, since we gave them so much love. All are talented -- no question -- but we may have let some unranked studs get away who may have fit our scheme a little better. But we get a nice high ranking on 247, and that's what matters most. I mean, wins matter, too. But talent like this will get us some wins. Maybe even enough wins to contend for a championship, but certainly enough to go bowling. The combination of high recruiting rankings and bowl appearances is enough to keep me employed here for a decade or more, before anyone starts getting antsy about the lack of conference championships. Example Three: I'm Rich Rod. I and my staff know how to find and evaluate talent. Some of those players are ranked highly by all the recruiting services. Some players are listed but not ranked. Still others aren't even in the database of a single service. And I don't care. I've seen most of these kids myself, and I trust my staff when it comes to the ones I haven't. When signing day rolls around, we sign a mix of 3-star players and total unknowns. Our position in the rankings changes with every recruiting cycle. Sometimes we're up near the top. Sometimes we're at the bottom. And I don't care. Because I know I'm going to take the best players I could sign who best fit my offense and defense onto the practice field, and I'm going to coach 'em up. My S&C staff is going to get them bigger, stronger, and faster. And when the rubber hits the road, and each game kicks off this season, my team is going to slobberknock the hell out of our opponents. I mentioned "noticing something" this recruiting cycle. I won't mention names, since I don't have any actual hard evidence of anyone using Example 1 or Example 2 to guide their recruiting. But I did notice some trends I'd noticed before with these same coaches. And as they've moved on to different schools in different towns and cities, those trends have continued. It could just be one heck of a coincidence. But I don't think so. For me, personally, it's just one more reason why I no longer give any serious attention to so-called "recruiting rankings" outside the top of P5. (It's a valid metric for Bama, UGA, Ohio State, etc. Not so much for Tiny Rock and Metro U.) I do take note of stars, though. When a player has 3, 4, or (in the rare cases when we land em) 5 stars, we can count on that player having raw talent if nothing else. There's a slightly better chance he'll wind up an impact player for us. But there are tons of hidden gems in all the unranked players we sign. Even among the PWOs. So at the end of the day, I don't care where we rank at 247 or Rivals or On3. The only ranking that matters is the one based on wins and losses at the end of football season.
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Post by Whup Em All on Feb 8, 2024 11:00:41 GMT -6
* Added Andre Devine. His signing is still not listed by JSU, but EVERYBODY else has reported it, so I'm counting it.
To be clear, Devine wasn't recruited away from his daddy's alma mater WVU. The Mountaineers made an early offer, then signed several other RBs before he contacted them to commit, and they basically pulled their offer. (Noel was none too pleased about that, but it is what it is.)
But we DID recruit Andre away from FAU, USF, and Marshall. I will absolutely take that any day of the week.
So what did we land? Well, he's undersized, but fast as heck. And agile. Can stop and turn on a dime. Slippery. Not easy to tackle. Good vision. Uses his blockers. Can play RB, WR, or CB. Solid return man, too.
Is he our highest rated recruit this cycle? No. Is he our highest rated RB? Again, remarkably, no.
But is he the kind of player who can make a big impact early for the Gamecocks? You betcha.
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Post by yourfavoritebackupqb on Feb 8, 2024 15:10:03 GMT -6
* Added Andre Devine. His signing is still not listed by JSU, but EVERYBODY else has reported it, so I'm counting it. To be clear, Devine wasn't recruited away from his daddy's alma mater WVU. The Mountaineers made an early offer, then signed several other RBs before he contacted them to commit, and they basically pulled their offer. (Noel was none too pleased about that, but it is what it is.) But we DID recruit Andre away from FAU, USF, and Marshall. I will absolutely take that any day of the week. So what did we land? Well, he's undersized, but fast as heck. And agile. Can stop and turn on a dime. Slippery. Not easy to tackle. Good vision. Uses his blockers. Can play RB, WR, or CB. Solid return man, too. Is he our highest rated recruit this cycle? No. Is he our highest rated RB? Again, remarkably, no. But is he the kind of player who can make a big impact early for the Gamecocks? You betcha. Cant' beat that South Florida speed . Let's go!
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Post by Whup Em All on Feb 12, 2024 10:27:32 GMT -6
Recruiting services are starting to adjust their star ratings for players signing FBS scholarships. On3 now has our whole February NSD class ranked as 3 stars.
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Post by Whup Em All on Apr 11, 2024 16:11:49 GMT -6
Added Miss. Valley State grad transfer safety Chase Alexander, a Phenix City product.
Alexander has two years of eligibility remaining after serving as "the lone bright spot on the MVSU defense" (as described by one HBCU writer). He had a redshirt year plus a medical redshirt for knee surgery in 2020 and 2021. He's played without any issues for two straight seasons.
Highlight reel:
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Post by Whup Em All on Apr 22, 2024 9:50:09 GMT -6
Added former Tennessee Volunteer and Tulsa Golden Hurricane Kenney Solomon II, a 6-0, 170 cornerback with confirmed 4.5 speed who was a consensus 3-star coming out of high school.
And former Kent State QB Griffin Brewster, a product of Rome, Ga.'s Darlington School. (He projects as a scout team guy, but he's a decent player in his own right, ranked 3 stars by 247, ESPN, and on3 coming out of Darlington.)
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Post by Whup Em All on Apr 22, 2024 12:40:24 GMT -6
Added former Wagner WR Jayvin Little, a solid receiver (37 receptions for 471 yards and 5 TDs) and experienced return man (40 KR for a 21.4 yd avg; 10 PRs for an 8.63 yd avg). He was very effective for the Gamecock offense during the spring game.
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Post by pascal on Apr 22, 2024 14:13:54 GMT -6
Added former Tennessee Volunteer and Tulsa Golden Hurricane Kenney Solomon II, a 6-0, 170 cornerback with confirmed 4.5 speed who was a consensus 3-star coming out of high school. And former Kent State QB Griffin Brewster, a product of Rome, Ga.'s Darlington School. (He projects as a scout team guy, but he's a decent player in his own right, ranked 3 stars by 247, ESPN, and on3 coming out of Darlington.)
247sports.com/player/griffin-brewster-94314/
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Post by Cleburneslim on Apr 22, 2024 15:41:12 GMT -6
Brewster was in the rotation for the spring game.
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Post by brother on Apr 22, 2024 17:02:41 GMT -6
If I'm not mistaken, we have 9 quarterbacks currently. I would think at least 5 of those will go into the portal again soon.
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