Major Applewhite could be starting something big, and all it took was one offseason

Imagine if players like Kendall Sheffield (Ohio State), Holton Hill (Texas), Rodney Anderson (Oklahoma), Jalen Hurts (Alabama), Walker Little (Stanford) and Trayveon Williams (Texas A&M) committed to Houston. All six played high school within 30 minutes of Houston, and could have stayed home. Applewhite and his staff are trying to get players to stay in Houston, and Ceaser could be a key piece in achieving that goal.

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Whoa, there. " The Cougars have already shown that staying home can actually do wonders for a players career (Oliver has proven that)." This statement isn’t true. Ed has said multiple times he committed to UH to play with his brother. If Marcus had gone to Timbuktu U., that’s where Ed would have gone.

Still much work to do to get 4* recruits to commit to UH in numbers. Consistently winning 9+ games, the conference title, and a bowl win vs good competition are key, I think.

I don’t know if just winning is enough. We’ve won 10 plus games in our history and never signed a player the caliber of EO. If Ed truly only came to UH because of Marcus (which I don’t buy), then we would need to start recruiting more siblings. lol I think winning helps, but what Ed is going to do this year and get drafted top 5 speaks without saying a word. Recruits don’t need him to tell them that staying home can still lead to success; they can already see it.

Why don’t you buy it? Ed’s father said he was going where Marcus was. Ed has said such multiple times as well. Why would they lie?

I’m not suggesting he’s lying, I’m saying I don’t believe that’s the only reason he chose to come here. He may have mentioned his brother for a reason, but he’s mentioned playing for his city more times than that. I think it’s a combination of factors so to speak. I think he loves this city and our university.

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This article backs up that his dad basically mandated he play at UH. However, it doesn’t matter. Ed seems to love it here and all he has done is shine… brightly. And his halo effect is helping us.

From all that I have read, Ed is very tight with his family and he likes being able to play close to them.

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I get that some players’ deciding factor may be the chance to play for the national title and the name recognition. If 4 and 5 star recruits are good enough for an offer from 'Bama, The OSU, Clemson, Georgia, OU, and so forth, it is likely we can’t compete if that’s their main motivation. But if we’re winning games and conference titles and bowl games against those guys I think we can win some of those recruits.

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Agreed.

Also, a kid excelling here with pro potential gets a lot of press.

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Ok so we can’t go head to head with the hand full of P5 teams that have a realistic chance of playing for a national championship (that is about 15 schools). There, however, is no reason at this point that we can’t compete with the other 50 P5 schools for talent. In fact now we have more to offer vis a vis those schools.

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I’m sure the coaches here used this tactic (hopefully), but I would think it would be really important for a big time recruit to know he’s going to play early and often. He has a much better shot at that here (or another G5) than at the top P5 teams. Surely our coaches are trying to sell these guys on playing immediately rather than redshirting, sitting behind other 5 stars and maybe seeing the field as a RS Jr. And gone are the days that even early playing time doesn’t overcome the fact that getting drafted in the NFL is a pipe dream. We have obliterated that misconception in the past several years.

My opinion is that honest coaches don’t promise playing time to anyone. You have to earn it. Now, they could, and I would, talk about a recruit’s skill set and how it fits in and so forth. But you have to earn playing time at the next level regardless of how great you were at the previous level.

Example is Courtney Lark. He’s played behind Bonner and Dunbar for 2 years despite having more “talent”. No guarantee he gets any more time this year either. You gotta earn it.

I have often wondered why Vandy and Duke don’t do better in football. Their academics are way better than anyone else in their conferences…maybe Wake Forest can hang with Duke academically. Seems like unless a kid is an absolute brick, a degree from one of those schools would be a recruiting edge.

Maybe Stanford gets all of those kids?

Good point, and I agree. Didn’t mean to convey that. I was talking about a much greater likelihood of playing early, not a guarantee.

There are a couple responds first would be admissions in general. If a school is unwilling to bend there standards for prospects then it becomes tough to get them to campus. The second is most higher level prospects are simply not focused on the degree. I’m not just talking about the top stars, but most the goose is always the NFL not life after football. Not saying it’s a wise course of action, but none of us at 17 or 18 are particularly wise.

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