Not trying to be a jerk, I just would like someone to explain what I am missing. I read where we are knocking it out of the park with recruiting and CWF is the recruiter from hell yet our class is ranked in the mid 60’s. Again, just curious on what I am missing.
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Well….
The Houston Cougars hold the No. 25 overall recruiting class for 2027 in the 247Sports 2027 Team Rankings and rank 2nd in the Big 12 via Instagram. Under head coach Willie Fritz, the class includes 15 commitments featuring one four-star prospect and fourteen three-star recruits
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You must be looking at a different 247 website than me.
I followed your link and this screen shot is from the link you posted.
That instagram post is from April.
I see that now.
Thanks.
These rankings will continue to move around.
National Signing Day is still months away.
The 2026 class is more representative, as it is closed out, for all intents and purposes.
2027 is far from over, to address his concern / question.
Whether it’s 25th or 60-something, it’s far better than before Willie got here.
More importantly, it’s targeted to areas of need, and full of some HUGE linemen.
Pretty sure UH will finish a LOT higher than 60, with only 15 recruits, so far, in the class…
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That isn’t exactly true either. In 2023 with Holgerson we were 51st with HS recruits. Without doing too much research I believe we are pretty close to where we have always been with the exception of a year with Herman which was one of our best years.
I understand the recruiting cycle isn’t over but most of the good players are spoken for already. Can we flip some? Possibly we can however we are a far cry from having multiple 4*’s like other schools that are not even inside the top 25.
I am not trying to be a naysayer and while I may not be the biggest UH fan I am pretty close. CWF did some amazing things with last years team and set a good example of doing more with less. I believe he could do more with more so it isn’t a knock against him at all. The facts are the facts and right now we are 61st. The biggest gain I could imagine will be the transfer portal so there is still hope but to quote a recent coach, the HS recruiting class ship has pretty much already sailed.
I will acknowledge Willie had a very good 2026 HS class mainly due to landing Henderson. I just don’t share your enthusiasm that this class will be close to that.
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I appreciate your perspective, but…
…when Holgerson left, the 2024 class was ranked in the 100s… …Willi got here in December of that year, and though that ship had “supposedly sailed”, Willie ended up with the #60 class in the country.
He did that with just a handful of days until signing day.
2027 National Signing Day is still 5 months away. Willie (and staff) are likely still VERY focused on 2027.
Will the Coogs get another 5-star in 2027? Not likely, but still possible.
Will they get another 4-star, or 2? Very possible.
Will the class end up as highly ranked as 2026? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t successful, or that Willie can’t recruit.
His question wasn’t just regarding the fact of the “current” ranking for the class, but he also implied Willie isn’t as good a recruiter as people have suggested.
Taking a snapshot of one class, in the middle of the Summer, to pass that kind of judgement is like judging a movie on a “still shot”.
THAT’S why he’s confused, IMO…
I didn’t respond to say he was wrong about where the class was ranked. I responded because he said he was confused. I’m trying to shed light on that confusion.
It didn’t help that I googled “Houston Football 2027 Recruiting Class Ranking”, and posted the first thing that popped up under 247.
Thanks for clearing that part up…
I see you do that a lot, put words in peoples mouth. I never implied nor thought any such thing. It is also kind of creepy that you refer to me in the 3rd person but if that is what you,do then so be it. I realize you are only a visitor to this website until CWF is gone and perhaps that is an assumption on my part so I will ask. Is that accurate? Are you gone to the next fan blog once CWF is gone?
Pass that kind of judgement? Yikes! I am not surprised but somewhat disappointed that you were the one to respond. Did you indeed pass judgement on me?
If I misjudged you, I apologize Sir.
To answer your question…
No.
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I still pull for all the teams Willie has coached.
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This is likely Willie’s last stop, so I’ll remain a Coog Fan (as in… they’ll be my favorite team), for the remainder of my life.
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Willie and I are only 1 year apart, in age, so I hope to have another 20 years to root for the Coogs.
Again, my apologies if I misjudged you.
As far as his recruiting goes… he’s been able to get the best players out there at whatever level he’s been at. He’s well on his way to doing that at Houston.
This is the first (only) level where $ factors in to the point that he doesn’t have complete control of it.
I know this though… he’s not making any excuses, and he’s working very hard to help with the fundraising, etc… to the extent he is allowed to do so.
So I can promise you whatever $ he does have, he’ll get the most bang for the buck because of the way he gathers information, evaluates, and develops players.
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Thanks for the response. What is confusing are the facts. We went from mid 20’s a few weeks ago to 63. That is no small change. Going from 63 to a respectable 30’s or so will be an astronomical feat and I hope as much as anyone he does it. Perhaps it won’t be in HS recruiting rather the portal. That is perfectly fine. He has shown he gets good portal players.
I respect CWF for not only his recruiting but for his ability to coach the players up. Last season and the win against LSU were extremely encouraging and I have no reason to believe he wont keep the momentum going.
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We were! We’ve had quite a few decomittments of late. Puzzling to say the least, more so to the Baylor’s of the world. If this staff has a weakness, it’s been holding & closing the deal which dates back to last year as well.
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Respectfully, I disagree…
When another program comes along, at the last minute, and offers a kid 500k, when he was getting 100k, that’s not failing to close the deal. That’s another team closing it with an offer the young man can’t refuse.
Willie has said, several times now, he’s got a lot of guys who turned down bigger sums of money to play for Houston.
But he’s not gonna win ‘em all.
I’d love to see the analysis of “NIL to Recruiting Ranking” ratio…
We can disagree though…
In the meantime, if you want top 10 recruiting classes, one of you needs to hit the lottery or hope Houston get’s another Sugar Daddy…
I’m happy to see him doing more with less, or as someone else recently put it, it would be nice to see him do “more with more”.
But that’s not on him.
Question: How much NIL $ does UH have to work with?
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Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these players who are putting $ first in the process end up returning for less or even no money once they find that having money isn’t necessarily as satisfying as on-field success. Plus they already got the money.
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Yep.
Hypothetical Scenario.
Agent: Hello is this ****?
Player: Yes. Who’s this?
Agent: I’m ****, and I’m a college football agent calling on behalf of **** (Rival School). I know you shut down your recruitment, but they’d still like to give you a tour of campus. You owe it to yourself to take a look and see why it might make sense for you. I can arrange for all the travel for you and your Family. How many people do you plan to bring?
Player: uh, I wasn’t planning to…
Agent: INTERUPTS. That’s okay, I’ll do all the planning for you. Are you free next Tuesday, or is the weekend better for you?
Player: uh, the weekend, I guess, but…
Agent: How many people?
Player: 3, I guess. Could I bring my girlfriend?
Agent: You can bring anyone you want, I’ll put you down for yourself and 3 others then.
Player. Ok, but I want you to know I’ve already committed to ****…
Agent: Of course, no pressure (yeah right). We’ll be picking you up in a private jet and when you arrive at the airport here, we’ll give you all a ride in a limo to wherever you need to go all weekend. Pack light because you’ll have a LOT ($) to take home with you, if you get what I mean.
Player: You mean money?
Agent: Did I say that? How much is **** going to pay you?
Player: $$,$$$
Agent: (laughing out loud) Well all I can say is you’re going to be a very happy young man after this weekend…
Player: Why is that?
Agent: Well… that’s the good news The more you get, the better we both do, because I work for you. All I can say is they’re already willing to pay $$$,$$$, but I think we can get more.
I’ll fly out to pick you, and your parents, and your girlfriend up Saturday morning at 8:00 am. Until then, don’t talk to anyone else except your parents and we’ll talk more on the flight there.
Player: ok, well thanks.
Agent: my pleasure.
Player: Bye
Agent: See you Saturday morning.
Click:
Click:
Agent: Hello ****?
Head Coach: oh hi ****, is he coming?
Agent: yeah, we got him.
Head Coach: How much do we have to pay?
Agent: Don’t know yet, but I know what he’s promised at ****. $$,$$$.
Head Coach: Is that all? Damn, I’m glad we have more $ than them. This young man is a stud. Are you going to do the usual press release write up to make it sound like he fell in love with the small town atmosphere?
Agent: Does a “one-legged duck swim in circles?
Head Coach: Great job ****!
Agent: Well, you know I work for you coach…
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Ranking wise, even taking the higher recruiting grade (HS or Transfer) the incoming class is ranked better than any of the other classes. 2027 Isn’t done yet. I think we will be fine when once the season gets going.
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Impressed with terse but non-being-a-jerk kind of questions and the precision with attention to detail from you guys. It makes the offseason go by faster.
Subjectivity is overrated anyway.
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I don’t think our HS class is going to get much better due to the 5for5 rule. In fact, I think that’s the reason for some of our decommittments thus far. We may have to be aggressive in the portal again depending on who transfers &/or goes pro.
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I think you touch on a VERY important matter.
We continually look at the program’s future success through the lens of Yearly HS Recruiting Classes, and the Portal, however…
…setting aside the other factors that influence results on the field, like player development, retention, etc…
…those “lenses” don’t take into account the 1-2 year gap between when HS Players, typically, work their way into a starting role and when Portal Players are “expected” to start.
For example…
Last years 10-3 squad was, for the most part, the result of HS Recruits from 2022-2025, along with transfers by the likes of Weigman, Koziol, Thomas, Connors, etc…
This Fall, the results, by my hypothesis, will be the aggregate of HS Recruits from 2023-2026, and transfers like Hurst, Mayo, Walker, Hughes, etc…
I’ve left several great players off of both lists because I can’t recall every one, off the top of my head. But back to my point…
So the difference between 2025 and 2026 could be viewed as how does the HS class from 2022 (dropped) measure up with 2026 (added), and how does this year’s Portal class compare to last year’s class?
I realize there may still be a HS recruit or two from 2021; I wasn’t going to look that up either.
So, I believe, overall, it’s an improvement, but there’s no way I’m going to attempt the analysis, and instead rely on my gut.
…and bear in mind, the dynamic duo of Weigman and Thomas remain from the previous Portal class.
My gut tells me that both talent level, and depth, will be even better this Fall.
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We aren’t in the 20’s and in the mid level in B12
We dropped with decommits
