The reality of today’s brave new world of the NIL and TP is really starting to sink in with me. I’m having a moment of clarity. Schools like UH are essentially becoming “farm clubs” for the bigger state schools with deep pockets. Sure we can increase our giving, and we have to, but the big schools will always have more. We land a good recruit, develop him, he turns out to be great, and he’ll be stolen away. What happened with Golden to UT is a prime example. I think this will also continue to happen to us in coaching. I bet there are schools working on our DC right now. It’s inevitable.
So what’s the answer? I think we should embrace our farm club position. We should recruit takented kids that have been overlooked knowing full well that we’ll have them only 1 or 2 years. When they leave, we’ll have another to take his place for a chance at the big time. Recruiting will be of the utmost importance. Actually, that should be easier since the big boys would rather buy talent than develop it. Same goes for coaches. We should only hire relatively unknown up and comers and realize they’ll only be here 2-3 years if they are any good. Young coaches will stand in line to get the chance. And with this mindset, you never give them long term contracts and that fixes another of our problems.
We also steal from lower level farm clubs like ULM, Kennesaw State and guys who want to return to H-Town from USC. We also have transfers from OU, Tech, Tulane and many other recognizable programs.
Correct. We are a farm club for the bigs, but we also use the smaller schools as our farm club. While the big schools offer big $$, we offer kids a chance to play in a Power 5 conf on national TV and get noticed. Do you think Tank Dell would’ve been playing on Sundays if he had stayed at Alabama A&M?
We are what our record says. It really depends on the coach. A coach that players love will retain players despite NIL. If they don’t respect and love the coach it’s a mess.
I’m not so sure anymore. $$ speak to these kids today. We live in a time of instant gratification. They may respect a coach and want to stay, but their agents are constantly whispering in their ear. CFB has changed. That’s the reality.
Good point. A top notch recruiting coordinator that is paid really really well might be the answer. Coaches come and coaches go, but you have to keep that line of recruits coming. Rebuilding and starting over is too costly on today’s new CFB world.
You’re forgetting about all the transfers from small programs (our farm clubs) and JUCOs we can bring in. Lot’s of those kids just want a shot at the big time. Look what KSU has done over the years with heavy reliance on JUCOs. Pretty consistent
The situation is fluid as NIL continues to change and the rules keep changing, too.
You have to pay up for a QB and give him at least 2 years to be successful. The talent around him matters but much less than the QB.
For a generation or more, it’s been the most important position in sports, but since the advent of NIL, it’s become even bigger. Look at FSU as an example of choosing the wrong QB. Look at Indiana as an example of choosing the right one (obviously exceptions exist).
Currently, UH is bereft of collective talent everywhere on offense, but a good QB could mask a lot of it. But losing McCaskill and Golden to the ‘deep pockets’ was addition by subtraction in the locker room.
There’s significantly less programs that can poach from us then when we were in the American. Our talent pool should generally increase over the next few seasons.
My point is that we will lose those stars every year, it’s inevitable, but we have done a very poor job of replacing them. We need to get much better at discovering hungry talent and keeping that replacement pool well stocked for when they hit the exit. At least CWF is emphasizing recruiting for a change. That parts getting better.