Defensive recruiting issues

Cougar Football
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I posted this in a couple other forums and the topic has been discussed before [this came up as I was typing in this post - 11/2018 - Defensive recruiting since Levine ]
but I feel it is worth bringing up again.

When you hear Tom Herman left the cupboard bare on defense, this may be why:

Tom was named UH’s new coach 12/16/2014 and had a hand in the 2015, 2106 and 2017 recruiting classes until Major Applewhite was named Head Coach 12/9/2016

You are allowed a class of 25 each year.

The 2015 Class - 8 recruits on the defensive side of the ball

3 three star recruits and 5 two star recruits (one two star, Tony Levine’s, plays in the NFL)

Before Tom was named HC, Tony Levine had five recruits on the defensive side that Tom was able to hold on to.

Leroy Godfrey, Tyrell Thompson, Camden Ross, Da’Cuan Jenkins, Emeke Egbule

Tom and staff brought in Darius Gilbert, Mike Eke and Jordan Milburn.

Tyrell Thompson ended up playing for UTSA & Tarleton State. Camden graduated in Jan 2019 never recording a stat for UH, Jenkins redshirted and then was injured in 2016. I don’t think he played since then. Mike Eke made one tackle and left the team. Tony’s recruit, Emeke now plays for the LA Chargers in the NFL.

Godfrey, Gilbert & Milburn are still with the team. None are currently on the two-deep.

The 2016 Class - 9 recruits on the defensive side of the ball

One 5 star recruit, 7 three stars and 1 two star

Tony and Ed Oliver’s dad should get 99% of the credit for Tom landing Ed Oliver since Daddy Oliver told Ed that he isn’t playing anywhere that isn’t with his brother who Tony recruited.

One player redshirted - Patrick Rosette but then he wasn’t on the 2017 roster

Hasuaun Glasgow, never enrolled at UH and JJ Dallas never made it to the Fall Semester, leaving the team in August 2016.

Collin Wilder played primarily special teams as a true Freshman, got hurt his sophomore year and then later transferred to Wisconsin where he is now on their two deep and has started one game.

Ed is now in the NFL, playing for the Buffalo Bills. Terrell Williams was an NFL UDFA who was invited to the 49ers camp and got hurt. I read that they put him on their IR.

Javian Smith burned his freshman year on special teams. Was hurt in all of 2017, played in 9 games in 2018 and is now hurt again for all of 2019.

Ka’Darian Smith and Aymiel Fleming are on the two deep with one of them starting.

The 2017 class

Applewhite’s first class, but three committed while Tom was still HC. Derek Parish, Alex Duke and Elijah Gooden.

Parish and Duke red-shirted. Gooden has played in 17,18 and this season too but has had a season ending injury.

Parish is on the two deep as the DE2 this week but he might be playing out of position as a DE. IMO, he is really more of a 3-4 ILB but I’m not a coach

20 total recruits on the defensive side for Tom. Most should be 4th or 5th year seniors.

3 were on this week’s Two Deep - one starter

Applewhite Inherits a Mess That Turns Into a Bigger Mess

With rumors swirling around that Tom Herman was leaving, UH had 16 decommits from the 2017 recruiting class - 9 on defense

Marqez Bimage - DE - DE2 @ UT-Austin

Chidi Ogbonnaya - DE - DE2 @ Baylor

Mohamed Sanogo - LB - started all 12 games in 2018 at LB @ Ole Miss - started 2019 as a starter but is injured and is out for the year

Terrel Bernard - LB - starting WLB @ Baylor

Javelin Guidry - CB - starting Nickel Back @ Utah

Timarcus Davis - CB - CB2 @ AZ State

Terry Petry - CB - Blinn - CB2 @ Blinn

Adam Beck - CB - started two games this season @ Tx Tech

Donovan Stiner - S - starting Safety @ Florida

Tom was named UT-Austin’s coach 11/27/16. 8 of the 9 de-commits happened after he was named.

Applewhite had to work fast to refill the class. One of the glaring issues that he faced was that UH lost 5 DB/S to decommitment. Applewhite refilled with one DB who was actually signed as a LB.

Secondary is where UH has had the biggest issues. Major was quoted as saying something to the effect that he disagreed with signing a certain amount at every position to create a balance. He believed that if it was a strong year for certain positions you took more of that position that year. That has come back to bite UH now in the secondary.

Major did try to reverse the lack of balance in recruiting offense vs defense and problems Tom created. Major added 12 in each of his classes on the defensive side if you include transfers.

The problem being that he could not red-shirt due to what Tom left him, thus creating the lack of red-shirts that Dana has referenced.

Since Jan 2 of this year, Dana has added 16 to the defensive side of the ball to try and fix this problem. 12 of which are either red-shirting, sitting out due to transfer rules or have a red shirt available.

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Ug. If only we had all that D talent that decommitted because of Vermin. The only year he had done anything positive for recruiting he demolished.

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I think the large focus that this staff has is evals on new recruits and player development on the guys that are already here. A lot of the times coaches rely on numbers to build depth if they miss on an eval. Unless you’re Bama or Clemson, you’re not going to be able to sustain that. What I’ve observed is a lot of these guys can be coached up. For example: Kirven (who’s surely becoming my favorite player) was a 2 star athlete who only had offers from us. We lost our two starting linebackers and have to play him alongside Mutin, who is another really young guy.

Enter CJC who is known for simplifying run fits to produce a pretty good run defense. Each game his stamp on these players is showing more. All of sudden, with 2 sophomore LBs playing at a high level (due to player development), we became deeper at LB, when Edge and Gooden come back. That’s what we ultimately have to do until we can recruit like Bama and Clemson (after P5 induction). We have to have the right coaches that can develop talent (also known as the Boise Blueprint).

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Wow! In addition the Bills have said that they have to teach Ed how to use his hands and arms due
to a lack of coaching. I think Major was a disaster.

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Ed was receiving private instruction from some company here in Houston and I remember them posting videos on him practicing hand work. Did he learn nothing at UH?

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http://www.blitzfootballcamp.com/about.html

Nope, nothing from Blum. Ed relied on his speed too much. Now that every NFL lineman has better hands than the O linemen in the AAC, he has to be acclimated to ways to counter that. He’ll eventually get it down. He’s very crafty.

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Major had two problems. One was his problem and the other was a problem Tom created.
Major could not hire strong assistant coaches - he could hire a couple above average, many fair and some below average.
The other problem is described above.

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So what I’m seeing is that Herman didn’t really emphasize defensive recruiting early on but the year he left he had multiple higher end defensive commits that probably would have kept our defense above average if he would have stayed. Even though Applewhite was sold as a “recruiter above all” our top TH recruits bolted and MA was never able to recruit up to the level of Levine or Herman. Essentially the end of TH’s tenure and all of Applewhite’s tenure really set us back. DH is trying to right the ship but we are probably not going to truly stabilize until 2021 once more redshirts come through and we have a couple years of improved recruits from DH.

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It could be argued that he recruited much, much better than Herman based on who actually ended up on the field for us

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No. Applewhite recruited defense. There is just a two year hole in recruiting thanks to Vermin.

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Good analysis!

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Thanks. That explains some of it. I still think the coaches at the time had that responsibility.

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Empirically the guys who were/are recruited to this team are what we’ve always signed (around .8300 ). It didn’t matter if Applewhite got even higher rated guys. He was not a good HC and Applewhite can only fool other HCs that are a lot less smarter than himself (which there weren’t many). See getting blown out by Tulsa one year, blowing Tulsa out the next due to Briles being smarter than their DC, but getting stymied by SMU’s DC in Dallas. Folks have a hard time coming to the understanding that we have talent; we just haven’t had the coaches. We do now. Blaming lack of talent has yet to be supported by anything tangible.

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I can easily make the argument that there is a lack of talent.
When you have two recruiting classes of 8 and 9, which is a small amount AND almost none of them are left - their bodies and their talent are lacking.

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We have had defensive recruiting issues for 30 years, off and on.

Do not know why.

Our emphasis as an innovative Offensive program?

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Jenkins did not recruit defense like Yeoman did. That is my first recollection. Did Jenks or his staff recruit defense at all?

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That would be a lack of bodies. Again, that would not necessarily mean a team is lacking talent. When numerous Coog players (who were rated .8300 or greater out of high school) were chosen in the NFL draft, yet performing poorly on the field suggested they weren’t talented, we have to go with either the scouts/GMs were reaching, or the scouts/GMs were correct. I have to take the latter on that subject. I don’t believe for one bit that we are any less talented than what we’ve always been. People are going to hate me when I say this but Hermie and Orlando did in fact “make chicken salad out of lessor parts”-meaning those guys from that Peach Bowl team were coached up! If you don’t believe me, ask yourself, what was the team record with those same players when Levine was here?

CDH and company are slowly but sure doing the same thing. Guys are being coached up, where Applewhite and company could not do so.

Many people think if we are not loaded with 4-stars we can’t compete. False. The question is do we have enough bodies to run a full season. We will see, but a lot of players on the weakness of this team (Defense) have had a ton of experience coming into this year. Now they have the coaches once again to succeed.

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Gibb’s defense was very good. Orlando got those guys a year more experienced. E-Rob is the only guy who had a break out year who I could see Herman/Orlando getting any credit for. The offense was the big upgrade. Better overall and more ball control to help the D even more. If they really developed guys, where are all the offensive players in the NFL?? That Peach Bowl year defense would have still had at least 5 NFL players if freaking Coogfans was coaching them, serious underrated talent which Levine found.

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Yes, that would mean the team is lacking talent. Senior talent, if actually talented, is generally better than freshman talent.

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They did not make chicken salad out of lesser parts. They made it with people who are now playing in the NFL. Levine and crew did a superior job at scouting.

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