Houston and BYU are finally set to join the Power 5 as Big 12 members this year. This is the second cycle these programs have been recruiting prospects who will play exclusively in the Big 12 — and they’re both off to extremely slow starts.
BYU’s class ranks 75th nationally a year after it finished 66th. The Cougars have only seven commitments, with an average player rating of 84.73 ‚ so it’s rough from a quality and quantity standpoint. The program typically hovers around the 60s and 70s in the rankings, so there is an argument that this isn’t time to panic. But shouldn’t recruiting expectations be higher now that BYU is among the Power 5 ranks?
The only P5 school ranked lower than BYU is Houston, which also has just seven commitments. Houston has a pledge from four-star linebacker Maurice Williams Jr. (the No. 152 player nationally), which is a glimpse of its recruiting potential. The fact he’s one of only two commits who rank in the top 1,000 nationally shows just how much ground has to be made up over the next few months.
BYU and Houston are entering the Big 12 at a talent deficit in comparison to the current members. Both programs will have to recruit better to close that gap.”
The chronicle is already influencing national websites. They just don’t understand that Dana recruits different than traditional coaches. He is saving room for transfer portal kids that most coaches forget about.
He doesn’t need to do this anymore. He should be getting more talented players at UH now as a P5 school. The competition is three times more competitive. What UH was able to get away with at the AAC won’t cut it at a top 3 football conference now from top to bottom.
That’s exactly how Matt Wells got himself fired. It became obvious that he was going all in on transfers and no one wanted the roster to be fully “Charlie Weis’d”.
Harder and harder to find overlooked guys anywhere nowadays. A third of all Texas HS games are being broadcasted live, and practically every school makes tape available on Hudl within a week or so. Beyond that, the burgeoning camp circuit and publicly available track time databases mean that even schools without massive backroom personnel staffs can sift through a ton of information to find guys.
Matt Wells got fired because he was in over his head from the beginning and he never did anything to solidify any kind of support base. And he turned off the biggest BMDs. Plus, his teams reflected his personality. Really, he just sucked at everything.
Legitimate question - Are there successful programs that will forego traditional recruiting to focus on the transfer portal? Apparently, this is the Dana model.
I understand it’s more efficient from a coaching perspective to recruit the transfer portal. Instead of taking the time to find the right HS player and investing the time needed to develop them, you get a known commodity that comes with proven experience. But what do the most successful programs do? Where is their focus in acquiring the right players?
Terrible analogy. Matt Wells is only a valid comparison if Lubbock produces hundreds of D1 players every year that sign elsewhere and are good candidates to transfer back home if their initial destination is less than ideal.
I think Holgorsen is smart to keep open ships for transfers, given the huge amount of talent from the Houston area that has been dispersed nationwide.
Acting like a dominant P5 program and holding out hopes beating out the real dominant P5 programs is a good way to be scrambling for leftovers once the kids we were holding out for go to the real dominant programs.
Using the portal and recruiting good players from high schools is a good way to work your way up the ladder. We have had many very good players that were not 4 star recruits. I believe we have a Heisman Trophy winner that wasn’t rated as a 4 star player.
So the portal didn’t give Texas Tech their starting QB, top 10 pick DE Tyree Wilson, and most of your starting secondary last year? McGuire has done a good job recruiting high schoolers but we will see how he performs with his recruits in 2-3 years.
