Talking about football but Coach Lewis pretty well got who he wanted from Houston area. Ken Spain, Bob Hall, Dwight Davis, Dwight Jones, Jerry Bonney, David Marrs, Rob and Juice Williams, Chuck O’Neal, Ricky Winslow, Mike Young and many others.
We lost a few recruiting wars like Slab Jones, Karl Godine and Williams from Kashmere, along with a few others but overall we dominated the area for years.
Football not so much
IMO, UH should be able to get Houston area kids if it has the right approach. UH needs to sell the University as one on the rise and be aggressive at spreading the news. #1 AAU status, #2 springboard off the success in basketball. #3 Find a marketing company that knows what it is doing and works like hell at it and fire every lazy idiot that is supposedly doing it now. #4 Find a coach who works at his job as hard as he does at hitting the bars, and gets off his azz and recruits from the TOP DOWN. #5 Put an exciting product on the field that kids see and want to be part of. Football should be fun and this year I didn’t see anybody having much fun out there. #6 win consistently and UH won’t have to worry about the fans- they will come. #7 Treat the fans like they are important- not an afterthought. TCU did it. So did Baylor. Why not Houston?
Greg Ward Jr- Tyler John Tyler
Tyus Bowser- Tyler John Tyler
William Jackson III- Houston Wheatley
Peyton Turner- Houston Westside
Tyron Carrier- Houston Worthing
Courtney Lark- Houston Bellaire
D’Eriq King- Alvin Manvel
DJ Hayden- Fort Bend Elkins
UH- HISD pipeline has traditionally been strong
2 Likes
Gray bringing his A game.
Thanks brother.
1 Like
NFW Fickell goes anywhere but Ohio State. He likes being exactly where he is being a pain in Ohio State’s a**.
This is going to sound weird but maybe big city parents want their kids to go to other places and to see other things. Maybe away from their friends?
Do you have any evidence that he has alienated any local high school coaches? He has offered many Houston area high school kids, but he can only court them, not kidnap them.
1 Like
Is it just me or does it seem like Holgorsen concentrates on the transfer portal quite a bit?
To me, that’s a gamble because you’ll either get a great player who left the previous school for a legitimate reason, such as they want to live closer to family or they don’t like what a new coach is doing, or you’ll pick up players who just didn’t turn out to be quite the talent the first coach who recruited them thought they were or have a lack of discipline and the previous coach from the other school didn’t mind him leaving.
2 Likes
Many coaches have hit the portal hard, not just Dana.
1 Like
The transfer portal is changing the college game. Teams that utilize it wisely can accelerate their improvement. The talking heads on ESPN cite the transfer portal as one of the reasons for the new blood in the CFP. It is likely this year the CFP playoffs will be without Alabama, Clemson and Ohio St. Look at the results at USC.
I’m happy that CDH recognizes its value.
We have had good success through the portal. Several of our starters, including All American Marcus Jones, came as transfers.
1 Like
You have to hit the portal but it can’t be your only source of bringing in talent. You should use it to fill holes not to build your roster.
2 Likes
Like I said in the post above, you do get some quality players, and you gave a good example. I was just wondering if we’re using it too much. It just seems there used to be a lot more posts on here about getting a quality commitment from a HS player and now it’s more aimed at who we MIGHT get in the transfer portal.
Jeff “The Jet” Bergeron…what a blast from the past! I remember seeing him in HS, man he was electric, I think he finished his career at SFA?
Man, some of y’all have some crazy memories. The 73 recruiting class. Jeez, I cannot recall the 3013 class. Lol.
But seriously, I have always thought it was nonsense that we were being kept out because we are a ‘sleeping giant’ that the powers that be are scared of because of something we accomplished 5 decades ago. Half a century.
We were kept out because we had crap facilities that brought in hundred of fans. 2016 put us on the radar. Herman did that. TDECU stadium helped, Case did that (he was out there getting students to vote for another fee). Basketball and the Fertita center and the guy v Lewis practice place and jumpman helped. Kelvin did that.
Nothing we did from around 1977 to 2011 helped our case at all. We rested on our laurels. We had apathetic administrators and facilities we let rot. The entire 90’s alumni group was lost because UH did not care. The Art Smith came along and started to turn the ship. Renu would still be running South Florida if it wasn’t for him taking a shot on UH. Uncle Dave came in and gave us hope and reset some expectations. But it still took 20 more years before they took us seriously.
Dana is a place holder at this point. A bridge until he screws up enough or rides into the sunset. I have accepted that. He hasn’t ruined uh football, he hasn’t ruined our school. It is mighty arrogant to think he could do either.
2 Likes
He’s emptied TDECU whether you believe it or not.
Oh, he has emptied it. But so did Applewhite and Levine.
1 Like
Applewhite and Levine lost the fanbase and both were fired
Fla st used the transfer portal well and beat lsu this yr so the portal isn’t bad.
1 Like
“Great corporate networking”
I think we need to do WAY more with this. I think we have good ties, especially with some of our alumni. But there are so many GIANT companies in Houston that could sponsor seats, suites, ads, shirts, events, that just don’t. You see all sorts of oil/energy companies at all the Astros, Rockets, Texans games. I think we can tap into that more. I like that basketball is getting involved with Mattress Mack and Gallery Furniture, just getting more support from companies in town. But we can do even more. These companies have so much money to sponsor things, getting involved in the community, and lots is tax deductible. Plus, sponsoring things at UH is most likely cheaper than most of the pro sporting events in town. We need to leverage that, and leverage the connection with those for our current students/athletes/alumni. It could be a huge advantage from being in Houston.
1 Like