Current Staff as Recruiters

[Warrior10]

I'm not too confident in Cav finding a decent replacement. Stratford is a little small for an OT.

Why? Cav has recruited pretty well thus far, though not necessarily this cycle.

I'm not overly sold to this point.

Tough crowd.
A line coach is not an impressive recruiter when his earliest recruit is a sophomore.

That's why I'm not sold. His guys have not contributed, whether due to quality or age TBD.

You do realize linemen typically gong contribute as freshmen.....right????

Yes. But he also hasn't won too many big time recruiting battles. He's mainly recruited average ranked players.
What makes you consider his recruiting "pretty well"?

I was reacting to your first comment that came off as very negative towards his recruiting. (It's always possible I took it as more negative than you meant).
If your real attitude is that the jury is still out and we really don't know how he is as a recruiter...then, that is where I would be. I have seen some good things. I really liked how he finished out the 2016 class. It was the highest rated OLine class in a long time. I do believe our O line recruiting had picked up the couple years prior so some of that was from the previous staff. But.....he does get credit for finishing it off.

Last year he brought in two decently rated players in Jaimes (.8789) and Sichterman (.8757). He then brought in two local kids who I'm not surprised they are rated lower simply because they aren't in Ohio, Texas or Florida. We don't know how good they will be.

None of these players from either the 2016 class nor the 2017 class have seen the field and there is no reason to believe they are busts or bad players.

I also believe that recruiting sites have the hardest time rating O linemen. There is so much body and technique development that has to happen after they are out of HS, that "experts" really don't have as much to go on as they would say a QB or WR.

So....I've seen some good things but he needs to keep proving himself especially in proving the players he has brought in are the types of players he can develop and make a great line out of. That is what takes more time with O line than any other group.

Solid post, and like in the past I think we are closer in opinions then initially thought. Oline is a hard position to judge/rate due to the players usually being further from a ready product physically.
I think you need a mix of the highly rated Gates, Raridon, Farniok, Barnett (although might be a miss) type of guys in combination with the under the radar but seem to be solid Wilson and Jaimes type.

My worry that has built basically since Farniok is we aren't getting the higher ranked mixture guys. We've chased a few, but can't close. Last year we filled the class with what we hope are underrated, and not appropriately rated, guys. I am worried this class appears to be following the same trajectory, at what point does that trend just become the norm?

 

[swmohusker]

In my opinion Cav has recruited at about the same level as Parella, slightly behind Bray at this point. If those two can get Parsons on that obviously changes. But I'm not sure where we are getting he is much worse then the rest of our staff. He is behind the Williams duo and Langs, but so is everyone else on our staff.

I would still say Parella is a better recruiter right now than Cav, and the biggest difference in the 2 is Parella is a heck of a coach and gets the most out of his guys.

 

[BigRedBuster]

My worry that has built basically since Farniok is we aren't getting the higher ranked mixture guys. We've chased a few, but can't close. Last year we filled the class with what we hope are underrated, and not appropriately rated, guys. I am worried this class appears to be following the same trajectory, at what point does that trend just become the norm?

True, and that is a valid concern.

One frustration that I have noticed over the years of following recruiting. For some reason, it appears to me that O linemen are less likely to commit to some place a long way from home. Now, it may be I'm wrong about that, but it sure seems that way.

So, we have got to build our line predominantly with players within that 500 mile radius. Well....players aren't going to be as highly rated in those areas as if they were sitting in Texas or Florida and being seen by recruiting experts every Friday night. That's why you will see teams like Wisconsin and Iowa have pretty dang good OLines with players that weren't 5 and 4 star players.

O line coaches have got to many times have that sixth sense of being able to tell if some kid has the potential to be good long before he is actually that good. That is a very tough job and partly why you need to have so many O linemen in your system at any given time.

Bottom line is that Cav needs to have his unit have a good year this year. He has more depth (on paper anyway) as any Husker line in a long time. He has a QB that can help the line with his passing. He has been here three years now to develop them. This unit needs to start jelling and making a name for themselves.

 

[Warrior10]

My worry that has built basically since Farniok is we aren't getting the higher ranked mixture guys. We've chased a few, but can't close. Last year we filled the class with what we hope are underrated, and not appropriately rated, guys. I am worried this class appears to be following the same trajectory, at what point does that trend just become the norm?

True, and that is a valid concern.
One frustration that I have noticed over the years of following recruiting. For some reason, it appears to me that O linemen are less likely to commit to some place a long way from home. Now, it may be I'm wrong about that, but it sure seems that way.

So, we have got to build our line predominantly with players within that 500 mile radius. Well....players aren't going to be as highly rated in those areas as if they were sitting in Texas or Florida and being seen by recruiting experts every Friday night. That's why you will see teams like Wisconsin and Iowa have pretty dang good OLines with players that weren't 5 and 4 star players.

O line coaches have got to many times have that sixth sense of being able to tell if some kid has the potential to be good long before he is actually that good. That is a very tough job and partly why you need to have so many O linemen in your system at any given time.

Bottom line is that Cav needs to have his unit have a good year this year. He has more depth (on paper anyway) as any Husker line in a long time. He has a QB that can help the line with his passing. He has been here three years now to develop them. This unit needs to start jelling and making a name for themselves.

Agree. Also, he should have a fairly large class next year so it will be interesting to see where it leads.
Just a quick peak at the 2019 class shows 10 4star OT's from the "cornbelt region"...Iowa, Mich, MN, Ill, Ohio. Be interesting to see if we can convert on a couple. I think one of Cav's problems is he has no ties to the area. He's all WC.

 

[Nebfanatic]

In my opinion Cav has recruited at about the same level as Parella, slightly behind Bray at this point. If those two can get Parsons on that obviously changes. But I'm not sure where we are getting he is much worse then the rest of our staff. He is behind the Williams duo and Langs, but so is everyone else on our staff.

I would still say Parella is a better recruiter right now than Cav, and the biggest difference in the 2 is Parella is a heck of a coach and gets the most out of his guys.

No question Parella has gotten more out of his crew. I was a little off in my original assessment after reconsideration, but I do think Cav catches a little more flack then he deserves on the recruiting trail

 

[StPaulHusker]

Can we be sold on anyone from this staff so far then? What player did they recruit outright that has been a huge contributor right from the start?

 

[Warrior10]

Can we be sold on anyone from this staff so far then? What player did they recruit outright that has been a huge contributor right from the start?

I sure can, by looking at the consistent caliber of recruits and the caliber of programs we are beating out for said recruits. I'm sold on Dwill, KWill, and Langs.

 

[seaofred92]

In my opinion, Riley has done an excellent job at replacing staff members when it is obvious they are not holding their weight in one of the two major areas, coaching or recruiting.

The biggest point of contention I have with Mike (and really the only one) is that he brought a majority of this OSU staff over with him, and these are all the guys he's having to let go and replace now. Only Bray seems to have proved his worth coaching and recruiting (LB recruiting has been great, capped by Roberts last year, and the development from the unit as a whole has been wonderful to see. The depth we have at LB now is staggering compared to what it was 2 years ago).

Cav and Davis are the two weak links on this staff by far in terms of both recruiting and getting production from their units. The running back recruiting has seemed disorganized and in flux since Davis first got here.

My issue with Cav isn't that he hasn't landed prospects, it's that for as much momentum as we seem to have in recruiting QB's, DB's, DL, and WR's, we have almost no traction with getting our foot in the door for the same quality of prospects on the OL. Again this is just my opinion, but I feel like replacing Cav with an OL coach that has ties within the 500 mile radius would be very beneficial going forwards. We need to increase our presence in the Midwest and we've seemed to struggle to do so, and the Midwest is a great place to target and sign offensive linemen from. Look at our current 2 deep for proof:

Farniok: South Dakota

Foster: Nebraska

Raridon: Iowa

Decker: Nebraska

Conrad: Nebraska

Farmer: Illinois

Wilson: Missouri

Gaylord: Kansas

then you even add in the other guys that are RS candidates or still developing:

Barnett: Oklahoma

Bando: Nebraska

Brokop: Illinois

Walker: Nebraska

It just makes sense from a logistical standpoint to have our OL coach be familiar with the Midwest/500 mile radius. Plus Nebraska needs to have someone on the trail in my opinion that has inroads in places like Saint Louis, KC, Iowa, etc. Wilhite is really the only one on staff that has major connections in the area and he can't even go on the road to recruit there. While I don't have a list of names of potential replacements for coach Cav, I think its going to be critical for us going forward to hire someone that can land top shelf OL talent and develop them when they're on campus if we really want to take the next steps in competing with the top tier teams in this league on a year in and year out basis.

Edit:

this is a good place to start. Currently makes $300k. http://247sports.com/Coach/Matt-Luke-465

 

[StPaulHusker]

Can we be sold on anyone from this staff so far then? What player did they recruit outright that has been a huge contributor right from the start?

I sure can, by looking at the consistent caliber of recruits and the caliber of programs we are beating out for said recruits. I'm sold on Dwill, KWill, and Langs.

Cav has 10 commits with an average ranking of .8783. That's pretty solid. Especially considering he's on his 3rd recruiting cycle and is only allowed about 2 max commits this year.

 

[Mavric]

Only Bray seems to have proved his worth coaching and recruiting (LB recruiting has been great, capped by Roberts last year, and the development from the unit as a whole has been wonderful to see. The depth we have at LB now is staggering compared to what it was 2 years ago).

Not gonna lie, I was actually surprised when I looked at the LB recruits we've gotten since Bray got here. I always thought he was a pretty good recruiter but I'm not sure exactly. Roberts definitely. But after him, who's the second-best recruit Bray has pulled in?

 

[StPaulHusker]

Only Bray seems to have proved his worth coaching and recruiting (LB recruiting has been great, capped by Roberts last year, and the development from the unit as a whole has been wonderful to see. The depth we have at LB now is staggering compared to what it was 2 years ago).

Not gonna lie, I was actually surprised when I looked at the LB recruits we've gotten since Bray got here. I always thought he was a pretty good recruiter but I'm not sure exactly. Roberts definitely. But after him, who's the second-best recruit Bray has pulled in?

I think Quayshon Alexander will be there. But ultimately he has a lot of guys on the come. He did get credit for Dedrick Young, too

JoJo Domann

Greg Simmons

Mo Barry

Ty Ferguson

A lot of young bucks

 

[Cdog923]

In my opinion, Riley has done an excellent job at replacing staff members when it is obvious they are not holding their weight in one of the two major areas, coaching or recruiting.

The biggest point of contention I have with Mike (and really the only one) is that he brought a majority of this OSU staff over with him, and these are all the guys he's having to let go and replace now. Only Bray seems to have proved his worth coaching and recruiting (LB recruiting has been great, capped by Roberts last year, and the development from the unit as a whole has been wonderful to see. The depth we have at LB now is staggering compared to what it was 2 years ago).

Cav and Davis are the two weak links on this staff by far in terms of both recruiting and getting production from their units. The running back recruiting has seemed disorganized and in flux since Davis first got here.

My issue with Cav isn't that he hasn't landed prospects, it's that for as much momentum as we seem to have in recruiting QB's, DB's, DL, and WR's, we have almost no traction with getting our foot in the door for the same quality of prospects on the OL. Again this is just my opinion, but I feel like replacing Cav with an OL coach that has ties within the 500 mile radius would be very beneficial going forwards. We need to increase our presence in the Midwest and we've seemed to struggle to do so, and the Midwest is a great place to target and sign offensive linemen from. Look at our current 2 deep for proof:

Farniok: South Dakota

Foster: Nebraska

Raridon: Iowa

Decker: Nebraska

Conrad: Nebraska

Farmer: Illinois

Wilson: Missouri

Gaylord: Kansas

then you even add in the other guys that are RS candidates or still developing:

Barnett: Oklahoma

Bando: Nebraska

Brokop: Illinois

Walker: Nebraska

It just makes sense from a logistical standpoint to have our OL coach be familiar with the Midwest/500 mile radius. Plus Nebraska needs to have someone on the trail in my opinion that has inroads in places like Saint Louis, KC, Iowa, etc. Wilhite is really the only one on staff that has major connections in the area and he can't even go on the road to recruit there. While I don't have a list of names of potential replacements for coach Cav, I think its going to be critical for us going forward to hire someone that can land top shelf OL talent and develop them when they're on campus if we really want to take the next steps in competing with the top tier teams in this league on a year in and year out basis.

Edit:

this is a good place to start. Currently makes $300k. http://247sports.com/Coach/Matt-Luke-465

Coaches at his alma mater for $300k; probably not going to be able to pluck that one away. Plus, he's more than likely going to be an O-coordinator sooner than later.

 

[Atbone95]

Current staff = best recruiters since Callahan

/endthread

 

[StPaulHusker]

Current staff = best recruiters since Callahan

/endthread

That's not very fun

 

[BigRedBuster]

In my opinion, Riley has done an excellent job at replacing staff members when it is obvious they are not holding their weight in one of the two major areas, coaching or recruiting.

The biggest point of contention I have with Mike (and really the only one) is that he brought a majority of this OSU staff over with him, and these are all the guys he's having to let go and replace now. Only Bray seems to have proved his worth coaching and recruiting (LB recruiting has been great, capped by Roberts last year, and the development from the unit as a whole has been wonderful to see. The depth we have at LB now is staggering compared to what it was 2 years ago).

Cav and Davis are the two weak links on this staff by far in terms of both recruiting and getting production from their units. The running back recruiting has seemed disorganized and in flux since Davis first got here.

My issue with Cav isn't that he hasn't landed prospects, it's that for as much momentum as we seem to have in recruiting QB's, DB's, DL, and WR's, we have almost no traction with getting our foot in the door for the same quality of prospects on the OL. Again this is just my opinion, but I feel like replacing Cav with an OL coach that has ties within the 500 mile radius would be very beneficial going forwards. We need to increase our presence in the Midwest and we've seemed to struggle to do so, and the Midwest is a great place to target and sign offensive linemen from. Look at our current 2 deep for proof:

Farniok: South Dakota

Foster: Nebraska

Raridon: Iowa

Decker: Nebraska

Conrad: Nebraska

Farmer: Illinois

Wilson: Missouri

Gaylord: Kansas

then you even add in the other guys that are RS candidates or still developing:

Barnett: Oklahoma

Bando: Nebraska

Brokop: Illinois

Walker: Nebraska

It just makes sense from a logistical standpoint to have our OL coach be familiar with the Midwest/500 mile radius. Plus Nebraska needs to have someone on the trail in my opinion that has inroads in places like Saint Louis, KC, Iowa, etc. Wilhite is really the only one on staff that has major connections in the area and he can't even go on the road to recruit there. While I don't have a list of names of potential replacements for coach Cav, I think its going to be critical for us going forward to hire someone that can land top shelf OL talent and develop them when they're on campus if we really want to take the next steps in competing with the top tier teams in this league on a year in and year out basis.

Edit:

this is a good place to start. Currently makes $300k. http://247sports.com/Coach/Matt-Luke-465

How is he tied to the Midwest? Also, I would be leery of hiring a coach that has shown he can recruit to Ol Miss over the last several years.

So.....what O line coaches would you target that have ties to the Midwest/500 mile radius?