Danny Bateman
Heisman Trophy Winner
Which really makes you appreciate the success Bo has had with JUCO talent. If he can evaluate the JUCO guys we get that well, it makes me feel better about recruiting as a whole. I think this year we finally started to see some of Bo's guys (on defense) make some plays within his system and make it look good again.Oh yeah I agree. But 6 starts between them? I know some of them have 1 or 2 years left but wow.. That's pretty underwhelming.I believe you're referencing McKewon... See post #106.You have to carefully choose a DT. Out of all the DTs we recruited last cycle the leading tackler is Ben Bradley with 13 tackles. And if you add Russell, Johnson, Peko, Bradley, and Hooks together they've only started 6 games between of all of them. I do remember hearing one of the recruiting analysts say that Clinkscales is the best JUCO DT they've seen in 3 years.
One thing you've got to remember with DT's is that with some guys, specifically nose tackle types, unless they're very good at block shedding, agile, or otherwise just freaks of nature, sometimes their stat sheets may remain relatively barren. Some of these guys may be your proverbial "space occcupiers" that just serve to soak up a couple blockers and free up ends or backers. I don't recall, but I would think a few of those guys fit that mold.
I think a better metric would be taking a look at some trends for teams that recruit these guys (for the ones that end up making an impact, anyway) and looking at certain things like team run defense, TFL, etc. Obviously, there's a lot of variables there, but if you correlate that with individual statistics, you can find out who was actually a good get and who wasn't.
Obviously David was one of the best to ever wear the N on the side of his helmet. Gregory looks to be an absolute beast. Yoshi and SJB have been solid contributors. Seisay hasn't lived up to his billing, yet. Still waiting on guys like Finnin and Kondolo to make an impact on that line. Zaire has shown flashes here and there. Stafford started for a lot of games. Joe Carter obviously wasn't a big contributor.
Overall, I'd say Bo has a pretty doggone good track record with JUCO's. There's still a bust factor though. I'm glad Bo knows how to pick and choose ones that seem to be worth it. Here's hoping Clink is the next Suh!! GBR.