Recruiting, 2015

[manonabuffalo]

Fair enough, the term was thrown around somewhat loosely in my day. Most of not all walk-ons were invited in some capacity, but it looks like they added a tier to it.

[WVAPPeer]

Just my opinion but maybe you guys ought to consider not slamming these kids who decommit from APP to go other places because we get several who decommit from other schools to come to APP - One's a good, smart guy and the other is a guy held in much less respect - however, both have done the exact same thing ---

[mikeyosef]

Agreed. It's so disappointing for us to loose a commit, especially to conference rival, that it's hard not to express our feelings. In reality it's just the nature of the beast. Very frankly, I only want guys who really want to come to Appalachian State to learn and to play football, no ifs ands or buts!

[hapapp]

Just my opinion but maybe you guys ought to consider not slamming these kids who decommit from APP to go other places because we get several who decommit from other schools to come to APP - One's a good, smart guy and the other is a guy held in much less respect - however, both have done the exact same thing ---

It is disappointing but it is a two-way street. I doubt anyone here would have complained if any of the players who had committed elsewhere (Roth, Thomas...)changed their minds and came here. Flipping has become the norm. I doubt a school goes a season without it happening, both coming and going.

And sometimes commitments are broken by the school.
http://www.thestate.com/2015/02/02/3965 ... .html?rh=1

[mikeyosef]

And sometimes commitments are broken by the school.
http://www.thestate.com/2015/02/02/3965 ... .html?rh=1

That's COLD!

[boonetown1]

I know this is the wrong thread, but is there any more news on the ECU 0L coaching job? I know on there 247 pageit listed the wine Ledford and Shawn Elliott as candidates.

[bcoach]

I know this is the wrong thread, but is there any more news on the ECU 0L coaching job? I know on there 247 pageit listed the wine Ledford and Shawn Elliott as candidates.

They consider Shawn a candidate? Really?

[Gonzo]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

[ComebackShack]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

Stars are bullcrap. The Seahawks' starting lineup had an average rating of 2.4, while Patriots' had 2.3, according to 247Sports.

[Gonzo]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

Starts a bullcrap. The Seahawks' starting lineup had an average rating of 2.4, while Patriots' had 2.3, according to 247Sports.

I'm aware that Stars are BS, but more goes into ranking classes than stars (I think) and we're a solid 40 spots below our rival on 247's rankings.

Even if it is a 100% star-based ranking, I'd rather have stars than not have stars. Our class was star-studded last year. The most in the Belt. What happened?

[App95]

Our 2015 average commit rating is actually higher than last year and we still have two players unrated on 247. Stars at this level are not the best indicator of potential, but based on the 247 rating system we do have 4 3* guys and 6 players within 1 point of being 3*. Also of note, ESPN has three of our commits rated 3* that are listed as 2* on 247. Someone may have mentioned this before, but Boggs and Gibbs were two of the lowest rated commits in 2014 and they turned out OK.

[Gonzo]

Someone may have mentioned this before, but Boggs and Gibbs were two of the lowest rated commits in 2014 and they turned out OK.

To be fair the highest rated players from last year's class red shirted except Meadors. Of course Boggs and Gibbs must be good to start half way through their true freshman seasons, but that may have been a product of position needs rather than being the best of the class.

I'm not star-obsessed. I know that other offers best indicate future success. Just asking our resident expert how we're doing and looking for an explanation about the ratting gap between our class and the one headed to Stinkboro.

[firemoose]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

People are going to feel how they feel. From my standpoint I am fine with who we have and what we've done this year. We came in with a very specific set of needs and we did pretty much what we wanted to in addressing them. We had targets and backups for those targets/commits, if needed, and we've seen that in the past couple of weeks. We wanted a QB to shirt and one as a 3rd. Got that plus two ATH's that could be the 3rd or better (we'll see this fall how that pans out). We wanted a kicker, got one. We wanted taller WR's, got two. We wanted 4 OLmen, got 4. We wanted a TE for depth and got one. Wanted to build LB depth and balance classes, addressed that. We wanted 4 or so ATH's that could play either side (especially Safety). Got those.

The only spot that looks, on paper at least, to be short one is DE. But there is a little more to it than is on the surface. Sounded like we originally went in wanting three. But that was before Dada came back, which wasn't a given at the end of last season. We wanted a JUCO or two (for class balance) and a HS recruit to shirt (again, for balance). Got one and with Dada back for two more, and seeming to be refocused, that is like a JUCO. Thompson was a top target but always a toss up. We could have offered another "as close to a sure get" as possible but didn't. Since I didn't see anymore late offers go out then it looked to me like we felt like we had what we wanted, even without Thompson. And, as I put in a earlier post, we have one wildcard in Morgan Wilson. If he is able to make a full recovery then we have a bonus DE that is a player.

There are two ways to move up. Go for the quick up and then spend years trying to level out, or build for depth and long term stability. We all know what direction App is taking. We still have a couple of years to work on balancing the classes, and the large size of 2013 and 2014 will take a few more years to straighten out. But you use JUCO's and selective shirting to get to that balance. Any FBS program, especially G5's, needs to have sufficient depth across the board to allow for having a bad recruiting class at a position and it not hurt them, providing you address it the next year. There are tons of wildcards in all this, like players leaving for lack of playing time, or coaches leaving for greener pastures. But personally I would rather see us build the way we are than the way other schools have done it. We see them scrambling each year to make sure they get positions they are lacking in, and will do whatever it takes. Example this year is Ga St. As of today more than half of their 2015 class are JUCO's (9 of 17). That can come back to bite you big in a very short time. If App keeps doing what we're doing we will see most positions being 3 deep with little drop off from 1 to 3 and role players to move around as needed.

As for our "friends" down south, not much to say except they are still doing what they do best. For years they consistently had some of the largest classes in FCS. Why? Because they had/have lots of turnover. All one has to do is look online at the general admission standards to see that it's lower than App in both GPA and SAT/ACT scores. And several sites state that Sou "places more weight on standardized test scores than on grades, a practice that is counter to most institutions' admissions policies" (direct quote). This directly follows over to their athletic programs as they take more non qualifiers than App does. I'm sure this will tick off our Sou members but numbers don't lie. Student-athlete Graduation Success Rate from the NCAA website shows seven previous years starting around 2010. Every year for App was above 80 except one 78. Five of the seven years Sou were in the 60's except two low 70's. I know that's an across the board listing but football follows the same model and gaps that the overall does.

We can compete with them each year if we want to allow several athletes in that don't meet the minimum requirements for admission, play them a year or two, and then replace them when they flunk out. Or we can try and bring in student athletes with a much better chance of graduating. Personally I prefer the latter, but that's just my opinion.

[JTApps1]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

Just to piggy back on Moose's comments, Ga. South has consistently had classes of around 30 players even in their FCS days. There is one reason for this and that is all the partial qualifiers they bring in. They offer a bunch of talented guys they nobody will let in school and hope a few of them will stick. I'm not saying all of their players fall in this category (obviously we share some targets), but they have a number of them every year. Just like last year when they brought in several highly rated players late. They had "offers" from big name programs but somehow Statesboro drew them in. Yeah sure...

[firemoose]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

Just to piggy back on Moose's comments, Ga. South has consistently had classes of around 30 players even in their FCS days. There is one reason for this and that is all the partial qualifiers they bring in. They offer a bunch of talented guys they nobody will let in school and hope a few of them will stick. I'm not saying all of their players fall in this category (obviously we share some targets), but they have a number of them every year. Just like last year when they brought in several highly rated players late. They had "offers" from big name programs but somehow Statesboro drew them in. Yeah sure...

I did say this but I buried it in the fourth paragraph of the novel I wrote. Sorry Gonz for the book but you did ask.

[Gonzo]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

Just to piggy back on Moose's comments, Ga. South has consistently had classes of around 30 players even in their FCS days. There is one reason for this and that is all the partial qualifiers they bring in. They offer a bunch of talented guys they nobody will let in school and hope a few of them will stick. I'm not saying all of their players fall in this category (obviously we share some targets), but they have a number of them every year. Just like last year when they brought in several highly rated players late. They had "offers" from big name programs but somehow Statesboro drew them in. Yeah sure...

I did say this but I buried it in the fourth paragraph of the novel I wrote. Sorry Gonz for the book but you did ask.

I was hoping and expecting something of that length (that's what she said).

Readers Digest versions leave too much out.

Preshiate cha!

[JTApps1]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

Just to piggy back on Moose's comments, Ga. South has consistently had classes of around 30 players even in their FCS days. There is one reason for this and that is all the partial qualifiers they bring in. They offer a bunch of talented guys they nobody will let in school and hope a few of them will stick. I'm not saying all of their players fall in this category (obviously we share some targets), but they have a number of them every year. Just like last year when they brought in several highly rated players late. They had "offers" from big name programs but somehow Statesboro drew them in. Yeah sure...

I did say this but I buried it in the fourth paragraph of the novel I wrote. Sorry Gonz for the book but you did ask.

I know I was reiterating your point!

[firemoose]

Moose:

How would you rate this class so far? It SEEMS, at least by mainstream rating services, that we're really not having a good year. I know we're filling the holes we need to fill; we're set at a lot of positions; and we might not roster spots as some of out G5 peers. I wanted your honest assessment.

There's no reason for us to be behind Georgia Southern in recruiting aside from the fact that we have more/better Sophomores, Jrs, and SRs.

Tell me how to feel.

Just to piggy back on Moose's comments, Ga. South has consistently had classes of around 30 players even in their FCS days. There is one reason for this and that is all the partial qualifiers they bring in. They offer a bunch of talented guys they nobody will let in school and hope a few of them will stick. I'm not saying all of their players fall in this category (obviously we share some targets), but they have a number of them every year. Just like last year when they brought in several highly rated players late. They had "offers" from big name programs but somehow Statesboro drew them in. Yeah sure...

I did say this but I buried it in the fourth paragraph of the novel I wrote. Sorry Gonz for the book but you did ask.

I know I was reiterating your point!

Good man.

I figured I'd better answer Gonz now because I have a long day/night/day ahead of me. By the time tomorrow is over about the best I'll be able to do is...App GOOD...Southern BAD

[str8shooter]

First post guys...had to set the record straight. GS does not over sign players. Total signees for the past four recruiting classes:

2011 - 25
2012- 25
2013 - 21
2014 - 20

Good classes for GS and App State. The Sunbelt title should always run between Statesboro and Boone. Nice job showing those "big names" the way the last half of '14. Looking forward to the trip to Boone this year.

[APPARJ]

Thought I'd throw this in there.. because it isn't mentioned enough:

Georgia Southern sucks.

On to NSD 2015!