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The Myths and the Realities of YSU Football Recruiting ...
Just Toyin:
The Self-Proclaimed Expert (SPE) and Know-it-All of this message board continues to make posts with what appears to be a relentless attempt at undermining the support and perception of our programs while seeking to generate as much negativity as possible!?! I thought I would try to add some reality to all the lies and false information being spewed regarding the competency of YSU football recruiting since Tressel departed!
I will be the first to admit that I'm no recruiting expert - and there are certainly plenty of folks who get paid large sums of money for their recruiting expertise that miss the mark badly on many occasions (i.e. top QBs drafted highly in the NFL who bomb out year after year!?!). So I'm not trying to make anyone look incompetent here (I'll let our SPE do that to himself) - I'm just trying to illustrate that the bashing of our last two recruiting classes is very likely as inaccurate as most all of the prior opinions of our SPE (despite his repeated claims to have always been correct). Finally, I'm not trying to compare our two prior coaches and/or disparage either of them in any way - I was optimistic over both hiring's, I believe I was a strong supporter of them both as best I could (even though I did not care for one's personality), and I would have to admit that I was happy to see changes made to replace each of them when the time came.
>>> CONFERENCE RECORDS/ACCOMPLISHMENTS (comparing results of Heacock's supposed abysmal recruiting classes vs Wolford's tops-in-conference recruiting classes):
Heacock -
Record in Conference: 34 - 30 (4 of 9 seasons above .500 record)
Two Conference Titles: 2
Playoff Appearances (16 Teams): 1
Wolford -
Record in Conference: 18-22 (1 of 5 seasons above .500 record)
Conference Titles: 0
Playoff Appearances (20-24 Teams): 0
Now consider the significant increase in football expenses/salaries, huge facility upgrade w/ the WATTS, and the expansion of playoff bids from 16 to 24. Could someone please add the common sense to the equation that shows how Wolford's significantly better recruiting classes + higher salaries + WATTS + 24 playoff bids = poorer results in all aspects than Heacock???
>>> BLUE CHIPPERS (comparing 1st and 2nd Team All-Conference Selections between Heacock's abysmal classes vs Wolford's best-in-conference classes). Note, in fairness, we should expect the numbers to be slightly higher for Heacock due to the fact that there were 1 or 2 few teams in the conference for most of his tenure.
HEACOCK:
2001 (sorry, I neglected to record data for this year - we'll just credit any accolades to Tressel anyway)
2002 - 6 1st and 2nd Team All Conf Players (Mays, Roberts, Mazard, Tekac, Barone, Stuvaints*)
2003 - 3 (Roberts, Davis, Bracken)
2004 - 4 (Ison, Roberts, Bracken, Wright)
2005 - 9 (Ison, Jewell, Scholes, Terry, Jackson, Mason, Brown, Perry, Bishop)
2006 - 12 (Mason, Jewell, Walker, Phelan, Savage, Hutchinson, Terry, Jackson, Perry, Bishop, Bush, Samsa)
2007 - 10 (Williams, Samsa, Savage, Terry, Zetts, Bush, Tanner, Palmer, Banford, Gliatta)
2008 - 2 (Samsa, Fernandez)
2009 - 4 (Jones, Savage, Rodemoyer, Wicks)
WOLFORD:
2010 - 6 (Barnes, Cook, Coates, Blose, Nicholsen, Ross) - ALL HEACOCK RECRUITS
2011 - 4 (Hess, Cook, Pratt, Johnson) - Two 1st Teamers from Heacock, Two 2nd Teamers from Wolford
2012 - 3 (Elkins, Cook, Shaw) - One of Three still from Heacock
2013 - 5 (Elkins, Stubbs, Ruiz, Hess, Teven Williams who was then dismissed from team) - Still one from Heacock
2014 - 3 (Rivers, Ruiz, Williams)
A couple points that just don't seem to pass the sanity test here: (1) The SPE warned everyone how pathetic Heacock's recruits were, yet Heacock had an astounding 31, I repeat 31, 1st and 2nd team selectees in years 5 thru 7 of his tenure!?! (2) in WOLFORD's five years on the job, he could only produce 11 of his own 1st and 2nd team performers from all of his "top ranked recruiting classes", yet 10 lowly players left over from Heacock managed to attain these accolades!?! How is this possible to recruit so outstandingly yet barely have any of these players achieve all conference status - and worst yet nearly be outnumbered from the players left over from a guy who left 6 years ago and couldn't recruit a lick per our SPE????????????
Final point - I will admit this is currently far more subjective at this point in time, but as far as Pelini's first recruiting class goes, it is clearly a long way to go to look back and assess all conference performers as well as win/loss successes (admittedly, not a great start?!?). But I do believe anyone who calls Pelini's first class (or 2nd for that matter) a stinker is full of it! Too many Freshman on the two deep already contributing significantly in year 1 (Place Kicker, Long Snapper, LB, DL, DB, OL, WR, ...) to go along with some highly touted transfers in Alexander, Moss, Wright, Pinnock, and Powell. Everyone is entitle to their opinion, but most anyone with an open mind would have to say the 1st recruiting class has already made more significant contributions than one would expect from any recruiting class after just one year with the team!!! Of course, others are simply hell-bent on spreading enough negativity that they hope it will resonate to potential future recruits and make it that much more difficult to obtain any sustained level of success.
I would advise everyone to take our Self Proclaimed Expert's opinion with a grain of salt, but that would greatly diminish the value of the salt granule!!
penguinpower:
You bring up some good points, however keep in mind that the MVFC has gotten better and better since Heacock and Tressel days.
guinpen:
Most folks have him figured out
ytownchief22:
Let it go. Tired of arguing this crap over and over.
HappyPenguin:
Well done, thanks for putting this together.
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