Look: NDSU's recruiting base has grown, but they still have 72 of their 99 players from 4 states (HD, SD, Minn and IL). However, we have to realize that NDSU looks for a very specific kind of player, as we used to. Frankly, I thought their defense was noticeably weaker than year past last night. Funny how they got the the kid who is probably the best (or second best) punter in Ohio & we did not. Why is that? That is not forgivable unless he is a legacy or something.
Now we can spend the money to move into NDSU territory and recruit, but why? Outside of Illinois (which we should be all over) we would be lucky to take any recruits away from NDSU. Those same dollars would yield 10+ recruits from Florida, or some quality California JUCO's.
The difference is that our staff does not know "what" to recruit, as they have no idea what talent is & this team has no real coordinators to give it direction (Carl excluded). They have no idea that you have to know your needs before you recruit, not just grab some transfer because he is available. Right now I have no idea what this team needs. We simply need an upgrade at all positions (which is truly a sign of bad staff). Here is an example: about 5 years ago we had YSU great Jamaine Cook at TB (arguably the best back in I-AA). An incredible package of power and speed. His back-ups were Demond Hymes, Martin Ruiz and Jody Webb. Hymes had real ability and a local kid that we all liked; yet we all knew he was never going to be Cook. A year later we had the "thunder and lightning tandem of Martin Ruiz and Jody Webb ... undoubtedly the most effective tandem in the nation. Their back-ups were Tevin McCaster and Joe Allesi. Tevin had the power & Alessi had some speed, but we all knew that neither of them had what Martin Ruiz had in vision, power and speed. And Webb was simply a true 4.4 bolt of lightning with dynamic vision. McCaster was a full back and served a purpose. Over the past couple of years, these career back-ups have become our starters. How did that happen? Simple, we failed to continue to recruit. If any of you have time and care to do so, take a look at this year's o-line and then line up the past 2 seasons of the same. You will see that we lost everyone, even sophs and juniors? What happened to them? They left and were not replaced with the same talent level. Our line (except Zinni) are all first-year guys
Look at our level a team cannot be everything, as we do not have all of the scholarships. On offense you need to decide if you a running team that can pass ... or a passing team that can run. On defense you have to stop the run & force your opposition to throw at you ... or be a passing-covering team and force your opponents to play power ball against you. Tressel's DC was Heacock. He shut down our opponents run game (with lines that were big, strong and deep), backed them up with LB's and dared teams to pass against usually 1 or two stop-dead backs in the secondary. He then worked his middle. Everyone loved to watch it & how we became the master (if not inventors) of smash-mouth football. On offense, Tressel established the run at any cost (which included more than a few losses). His lines were big, fast and deep. Again, this year we start only 1 player up front that has seen a previous start in a YSU uniform, yet they are all seniors.
