2022 Recruiting Class

[YSU45]

Watch his game film!  All of the plays not just highlights.

[penguinpower]

As I said earlier, he does an excellent job recruiting.  He needs some time.  He knows what he needs.  Every transfer he's brought in has made an impact.  I trust him.  Watch his press conference on YouTube under the Youngstown State Athletics channel. He tells you everything you need to know.  He's going to be a great coach and has to overcome bullsh** Covid restrictions.  He needs time.  You will see.best choice we could have had as a coach, especially with our budget.  He wants to be hereand he is from the area. 

Can't get the 5'7 local kids from Mooney to compete with NDSU and others in our difficult conference.  He knows that.
 

No one is talking about Mooney, DP pulled an offer from one of the 5 blocks of granite on WKBN.  He's 6'5" 290 from Hubbard. A local kid, what gives?

I think you missed my point.  My point is that there isn't enough local talent to build a team to compete with the best in the country.  We simply don't have the population, and the top athletes in the FCS are now as good as FBS teams.  When Jim Tressel coached at Youngstown State the talent level of the FCS was not as high as it is today.  I'm not saying that all teams in the FCS have FBS level talent, I am saying that the top teams are capable of beating power five schools any weekend.    Youngstown does not have the population to support that level of talent.  When you factor in that Youngstown has lost 6% of its population every year for decades, they're just isn't enough talent statistically due to lack of population density.  I think they should take local kids when they can, but we can't fill teams up like Pellini did by offering to local kids from his former high School that will struggle to win games in our conference that has more than one National title contender. 

My point was that the recruiting footprint needs to be expanded ( with a focus on local talent first ) so that we can get kids that will help us compete against the best teams leading to a national championship.  Pelini failed in this area.  You can see the size difference on the field.  We look like a high school team playing a college team when we face NDSU and SDSU and UNI etc.  Now did Pellini bring in some good players?  Yes from time to time, but overall he was lazy and the year that he went out and recruited himself was his best cla$$. Otherwise it was easy to take the undersized kid from Mooney to fill the roster spot (I have nothing against Mooney this isn't really about that school, I just use that school as an example because historically they've had great football so has Ursuline, Fitch, Boardman etc.).  Another point that I would like to make about this, is that if you bring on a kid that is undersized, but he's a good kid and you offer that kid a four-year scholarship......and then you pull that scholarship to replace that kid with a better athlete from outside of the area, it has 2 bad effects.  First, it is unfair to the kid losing his scholarship that he was promised because the coach didn't choose the right kid in the first place.  Second that kid and his family are local and they could have the community turn on the school for what they perceive is a bad moral decision to offer scholarship and then pull it.  What do you think that would do to local support? 

[Wick250]

About forty years ago, high school football in the Mahoning Valley was special. Each year 10-15 kids would sign with major college powers. Today high school football here is just a shadow of what it was. We might get one kid every two or three years that goes to a major power, stays, and has an impact career.

But the local media continues to treat high school football like it is still special.  And apparently, the public believes it. They believe that their local heroes can play anywhere, when in fact 95% of our products are college DIII caliber at best.

So who signed this lineman from Hubbard that we supposedly declined?  I have heard nothing about him.  As penguinpower just noted, having YSU bring in a local kid that cannot play at this level is a prescription for disaster.

[ysuseasonticket]

I talked to a buddy of mine from Hubbard and the OL that DP offered and then pulled it away from him is Alex Goodrich 6'5" 290 lbs and is one of the 5 WKBN blocks of granite this year.

He told me DP also offered TC Caffey RB from Hubbard a PWO offer, so did Ohio State and that's where he is going. If DP would have offered him more than just a PWO he would have been playing at YSU.

My buddy said DP already burnt that bridge to Hubbard. Hubbard's HC played for Tressel during the championship years. There was a connection there but not anymore from what my buddy told me.

[penguinpower]

I talked to a buddy of mine from Hubbard and the OL that DP offered and then pulled it away from him is Alex Goodrich 6'5" 290 lbs and is one of the 5 WKBN blocks of granite this year.

He told me DP also offered TC Caffey RB from Hubbard a PWO offer, so did Ohio State and that's where he is going. If DP would have offered him more than just a PWO he would have been playing at YSU.

My buddy said DP already burnt that bridge to Hubbard. Hubbard's HC played for Tressel during the championship years. There was a connection there but not anymore from what my buddy told me.

My daughter is being recruited for volleyball by several D1 schools.  My experience is that the fit for the athlete is the most important factor in the decision process.  Of course, having a coach with a relationship to some of these schools brings greater interest and influence on my daughter, but at the end of the day, my daughter has to make her decision based on the offers she has.  My point here is that the fit isn't only the volleyball program.  The coaches have spent a significant amount of time evaluating her based on her fit with the incoming cla$$, her educational goals, and her likelihood of going to the program and staying with them without entering the transfer portal. 

Therefore, I don't understand how burning bridges matters other than their high school coaches influence.  And I will tell you that my kid is an independent thinker and is not easily influenced by what her coaches say.  It's all about what she wants to do.  If she hinted at all about not being interested, they would probably pull an offer in a split second. Just saying that I don't put much stock into the statement about the coaches not getting along in today's world of social media.  My daughter knows many of the top athletes in volleyball all across the country and they all talk about the best atmospheres created by the coaches.  That may be the single greatest recruiting tool.  This isn't the old days where a kid really didn't know what they were getting into.  There has to be a mutual benefit to the relationship.

One more thing...she doesn't care about the record of the team because she believes that she will make the team better and give them a chance to win as long as she's on it.  I would have to say that many athletes have similar egocentric tendencies, otherwise they wouldn't be one of the best in their area regardless of whether or not they could be competitive at the highest level

[ucfpengbuck]

I talked to a buddy of mine from Hubbard and the OL that DP offered and then pulled it away from him is Alex Goodrich 6'5" 290 lbs and is one of the 5 WKBN blocks of granite this year.

He told me DP also offered TC Caffey RB from Hubbard a PWO offer, so did Ohio State and that's where he is going. If DP would have offered him more than just a PWO he would have been playing at YSU.

My buddy said DP already burnt that bridge to Hubbard. Hubbard's HC played for Tressel during the championship years. There was a connection there but not anymore from what my buddy told me.

That's hard to believe TC Caffey was only offered a PWO at YSU.   I have no inside info on Alex Goodrich but he almost or did have a personal foul in most of his games at Hubbard.

[ysuseasonticket]

According to my Hubbard buddy this all came out at the Trumbull County Player of the Year Banquet about TC Caffey and YSU's PWO offer to him. Everybody was pretty shocked by that. Caffey won that award. A lot of talk about YSU that night and most of it wasn't good from what I was told. Looks like Phillips burnt that Hubbard bridge.

I got no dog in this fight other than seeing some local talent getting a fair shot at YSU. I'm tired of seeing all the empty seats around me on the 50 yard line.

I heard Caffey is going to Ohio State on a PWO.

[Wick250]

I was impressed by Caffey when I saw him play on television early in the season. I asked a friend who had played for YSU under Narduzzi about this kid.  I was shocked when he told me that Caffey could not play in the MVFC. Running over and around the weak opponents that Hubbard plays did not impress him.  Apparently, did not impress Phillips either.

I hope his parents have a lot of money so that they can support his unrealistic dream of playing for OSU. He should really just snatch any scholarship offer that he might receive.

Again local awards mean nothing.  High School football around here really is not very impressive, and college coaches understand this.

[ysuseasonticket]

I was told Caffey has a 4.0 GPA at Hubbard High School. If Phillips felt that lowly about him as you have stated, maybe he shouldn't of even offered him the PWO at all wouldn't you think? What's that all about? That's not a good start to have with the local head coaches. I heard Hubbard's coach played for Tressel during the championship years.

I've been a season ticket holder for 41 years now (4 tickets) and I'm sick and tired of seeing all the people sitting around me slowly not coming back. It used to be fun down there, not so much anymore. I used to look forward to going to the games, now it's more like a chore. I can drive right in to the parking deck 20 minutes before kickoff. How sad is that?

[gbs20]

Caffey is a 4.0 African American. Doubtful he is paying at OSU.  If local HS talent is weak, what does that say about the two locals that YSU did recruit; both at lower division programs.

[ysuseasonticket]

I agree, South Range is D5 and Springfield is D6. Wick is talking about Hubbard's "weak schedule" but South Range plays in the same conference as Hubbard in the NE8. You would think that YSU would want to try filling up all those empty seats by not shafting the local talent and their communities.

If you're shafting a local player then you're also shafting their community. Apparently YSU seems like they don't care because their attendance is horrible. I sit around the 50 and there's plenty of empty seats all around me. I'm talking 50 yard line people, how pathetic is that???

[Wick250]

Caffey is a 4.0 African American. Doubtful he is paying at OSU.  If local HS talent is weak, what does that say about the two locals that YSU did recruit; both at lower division programs.

What it says about the two locals is that they are both suspects more than solid prospects. Any hopes that I have for Brungard rests on his bloodlines, not on his performance against the weak teams that he played against in high school.

In the old days, we could feel reasonably confident if we recruited an impact player from the Steel Valley Conference: Harding, Reserve, Boardman, Fitch, plus Mooney and Ursuline with much higher enrollments. Next to the Catholic League in Cincinnati, the Steel Valley was the best high school league in Ohio. That is gone now. Today when we recruit a local kid from a weak conference, we are taking a big chance.  Sometimes it works out.  The elder Brungard after all turned out just fine.

[ysuseasonticket]

Hey Wick, have you been to any of the games in the last 3-5 years at the Ice Castle? It's downright embarrassing to see how many people are in the stands. I've seen bigger crowds at high school games in The Valley.

If Phillips keeps "shafting and ignoring" the local players and their communities, there will be less and less people in the stands than there is already which is already downright pathetic. I'm on the 50 and I can actually lay down to watch the games, it's that sad and I really don't see it getting any better.

[Wick250]

I have attended every single YSU home game since the start of the 1974 season. The only thing that will improve attendance is consistent winning. It would be wonderful if we could fill our roster with local kids who could compete in the MVFC. Regrettably, they are few and far between.

[YSU1]

Hey Villanova drew no one to a quarter final playoff game and it was 64 degrees.