Texas Recruiting

This is another very good post by FeelLikeAStranger originally posted at BHF. I think he is on to something here. Lets see how this plays out in the next few years.

Lots of good data and research - great job FLAS!

The thread about trying to compete with Texas in recruiting got me to take a look at how our recruiting in Texas has been and see if there were any trends.

I was also thinking today that it's really how many of the "2nd tier" guys (aka non-Texas selectees) we manage to pull away from OU and A&M, et. al. every year that would seem to matter most, if we trust that those rankings are at least some measure of potential impact.

I don't know how N2FL has the Texas players ranked (within Texas) from 2009, but I could look at Scout for some guidance on how we did against those guys.

Figuring 100+ D1 athletes per year out of Texas (more like 150+, but we only have top 100 rankings on Scout), if we consider 1-20 (in deference to Mack Brown's pick 20 plan) "tier 1", 21-50 "tier 2" and 51-100 "tier 3" in the rankings for Texas, then we did pretty well this past year.

According to Scout's postseason 100 for 2009:

Tier 1
C. Green 19

Tier 2
Burkhead 28
Williams 35

Tier 3
A. Green 71
Ash 81
Randle 83

N.R.
Coffey
Robinson

So if we look at the top 2 tiers, we stole 3 away from the "big boys" in Texas this year, including one of the top 20. We always need to pull a number each year out of tier 3, as we are fighting everyone else and their dog for those guys as well, but you'd figure your "difference maker" guys are those top 50 guys for sure. (although you never know, of course)

For fun, let's check it back to 2002, where their rankings end.

2008 (transition class new HC, RC retained)
1-none
2-Spano 47, Whitmore 41 (NQ), Williams 48
3-Grant(NQ)85, Whaley 88
NR-Osborne, Osborne, Thompson, Ward

(if anyone wants to look up the decommits from 2008, please do)

2007
1-none
2-Castille 36
3-Gilleylen 52, Mendoza 65, Witt 84
NR-Blue, Kunalic, Sullivan

2006
1-none
2-nada
3-zilch
NR-Henry

2005
1-zero
2-Hunter 37 (NQ),
3-Franklin 87 (NQ), Glenn 68,
NR-none

2004 (transition class new HC, RC retained)
1-nope
2-not
3-pffft
NR-Nunn

2003 (transition class with new asst's.)
1-beh
2-meh
3-Brothers 82, Craver 77 (NQ),
NR-Austin, Dyches, Phillips, Turner

2002
1-nope
2-squat
3-donut
NR-Leslie, Demorrio (JC #10)

If one takes a look at that, you can say that it's pretty clear that maybe enough attention wasn't paid to TX athletes in 2002, and that was corrected somewhat in 2003. In 2004's transition class...only Nunn. Callahan then tried in 2005 and got burned by NQ's and then picked up only one guy from TX in 2006.

If you want to look at "failings"...2002-2006 we really failed to get anyone away from any of the other big dogs going after TX players...and barely got any TX players at all.

2007, I would argue was Callahan's best recruiting class (08 was looking even better, but you gotta keep your job too) and it's definitely reflected in the number of TX players he signed that year. Maybe it was a case (and this could possibly be said for Solich's old staff as well) of not adapting to a changing landscape of a Texas-centric recruiting base in the Big 12 until it was a bit too late.

Bo certainly saw it right away...first hand knowledge from OU, I'd gather...and went after as many TX players as he could in the transition class. I can't remember who originally committed etc, but it stands to reason that the groundbreaking started with Callahan in 2007 and was put to work in earnest in 2008 as Gilmore was retained.

This is some telling stuff, IMO.

2002-2006 5 top 100 Texas players (3 NQ's), 13 total (3 NQ, 1 JC)

2007 4 top 100, including our first Tier 2 recruit that stuck, 7 total.

2008 5 top 100 in a transition class (2 NQ's), 3 Tier 2's (1 NQ), 9 total (2 NQ)

2009, 6 top 100, our first "Tier 1" recruit and 2 Tier 2's, 8 total

In just 2 classes (including a transition class), Pelini has signed more top 100 Texans than all the classes from 2002-2007 COMBINED, and almost as many total TX players overall for those years.

If you ask me, this is showing a VERY POSITIVE trend line for our future and the sustainability of our program for the longer haul. We are making steady and measurable progress in Texas recruiting under Pelini, which you'd have to say was started somewhat in 2007.

I've been preaching the virtues of a Texas-centric recruiting focus ever since I noticed it in 2008, and I think this breakdown shows that we are making strides in competing with our conference foes down there for talent after ignoring it for far too long.