I keep hearing that we need to wait for CPR and his staff to develop his own kids? But is that true? Didn't the chiz leave him with decent guys to work with? Shouldn't we see more evidence of that development by now? Regardless of wins, I love CPR. He is a great role model and rep of what ISU is all about. I want to see him to be our joepa. But I'm curious what our issues really are at this point. do we use the "its only his third year" thing just to make us feel better or is it true?
are we underdeveloped or under talented?
- Thread starter CYcojoe
- Start date
Both.
The coaching changes and lost recruiting classes are still slowing us down. We don't recruit very well in the first place so having two recruiting classes in the last 5 years be ruined from a coaching change hurts even more.
I don't think we're going to put the product on the field CPR wants until year 5 IMO. I know it stinks to be patient and watch the occasional beat down but there will be better days ahead.
The coaching changes and lost recruiting classes are still slowing us down. We don't recruit very well in the first place so having two recruiting classes in the last 5 years be ruined from a coaching change hurts even more.
I don't think we're going to put the product on the field CPR wants until year 5 IMO. I know it stinks to be patient and watch the occasional beat down but there will be better days ahead.
I think we are talented but thin, and perhaps inexperienced in some key areas. No margin for error or injuries, and definitely not for unforced errors. I think Jantz simply needs more experience, and the new linemen need to step up to give him more time.
I'm not sure how we can say our seniors our under talented. I think Leonard Johnson, Teron Benton, KO, and Hicks are very talented, some say they all have a chance to play in the NFL. Who knows if that is true, but I have heard that thrown around.
Our talent is concentrated pretty high in underclassmen in comparison to what we would like IMO. Shontrelle, White, Hollis, West, Washington, Farniok, Reeves, Irving, Willie Scott, ect. That's a lot of sophomores or younger playing large roles on our team. And that isn't even going into oline, linebacker, or safety depth. I do think we have some really talented seniors, just not enough of them.
That's three out of how many? Osemele is the only player still here from the 2007 transition class, and Neal is still here as a grayshirt from the 2006 class. The 2008 class had 25 recruits, only two of whom were JUCOs, but only 14 are still here. Here are those 14 players:
Ter'Ran Benton 3*
Brayden Burris 2*
Carter Bykowski 2*
Darius Darks 3*
Zach Guyer 2*
Kurt Hammerschmidt 2*
Leonard Johnson 3*
Cleyon Laing 2*
Roosevelt Maggitt 2*
Grant Mahoney 2*
Jake McDonough 3*
Stephen Ruempolhamer 2*
Jerome Tiller 3*
Ethan Tuftee 2*
Stars aren't the be-all end-all, but generally more three stars is better than more two stars, more four stars is better than more three stars, etc. There are some good players in that group, but most of them would be role players at most Big 12 schools.
2009 was another coaching transition year, which hurts recruiting. Here are the players from that class that are still here:
Deon Broomfield 2*
Donnie Jennert 3*
A.J. Klein 3*
Jake Knott 2*
Josh Lenz 2*
Kyle Lichtenberg 3*
Jeremy Reeves 2*
Darius Reynolds 4*
Willie Scott 2*
Zach Spears 2*
Jacques Washington 2*
Jansen Watson 2*
James White 3*
Walter Woods 2*
Jacob Lattimer 3*
Matt Tau'fo'ou 3*
That's better but still not great. Thankfully Rhoads was able to finalize the Reynolds commitment and find some guys like Knott, Lattimer, and Tau'fo'ou. He did as good a job as could be expected given how late he took over.
Compare that to Rhoads' first full class in 2010. Those guys are true sophomores and redshirt freshmen. 24 of them are still here and only eight of them are 2*. It's too early to see how they will turn out, but there's likely more talent to work with there, and they're all guys that this staff recruited so we know they're fits for the system. Last year's class had 15 three stars and nine two stars. So far this year, nine out of 13 are 3* recruits and I wouldn't be surprised to see Aka be a 3* once he's rated.
This staff has increased the talent level every year they've been here, but the vast majority of our players have only been in the program two years or fewer. It takes longer than that for the improvement to really show. Offensive line has been an issue, but Rhoads recruited five high school OL in 2010. The problem is that they're all still redshirt freshmen. At QB, Tiller was a miss by the previous staff and Capello was a late pick-up in a transition year, so Barnett is the first QB that this staff really recruited to play in the Big 12. Again, he's only a redshirt freshman so we had to take a chance on a JUCO.
Give it time, we'll get there. It seems like this is taking forever, but that's what happens when you have two coaching changes in a three year period. Mac's recruiting fell off horribly his last few years. Chizik started improving it a bit but didn't stay long enough to do anything. Rhoads is dealing with the aftermath of a pretty tough situation.
The talent gap with the rest of the big 10 er texas ten/nine is tremendous.....The only exception is Kansas which is still suffering from the remnants of big boys rejime.....
With this talent we have no pray of going bowling anytime in the near future....
If the recruiting doesnt get better we will be sitting home a lot come bowl season
"This reminds me of the 1997 season" quoting Jack Whitver....I AGREE JACK
With this talent we have no pray of going bowling anytime in the near future....
If the recruiting doesnt get better we will be sitting home a lot come bowl season
"This reminds me of the 1997 season" quoting Jack Whitver....I AGREE JACK
Last edited:
Have to disagree with that. Alot of our most talented players are seniors. There just isn't enough of them. Our most talented DBs, most talented WR, and most talented OL are Seniors. And Rump is close to, if not, our most talented DT. And our two best DEs are Seniors, though neither are overly talented.
LJ
Benton
Rump
Reynolds
KO
Hicks
The problem is, we don't have enough good upperclassmen... mostly because of the two coaching change recruiting classes.
I'm ok with that if the next few years advance in the same way. Will make for a long rest of this year though!
The one thing that jumps out at me when I watch this team play is we don't have a good leadership on the field. When Austen Arnaud or Bret Meyer used to be on the field, I have seen better discipline. I think the leadership has a lot to do with the team winning. Its not just underdeveloping of the players due to recruitment. We need a tough guy to lead the bunch on the field - a guy of their own. The coaches can only do so much.
Our so called Steele-the-tough-guy is anything but tough. Yeah, he has foot injury but so what?!? I have been competing with my hamstring pain for almost half a year. You have to be mentally tough to win in anytihng - be in Big 12 or YMCA sports.
Our so called Steele-the-tough-guy is anything but tough. Yeah, he has foot injury but so what?!? I have been competing with my hamstring pain for almost half a year. You have to be mentally tough to win in anytihng - be in Big 12 or YMCA sports.
I agree those players are talented, but they're are only six of them rather than an entire class. There is no denying the talent level is increasing significantly though.
Pompey is a freshman, and is already bigger than Rump.
DE:
LB:
1998 and 1999 were still pretty difficult to sit through as well. Not quite the same kind of bludgeoning blowouts as 1997, and at least a little more competitive (especially 1999 -- so many "almosts" that year), but the losses still mounted up.
