RayWill said:
SO hear me out. I have hesitated to share this but after Sat it is a moot point now. My hunting partner has a son whom is being recruited by the Griz. In fact he is scheduled for an official gameday visit soon. He is also being recruited by EWU and IDAHO and MSU. Now his father is a Griz fan and we have went to many Griz games together and the kid has been to the stadium many times. He was wanting to be a Griz. He has proven so far to be a real stud at defensive end this season. He went to Camps at EWU Idaho and UM over the summer. Idaho is really recruiting him after he schooled everyone in drills at D-End. His performance at UM camps I am told was similar. Hauck told him he was on their radar and after his performance at camp and they were highly interested, but that he only has a limited number of scholarships and that the philosophy is that they offer in state kids first. Since he is from Idaho that he wont have an offer for him until late in recruiting to see if he needs the schollie for an instate recruit.
This sat wrong with him. There are several other kids on the same high school team UM was recruiting as well and they were all told the same thing, according to him. As such my buddies kid had told me he was leaning towards Idaho and not UM even if an offer came as he thinks that Hauck is out of touch. He feels that he should recruit the best kids he can from whatever state they are from to improve the team.
He watched the game vs NAU. That seemed to pretty much sealed the deal. He says that it is evident that they are lost, have no identity on offense or defense and that he felt the entire coaching staff is stuck in the past. He said the majority of the pitches from UM so far have been about the tradition and past accomplishments and nothing about the here and now. He said they are a dying program and he wants to play for a team that is on the rise. All I know is Montana seems to have lost an opportunity at a potentially great asset and I am sure that is not the only one.
What does not make sense is a coach telling the players this philosophy. Why would you think this way and then say it out loud to potential players? That to me is shooting yourself in the ass for no reason. Self inflicted wounds.
Do I think UM should try to get the top 5-8 players from Montana each year.. HELL YES
Do I think they should pass on or give a cold shoulder to a player simply because he lives in the wrong zip code... well that's just plain stupid.
Recruit for talent and need not zip code.
Most Montana born players are not stars right away, they tend to show up Junior and Senior years in college. Not a cut against them, just what I've seen over the years
Out of state players seem to be able to get up to speed a little bit faster, again just what I've noticed.
A lot of these issues come from the past recruiting classes where the kittens have done well in State (Mellott and Troy Anderson really skew the grade curve) and UM has misfired on some players that seemed very good and did not pan out. There are even some posters on this board that think UM should be 50% Montana kids.
I truly hope that what you posted is somehow a misunderstanding... because if what you are saying is true, then UM's recruiting needs to be changed in a hurry.