Ut-Grizfan
Well-known member
Apparently the rumors are USU is going to target Weber States old HC and now BYU Defensive Coordinator Jay Hill.
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Vigen's Next Stop
- Thread starter 1983 Griz
- Start date
I've been trying and failing to make this point for several years. You've made it very well. To add to the bolded, I think the ones who watch the highlights and assign ratings could be so used to doing so for players playing against tougher competition that they might not realize just how big of a delta there is when they rate MT prospects. Put another way, I think they know there's a talent difference overall, but I'm sometimes not so sure they realize that many of the defensive players they see in a MT QB's highlight tape might struggle to make JV in the Trinity League.
This is the same 247 sports that gave Grant the same number of stars as Matt Ludwig who has offers from every major college team in the country.
After they already passed him up twice? I'd tell them to get bent!
GrizRealist
Well-known member
This conversation is why I have always harped UM not being afraid to dip into west coast recruiting hot beds with a high frequency. Don't get me wrong, O love have a roster full of local guys, but if we want to take a step up in talent, the logical thing to do is try and pull players for talent rich areas. Your not going to get the top end guys, but even low level guys in say, Texas, are competing against high level competition, much more so than that of Montana, or even Washington and Oregon. Good players fall through the cracks in those places at a pretty high frequency. Think of a guy like Cam Ward winding up at Incarnate Word. I'm not advocating for a roster that is 2/3 Montana guys, I just think to be uber competitive in todays FCS landscape, you have to get athletes and big bodies from places with high level high school competition.
There are two schools in Bozeman. Gallatin High and Bozeman High.
Agree with every word, and Cam Ward is a perfect example that supports the "farm system" approach to recruiting. Get them on the way up instead of the way down after they tried and failed to make an impact at the FBS level. This is especially true now that a players can transfer FBS-->FBS with impunity if they're good enough. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a good portion of our really good FBS/I-A transfers came pre-portal so they could avoid sitting out if they stayed at the higher level.
As I've mentioned before, this would require a wholesale change in recruiting strategy. But, on average, let MSU have 15 of the top 25 MT recruits every year so they feel good about the "in-state recruiting battle". We'll take 15 of the top 300 from CA and/or TX every year and see how things shake out.
That is fair. I talked to a veteran official that worked a few of his games and he was very impressed.
mthoopsfan
Well-known member
I was intending to distinguish from the Bozeman high qb, Gatorade player of year, as opposed to the big Bozeman high receiver who is now a TE at MSU. About a dozen of my relatives including myself played at Bozeman high.
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Cool story. So did I and my younger Brother... The Bozeman High QB from last year (2023) is playing B-Ball at Carrol. The WR from Bozeman High last year (2023) is indeed a TE at MSU. The latest Gallatin High kid (Springman) is a preferred walk-on for Cats, and should play LB, but we will see.
To be fair, Cam Ward didn’t get recruited because he didn’t throw the ball in HS. Quite an outlier.
A lot of HS QBs if they are 6’3 plus end up being TE’s in college. Under 6’3 QBs safeties and receivers. They play QB in high school because they are often the best athletes on the team. It would interesting study to see how many NFL players played QB in high school.
That's been tried again and again. The team that wins the in state recruiting battle pretty much always is the better team. Most of UM and MSU's best players have been in state and many are walk-ons. There is a huge difference between players that really want to be here and players who come here because they don't have a better option elsewhere.
MSU has been doing very good in recruiting in Montana. Also, very good in Texas. They have had good success in WA, CA, OR. Making some inroads in MN recently.
It really hasn't been tried, ever, to my knowledge. You're describing an out-of-state recruit who has to fall to Montana out of necessity. I'm describing a kid who has the opportunity to sit the bench at a Utah or Arizona (just examples) for three years or play early at Montana with the expectation/understanding that he'll be hitting the portal if he performs. Two different things.
I 1000% agree with you. Here is the thing with that... Let's just use Bobby Hauch as an example. Do you thing he would use this as a recruiting tool? Many coaches will not (Take Dabo for example) they are all about the portal when it helps them out, but HATE IT and say it is ruining college sports when it goes the other way. I see Bobby as one of those coaches (In My Opinion). If an FCS coach can truly look at it the way you are talking, and recruit that way, they would dominate the FCS no matter what coach came in.
Bobby would never employ that strategy. We'd have to get a new coach before it was ever considered here.
Oh I see. That really would be an interesting strategy. But do you really think you would find a lot of players that have the opportunity to go to the P5 right away to come to the FCS? Even if you told them you were cool with them moving up if the opportunity presents itself? Most 18yo are not prepared to step on the field at a place like UM even if they are FBS quality. Also the cats out of the bag, they know they can do this anyway. We are like JC was forever.
