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Biggest recruiting misses in school history

I know I should leave this thread alone, but I can't resist.

Its Amari Cooper.

The way it went down plus it felt like losing him was the single recruitment that broke open the SF flood gates.

I like to think there's another universe out there where Golden doesn't exist. In that version we land Bridgewater and Freeman in 11, followed by Cooper and Duke in 12.
 
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Canesfan_134 said:
Pre Internet Recruiting Era off the top of my head
LB Derrick Thomas (wanted to leave SFLA)
LB Keith Carter
LB Marvin Jones
CB Clifton Abraham
RB Marshall Faulk (wanted to come but we wanted him as a DB.)
LB Lamont Green
RB Troy and Darren Davis (not sure if we even recruited them hard.)
LB LaVar Arrington
S Derrick Gibson
RB LaDainian Tomlinson (wanted to come but was supposedly scared to fly and never visited stayed in TX.)

Internet Recruiting Era
2003 DT Nate Robinson (5* #1 DT in the nation from Jersey committed to us at the same time as Greg Olsen. But didn’t qualify academically went to Rutgers.)
2004 RB Bobby Washington (didn’t qualify academically went to NC State.)
2005 CB Demetrice Morley
2005 TE Martellus Bennett
2005 RB Antone Smith
2005 DE Ricky Jean-Francois (was never offered wanted to come)
2007 RB Noel Devine
2007 RB Antwain Easterling
2007 RB Armando Allen
2008 CB Patrick Peterson
2008 LB LaVonte Davis (literally begged for an offer)
2009 RB Bryce Brown
2010 DB Lamarcus Joyner
2011 RB DeVonta Freeman
2011 QB Teddy Bridgewater
2011 WR Sammy Watkins
2012 WR Amari Cooper
2013 LB Matthew Thomas
2013 CB Jalen Ramsey (grew up a Canes fan we Golden ruined any chance of getting him. Signed Corn Elder from the same area.)
2014 RB Dalvin Cook
2015 WR Calvin Ridley
2015 CB Tarvarus McFadden
2016 DE Brian Burns
2017 WR Jerry Jeudy
2017 WR Trevon Grimes
2018 CB Patrick Surtain II
2018 CB Tyson Campbell
2019 WR Jadon Haselwood
2017 OL Evan Neal
2020 LB Justin Flowe
2021 LB Terrence Lewis
2021 WR Ja’Corey Brooks
2021 CB Jason Marshall
2022 DE Shemar Stewart
2022 CB Earl Little Jr
2023 CB Cormani McClain
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2011-2018 is the most brutal. it’s a debatable subject and ‘would’ve could’ve should’ve etc… but I would be lying if I said I don’t sometimes wonder how much those players may have changed the trajectory of the progrum during that time period.
 
To me a miss is not the high end 4 or 5 star players, everyone wanted them. A miss is a guy in the tri-county area who is right under our feet that we never went after or slow played. Those bother me more because every class we have a bunch of random 3 star guys who ended up not doing much here, while if we just took the right 3 star guys we would be in better shape.
 
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Top 5

- Patrick Peterson
- Amari Cooper - which lead to also missing on Calvin Ridley & Jerry Jeudy
- Dalvin Cook
- Tyson Campbell - CJ Henderson - Josh Josh
- Shemar Stewart
 
Canesfan_134 said:
That list is even longer than the ones who don’t come…

Started in the mid 2000s and hasn’t slowed down since!

Ryan Moore
Kyle Wright
Willie Williams
Lance Leggett
James Bryant
DajLeon Farr (filler for missing on Martellus Bennett)
That whole 08 class smh… (Patrick Peterson screwed us. Randy Shannon f***** over Arthur Brown and his brother Bryce never came)
Lorenzo Lingard

Jeremiah Smith will be the modern version of Patrick Peterson IMO
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That's a big statement there about Patrick Peterson because we really needed him that cycle
 
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Why good comes of spending your time discussing players who did NOT come to UM?
Because very single university has recruiting misses. And sitting around crying, moaning and complaining about things that did not work out in your life is not what healthy people do.

So rather than this list, how about some of you make a list about all the women who rejected you, or the jobs you did not get, or the schools that rejected your application? Seems pointless doesn’t it? Well so is this entire thread.
 
Amari Cooper
Dalvin Cook (for obvious reasons 🤦🏿‍♂️)

We didn't even try with Lamar Jackson 🤦🏿‍♂️
 
The biggest recruiting "misses" that we've had, IMO
1. Sony Michele
2. Max Jean Gilles
3. Patrick Peterson
4. Dalvin Cook
5. Amari Cooper

Those were "misses".
If Jeremiah Smith don't end up in this class, I won't consider it a "loss" because he was thought of as being a sucknut committ/lean this whole time. Would love to have him, but calling him one of our biggest misses in history, is a bit of a stretch. JMO
 
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kanin81 said:
To me a miss is not the high end 4 or 5 star players, everyone wanted them. A miss is a guy in the tri-county area who is right under our feet that we never went after or slow played. Those bother me more because every class we have a bunch of random 3 star guys who ended up not doing much here, while if we just took the right 3 star guys we would be in better shape.
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Oh that list could be just as long as the other I made.

Lamar Jackson, Zay Flowers, Tutu Atwell, Zach Moss, LaVonte David, Calijah Kancey and so on
 
Jeff George.

Not really a miss, but I remember Jimmy recruiting him a second time when George left Purdue. Story at the time was George was a diva who wanted his own dorm room, and all kinds of crap. Perhaps true. But he was a great arm talent who went first overall in the draft, and had a decent average starter’s NFL career. Who knows what could’ve happened if he had gotten into the Cane program and matured?
 
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Canesfan_134 said:
Oh that list could be just as long as the other I made.

Lamar Jackson, Zay Flowers, Tutu Atwell, Zach Moss, LaVonte David, Calijah Kancey and so on
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That’s an endless list but that’s what made Butch Davis so good. He actually hit big on those guys, while it’s been a long time since we got one of those.
 
TemplarCane said:
Jeff George.

Not really a miss, but I remember Jimmy recruiting him a second time when George left Purdue. Story at the time was George was a diva who wanted his own dorm room, and all kinds of crap. Perhaps true. But he was a great arm talent who went first overall in the draft, and had a decent average starter’s NFL career. Who knows what could’ve happened if he had gotten into the Cane program and matured?
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One of the best pure arm talents I’ve ever seen. But he had a horrible attitude throughout the duration of his college & pro career. Jimmy wanted him bad and Jimmy got most the guys he wanted…

Absolutely would not have fit in with those mid-late 80s Canes locker rooms…
 
kanin81 said:
That’s an endless list but that’s what made Butch Davis so good. He actually hit big on those guys, while it’s been a long time since we got one of those.
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Butch Davis was the master talent evaluator and that’s what built the 2000-2002 teams. He signed all the best under the radar guys and he also signed the top National guys he wanted. His recruiting classes in 1997 & 1999 are unbelievable.
 
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