- Joined
- Apr 28, 2014
- Messages
- 20,678
The portal combined with NIL has completely changed what makes sense to do from a recruiting standpoint. And unlike most here, while I think we have a very good NIL (maybe 8-12 range imo) what people don't like to admit is just because you are top 10 in total dollars spent or on average per recruit doesn't mean you are outspending everyone that is 11th or below for every player on the margins. That's just not how it works. It's why Missouri and South Carolina can get 5star players.There is a poster on here goes by @gogeta4 that stated this when he was hired. I remember the wars i had sometime felt allll alone i went at @Rellyrell @Calinative and others about it.
This as i was driving the Lane Train lol.
That being said i STILL dont question him with OL or TE recruitment and evals because i believe those to be Mario's strong points.
Being like 10th on Average doesn't mean you have the NIL funding to just stack 5star on 5star with the ability to just let those expensive contracts sit the bench developing. The teams that have that capability (and it's diminishing over time just how much they are even stacking) are selling far more than just NIL. They are selling winning (proven competing for National Championship), selling a high quality brand over a decade+, and of course NFL development. Its much easier for a player to pick UGA, Ohio St, etc than Miami regardless what you say the NIL packages each is offering is. But when you add NIL to the mix, again its not like teams spending less than you can't outspend you on specific recruits. So the top programs don't have to spend as much as you for any given recruit because we have sucked *** as a program the last 2 decades, but even lower spending programs can match or outspend you on any handful of recruits. Sure maybe that means they have just a couple super high end recruits and the rest of their class is 3stars, but ultimately the end result is they got the recruit you wanted. You may have the better class or more spend per recruit, but they still got a guy you wanted...
But anyways even stacking the 5stars at positions that don't get a lot of rotational play if that is the strategy you want, then likely prevents you from hitting the portal hard, it backs you into the corner of having to give them a raise to keep them out the portal the following year. And the end result would be just people *****ing and moaning on here about how our guys are unproven going into next year.
Seriously for the perfect example, look at our EDGE room and how several people on here have been constantly doom posting about it. And that is LITERALLY a unit where we have three 5star prospects in Blount, Lightfoot and Lowe. A guy that is currently a projected top 10 pick in Bain that was one of the most productive freshman in the last decade. A 5year starting DE who has been productive in Mesidor (and would absolutely be a rotational player at even the top programs!), And then a handful of other very highly rated prospects like Pickett and Scroggins as well as McConathy who as a true freshman last year played more than even the two 5 star recruits did lol... And lastly Bryant who I'm not a very big fan of but should at least be solid... oh and almost forgot now Toure who absolutely has proven ability to rush the passer... Our AVERAGE EDGE player on this roster is currently rated 94 (93.98) basically lol. And we have 9 of them... And there has just been a **** load of complaining about our EDGE room lol.
So I'd love to hear how if we did the same stacking at other positions how there wouldn't be the constant complaining. In fact then the complaining would guaranteed shift to how bad the evaluations are and how the depth chart is mismanaged, because then people won't comprehend that whether you have a roster of 53, 85, or 105 you basically have the same 22 starting jobs with 45ish players seeing meaningful reps weekly.... Point is The ONLY thing that will ever stop people complaining about Mario and his recruiting/roster construction choices is Winning. That is all there is to it. And even that will only shut them up for like a day or two. Then it's on to well he blew the playoff game, he didn't recruit a good enough kicker to get us over the top, etc, bs, etc, bs...