Recruiting Revisited - Looking back at 2016

BoxingRobes

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Horrible trend ahead. From 10th to 20th to unranked. Yikes. Won't be much better when we revisit the 2017 Revisit column.

2016 - https://theathletic.com/1578377/2020/02/03/recruiting-revisited-class-of-2016-rankings/

For reference

2015 - https://theathletic.com/797789/2019...how-the-class-of-2015-ranks-four-years-later/
2014 - https://theathletic.com/244180/2018/02/20/college-football-recruiting-class-of-2014-ranking/

For 2016, Miami finished 22nd nationally according to 247. However, was unranked here. Tons of attrition and non-contributors.
For 2015, Miami finished 27th nationally according to 247. In a re-ranking, finished 20th.
For 2014, Miami finished 12th nationally according to 247. In a re-ranking, finished 10th.


From the 2015 column --

20. Miami (Fla.)
Adjusted average: 2.69
Hit rate: 65 percent
Class rank in 2015: 27th
Four-year record: 34-18
Top signees: S Jaquan Johnson, DT Gerald Willis III, DT RJ McIntosh, RB Mark Walton, DT Kendrick Norton

This group is a nice example of why Manny Diaz is the head coach of the Hurricanes today. He and his defensive coaches developed some big-time players from this class, the last one signed by Al Golden. Nine signees in this class were starters on the 2017 team that won 10 games, and seven have started 20-plus games. This was an especially strong class on the defensive line and in the secondary, where Johnson, Michael Jackson and Sheldrick Redwine combined for 79 career starts. Willis, who joined the program in 2015 as a transfer, enjoyed a breakthrough year as a senior and garnered All-America honors.

From the 2014 column --

10. Miami (Fla.)
Adjusted average: 2.74

Hit rate: 63%

Class rank in 2014: 12th

Four-year record: 33-19

Top signees: TE David Njoku, QB Brad Kaaya, OL KC McDermott, DE Chad Thomas, OL Trevor Darling

Al Golden’s staff was responsible for signing this class, and Richt and his coaches have done an excellent job coaching these guys up to their potential. Most of the leaders on Miami’s 2017 team hailed from this class. The ’Canes were able to grab two productive quarterbacks in this class with Kaaya and Malik Rosier. Njoku was truly a steal, a three-star athlete from New Jersey who turned into a first-round NFL pick. Ten signees left the program, but that kind of attrition tends to come with a coaching change.
 
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recruiting is so imperfect esp when youre judging off a magazines or websites rankings. thats why i hope this new O staff and w the addition of E reed can better eval talent (i think our D has hit more often than not honestly, but the injuries have def destroyed us at LB). our O recruiting has been a mess with the amount of misses we take there.
 
In 2016, a lot of us were campaigning for Richt to revisit a group of South Florida three stars. That led to a long debate, with the detractors complaining about the "South Florida three-stars" cliche.

These should be familiar names. Here is how they ended up:

Zack Moss - Pac-12 Offensive player of the year for Utah. All-American and projected NFL Draft pick.
Josh Uche- Racked up 11.5 TFL and 8.5 sack as a senior. Standout performer at Senior Bowl and projected NFL Draft pick.
James Wiggins - Member of the Bruce Feldman "Freaks" list and projected NFL Draft pick before knee injury. 54 tackles and 4 picks his prior season. High expectations after a redshirt year at safety.
Buckshot Calvert- Finished 11th in FBS in passing yards as a senior at Liberty, along with 28 TDs and 7 picks.
James Pierre- 44 tackles and 3 picks at safety as a redshirt junior for FAU. Declared early for NFL Draft.
Desmond Phillips- Led Toledo in receptions as a senior but didn't have impact myself and others expected. Career numbers of 77 catches, 724 yards and 4 TDs.
Jawon Hamilton- Started as a true freshman for UCF until he tore his ACL. Transferred to James Madison where he ran for 919 yards (5.5 ypa) for the FCS runner-up. Poised for big senior year.

Varying levels of success, but no outright flops and some legit difference-makers. This is not hindsight. We did not do well enough in South Florida.
 
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Did someone say ‘evals’?

Richt Era is going to be pretty bad with these.

Golden's problem wasn't evaluations wholesale, the top of his classes were pretty good, but a failure to fill out classes with usable talents really hurt him. Attrition at the bottom of his classes were rough and still hurt us up to this past season. The Richt Era is going to be so rough.

2017 - 12 players from the 24 player class will not be with the program next year (they would be true seniors)...6 players would be considered bottom 15 players on the roster.
2018 - 8 players from a 21 player class will not be with the program next year. That's insane.
 
Richt Era is going to be pretty bad with these.

Golden's problem wasn't evaluations wholesale, the top of his classes were pretty good, but a failure to fill out classes with usable talents really hurt him. Attrition at the bottom of his classes were rough and still hurt us up to this past season. The Richt Era is going to be so rough.

2017 - 12 players from the 24 player class will not be with the program next year (they would be true seniors)...6 players would be considered bottom 15 players on the roster.
2018 - 8 players from a 21 player class will not be with the program next year. That's insane.
Golden recruited better than given credit for tbh
 
Richt Era is going to be pretty bad with these.

Golden's problem wasn't evaluations wholesale, the top of his classes were pretty good, but a failure to fill out classes with usable talents really hurt him. Attrition at the bottom of his classes were rough and still hurt us up to this past season. The Richt Era is going to be so rough.

2017 - 12 players from the 24 player class will not be with the program next year (they would be true seniors)...6 players would be considered bottom 15 players on the roster.
2018 - 8 players from a 21 player class will not be with the program next year. That's insane.
Golden was not a good evaluator. He got a few guys right but littered the roster with truly awful evals, also. And stuffed his LOIs with guys who were unlikely to get in or stay in. Good evaluators need a degree of consistency. No one is perfect but Golden was really average.
 
Golden was not a good evaluator. He got a few guys right but littered the roster with truly awful evals, also. And stuffed his LOIs with guys who were unlikely to get in or stay in. Good evaluators need a degree of consistency. No one is perfect but Golden was really average.

I'm fine with calling him that. His classes were seemingly 50/50. Half were useful players...the other half was unusable trash that was out the door faster than they got in. Very weird dichotomy.

History will not be kind to those Richt classes though. Those will make Golden look better by proxy.

The downward trend is overly disturbing.
 
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I'm fine with calling him that. His classes were seemingly 50/50. Half were useful players...the other half was unusable trash that was out the door faster than they got in. Very weird dichotomy.

History will not be kind to those Richt classes though. Those will make Golden look better by proxy.

The downward trend is overly disturbing.
I have a different take on richt. It’s exactly what I worried about and wrote the day we hired him. He wasn’t a bad evaluator, imo. He was a lazy recruiter. He was used to UGA, where much of the class just jumped into the boat, and local coaches and boosters did half your job for you. You could focus on a few kids a year. Transition that to UM, then add on he was burnt out and tried to be OC plus HC, and it’s easy to see what happened to him recruiting-wise.

Don’t grt me wrong, not calling him a great evaluator by any stretch. But I think he had a sense of what he was looking for. He didn’t know OL at all, tho.
 
Golden was not a good evaluator. He got a few guys right but littered the roster with truly awful evals, also. And stuffed his LOIs with guys who were unlikely to get in or stay in. Good evaluators need a degree of consistency. No one is perfect but Golden was really average.
Facts
 
Moss and Wiggins from the list above were the biggest misses.

I also really liked Deon McIntosh (was he 2016? Either way I was badly wrong lol) and Dicaprio Bootle (Killian/Southridge DB with 4.3 speed who has been a stud at Nebraska, his little brother plays at Palmetto with mines and he's a beast too for the 2023 class)
 
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