Wait we are still saying the cupboard was bare going into5th year?The dbs Al has brought in has been unproductive as well. I don't know if people realize that our team is in a worse predicament than when Al took over in 2011.
You would rather have:
CB: McGee (JR), Chambers (JR), Williams (SR), Payne (JR), Rogers (SO), Finnie (FR)
S: Telemaque (JR), JoJo (SR), Armstrong (JR), Highsmith (SO), Cornileus (SO), Armbrister (FR), D. Crawford (FR)
than
CB: Howard (SR), Burns (JR), Elder (JR), Mayes (rFR), Jackson (FR), RedWine (FR), Henley (FR)
S: Bush (SR), Jenkins (rJR), Crawford (SR), Carter (JR), Johnson (FR), Knowles (FR)
GTFO!
Only McGee made it on a team in the NFL from the backfield in 2011. Armstrong in barely in the NFL as a LB and didn't play much due to suspensions.
Gunter will get drafted this year and Howard, Burns, Elder, Bush will all be in the league withing the next couple of years.
The cupboard may not be filled but it's much better than when this staff took over. Our top 3 corners this year can start on most teams in the NCAA, can't say that about 2011. If A. Crawford didn't bail, we would of had 4 solid CBs. I would take Bush/Carter/Jenkins/Crawford/Johnson over Telemaque/Rogers/Highsmith/Armstrong any day.
I'm not using any excuses. I'm stating facts:
They had McGee is 2011 and he improved and got drafted the next year.
They recruited Finnie and Crawford in 2011 with very little time to recruit. Finnie contributed until he got kicked off, Crawford will provide depth this year at S.
2012 was the year we took a ton of DBs because we had none in the Cupboard.
Gunter, Howard, A. Crawford, Davis, Hope, and Dortch at CB and
Bush and
Jenkins at Safety.
with 6 CB in one class you will have attrition. Davis left right away. Gunter, Howard, Crawford all played and are solid players. Dortch and Hope got to redshirt and left after they got passed up by Burns and Elders. Bush and Jenkins are both solid players, both got hurt and missed significant time.
2013 had
Burns,
Elder, and
Lewis III. Lewis left after realizing he won't be playing much. Burns and Elder are both studs. Carter was the lone safety of the class and will be a stud as well.
2014
At CB we only signed
Mayes but at the time we had Gunter, Howard, A. Crawford, Burns, Elder, Hope, and Dortch. We didn't have much room for CBs. We needed S and sign
Hester and
Gayot. Hester left unexpectedly and Gayot got moved to LB so we were hurting in terms of depth at S.
2015
We signed Johnson and Knowles at Safety and Jackson, RedWine and Henley at CB.
Could we have done better recruiting? Yes. Did we get some good guys? Yes. Are we developing them? TBD.
Out of all the recruits by the current staff recruited only Gunter has graduated from the U. Howard will enter the draft this year, Burns and Elder the next year. How they do at the next level will show us how they were developed.
