Bear Down Wildcats

Newportcat wrote:dmjcat, great post and agree completely. Challenge is there are plenty of homer fans who would tell you we had a good to great class and don't ever look at rankings.

What really surprises me is how two years in a row, Rich Rod has stated he wants to change how they recruit by not having so many commits so early in the process. Doesn't Rich Rod have the ultimate say for if we should offer a kid or not or take their commitment?

People talk a lot about how Rich Rod and his staff have a great system in place when it comes to recruiting but two years in a row Rich Rod states he wants to change a big part of that system. Rich Rod is the head coach so should be easy for him to influence that change.

Hopefully this year they do it because there is no reason we should finish this low in the rankings with our coach and facilities and current on field success.

I don't see why we would worry when this is the same coach who took "underwhelming" classes of 3* players and won the South last year. Most of the players who made significant impacts were those who RR recruited. Solomon, Scooby, Wilson, McCall, Denson, Grant, Griffey, Gurrola, etc. And next year, we have Cobb, Griffen, Ware, and others who should come in to make an impact. I understand that it's frustrating when we don't make a huge impact on NLI day but I trust in RichRod and I think he's earned it.

One class won't kill us but look at the players you mentioned that rich rod recruited

Solomon - 4 star recruit
Wilson - 4 star recruit
Denson - 4 star recruit
Grant - 4 star top 300 recruit on espn
Gurrola - was a three star recruit but 1st team all American at the JUCO level so should have been a four star.

Scobby - obviously a two star
Griffey - 3 star but would not say he made a major impact like jones did who was a five star recruit. I like Griffey but I don't see him being an all conference receiver

The other guys you mentioned who redshirted were all four star recruits too

Look one class won't hurt you and I don't think this class is awful like 2012 ( which rich rod gets a pass on since it was his first class which usually suck) was and I think we will have a great class in 2016 as I see us using the momentum from the fiesta bowl coupled with a smarter system of waiting on commits or getting the benefit of the early signing day coming into law which might force bigger time recruits to decide earlier.

I think the class was solid. We got depth and talent in some needed areas OT & Secondary, plus one big body to anchor the defense. I have actually been seeing and reading a lot of pro-Arizona press from ESPN, Yahoo, and BR. I think if we live up to the hype and end up ranked in the top 15, I would expect our recruiting class to be ranked in the top 20.

Kiyama wrote:I think the class was solid. We got depth and talent in some needed areas OT & Secondary, plus one big body to anchor the defense. I have actually been seeing and reading a lot of pro-Arizona press from ESPN, Yahoo, and BR. I think if we live up to the hype and end up ranked in the top 15, I would expect our recruiting class to be ranked in the top 20.

This class would "solid" if the rest of the PAC did not recruit anyone at all. Point being, most of the PAC clearly moved that much further ahead of UA in talent in recruiting this year. Is RR's coaching prowess enough to keep winning? Maybe. But I personally think the losses to UCLA and USC were strictly an example of UA playing at a deficit of talent. Sark and Mora are not half the coach RR is, but the simple gap in talent was enough to get them close wins over UA last season, and they just widened the gap that much further in said talent. This last season might have been UA's best shot at the conference for a while unless recruiting improves tremendously. Losing to USC and UCLA and still getting to the conference champ game won't happen again.

Scummy Dick Douglas wrote:

Kiyama wrote:I think the class was solid. We got depth and talent in some needed areas OT & Secondary, plus one big body to anchor the defense. I have actually been seeing and reading a lot of pro-Arizona press from ESPN, Yahoo, and BR. I think if we live up to the hype and end up ranked in the top 15, I would expect our recruiting class to be ranked in the top 20.

This class would "solid" if the rest of the PAC did not recruit anyone at all. Point being, most of the PAC clearly moved that much further ahead of UA in talent in recruiting this year. Is RR's coaching prowess enough to keep winning? Maybe. But I personally think the losses to UCLA and USC were strictly an example of UA playing at a deficit of talent. Sark and Mora are not half the coach RR is, but the simple gap in talent was enough to get them close wins over UA last season, and they just widened the gap that much further in said talent. This last season might have been UA's best shot at the conference for a while unless recruiting improves tremendously. Losing to USC and UCLA and still getting to the conference champ game won't happen again.

Lets be honest here your a sun devil and you just looked at our commit list and came away unimpressed. I'd say thats fair, but there are kids in this class that are underrated. Believe it or not RR has an eye for talent and it's showed with his first few classes. I'm not too overly impressed with this class, but I don't hate it either. We got some needed talent for the secondary. Beefed up both lines. Now I don't want a class like this every year nor do I think this next class will be ranked this low, but we addresses needs.

catinfl wrote:

Scummy Dick Douglas wrote:

Kiyama wrote:I think the class was solid. We got depth and talent in some needed areas OT & Secondary, plus one big body to anchor the defense. I have actually been seeing and reading a lot of pro-Arizona press from ESPN, Yahoo, and BR. I think if we live up to the hype and end up ranked in the top 15, I would expect our recruiting class to be ranked in the top 20.

This class would "solid" if the rest of the PAC did not recruit anyone at all. Point being, most of the PAC clearly moved that much further ahead of UA in talent in recruiting this year. Is RR's coaching prowess enough to keep winning? Maybe. But I personally think the losses to UCLA and USC were strictly an example of UA playing at a deficit of talent. Sark and Mora are not half the coach RR is, but the simple gap in talent was enough to get them close wins over UA last season, and they just widened the gap that much further in said talent. This last season might have been UA's best shot at the conference for a while unless recruiting improves tremendously. Losing to USC and UCLA and still getting to the conference champ game won't happen again.

Lets be honest here your a sun devil and you just looked at our commit list and came away unimpressed. I'd say thats fair, but there are kids in this class that are underrated. Believe it or not RR has an eye for talent and it's showed with his first few classes. I'm not too overly impressed with this class, but I don't hate it either. We got some needed talent for the secondary. Beefed up both lines. Now I don't want a class like this every year nor do I think this next class will be ranked this low, but we addresses needs.

This.

catinfl wrote:

Scummy Dick Douglas wrote:

Kiyama wrote:I think the class was solid. We got depth and talent in some needed areas OT & Secondary, plus one big body to anchor the defense. I have actually been seeing and reading a lot of pro-Arizona press from ESPN, Yahoo, and BR. I think if we live up to the hype and end up ranked in the top 15, I would expect our recruiting class to be ranked in the top 20.

This class would "solid" if the rest of the PAC did not recruit anyone at all. Point being, most of the PAC clearly moved that much further ahead of UA in talent in recruiting this year. Is RR's coaching prowess enough to keep winning? Maybe. But I personally think the losses to UCLA and USC were strictly an example of UA playing at a deficit of talent. Sark and Mora are not half the coach RR is, but the simple gap in talent was enough to get them close wins over UA last season, and they just widened the gap that much further in said talent. This last season might have been UA's best shot at the conference for a while unless recruiting improves tremendously. Losing to USC and UCLA and still getting to the conference champ game won't happen again.

Lets be honest here your a sun devil and you just looked at our commit list and came away unimpressed. I'd say thats fair, but there are kids in this class that are underrated. Believe it or not RR has an eye for talent and it's showed with his first few classes. I'm not too overly impressed with this class, but I don't hate it either. We got some needed talent for the secondary. Beefed up both lines. Now I don't want a class like this every year nor do I think this next class will be ranked this low, but we addresses needs.

I still think UA has a chance this year to make a run at a conference title. We didn't lose a whole bunch and our defense should be better. Also, other schools lost more than we did(Marriota, Hundley, etc). Yes, most other schools had better recruiting classes but all of those Freshmen won't have that big an impact this first year. In coming years, this recruiting class' lack of star depth will show. We will need a great run in '15 to compensate for that.

AZ should have a better shot at a South repeat than ASU had going into 2014. They lost way too much and their fans still thought they'd repeat. The Cats haven't lost nearly as much and the key positions will be better.

Starting OL is transferring, AZ needs OL's:

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... rom-irish/

A New Mexico kid. Have the think the Cats have a shot if they can fit him in.

dmjcat wrote:Starting OL is transferring, AZ needs OL's:

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... rom-irish/

Comes from a similar system too.

Extremely impressive offer list out of HS, Stoops recruit.

After Jared Allen, tough for me to get too excited about these type of transfers. I for sure thought that guy was going to contribute last year. Anyone know why he left the team?

RR won't be too happy about this:

De'Andre Watson is a 5-11, 191 lbs WR/CB from Milikan HS, Long Beach, CA. My understanding is he is coming in as a preferred walk-on.

Question for those who follow Southern Arizona football.

The AZ Star ran a story last fall about a giant senior at Bisbee High. I've been able to figure out his name is Jason Linden 6'7" 330 but that's about it; no recruiting profiles.

Did he ever find a JC or walk-on somewhere, or is he just a really big dude who can say he played a little HS ball?

So after one year it looks like I was right and the 2015 is well on its way to being a nondescript recruiting class producing little high level talent and performing at the level of its rankings.

The JUCO guys were all a complete bust outside of a couple decent moments from Magliore but he is not a world beater. Hamilton lasted like a day and Cruikshank was so bad he couldn't even see the field at corner this year when we had some bad corners. Morin was a complete waste of a scholarship and Fotu can't stop smoking that Mary Jane.

Some true freshmen played and the only one who looked like he had s bright future was Flanigan. He should be a diamond in the rough. Shun Brown had the honor of calling for a fair catch on a kick off at the three yard line and doing nothing on offense though we were deep at WR. Jace Whittaker and Morrison look like two small and slow DB's who should get killed the next three years in the PAC 12. Bradford actually had some nice moments and he should have a good future too.

Not really sure anyone else played much and Rich Rod will play true freshmen so that can not be a great sign. The fact Franklin didn't play at LB scared me considering we were bringing guys off the street to play that position. I thought he would be a good one potentially and maybe still could

Bearing down on recruiting rankings rarely lie

However we did bring in the #1 walk on recruiting class in the history of mankind

Recruiting rankings never lie

-Signed every highly rated player in this class outside of Nick Wilson
https://rivals.yahoo.com/arizona/footba ... ments/2014" target="_blank

ChooChooCat wrote:Recruiting rankings never lie

-Signed every highly rated player in this class outside of Nick Wilson
https://rivals.yahoo.com/arizona/footba ... ments/2014" target="_blank

This is their second year. If they all don't do anything by the time they leave they are busts, but DL take awhile to develop anyway. Ware and Cobb are disappointments, but their career is far from over and Denson has two years.

Sage&Silver wrote:Question for those who follow Southern Arizona football.

The AZ Star ran a story last fall about a giant senior at Bisbee High. I've been able to figure out his name is Jason Linden 6'7" 330 but that's about it; no recruiting profiles.

Did he ever find a JC or walk-on somewhere, or is he just a really big dude who can say he played a little HS ball?

His knees plagued him his whole HS career. He now plays for Arizona Western CC

"Sad to say" meaning RichRod encouraged him to leave?

That's a pretty big tattoo to get taken off.

Merkin wrote:"Sad to say" meaning RichRod encouraged him to leave?

That's a pretty big tattoo to get taken off.

No info on that but I would agree with you Merk. I think RR is reworking the talent on the roster defensively and we will see over 25 signed this year which will mean more transfers to make room

Chief, thanks for the answer. I stopped checking back, until this thread popped up again.

Merkin wrote:"Sad to say" meaning RichRod encouraged him to leave?

That's a pretty big tattoo to get taken off.

He was a tweener prospect, small DE or big LB but too slow to play LB and not strong/big enough to play DE. Sucks he got that tattoo

azpenguin wrote:AZ should have a better shot at a South repeat than ASU had going into 2014. They lost way too much and their fans still thought they'd repeat. The Cats haven't lost nearly as much and the key positions will be better.

Always funny looking back at old threads.....