If we don't add another player the class is still great

[Poultry King]

And we are off to a great start for 2016 w Davis and McIlwain. We seem to be the favorite with Kinlaw and Edwards...maybe even Pinckney. You need to look at why some of the defectors left...I don't remember them all.
I remember Rivers left w something concerning our 4-man front and he fits better in a 3-man front.
I think Austin Clark just got a bit homesick and stayed close at VT.
Key was never coming.
Arnette had a hard choice w early PT likely at both...how do you not go w the reigning MNC?

The point here is IDK how much of the losses had to do w staff. SOS comment on 2-3 years did hurt and will continue to do so.
IDK if we need to make coaching changes just yet; because the class while disappointed in the losses is still strong, and I suspect a solid year on the field and no more bonehead mic jobs by HBC will continue the pattern for 2016.

I will ill say that SOS comment showed me that Ray and the admin may have their heads in the sand. I hope that there is some honest dialogue going on w Ray & Steve. Convincing/Begging coaches to forego retirement did not end well with Lou and won't here either. Succession planning and straight talk are needed now for the program.

 

[basses]

Wait and see attitude. Great or good high school players don't always make good college players. Question is, can our coaches do a good enough job to coach them up? With the current defensive staff, I doubt it.

 

[hitman2001#]

Thanks for the common sense post. Seen a lot of wadded panties on here this morning.

 

[cock1971]

Mark my words. The HBC will say " you always lose a few in recruiting." However, this year the staff was kept in tact for recruiting purposes ...Need more of an explanation here as to how we lost main targets at the end.....

 

[G-C-Gamecock]

In your opinion, what makes this class "great"? Would you consider any of the last few classes great?

 

[bmhood1984]

"Great" class by our standards yet we are about middle of the road compared to all the teams we will be playing against. No way no how am I counting the chickens before they hatch with 2016 "commits" just yet.

 

[Poultry King]

It is a great class because we filled positions of need with quality players...and positions for immediate impact were filled w immediate players.

Lewis &Sawyer will provide immediate help at DE. Wideman and Jones should provide immediate help at DT.
We added some good depth at LB both JUCO and Fr.
I hate losing Arnette but we still have some quality DBs and we get Green and Smalls this season. Plus, Jamari Smith.

On O, we landed a great OL group. Hated losing Parris. HE IS THE BIGGEST LOSS!!
We landed some good depth at WR
We got a great looking dual threat QB ...who could play WR if beaten out at some point.
Two solid RB that can RS.

Yes, we are still middle of the sec. Likely always will be. But the rub there is that to be better than the rest of the sec, you have to no lower than #2 class ranking annually.

 

[G-C-Gamecock]

Originally posted by Poultry King:
It is a great class because we filled positions of need with quality players...and positions for immediate impact were filled w immediate players.

We have done this each of the last three years. In 2013, we needed LB's and filled that need with immediate players. In 2014, we needed DB's and filled that need with immediate players. This year, it's DE's. Just because we fill needs doesn't make it a great class, it makes it a rational class. Every team fills needs, but not every team has a great class.

Rivals.com
2013 - 16th ranked class
2014 - 16th ranked class
2015 - 15th ranked class

Nothing in this class stands out from any of the previous three. We are on course for a season resembling this past one...even with needs being filled. Before anyone jumps on the "stars and rankings don't mean anything" boat, I'm simply saying that this class, on paper and at this time, isn't any more special than the 7-6 class.

 

[basses]

Originally posted by G-C-Gamecock:

Originally posted by Poultry King:
It is a great class because we filled positions of need with quality players...and positions for immediate impact were filled w immediate players.

We have done this each of the last three years. In 2013, we needed LB's and filled that need with immediate players. In 2014, we needed DB's and filled that need with immediate players. This year, it's DE's. Just because we fill needs doesn't make it a great class, it makes it a rational class. Every team fills needs, but not every team has a great class.

Rivals.com
2013 - 16th ranked class
2014 - 16th ranked class
2015 - 15th ranked class

Nothing in this class stands out from any of the previous three. We are on course for a season resembling this past one...even with needs being filled. Before anyone jumps on the "stars and rankings don't mean anything" boat, I'm simply saying that this class, on paper and at this time, isn't any more special than the 7-6 class.

Proves that keeping the pitiful defensive staff in tact did not help at all. We will be a 6-6 or 5-7 team this year. And of course, the stupid 2-3 year comment didn't help at all.

 

[ReadR00ster]

Great for an average team in the country, but sucks for an SEC team. WE need to have top 5 classes so we don't have to rely on our coaches to improve them because they suck at that.

 

[Number1pjones]

Originally posted by basses:

Originally posted by G-C-Gamecock:

Originally posted by Poultry King:
It is a great class because we filled positions of need with quality players...and positions for immediate impact were filled w immediate players.

We have done this each of the last three years. In 2013, we needed LB's and filled that need with immediate players. In 2014, we needed DB's and filled that need with immediate players. This year, it's DE's. Just because we fill needs doesn't make it a great class, it makes it a rational class. Every team fills needs, but not every team has a great class.

Rivals.com
2013 - 16th ranked class
2014 - 16th ranked class
2015 - 15th ranked class

Nothing in this class stands out from any of the previous three. We are on course for a season resembling this past one...even with needs being filled. Before anyone jumps on the "stars and rankings don't mean anything" boat, I'm simply saying that this class, on paper and at this time, isn't any more special than the 7-6 class.

Proves that keeping the pitiful defensive staff in tact did not help at all. We will be a 6-6 or 5-7 team this year. And of course, the stupid 2-3 year comment didn't help at all.

Now this ^^^^^ is calling it as you see it. Spot on!

 

[uscgrad1991]

Let's be honest, we had a horrible year. With the exception of flordia game, we didn't get any breaks. We should have won 3 more games. This is the reason for the collapse of this recruting class. We still have a very good class, but it is not great class.

 

[spinrbait]

Originally posted by Poultry King:
And we are off to a great start for 2016 w Davis and McIlwain. We seem to be the favorite with Kinlaw and Edwards...maybe even Pinckney. You need to look at why some of the defectors left...I don't remember them all.
I remember Rivers left w something concerning our 4-man front and he fits better in a 3-man front.
I think Austin Clark just got a bit homesick and stayed close at VT.
Key was never coming.
Arnette had a hard choice w early PT likely at both...how do you not go w the reigning MNC?

The point here is IDK how much of the losses had to do w staff. SOS comment on 2-3 years did hurt and will continue to do so.
IDK if we need to make coaching changes just yet; because the class while disappointed in the losses is still strong, and I suspect a solid year on the field and no more bonehead mic jobs by HBC will continue the pattern for 2016.

I will ill say that SOS comment showed me that Ray and the admin may have their heads in the sand. I hope that there is some honest dialogue going on w Ray & Steve. Convincing/Begging coaches to forego retirement did not end well with Lou and won't here either. Succession planning and straight talk are needed now for the program.

good Lord! we are 8th in recruiting in sec. plus clemson buried us in recruiting. on top of it all, we don't have a coach on the defensive side who can even teach players how to tackle

 

[ReadR00ster]

Originally posted by Poultry King:
It is a great class because we filled positions of need with quality players...and positions for immediate impact were filled w immediate players.

Lewis &Sawyer will provide immediate help at DE. Wideman and Jones should provide immediate help at DT.
We added some good depth at LB both JUCO and Fr.
I hate losing Arnette but we still have some quality DBs and we get Green and Smalls this season. Plus, Jamari Smith.

On O, we landed a great OL group. Hated losing Parris. HE IS THE BIGGEST LOSS!!
We landed some good depth at WR
We got a great looking dual threat QB ...who could play WR if beaten out at some point.
Two solid RB that can RS.

Yes, we are still middle of the sec. Likely always will be. But the rub there is that to be better than the rest of the sec, you have to no lower than #2 class ranking annually.

I don't believe you have to recruit THAT well to compete for an SEC title, but 17th ranked classes every year isn't good enough. You have to crack the the top 10 at leas every couple of years or so. If we could actually start developing some of these players on the defensive side we could compete with a couple of top ten and couple of top 25 classes.

 

[Rollerdude123]

It's not a great class.

It's a pretty good class. It's middle of the pack in the SEC.

For us to challenge for Atlanta again, we will have to land a few 5 star type offensive players that most of the big programs really want coupled with another couple of Stephen Gilmore type player for our secondary. We aren't landing that right now.

Mark Fields would have been one of those type players- a kid that most every big program wanted bad. We had him. Spurrier's comments hurt us badly with him.

The bad part about it - we were in good position to have a top 10-12 class - but some very poor wording and a seemingly casual approach to the uncertainty around the program in late December by Steve Spurrier made having a top 10-12 class and a strong finish an impossibility.

 

[BedouinCock]

Thanks for lending some sanity and positive logic to the discussion. These type voices are are like a voice crying in the wilderness these days.

 

[raycock2001]

"We are on course for a season resembling this past one..."

Why G-C? Because we had "nothing special" classes? Let's take a look at the 3 years prior to the ones you mentioned.
2012 = 19th
2011 - 18th
2010 - 24th

These rankings lower than our last 3 yet over the 3 year period of 2011-13 we were 33-6. Recruiting areas of need is very important, now we need to put them all together.
Now that terrible defensive staff, you know, the ones that led a defense ranked in the top 20, has something total to work with again.

 

[Rollerdude123]

Saying this class is a great class is not "lending some sanity"


it's lending a lot of spin.




Originally posted by BedouinCock:

Thanks for lending some sanity and positive logic to the discussion. These type voices are are like a voice crying in the wilderness these days.