The 2013 Graveyard Thread

[EveryThingGreen]

Originally Posted by elcid99

Lewis, Cooper, Holloman, and Roberts(I think he is on the roster...not sure). Rainey should consider moving over...stud LB in HS w size.

The staff is reaching out to anyone w any interest & we are being contacted as well by a few. Who knows what will happen, but I know we will play football next year.

Lewis - True Soph, Special Teams experience
Cooper - Redshirt Soph, Special Teams experience, under 220lbs
Holloman - Redshirt frosh, no experience.
Roberts - injured since stepping on campus, latest ACL.

So we can not even have a spring game with our scholarship LBs on our roster.

Now, I do think Rainey should move to MLB in the Spring. He is a starter in '13 at LB or a 3rd-4th TE on offense. I think it is a move that benefits Rainey and USC greatly. He was recruited by a lot of teams to play LB and we have a glaring hole at this position heading in to the season.

[LegalCock]

Yeah, I think the optimism regarding some of the guys on campus has to be tempered by the fact that if they were all that they would be getting some snaps. NOW is when we will see if Botkin can cut it or not. Also whammy is getting paid a lot to field a good defense, I have faith he will roll out good players.

[Reload]

Originally Posted by LegalCock

Yeah, I think the optimism regarding some of the guys on campus has to be tempered by the fact that if they were all that they would be getting some snaps. NOW is when we will see if Botkin can cut it or not. Also whammy is getting paid a lot to field a good defense, I have faith he will roll out good players.

We had 5 senior LB'ers. We run a 4-2-5 defense. Not much room for people to get on the field. Give the young guys some time. Coop and Lewis will be good for us.

[Gamecocks321]

What about Keith Bryant?

[4gamecockfb]

him and mackensie alexander are on same team. hopefully if we get one, the other may come too

[Beebop]

C2....I read somewhere recently (I think it was the article about us pulling the offer to K.Dallas) we had two silent commits...any ideas who these would be? I'm assuming one may be D.Williams since he hasn't committed publicly. Thanks in advance for any input!

[Gamecocks321]

Originally Posted by Beebop

C2....I read somewhere recently (I think it was the article about us pulling the offer to K.Dallas) we had two silent commits...any ideas who these would be? I'm assuming one may be D.Williams since he hasn't committed publicly. Thanks in advance for any input!

Rodgers and Williams would be my guess.

[b381l]

Originally Posted by KaneisAble

Whaa? That would be surprising. Unless they're fearful they won't land Williams.

I read he is too small to be an every down back.....and we already have some with his skills.

[Glamcock]

Is OP talking about Montravious Adams?

MA has zero interest in USC. It ain't happening, though I would love for that not to be the case. He's not interested, though.

Williams and Rodgers are the silent commits, whatever that means. If you aren't willing to tell anybody, I don't see how you can be committed.

Ngakoue just said that he will be announcing before he even visits us. That does not sound good for the home team. We'll end up signing a LB that isn't even on any fans radar right now.

[EveryThingGreen]

Logan is a play maker that will be used everywhere..... KR, PR, WR, RB.

You find ways to get him the ball. I would take him in a heart beat

[Glamcock]

Originally Posted by duff18

Maybe this belongs in the "what our coaches can be doing better" thread, but I feel like I read a lot of these updates where we are in touch, but it seems half hearted. Whereas UGA and Clemson are entusiatically after a kid like this and keep after to him to secure a visit. Our staff should be exhausting every possible legal communication they can with any top recruit at this point and stay on them and get them on campus.

I could certainy be wrong, but hope we are really hammering away at Adams, Foster, Wiggins, Alexander, etc......

Rigghht. They would love to be in on a guy like Adams. They have done all they can, and were actually the first school to give him a written offer. You can only contact a kid a certain number of times, try to get him to visit, call his coaches, contact him on facebook; all of which we have done. Sometimes a kid just is not interested in your school, for whatever reason. Adams has shown no interest back, it is not for lack of trying, though.
Coaches are real people, with families, who have to sleep also. There is only so many recruits you can continue to go after with no return interest before you have to start giving your attention to kids you actually have a shot at landing.

[KaneisAble]

Originally Posted by EveryThingGreen

Logan is a play maker that will be used everywhere..... KR, PR, WR, RB.

You find ways to get him the ball. I would take him in a heart beat

Sounds like an Ace Swiss Army Knife type. I like it. Taking a player from the Holes, even better.

[b381l]

Originally Posted by duff18

Maybe this belongs in the "what our coaches can be doing better" thread, but I feel like I read a lot of these updates where we are in touch, but it seems half hearted. Whereas UGA and Clemson are entusiatically after a kid like this and keep after to him to secure a visit. Our staff should be exhausting every possible legal communication they can with any top recruit at this point and stay on them and get them on campus.

I could certainy be wrong, but hope we are really hammering away at Adams, Foster, Wiggins, Alexander, etc......

Sometimes these kids just aren't interested. Magnus stopped by Carl Lawson's school last week to talk to him and he just wasn't interested. It happens. Not everyone wants to play for us.

[Glamcock]

Originally Posted by duff18

I just posted this in the Adams thread, and I have no basis for this, just a hunch, but it seems the recruiting at other schools is relentless as far as getting a kid to visit. I read a lot of these updates where a kid says something like "I like USC, but have not heard from them in a week and not sure I will visit there." I know there are limits on communication, but if our staff is not maxing out the allowable communications channels for prospects and commitments, then they are not doing do their job.

I'd like us to have a coordinator who loves to talk to these kids, loves the challenge of selling our program, can sell it effectively and is relentless - careful not to be overbearing though and used car salesman-ish - but that is the art of selling. I want a guy who lives it and hates to lose a player when he feels he is best suited for our program.

I just don't get the feeling we have that.

I know our coaches can certainly evaluate talent and are not star gazers, but I'd like to see them close better and with some vigor!

I would like an example of a great player saying that he is interested in USC, but has not heard from us.

We have nothing to complain about with our recruiting. We get great players who turn into great leaders. Coaches are real people, with real families, who need real sleep, and have to take time off from their jobs just like the rest of us. There are plenty of very good players we reach out to on multiple occasions who just show no interest in return. There are so many prospects out there that out coaches cannot keep spending a lot of their time on kids who are not interested. It is easy for us to look at a 5* kid and say "why are we not showing up at his school every day, and calling him every night?". Reality is that eventually, you have to start investing your time on kids that you actually have a shot at landing. Otherwise, you will end up with no LOI's on signing day. IMO, people need to consider the fact that some players are just not interested in USC, and that the coaches are actual people doing a job, just like the rest of us. They have to spend their time being productive, and not chasing dreams.

[b381l]

A couple of weeks ago JaQuay Williams was adamant that he and Wiggins were going to play together. Now JW is going to Aggie Land and Wiggins is still in Athens. I just don't think he has much credibility any more, and don't believe he'll ever play for us.

[Garnet girl]

My husband just said Mangus has secured a visit from LB Y. Ngakoue.

[crowcutta]

Originally Posted by CoverTwo

The only reason I got upset with Rolin is because he was a legacy, and I'll keep standing by the thought that you should never, ever lose a legacy to another school.

i dont follow recruiting that closely, but i'd agree. one take on it is that sometimes the son or relative wants to get out of the shadow and make his own path, but he was committed here seemingly all in and then bounces, which sucks.

[Garnet girl]

If we can get Yannik Ngakoue to join us we would feel better about Rolin. I just did not see the Rolin flip coming. I do think the offer was a tight end that could be a linebacker. I have no recruiting news except the guys on here, but my husband follows it closely. He thinks Ngakoue is superior as LB, but he isn't a legacy player. We will see.

[MWard]

Better....What are we willing to risk?

We could go full blown Trooper Taylor/Auburn/clemson throwing out cash to get the top talent. Also, we could go Tenn/So Cal and have a huge recruiting budget and hostesses/prostitutes. We could go Miami on the ponzi scheme donors and take recruits to strip clubs/boats/meals and give them non existant high paying jobs in our firms (along with their parents/families.) We could go unc and create fictional classes for them to take where they know they are going to get good grades for turning in anything.

We could do a lot of things differently...but what are we willing to risk? Wait, why don't we risk more???? Those schools either aren't on probation, are on a short term probation, and maybe can't play in 1 post season. As long as we don't have perverts we won't lose much, and even then, only a fistfull of post seasons.

[Garnet girl]

Originally Posted by Beebop

Is that dude behind him checking out his ARSSS??

He is just checking it due to size.
Maybe Connor Mitch can tweet him.