2014 Recruits

[carolinacoast]

Originally Posted by poppabeary3

"Over the years..." it has been more important to evaluate the prospects that fit into our schemes and then "coach em up". That has worked well for us and has made us a top 10 contender presently and for the forseeable future. But for us to take the next step and become an elite contender year in year out, we must get the elite talent. Look at the national champs the past decade or so and then look at their recruiting rankings for the years leading up to the 'ship...

Unfortunately, the recruits don't see USC as elite, so USC isn't able to recruit nationally, for the most part. Also, the top recruiting schools tend to be in state with either surplus BCS talent recruits, or far more population. The state of South Carolina just can't produce the numbers. If you follow recruiting, no one ever says they grew up rooting for the Gamecocks unless they were from South Carolina, or had Souh Carolina ties. However, lots of out of state kids rooted for OSU, UGA, UF...etc. Tony Morrell says because of demographics, USC will always have some rebuilding years. They will to coach up some kids to go with our South Carolina hs talent, and maybe grab a few good ones out of Charlotte, and recruit what Georgia can't take.

I have chosen to be realistic about this, and not negative as I feel USC can have a good, or above average class every year. Hopefully, 2014 is one of the above average classes, and I feel it will be one of the best, although it will be hard to beat the 2007 class.

[Rebel4ever]

As long as we stay where we are and finally make that one last big step that we should have made the last two years, we will be consistently very good and even the very good teams have breakout seasons and make it to the BCS. We can do it next year. I'm looking forward to the playoff system cause there have been seasons we were the hottest team in the nation at the end of the season. Take 2011, if we had made the SEC title game, we might have got an at-large berth in the playoffs if it were implemented then. We need to TAKE what should have been ours the last two years next year.

[poppabeary3]

Originally Posted by carolinacoast

Unfortunately, the recruits don't see USC as elite, so USC isn't able to recruit nationally, for the most part. Also, the top recruiting schools tend to be in state with either surplus BCS talent recruits, or far more population. The state of South Carolina just can't produce the numbers. If you follow recruiting, no one ever says they grew up rooting for the Gamecocks unless they were from South Carolina, or had Souh Carolina ties. However, lots of out of state kids rooted for OSU, UGA, UF...etc. Tony Morrell says because of demographics, USC will always have some rebuilding years. They will to coach up some kids to go with our South Carolina hs talent, and maybe grab a few good ones out of Charlotte, and recruit what Georgia can't take.

I have chosen to be realistic about this, and not negative as I feel USC can have a good, or above average class every year. Hopefully, 2014 is one of the above average classes, and I feel it will be one of the best, although it will be hard to beat the 2007 class.

While much of this is/might be true...It's a bad mindset to have. There will always be excuses for why we can't do this or that. Having this type of thinking as a fan base, only hinders progress. UGA hasn't won a national championship since before all of the recruits and players were born. UF wasn't always the Florida we think of today. Look at UTjr, 7-8 years ago they would be right there in the convo of "elite". It has to start somewhere and as a fanbase, we need to do our part to keep pushing our expectations higher.

[Ace Dilcock]

Absolutely right - we can be very successful and avoid the rebuilding years. It is pretty simple. First, get more than our share of the instate kids. We don't produce really big quantities of BCS conference level athletes, but we do have some really talented guys in-state, like Clowney, Latti, etc. Next, raid the nearby states for talent. SC does not have a big population, but if you add in Charlotte (closer to Columbia than any of the North Carolina schools), Augusta and Savannah (both on the state line), and Atlanta (not very far via interstate), we have a big population base. Kids from NC are drawn here because of the big-time football and SEC competition, and there are too may talented kids in Georgia for UGA to take them all. Throw in a few from Florida (too much talent for the in-state schools to take them all), the PA/NJ area (kids want to play big-time football and like the warm weather) and you have a very talented team. Of course, talent evaluation and player development are important, and our coaches have been doing a good job with both.

[4gamecockfb]

Originally Posted by poppabeary3

While much of this is/might be true...It's a bad mindset to have. There will always be excuses for why we can't do this or that. Having this type of thinking as a fan base, only hinders progress. UGA hasn't won a national championship since before all of the recruits and players were born. UF wasn't always the Florida we think of today. Look at UTjr, 7-8 years ago they would be right there in the convo of "elite". It has to start somewhere and as a fanbase, we need to do our part to keep pushing our expectations higher.

^This

[Loathor]

Originally Posted by CoverTwo

QB - Drew Barker

RB - Derrell Scott, Stanley Williams (Georgia commit that has visited USC multiple times this year), Wadzaire Blanc

WR - Braxton Berrios, Shaquille Davidson, Jaylen Barbour, Isaiah Ford, Terry Googer, Ryshene Bronson (Florida commit that I would not be surprised if he visits this Spring).

TE - Kevin Crosby, Kalan Ritchie

OL - Donnell Stanley, Bentley Spain, Orlando Brown, Braden Smith, Steven Moss

DL - DaShawn Hand, Dexter Wideman, Naquez Pringle, Poona Ford, Anthony Moten

LB - Bryson Allen-Williams, Joe Blue, Christian Miller, Dillon Bates, D'ronjiah Matthews

DB - Jalen Tabor, Marlon Humphrey, Lawrence and Lance Austin, Quay Searcy, D.J. Smith, Step Durham, Jared Tucker, Darin Smalls

If we land Hand and Humphrey then it would be a coup. Hand, #1 overall, would be Clowney 2.0, people would go nuts. Humphrey is the #1 CB and #1 player in AL... if we took him from Saban's backyard it would speak volumes for our recruiters. He had good things to say about us (specifically mentioned coach Brown) in the video after their championship win as well.

[brat]

Stating facts is not a bad mindset. They are obstacles you have to work around and to work harder to compensate. Being aware of difficulties is not the same as using them as crutches for failure.

All programs in the SE recruit Florida and GA hard and the top programs will always try to turn the best players in this state. Coaches around the nation, especially in the SE, know the quality of players we produce, but the quantity will never make GA. The greater Metro area has more population than our entire state and produces more Division I prospects.

What we have done to finally turn things around is bring in two of the most susseccful college football coaches in recent college history, both in terms of ability and media/fan appeal. Even then, the up turn of our program to take hold took over a decade.

The more we are in the media eye or our coaches are, the more appeal we have, coupled with getting the best in home guys to stay here instead of UGA, UT, FSU, ND, Auburn, etc, as they did in the past, let alone the damage Clempon does.

We have two of our best seasons, back to back, updated facilities, brought in the best coaching staff we have ever assembled, stressing real academic efforts for the players and their parental approval, honest and straight shooting coaches, and finally got the players to buy into the program and make the sacrifices needed to make it top notch on the feld and off, because we also began to recruit not only talent but more high character kids than ever before...resulting in fewer off the field problems, flunk outs, problem children in the locker room, etc. Throw in the benefit of having other well known coaches...Tanner, Staley, now Martin, it al points to being a high class, successful place that should be seriously considered by many recruits. Success begets success.

Those were the major ways we made up some of the disadvantages we have from being in a small state that borders only two states, squeezed between two conferences.

Now when we get good kids in that might not be quite as highly rated as some schools, we usually are in every game until the end with a chance to win and our kids rarely throw in the towel early as they might in the past. The talent gap is no longer so great other teams can just show up and beat us. It boils down to who has the best game plan, who executes it better, keeps the other side off balance and harder to execute their own plans, how the ball bounces, who makes the key plays, gets a needed call from a ref, who protects the ball best, etc.

The longer we keep doing what we are doing and stay in the top 10, keep in double digit wins, the more kids will associate USC as being a great place to play and as being winners. Ideally, the near future means we can gt the type kids we have been getting, that fit into our schemes and buys into our way of doing things, and are even more elite recruits. The best of both worlds. With the best class in ages looming before us in 2014, we need another superb year in 2013. It shows that we are not going to be a flash in the pan and are settling into a yearly top tier team.

[LegalCock]

I don't think we need a top 5 or 10 class per se but we do need to restock some Gilmore, Lattimore, Jeffrey, Clowney type elite superstars. We don't want all prima donnas so I doubt we'll end up closing on all these guys, but if we get the ones that don't require guarantees of playing time and over the top ass-kissing, we'll be alright.

[Evilchicken2]

Originally Posted by carolinacoast

Unfortunately, the recruits don't see USC as elite, so USC isn't able to recruit nationally, for the most part. Also, the top recruiting schools tend to be in state with either surplus BCS talent recruits, or far more population. The state of South Carolina just can't produce the numbers. If you follow recruiting, no one ever says they grew up rooting for the Gamecocks unless they were from South Carolina, or had Souh Carolina ties. However, lots of out of state kids rooted for OSU, UGA, UF...etc. Tony Morrell says because of demographics, USC will always have some rebuilding years. They will to coach up some kids to go with our South Carolina hs talent, and maybe grab a few good ones out of Charlotte, and recruit what Georgia can't take.

I have chosen to be realistic about this, and not negative as I feel USC can have a good, or above average class every year. Hopefully, 2014 is one of the above average classes, and I feel it will be one of the best, although it will be hard to beat the 2007 class.

Well said, although you are clearly a Debbie Downer now!

Seriously, folks don't understand what you just typed.

[CoverTwo]

Something to think about .. IF USC lands verbals from Scott, Berrios, Allen-Williams (I know what his mom said about taking OVs, but I feel he will jump on board at the Gamecock Showcase this Summer), Barker, and Spain all before the start of the season, they will have a Top 10 class and that is not including any of the instate kids.

[Evilchicken2]

Originally Posted by CoverTwo

Something to think about .. IF USC lands verbals from Scott, Berrios, Allen-Williams (I know what his mom said about taking OVs, but I feel he will jump on board at the Gamecock Showcase this Summer), Barker, and Spain all before the start of the season, they will have a Top 10 class and that is not including any of the instate kids.

Oh dear lord please, PLEASE, make this happen.

[HeadCockFan]

Can't we go after the best speed rush DE and just sell him that he'd be compared to JC on national TV multiple times a year?

[EveryThingGreen]

Originally Posted by HeadCockFan

Can't we go after the best speed rush DE and just sell him that he'd be compared to JC on national TV multiple times a year?

we are recruiting the best player in the country, who just so happens to be a DE.

I don't agree with comparing him to Clowney though. Don't say "come be the next Clowney".

Our pitch should be "Clowney came here as the #1 player and is going to leave as the #1 player drafted."