Ellington de-commits??

[CYdTracked]

I'm thrilled with it. He seems to understand that size coupled with athleticism is important in football.

And you are basing this off what now? We only have 5 commits right now according to Rivals: http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?SID=880&Year=2008&School=32

It's still early but if we are ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 again when the recruiting rankings come out for the 2008 signings I can't see how that can be thrilling. The same people that will spin this are probably the same ones that got on Mac's butt about recruiting too. Mac uncovered some gems that weren't ranked high either so I'll give Gene the benefit of the doubt for awhile but his recruiting was what everyone was excited about and so far we haven't really landed any commitments from any big time recruits and only 1 of the 5 is from Texas and the others from Iowa or the midwest. Again it's early but so far we haven't been given much to get excited about yet on the recruiting front.

 

[joepublic]

And you are basing this off what now? We only have 5 commits right now according to Rivals: http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?SID=880&Year=2008&School=32

It's still early but if we are ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 again when the recruiting rankings come out for the 2008 signings I can't see how that can be thrilling. The same people that will spin this are probably the same ones that got on Mac's butt about recruiting too. Mac uncovered some gems that weren't ranked high either so I'll give Gene the benefit of the doubt for awhile but his recruiting was what everyone was excited about and so far we haven't really landed any commitments from any big time recruits and only 1 of the 5 is from Texas and the others from Iowa or the midwest. Again it's early but so far we haven't been given much to get excited about yet on the recruiting front.

We'll find out if the class was worth a damn five years down the road. Can't get my drawers in a bunch about that in 2007. It's a game for the real recruiting freaks, and I'm not into it.

Too many people who play the recruiting game on message boards take a very short term view and think the sky is falling.

 

[temperflare]

I think the kid is making a smart choice. If I were him I would have committed to ISU last year, but that is my bias. He is smart by keeping his options open. I'd rather he de-commit now and think about it rather than he stay a commit and then pull the plug at the last minute.

I think we can still bag this guy down the road if our staff supports his decision to keep his options open for now.

 

[temperflare]

As far as I'm concerned, if we can finish in the top 3 in the North when recruiting is over with this season then I'll consider it a successful recruiting year. We've finished at or next to the bottom in the BIG12 for many consecutive years. Even Baylor was doing better than us! Several of the recruits we have now are also being recruited by other BIG12 schools and they chose us over them. We are on the right track! Let's keep it going.

Baby steps gentlemen... baby steps! GO STATE!!!

 

[Wesley]

Still waiting for that Alabama/Mississippi/Georgia recruit to come to Ames. Maybe I expected too much.


My point is that our coaches had connections in those places that do not appear to be making too much headway, so they have to make new connections in other states to fill out the roster. A lot of the 07 recruits from last year had been on the board already from McC days and they followed up such as Phil Bates. Just wondering how this class will turn out or do we have to win a bowl game before we are considered by the type of kid we want. Just thinking how fast Ron Prince recruited last year also.

 

[ISUonthemove]

Can you guys honestly tell me that you expect Chizik's recruiting in his FIRST year to be great?!

Guys, these players have to atleast see our system for a year before we get any great recruits.

Why don't we wait until signing day to judge. Of course he's not knocking our socks off right now, but who could in his position. He is an unproven head coach with an unproven system. Give him time.

Unless kids are in-state recruits, they usually don't "jump at the chance" to play for Iowa State as soon as we offer them. That's the way it will be until we start winning a lot more games.

 

[isu_bub]

These first two recruiting seasons are a wash, guys.

Typically with a new coach, he really only has one class to recruit for, the one coming in after his first year of coaching. But with Mac's last class being shaky and small to begin with, it fell on Chizik to throw something together for 2007 as well as looking ahead to 2008.

Right now, few 3 star recruits come to ISU because we are ISU. They sign with us because they like the depth at their position or our coaching style. Right now, none of our players have played under Chizik's system, so recruits don't know what to expect, and don't know how our current guys are playing under it, so depth and coaching style are still up in the air.

After a year of coaching, it will be easier to get the numbers, recruiting wise. It won't be easier yet to get the big time recruits, because that comes with success.

 

[joepublic]

Still waiting for that Alabama/Mississippi/Georgia recruit to come to Ames. Maybe I expected too much.


My point is that our coaches had connections in those places that do not appear to be making too much headway, so they have to make new connections in other states to fill out the roster. A lot of the 07 recruits from last year had been on the board already from McC days and they followed up such as Phil Bates. Just wondering how this class will turn out or do we have to win a bowl game before we are considered by the type of kid we want. Just thinking how fast Ron Prince recruited last year also.

Basically, you're panicking.

 

[ripvdub]

You cant expect him to get great recruits when he hasnt even coached a game yet.

 

[Drive4cy]

I think his recruiting last winter was nothing short of excellent, given the circumstances. He took chances on jucos and most of them have shown up, which is a big plus. It's late in July and he's got a handful of commits, that doesn't scare me. McCarney had like 6 last October and he was in his 12th year at this fine institution. We won't get any big time recruits until we play a game and give those kids reason to come up here. We can't really judge until this time next year on how GC and company are doing on the recruiting trail.

 

[ericlambi]

Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't recruit them at all, I just don't want to see nearly 10 signed a year. You only get 2 years out of them compared to 4 out of a good HS recruit. Jucos are good short term solutions to fill holes but we shouldn't rely on them to be our make or break recruits. Most of our O-Line are Jucos this year, I surely hope this next class has some HS kids coming in that we can plug into the spots after we basically lose the whole line again in 2 years.

Gene Chizik knows all of this. He is going to sign the players that give him the best chance at winning, high school or juco. Right now, it is much easier for ISU to sign impact jucos than impact HS students. If we have some success, maybe the tide will change. Gene will not accomplish his goals by signing 1-star HS kids or Jucos that can't contribute or don't even show up - he'll do his best. Hopefully its good enough.

 

[joepublic]

Limiting the recruitment of JC players is pure folly for a program like ours. If the coaches exercise due dilligence and bring in the right guys, JCs can be a huge part of our recruiting. Out of all the JCs how many didn't make it to Ames in this class? None. All made it to campus(with McMahon washing out). We have some coaches on staff with ties to the best JCs in the country. JCs should be an intergral part of our recruiting.

I'd be thrilled with 12-14 jucos in this year's class as long as they can play. That's the only thing that matters to me.

 

[Wesley]

I want to win half our games this year and next.

Need to recruit to make that happen. The talent that McD recruited is probably more impressive than what Gene has pulled in. Several of thoise add ons from last year's recruiting class were originally thinking ISU (beyond the six verbals.)

 

[hoosman]

I am disappointed so far. I am sure that the last recruit will never start a game. Then we lose one of our top commits.

Keep in mind what this recruiting staff is getting paid. We should expect more. The whole idea was to bring in quality players from the southeast and southwest. Almost all our new guys are from the midwest and are not highly rated.

Now we supposedly have a chicken/egg scenario. You can't recruit without winning and you can't win without recruiting.

 

[jdoggivjc]

I am disappointed so far. I am sure that the last recruit will never start a game. Then we lose one of our top commits.

Keep in mind what this recruiting staff is getting paid. We should expect more. The whole idea was to bring in quality players from the southeast and southwest. Almost all our new guys are from the midwest and are not highly rated.

Now we supposedly have a chicken/egg scenario. You can't recruit without winning and you can't win without recruiting.

I'm going to disagree with this a little bit. Yes, getting stud 4 star recruits is great, but it's not the end-all-be-all to college football. Look 150 miles southeast of Ames. EIU had a #2 rated recruiting class a couple of years ago. These guys should be juniors now. #2 recruiting class, if the argument holds so far, is at least strong Big 10 championship contender, if not a national championship contender. Anyone (besides SouthernHawk) classifying them as that?

Personally, I think we can have a DECENT recruiting class, with some 2s but more 3s, and have Chizik coach the snot out of them. Beat them down. Build them up. Win with a lesser recruiting class. You don't think that's something you can brag to future recruits about? Remember 2007? we had a 2.7 average. Look how talented they became in our system. Look at how much we won with them. Imagine what we can do with your talents.

I think the biggest problem is they're giving Chizik this coming year to establish but the Big XII North must be won next year. What kind of attitude is that? As much as I think we're gonna surprise people this year, can we give the guy 2-4 years to have his system full swing before we critique? You all thought he was gonna pull the studs in with no track record whatsoever? That's ridiculous.

 

[Wesley]

Well we gave the last guy 12 years and it did not happen. I see your point. By 2019, we will know if we are now better.

 

[mwitt]

I think it was Chizik's opening press conference when he said that in recruiting, they're going to start in the state and in the area and move outward. I think it'd be fair of us to withhold judgment.

 

[darts180]

It's too early to say with certainty, but I haven't been blown away with Chizik's recruiting abilities so far.

This is ridiculous. I haven't read the entire thread yet, but this seems to be a common theme with the first posts.

Gene salvaged a recruiting class with nothing from the previous staff. He found some kids that are going to contribute right away.

So far, he is targeting the same type of kid, athletic, with room to put on weight/muscle. He is recruiting speed and athleticism, for a change in this program.

Did people think that he was going to come in, and magically Iowa State was going to be attractive to 5 star recruits??? Did people honestly think that Iowa State was a respected program, nationally??? I know that it isn't fun to face this truth, but we are known as a program that beats Iowa (although we have lost 3 out of 4 to them), but loses games to Baylor. All of these "miracle" wins that people talk about on here were a bad team beating another bad team.

Maybe if we would have won the North one of the past two years we would have some room to think more of ourselves. However since that didn't happen, and the way that it didn't happen, people see that us having a chance to win was nothing more than the North being pathetic.

I am not slamming the previous staff with this post, but there needs to be some reality injected into this Chizik hasn't done much to this point thread.

 

[darts180]

Only drawback though is he's a Juco. I'd like to steer clear of the Juco route as much as possible and bring in guys that can play 4 years. Not saying sign zero jucos but we signed 13 this time around, that number this time around better be half that or less. We hear what a good recruiter Chizik is so I'd sure hope he can do better than having to rely on jucos all the time.

There is a BIG difference between recruiting quality JUCO's, and taking flyers on kids who have no chance of making it to campus just to say that you recruited a 4 star.

Chizik is here to win, and do it as soon as possible. I think that JUCO recruiting is a necessary tool for us, at this point. There weren't a lot of tough d 1 football players left on the roster, and so you create your depth, and starters in this manner.

Now, I think that after he is here for awhile, he will gradually phase JUCO heavy classes out.

 

[darts180]

And you are basing this off what now? We only have 5 commits right now according to Rivals: http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?SID=880&Year=2008&School=32

It's still early but if we are ranked near the bottom of the Big 12 again when the recruiting rankings come out for the 2008 signings I can't see how that can be thrilling. The same people that will spin this are probably the same ones that got on Mac's butt about recruiting too. Mac uncovered some gems that weren't ranked high either so I'll give Gene the benefit of the doubt for awhile but his recruiting was what everyone was excited about and so far we haven't really landed any commitments from any big time recruits and only 1 of the 5 is from Texas and the others from Iowa or the midwest. Again it's early but so far we haven't been given much to get excited about yet on the recruiting front.

People got on Mac's butt because he was a bad coach, sorry, but when you make the same game management mistakes your 12th year as you did when you were a rookie=bad coach.

Now as far as recruiting, Mac didn't exactly light it up. Please remember that his seat was nowhere near warm going into his 12th year, and when he resigned, he had a grand total of 6 commits, and they knew Fabian Brown wasn't going to make it, so 5 in the 12th year at the school. Plus his last two recruiting classes were ranked either 11th or 12th each year.

So I will offer you the same advice you offered all of us who weren't fans of the previous coach last Fall. If you don't like the direction of the football program then go be a Hawk fan. We don't need bad fans like you here.:no6xn: