What happened to Mac's recruiting?

[letsgostate]

Any theories on why Coach McCarney's recruiting went on a downhill slide the last three years. He was stroking pretty well a few years ago, but not recently. Was it:
-staff recruiters
-complancy
-others got more aggressive
I can't understand what happened. Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[seneca4MVP]

Not being able to win the big game didnt help. But to be honest his recruiting was never stellar. Have we ever had a top 35 class?

 

[Nedrick]

But, why only 6 recruits entering the season? Mac's never been THAT far behind in recruiting. It might work out better for Chizik anyway since he'll be able to bring in his own style of players right away...

 

[Winnin' Ugly]

I had read somewhere that his recruiting started to go downhill about the time the NCAA made significant rules changes for recruiting JUCO transfers.

 

[Clonefan94]

I don't really want to hash it with our emergence into a new era here. My opinion though is basically the past 4 seasons. We went from a contender to a pretender. The only good thing about it is that at least a pretender is better than a doormat like we used to be before Mac.

 

[seneca4MVP]

I don't really want to hash it with our emergence into a new era here. My opinion though is basically the past 4 seasons. We went from a contender to a pretender. The only good thing about it is that at least a pretender is better than a doormat like we used to be before Mac.

haha. before the past four seasons, when did we ever have a shot at the big 12 north? Never. So you have it backwards, we went from a pretender to a contender. Which in turn doesn't justify what went south with recruiting

 

[bawbie]

Did the recruiting go south? Or did the level we play at just catch up to the recruiting?

We've never had a stellar recruiting class, and the best players we had under Dan were all diamonds in the rough (Seneca, Troy Davis).

I don't see any evidence that Dan was ever a good recruiter.

 

[Winnin' Ugly]

We've never had a stellar recruiting class, and the best players we had under Dan were all diamonds in the rough (Seneca, Troy Davis).

Troy Davis was recruited by Jim Walden.

 

[thunderdave]

Walden recruited Troy Davis.

 

[Fatsow]

When your with the team for 12 years, you win 9 games in 2000, and havn't won 8 since, and throw in a 2 win season, it would be pretty hard to sell ISU to a recruit. Could he still claim that we were an up and coming program with a straight face. We had our chance to really get the program rocking after 2000 but we blew it. I was a big fan of Mac, but this is the reason I thought we had no choice but to let him go.

 

[Clonefan94]

haha. before the past four seasons, when did we ever have a shot at the big 12 north? Never. So you have it backwards, we went from a pretender to a contender. Which in turn doesn't justify what went south with recruiting

No, I don't have it backwards. Over the last 4 years we went from being considered a contender to a pretender. If anyone would have still considered us a contender after this year, had we kept Mac, would have been insane. Really, it all did happen in the last for seasons. 2003 we were neverrans. '04 and '05 we were contenders. This year, well, we pretended to be, only to be proven wrong. It really did happen that quick. To be honest though, I really think after the 2000 season we were considered contenders. That's when things started to look down for the North and we were on the rise. Considering that was our best season to date, you could say that's when it actually started.

 

[letsgostate]

We did have the 25th ranked recruiting class inthe country five years ago..now consistantly in the mid 60's...not too good. (according to rivals.com)

 

[sodakjoe]

We had some high ranked recruiting classes, but some of the higher level guys didn't actually come to school here after they committed.

 

[letsgostate]

I didn't know that...thanks for the update. Sometimes those ranking can be misleading.

 

[MaxPower57]

A big problem is that a lot of Mac's best recruits had off the field issues and either never came here or got kicked out. The number of them is ridiculous! Many of them were highly regarded recruits like Brandon Gunn, Tyease Thompson, Trent Flander, Berryman, etc. Others just weren't good enough to compete (Brice Beck, Fiacco, AJ Haase) The latest one I heard was Derrick Russell getting kicked off the team because he has very, very sticky fingers when it comes to bikes, laptops, cash, cameras, etc.

 

[83Clone]

Any theories on why Coach McCarney's recruiting went on a downhill slide the last three years. He was stroking pretty well a few years ago, but not recently. Was it:
-staff recruiters
-complancy
-others got more aggressive
I can't understand what happened. Your thoughts are appreciated.

I don't think the recruiting went downhill as much as the retention. Players either never made it to campus, didn't stay, or didn't improve once they got here.

This year's OL is a classic example. Four starters back from last year, a 3 year starter and a 4 year starter, and Meyer was back there running for his life, just like Flynn did the year he played QB.

That's not recruiting, it's coaching

 

[CyCy]

I think we hit the skids after the 2003 season when we went 2-10. There are only 11 guys still around from the 2004 recruiting class, which were redshirt sophomores this year. Carper is the only starter out of that group and Scales and Sumrall are the only others of that class in the 2-deeps. The others played special teams or not at all.
That's probably why Mac rarely played the subs this year, not much depth to go to.

 

[Rudy Katoot]

Would it be fair to say that a few just didn’t pan out, at least not yet. A few years ago we beat the Hawks by landing the #1 & #2 running backs in high school Iowa. #2 is playing football (not so well) in Montana. I still hope for a big year from the often injured Scales. It would be so great to have an all Iowa QB, running back and end.
Rudy:yes4lo:

 

[cyputz]

Currently we have some moderately interested by a few 4 stars as a DT, RB (head case), DE, OL and a couple 3 stars as a DE and WR. Hope we can get past the moderate to hell yea! Only the future staff can know.

 

[Wesley]

But, why only 6 recruits entering the season? Mac's never been THAT far behind in recruiting. It might work out better for Chizik anyway since he'll be able to bring in his own style of players right away...

Bill Snyder faced the very same thing his last year: six slow recruits. ZThe other coaches spread the word that he was probably going to be history and then he was. By the KSU game, McC was shaky to remain. Losing two years in last game on TV will do wonders for recruits to lose confidence in a staff.