Neuheisel's recruiting woes
by Colinski on Jan 26, 2011 7:01 PM MST
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PrintMore than merely a story about a former Buff head coach, UCLA's football recruiting woes represent an opportunity for future Buff recruiting efforts.
.... more after the jump
Back against the wall, Rick Neuheisel may have a terminal case of recruiting blues
I didn't want to write a full fanpost but I thought this story merited more than a fanshot.
Rick Neuheisel was always good at recruiting (sometimes too good, as when he bent the rules) but his on-the-field success was never up to the level of his victories on NLOI day. Recruiting is certainly one of the most important -- if not 'the' most important -- skills for a college head coach, but it's not the only one. Developing that talent is important, too. Neuheisel appears to be one of the most unusual combinations in college football -- a great recruiter whose teams' performance declines over time despite their added talent.
Personally speaking, I found Neuheisel charming and gracious, so I don't share the enmity that often emerges when his name comes up in conversation. On the other hand, what's bad for UCLA can be very good for us. I can only speculate at this point but it's virtually certain that in the future we'll be in competition with other PAC TWELVE teams for the same recruits. It's a story that's only just begun but if our past success in California means anything then I can only look forward to heated battles in one of the richest areas for recruits in the country.
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Here's the thing about Ucla's recruiting
Neuheisel’s strategy is almost entirely dependent on CA. This worked in recent years, because USC was trying to recruit nationally, so Ucla had some extra juice in SoCal, which looked to good to prospects around the state. Now, Oregon is coming off a NCG appearance (and have, far and away, the best facilities in the country), Washington has an outstanding recruiter at HC with SoCal ties, and Cal, inexplicably, has become some sort of juggernaut (seriously- where did they come from? Is it the new facilities?). Plus, this wasn’t a great year for SoCal recruits. Add that to the fact that a lot of these hyped offensive recruits aren’t panning out, and they’ve handled their QBs ATROCIOUSLY, and you get what you see.
Point being- yes, there’s some room to maneuver there, but there’s a lot more to success than just filling the Ucla void. And to answer one of your points- our past successes in California don’t mean anything. Don’t expect them to. If this staff is successful, it’s because they properly evaluate and target talent, cultivate contacts in hotbed recruiting areas, and sell the program in the home and on campus. It has nothing to do with the team in the late 80s/ early 90s.
miscellaneous comments
our past successes in California don’t mean anything
We obviously appeal to California recruits and that hasn’t changed, and we’re in an even better position now because they can return to their home state on a regular basis for games as well as receiving exposure on the Pac Twelve cable network. UCLA/Neuheisel’s struggles can’t hurt our recruiting efforts although it’s speculative to expect much of a boost. However, there’s an opportunity for Embree and staff to sell recruits who were/would be considering UCLA on the idea of going out of state instead.
This is too big a subject to adequately address in a short post but I see the appeal of CU as similar to that of Oregon and Washington. I’m not ignoring the traditional draws such as coaching staff or facilities but it would be a mistake to ignore the interesting aspects of CU (Boulder, the mountains, etc.) that will appeal to recruits. The difference between now and in the past is not that the Flatirons have changed but the opportunity to play before their (former) home crowds.
An added point — being in the south division with AU, ASU, Utah, UCLA & USC might help us because of the annual rather than bi-annual competition. I also expect that Utah, Arizona & Nevada recruits are going to be more interested than in the past. Arizona produces a surprising amount of talent for it’s size and Nevada has been producing an ever larger amount of D-1 type of talent recently and lacks a BCS team. Hawaii’s situation is similar to Nevada’s, and we’ve obviously been focusing on that region lately.
"the megalomaniac view of oneself as the Elect, wholly good, abominably persecuted, yet assured of ultimate triumph; the attribution of gigantic and demonic powers to the adversary; the refusal to accept the ineluctable limitations and imperfections of human existence, such as transience, dissention, conflict, fallibility whether intellectual or moral; the obsession with inerrable prophecies…systematized misinterpretations, always gross and often grotesque." – Norman Cohn - quoted in The Paranoid Style in American Politics
I would also add that Embree as well as the staff he has assembled
have connections and a proven history in recruiting from CA. This should also be a boost in the next recruiting class. Bottom line is CU needs to point to the product on the field to get more 4-5 star athletes to buy in. That means producing W’s in 2011.
Shoulder to Shoulder
I was a senior when he announced he was leaving.
Those wounds are still fresh in my mind. I have never heard of a worse way to annouce your departure than what he pulled.
Just desserts
I only remarked about how he came off personally because I didn’t want it to sound like schadenfreude. I don’t know the full story but the thought that he deserved his current plight did occur to me.
"the megalomaniac view of oneself as the Elect, wholly good, abominably persecuted, yet assured of ultimate triumph; the attribution of gigantic and demonic powers to the adversary; the refusal to accept the ineluctable limitations and imperfections of human existence, such as transience, dissention, conflict, fallibility whether intellectual or moral; the obsession with inerrable prophecies…systematized misinterpretations, always gross and often grotesque." – Norman Cohn - quoted in The Paranoid Style in American Politics
Totally Agree
Weren’t we still paying for his bull$hit until like 2 years ago? That guy can lick nuts. Not mine – but somebodys.
by BuffulanceMan on Jan 27, 2011 8:39 AM MST up reply actions 1 recs
I actually lol'd at that
"C-O-L-O-R-A-D-O"
"No Rebounds, No Rings"
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out"
-John Wooden
LOL, Love it, sums it up pretty well
Have no love loss for that scum bag, it’s a matter of time before he burns down UCLA, I still think UCLA screwed the pooch when they fired Dorrell.
"Me fail english, that unpossible" - Ralph Wiggum
"Duffman is thrusting in the direction of the problem" - Duffman
"Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun" - Ash from Army of Darkness
"H.I., you're young and you got your health, what you want with a job?" - Evelle from Raising Arizona
"It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes." - Agent Rogersz from Repoman
and after torching three once-proud programs,
he will get a job at Tennessee or something three years later. it’s astonishing how much failure is overcome by being blonde and charismatic.
by Rainbow skyline on Feb 1, 2011 11:58 PM MST up reply actions
Not only did he screw CU, he did the same at Washington
At CU and Washington his best season was his 2nd with the previous coaches recruits. Well Dorrell didnt leave him with much and he has failed. His only saving grace is he has recruited defense ok, but he cant take any offensive recruits from SC. I cant wait until UCLA gets fired, it cant happen soon enough for me. I am tired of the clowns down here in San Diego thinking this guys shit doesnt stink.
- Dan Noreen.
by broncfanstuckinsd on Jan 26, 2011 10:47 PM MST reply actions
Yeah, my wife is a Washington Alum, and she hates him too for wrecking that program too
….and blames me because he came to Washington from CU.
Funny how that works
A good buddy of mine is a Northwestern Alum, and they all view Barnett the way we see Neuheisal. I’ve explained to them that it was really Slick Rick who started the dominoes tumbling, and that they should direct their animosity towards him instead.
Ok... I'm really slow on the uptake
but I just noticed Rick signed his son to play QB this year (who looks all of 12 years old). Did he really not pay any attention at all to what happened here the last 5 years years??
http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Jerry-Neuheisel-96862;_ylt=Ahqtv3dsD1WzO6hIKBae759DPZB4
wow. just...wow
At least with Cody, it was defensible at the time- he was the highest rated player in that recruiting class. But last I read, Jerry was thinking about WALKING ON at Ucla, and even that was a bad idea, I thought (both because of what happened here and because Neuheisel is constantly jerking his QBs around).
Just, wow. Couldn’t happen to a better dude.
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