The other part that is left out of this conversation on competing is the politics involved. If a school has three legit prospects at one position we would hope that each gets a fair shot to earn the job or at least playing time. More often than not however that is not the case. If one of those players comes from a HS that is considered a key recruiting target because of having a history of top prospects or if one of the kids comes from an area that the school considers a key recruiting area more often than not the coaches are going to give preference in order to make their future recruiting easier. The kid who comes from a school or recruiting area that is not the priority has to go far above and beyond to get his shot.
Other politics play in as well when their are multiple prospects for a position. Was the kid recuited by the position coach or by a different position coach who had that geographical area, did the position coach who recruited the kid leave and get replaced on the staff so the kid loses his advocate.
We would love to think that it all comes down to play the best kid and let them earn their time but when schools have choices they often don't follow this rule. On the other hand a quality kid coming into a building program has coaches who know that they have to create wins on the field or they not only lose their jobs but they also get tagged as losers hurting future coaching prospects. It is in their interest to find who is the best player and get them out there as soon as possible.
Actually, an offer from any top 25 school would do.
Maybe I'm not a real CU fan but I think it's delusional to believe that we can compete against top 25 schools for recruits right now. Hawk was pathetic at it and despite my feelings about the current coaching staff, they are not highly regarded nationally.
The risk that I see is that we spend all of our effort butting heads against schools that we cannot currently compete against and continually lose prospects. By the time we get around to prospects we have a legitimate shot at, they have all committed elsewhere and we are left with whatever we can get.
It's a fine line to walk. Shoot for the moon or play it safe? There are only so many hours in the day and so many trips the NCAA allows. Use them wisely.
Edit - for my pathetic English
To concede every recruit that has offers from top 25 programs would be career suicide for Embree and his staff.
Not saying you devote all the resources to the every elite player around the country, but we need a dramatic upgrade in talent. If this staff cannot at least win some recruiting battles for top players with good offers, then they have failed. Fortunately, I doubt we will have to worry about that situation.
This is going to be a good class and it is going to be good in large part because the coaches convince many guys that have "better" offers to come to CU.
I agree with you, although that might not have been clear in my post. It's a balance and I think the coaching staff proves their worth by judging which players are worth the effort and having a story that can pull them.
I just get frustrated with people saying that we should be winning battles against top 25 programs. We should win some but there is no rational reason for believing that we should be consistently winning them at this point. I want that to change, obviously.