Recruiting so far...

[Duff Man]

Mentioned by others, but it will be interesting to see how the DL and DB boards shape up over the next 4-5 months. Hopefully, we hear some new names pop up as the coaches schedule in-season visits.

 

[The Alabaster Yak]

This seems to be the recruiting board at the moment. Obviously some others will start trickling in over the next few months as some of these guys will go elsewhere, but these 11-12 guys seem to be the ones being focused on.

WR - Mims, O’Toole, Rice
OLB - Ivey, Harris, Thomas
DL - Correia, ???
DB - Gonzalez, Clark, Perkins
TE - Taylor, ???
RB - ???
OL - Jeffers?

 

[WarBuff]

QB is also a very overrated position here. We’ve seen some highly touted ones get recruited but really none of them have success. Colin Klein is probably the most successful one but he wasn’t highly recruited/rated.

That’s part of why I wasn’t thrilled with the previous staff seemingly being content with going exclusively CO with QB offers/takes.

Zac Robinson from Chatfield to Okie Light had a pretty good college run

 

[Creebuzz]

I don't really know if I agree that it runs deeper than that. Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Cal and ASU are all probably recruiting where they should be (Oregon obviously higher than they should be). There is no reason for USC and UCLA to be outside the top 20 in recruiting rankings and they both were in 2019 with no signs of that getting better. USC had a top 3 class by average stars for about 5 years in a row for example. There is no way the Pac-12 will ever have the amount of teams in the top 20 that the SEC and Big-10 do, that just isn't realistic based on where a majority of the recruits are from. Here is where I think the schools should get to consistently.

USC-top 5
UCLA- top 15
Oregon and Washington- top 20
Stanford and ASU- top 30
Cal, Utah and Colorado- top 40
Arizona, WSU top 50
Oregon State-top 65

6 PAC-12 teams in the top 30 is a very realistic goal, IMO.

I just looked a bit deeper and 10 of the top 30 recruits in California left the west in 2019 class.

In Florida, only three of 30 left the footprint (one to Penn State and two to Oregon with Florida native Cristobal as head coach).

In Georgia, it was 10 of 30 left the SEC footprint, but all ten left for five schools OU, tOSU, Michigan, Texas, and Notre Dame. And with TAMU, you could consider Texas in footprint. Zero went west.

In Louisiana, it was 8 of 30, but most were to Texas schools, Penn State, Virginia, and Maryland. Zero went west.

In sum, perhaps the stats suggest I’ve overstated my case a bit, but in 2019 the west definitely lost more top talent east, than the east lost to the west. Obviously, very limited data point, but at least if feels like the Pac 12 is losing top tier talent.

 

[onealcd]

I just looked a bit deeper and 10 of the top 30 recruits in California left the west in 2019 class.

In Florida, only three of 30 left the footprint (one to Penn State and two to Oregon with Florida native Cristobal as head coach).

In Georgia, it was 10 of 30 left the SEC footprint, but all ten left for five schools OU, tOSU, Michigan, Texas, and Notre Dame. And with TAMU, you could consider Texas in footprint. Zero went west.

In Louisiana, it was 8 of 30, but most were to Texas schools, Penn State, Virginia, and Maryland. Zero went west.

In sum, perhaps the stats suggest I’ve overstated my case a bit, but in 2019 the west definitely lost more top talent east, than the east lost to the west. Obviously, very limited data point, but at least if feels like the Pac 12 is losing top tier talent.

Oh I am not disagreeing lol I am just saying this is what happens when usc and UCLA take this far of a step back, they usually dominate for the top Cali kids and do a good job of landing players from Arizona and washington.

 

[dyemeduke]

Are we done recruiting Adam Karas, or is that still active, pending other recruits like Jeffers? Did a quick search and didn't see anything new online about him, but Coach Kap did say hi to him in January after the dead period. He seems to like CU, but if there was heavy mutual interest, I'd imagine he would have been on an official during those big weekends in June.

 

[Duff Man]

Are we done recruiting Adam Karas, or is that still active, pending other recruits like Jeffers? Did a quick search and didn't see anything new online about him, but Coach Kap did say hi to him in January after the dead period. He seems to like CU, but if there was heavy mutual interest, I'd imagine he would have been on an official during those big weekends in June.

Dropped interest several months ago.

 

[Agent Dave Kujan]

I like that we've made inroads to Georgia. That state is easily the #4 behind FL, TX and CA. It's a good place to be. It's also great that we are having success in Texas, which is a traditionally strong recruiting area for CU.

But to get where we want to go we have to start winning more battles within our conference footprint. We need to be getting the best players from Colorado. We need to be getting our share of the top guys from California, Arizona, Utah, Washington, Nevada and Oregon. Recruiting wins within that footprint have a significant added benefit since they force conference rivals to move to a Plan B recruit.

I agree with making our conference rivals move to plan B.

I disagree about the level it talent in our footprint. I think it is one of the reasons the Pac-12 has fallen off a bit lately.

I would be completely happy if every one of our recruits were from Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia, with a Florida or two thrown in for good measure. I think they are playing better football down there. I believe that on average a 3* from Georgia will be better than a 3* from Southern Cal. Just my opinion, no evidence.

Let the other Pac-12 schools duke it out in our footprint go national HCMT!

 

[The Alabaster Yak]

If CU can close with top 25 recruiting classes year in, year out, where the majority of the class is coming from TX, GA, and LA, they will compete for Pac 12 championships. That’s obviously not to say they shouldn’t recruit CA, AZ, and CO, because that’s a no brained, but I don’t buy that their primary recruiting area has to include WA, OR, UT and NV just because it might make some P12 schools move to their second option.

 

[Duff Man]

If CU can close with top 25 recruiting classes year in, year out, where the majority of the class is coming from TX, GA, and LA, they will compete for Pac 12 championships. That’s obviously not to say they shouldn’t recruit CA, AZ, and CO, because that’s a no brained, but I don’t buy that their primary recruiting area has to include WA, OR, UT and NV just because it might make some P12 schools move to their second option.

There is something to beating out conference foes for players though, especially when talking about blue chips. I think some fans are going overboard with the idea that southern players are inherently "better" prospects. It sounds like people trying to convince themselves more than others. If it were true, Bama would not bother recruiting the West at all.

Distance is always a factor in recruiting, which is why Nik's point about effectively recruiting the conference footprint is so important.

Utah just had the third most draft picks per capita. Talent is clearly present, and it is a border state so it seems foolish to ignore it. This staff should be able to recruit the conference footprint, TX, GA, and LA year in and year out. In fact, it seems pretty straightforward.

 

[onealcd]

If CU can close with top 25 recruiting classes year in, year out, where the majority of the class is coming from TX, GA, and LA, they will compete for Pac 12 championships. That’s obviously not to say they shouldn’t recruit CA, AZ, and CO, because that’s a no brained, but I don’t buy that their primary recruiting area has to include WA, OR, UT and NV just because it might make some P12 schools move to their second option.

Even if all of those prospects stick until national signing day I will still be concerned about the attrition rate of those kids from Georgia and Louisiana.

 

[Bread]

I’m giving it a B solely because they were able to get their 4 star QB (typically the cornerstone recruit of a class) that they wanted. Otherwise, it could be much improved especially at RB and DL but those are two positions that I personally feel don’t have great recruiters running the show so remains to be seen if that could improve. The major issue I have with the recruiting so far is that we seem to be taking reaches/projects/guys without many other good offers very early in the process. Tucker is certainly offering a lot of blue chip guys, but so far has managed to get only one consensus 4 star in Lewis. Wins can change that, so I’ll be curious to see what this class looks like in November

 

[onealcd]

So here are some numbers that definitely support @Creebuzz .

California Top 30:
2012: 25/30 signed with the PAC with 7 going to USC and 5 going to UCLA
2013: 23/30 signed with the PAC with 5 going to USC and 5 going to UCLA
2014: 22/30 signed with the PAC with 8 going to USC and 4 going to UCLA
2015: 24/30 signed with the PAC with 9 going to USC and 4 going to UCLA
2016: 18/30 signed with the PAC with 5 going to USC and 8 going to UCLA
2017: 24/30 signed with the PAC with 9 going to USC and 2 going to UCLA
2018: 25/30 signed with the PAC with 10 going to USC and 5 going to UCLA
2019: 22/30 signed with the PAC with 5 going to USC and 1 going to UCLA (I included Steele and McCoy in here)
2020: 8/30 committed to the PAC with 1 committed to USC (5 CB's) and 0 going to UCLA (1 CB) (6 committed out of footprint and 3 CB's out of footprint)

Arizona top 20
2012: 14
2013: 12
2014: 13
2015: 13
2016: 10
2017: 18
2018: 10
2019: 11
2020: 0 (3 CB)

Washington top 20
2012: 12
2013: 13
2014: 12
2015: 16
2016: 14
2017: 14
2018: 10
2019: 8
2020: 3 (4 CB)

2012:
2013:
2014:
2015:
2016:
2017:
2018:
2019:
2020:
2012:
2013:
2014:
2015:
2016:
2017:
2018:
2019:
2020:
Utah top 20
2012: 9
2013: 6
2014: 8
2015: 11
2016: 12
2017: 8
2018: 9
2019: 4
2020: 0 (3 CB)

Obviously early but not looking good for the Pac-12 this year in the footprint. Obviously the Arizona schools went through head coaching changes last year but that number needs to increase quite a bit. Washington also looks like it is getting raided. Utah is hard to judge because BYU signs so many in state kids but the blue bloods seem a lot more involved there than before. Oh and UCLA is just doing a pitiful job.

 

[BuffinCali]

I am not sure of the exact average stars the Buffs had the past 3 years (i.e. 3.1 for a class), but I assume this years class (to date) is not outperforming those classes - by the numbers. I was hoping for a bigger uptick out the gate, but am willing to be patient here - MT has done an admiral job, considering he hasn't had an entire recruiting cycle yet.

 

[MtnBuff]

There is something to beating out conference foes for players though, especially when talking about blue chips. I think some fans are going overboard with the idea that southern players are inherently "better" prospects. It sounds like people trying to convince themselves more than others. If it were true, Bama would not bother recruiting the West at all.

Distance is always a factor in recruiting, which is why Nik's point about effectively recruiting the conference footprint is so important.

Utah just had the third most draft picks per capita. Talent is clearly present, and it is a border state so it seems foolish to ignore it. This staff should be able to recruit the conference footprint, TX, GA, and LA year in and year out. In fact, it seems pretty straightforward.

The idea that I have heard about Utah, and it makes some sense, is that some very good Utah kids want to get away from the Utah culture with the strong LDS influence. Colorado gives them a place they can do that while still being close enough to home to drive home for a weekend. Also other than the Utah schools how many other schools recruit the state hard. I know that Pederson has connections there but who else is strong there?

Some of them haven't worked out but CU has been able to get a number of talented Utah kids to sign in the past. I would hope we continue recruiting there in the future.

As far as ranking the class so far most of the guy committed have multiple P5 offers, a few don't but most do.

Don't see a lot of star type guys but see guy who should be able to contribute multiple years for the Buffs at a level competitive in the PAC.

Still concerned about the need for multiple HS D-line recruits not being addressed yet.

Overall B- based on hope for the momentum to continue through the rest of the class. Could slide to he C range if we start taking backup plan guys.

 

[vinniew_11]

I am not sure of the exact average stars the Buffs had the past 3 years (i.e. 3.1 for a class), but I assume this years class (to date) is not outperforming those classes - by the numbers. I was hoping for a bigger uptick out the gate, but am willing to be patient here - MT has done an admiral job, considering he hasn't had an entire recruiting cycle yet.

I’m guessing this class is far outpacing the last 3.

 

[Mr. Babar]

Gave them an “A” for the class so far. Solid pieces being picked up that will be upgrades in most positions. If I’d seen where we’d be at this point in recruiting in December last year I’d have been pleasantly surprised. Hence the grade.

 

[Agent Dave Kujan]

There is something to beating out conference foes for players though, especially when talking about blue chips. I think some fans are going overboard with the idea that southern players are inherently "better" prospects. It sounds like people trying to convince themselves more than others. If it were true, Bama would not bother recruiting the West at all.

Distance is always a factor in recruiting, which is why Nik's point about effectively recruiting the conference footprint is so important.

Utah just had the third most draft picks per capita. Talent is clearly present, and it is a border state so it seems foolish to ignore it. This staff should be able to recruit the conference footprint, TX, GA, and LA year in and year out. In fact, it seems pretty straightforward.

All fair points.

BTW does anyone remember seeing a duff post that was more than two sentences? This has to be a record.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

C

Roger Realist, here. While the staff seems to be delivering on the promise of more size and speed, I think there are still too many question marks.

The Good:

Size and speed differences from the previous 10+years; talented QB recruit; heat seeking missile ILB recruit.

The Not-so-good:

Offense - 2 stud OL and 1 reach/project. Need another stud here, preferably OT. Only 1 TE recruit for a projected O that uses the position. No WR or RB yet.

Defense - DE recruited but OLB missing, or are these guys destined to play standing up and the class is short on DE? Several CB but no safeties. And almost no movement on NT / DT. Very concerning.

 

[Master Blaster]

I am not sure of the exact average stars the Buffs had the past 3 years (i.e. 3.1 for a class), but I assume this years class (to date) is not outperforming those classes - by the numbers. I was hoping for a bigger uptick out the gate, but am willing to be patient here - MT has done an admiral job, considering he hasn't had an entire recruiting cycle yet.

It’s not really useful to look at an average star rating, because most P5 recruits are 3 stars and the gap between a low 3 star and a high 3 star is pretty wide.

 

[jizzrag85]

I am not sure of the exact average stars the Buffs had the past 3 years (i.e. 3.1 for a class), but I assume this years class (to date) is not outperforming those classes - by the numbers. I was hoping for a bigger uptick out the gate, but am willing to be patient here - MT has done an admiral job, considering he hasn't had an entire recruiting cycle yet.

Im not sure where you came up with that assumption. .8565 is the highest average since the 2008 class that was .8657 and was 15th in the nation.

2016- .8353
2017- .8521
2018- .8449
2019- .8491

 

[jizzrag85]

It’s not really useful to look at an average star rating, because most P5 recruits are 3 stars and the gap between a low 3 star and a high 3 star is pretty wide.

I agree. But average star rating definitely is useful for comparisons. It signifies that we’re moving in the right direction and taking higher rated recruits on the low end and higher rated recruits on the high end.

 

[Duff Man]

C

Roger Realist, here. While the staff seems to be delivering on the promise of more size and speed, I think there are still too many question marks.

The Good:

Size and speed differences from the previous 10+years; talented QB recruit; heat seeking missile ILB recruit.

The Not-so-good:

Offense - 2 stud OL and 1 reach/project. Need another stud here, preferably OT. Only 1 TE recruit for a projected O that uses the position. No WR or RB yet.

Defense - DE recruited but OLB missing, or are these guys destined to play standing up and the class is short on DE? Several CB but no safeties. And almost no movement on NT / DT. Very concerning.

I think you are being pretty harsh by putting any position on offense in the "not so good" category. Things look pretty good across the board there.

Your concerns about several defensive positions are more legitimate IMO.

 

[Big Jim]

The Not-so-good:

Offense - 2 stud OL and 1 reach/project.

It hadn’t occurred to me that Wray and Lee would end up on the bad side of the ledger this soon.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

I think you are being pretty harsh by putting any position on offense in the "not so good" category. Things look pretty good across the board there.

Your concerns about several defensive positions are more legitimate IMO.

I was harsh. I'm looking only at commitments and not who we're in on. WR is surprising since Chev is such a good recruiter. RB recruiting is a mystery.

It hadn’t occurred to me that Wray and Lee would end up on the bad side of the ledger this soon.

I see Wray and Lee as excellent recruits, hence my "2 stud" verbiage. We need one more tackle who can compete sooner rather than later.

 

[Duff Man]

I was harsh. I'm looking only at commitments and not who we're in on. WR is surprising since Chev is such a good recruiter. RB recruiting is a mystery.



I see Wray and Lee as excellent recruits, hence my "2 stud" verbiage. We need one more tackle who can compete sooner rather than later.

Miller is committed at WR and Mims looks a good possibility soon. Plus we are in on a handful of other top players like Rice. Chev is killing it.

RB does not seem to be a priority at all, so I get the questions there.

But overall, offense is looking really good right now.

 

[JOEinDenver]

I think this staff has a serious chance to have a big uptick as they reach the final signing day (something last staff couldn’t pull off). I’m excited to see how things shake out.

Edit: I did give a B- with hope for a strong finish.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

Miller is committed at WR and Mims looks a good possibility soon. Plus we are in on a handful of other top players like Rice. Chev is killing it.

RB does not seem to be a priority at all, so I get the questions there.

But overall, offense is looking really good right now.

I went by the profile thread on Miller.

 

[Buffnik]

Miller is committed at WR and Mims looks a good possibility soon. Plus we are in on a handful of other top players like Rice. Chev is killing it.

RB does not seem to be a priority at all, so I get the questions there.

But overall, offense is looking really good right now.

They’re keeping the hype down for now, but I’m hearing whispers that they love Mangham.

 

[OkieBuffster]

Right now they should get anywhere from an A to a B, but so much remains to be seen. Winning will solve everything with this staff. Obviously, Tucker and Co. need to swell the vision and the program, but I think they’ve done that as well as anyone could have expected. If the win 6+ games and go to a bowl, combined with a few players that will likely get picked in the draft there’s no reason to believe that top 10-20 classes cannot be the norm again.