UL football gets third commitment

[CajunT]

_ Here's a link to a story about North Carolina's "over-recruiting" tactics. The trend is becoming more common, which eventually leaves some commitments without a scholarship on signing day.

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/c...y/1329555.html _

Ed Orgeron wrote a whole chapter on this same recruiting tatic in his book. Ole Miss offered overed over 100 athletes in one year. His justification was that everytime a recruit mentioned he was offered by Ole Miss. in an interview on Rivals, Scout and newpapers, it was publicity for his program.

[zephyr]

_ I say dip into the Juco ranks for an established D-Line. Get a whole slew of hog-mollies in there and take care of that problem ASAP! _

The D-Line is going to be much improved next year. You have everybody coming back but Lanier Coleman who was a good leader and Seth Adams who spent much of the year suspended until he was kicked off the team so he did not contribute. We have all of our true starters coming back and they should be that much bigger. They definitely need to practice shedding blocks and the DE's need to work diligently on their pass rush techniques but I think they will be MUCH better next year along with the entire D.

[RaginFan2]

_ Here's a link to a story about North Carolina's "over-recruiting" tactics. The trend is becoming more common, which eventually leaves some commitments without a scholarship on signing day.

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/c...y/1329555.html _

Have you talked with Coach Bustle about his take on this recruiting practice? In some ways it makes sense to do a little "over-recruiting" due to natural attrition. How does Bustle address that? For example, the guys kicked off the team this year - were they all seniors? (I know Burkhalter was). Also how was the loss of the RB before the season (Deion ?) taken into account for recruiting? Have those losses and any academic losses been factored in when determining the number of recruits they want to sign? Just curious. Also, I noticed that a couple of the recruits UL has offered have committed to other schools. I assume they will now offer others to replace those recruiting losses. Lots of questions, I know. But since it is recruiting season now for the Cajuns, I wanted to shift away from the recent "unpleasantness" on to something I hope will bring some good news.

[Parrott]

Based on my observations, the Cajuns are careful when it comes to giving out offers. They want good players who are academically qualified. I remember in Tennessee covering a recruit who committed to Ole Miss on signing day of his junior year despite not being academically eligible. He ended up changing his mind when Orgeron left and signed with Miami (Fla.) but barely got a qualifying ACT score. Otherwise, he would have gone to a New England prep school and signed with Miami again this February.

The issue here is that you only get 85 scholarships to spread out every year. If you lose 15 scholarship players, regardless of whether they're seniors or non-renewals, you only have 15 scholarships to hand out to newcomers. A lot of the bigger programs lose 20 players a year, so they have 20 scholarships to offer. The Cajuns are young and have some players to develop.

As for recruits, I know JUCO DL Zach Masch committed to Hawaii. He said on facebook the other day he was excited about going out there.

Here's the breakdown of what UL is looking for in this recruiting class: 3 OL, 3 DL, 3 DB, 2 WR, 1 LB, 1 TE, 1 RB, 1 ATH.

The Cajuns already have two OL (Tyler, Robinson) and one ATH (Hebert). The one TE (Fitzpatrick) should commit soon. More news to come leading up to signing day.

[RaginFan2]

_ Based on my observations, the Cajuns are careful when it comes to giving out offers. They want good players who are academically qualified. I remember in Tennessee covering a recruit who committed to Ole Miss on signing day of his junior year despite not being academically eligible. He ended up changing his mind when Orgeron left and signed with Miami (Fla.) but barely got a qualifying ACT score. Otherwise, he would have gone to a New England prep school and signed with Miami again this February.

The issue here is that you only get 85 scholarships to spread out every year. If you lose 15 scholarship players, regardless of whether they're seniors or non-renewals, you only have 15 scholarships to hand out to newcomers. A lot of the bigger programs lose 20 players a year, so they have 20 scholarships to offer. The Cajuns are young and have some players to develop.

As for recruits, I know JUCO DL Zach Masch committed to Hawaii. He said on facebook the other day he was excited about going out there.

Here's the breakdown of what UL is looking for in this recruiting class: 3 OL, 3 DL, 3 DB, 2 WR, 1 LB, 1 TE, 1 RB, 1 ATH.

The Cajuns already have two OL (Tyler, Robinson) and one ATH (Hebert). The one TE (Fitzpatrick) should commit soon. More news to come leading up to signing day. _

I saw that on Scout. I also saw that the LB from Baltimore committed to UNLV. Not sure how firm that is, but it looks like we'll have go to the next guys on the list.

[DestinCajun]

_ Based on my observations, the Cajuns are careful when it comes to giving out offers. They want good players who are academically qualified. I remember in Tennessee covering a recruit who committed to Ole Miss on signing day of his junior year despite not being academically eligible. He ended up changing his mind when Orgeron left and signed with Miami (Fla.) but barely got a qualifying ACT score. Otherwise, he would have gone to a New England prep school and signed with Miami again this February.

The issue here is that you only get 85 scholarships to spread out every year. If you lose 15 scholarship players, regardless of whether they're seniors or non-renewals, you only have 15 scholarships to hand out to newcomers. A lot of the bigger programs lose 20 players a year, so they have 20 scholarships to offer. The Cajuns are young and have some players to develop.

As for recruits, I know JUCO DL Zach Masch committed to Hawaii. He said on facebook the other day he was excited about going out there.

Here's the breakdown of what UL is looking for in this recruiting class: 3 OL, 3 DL, 3 DB, 2 WR, 1 LB, 1 TE, 1 RB, 1 ATH.

The Cajuns already have two OL (Tyler, Robinson) and one ATH (Hebert). The one TE (Fitzpatrick) should commit soon. More news to come leading up to signing day. _

"the Cajuns are careful when it comes to giving out offers. They want good players who are academically qualified."


Here's another significant point University of Disneyland coaching staffs need to keep in mind. This has been nothing less than a mandate by our University administration and I have no doubt it has impaired the UL staff to some degree in recruiting over the past few years. Of course, there are other ways to build "winners". For an example, ask Tulane folks about good old Wally English.

[cajun4life]

_ I saw that on Scout. I also saw that the LB from Baltimore committed to UNLV. Not sure how firm that is, but it looks like we'll have go to the next guys on the list. _

The LB from Baltimore was offered by ULM not the Cajuns.

[HoustonCajun]

_ The D-Line is going to be much improved next year. You have everybody coming back but Lanier Coleman who was a good leader and Seth Adams who spent much of the year suspended until he was kicked off the team so he did not contribute. We have all of our true starters coming back and they should be that much bigger. They definitely need to practice shedding blocks and the DE's need to work diligently on their pass rush techniques but I think they will be MUCH better next year along with the entire D. _

Gerald Broussard coached the D Line this year. I believe his experience has been on the O Line. Could that have been a major problem with their pass rush techniques? Is Broussard coaching at his best position? In fairness, the D Line seems to have almost always our weakest link. We have beefed up the DE position and perhaps someone can comment on how those guys did. But, DT, regardless of how big our guys are, just can't seem to ever control the line of scrimmage.

[VObserver]

_ Gerald Broussard coached the D Line this year. I believe his experience has been on the O Line. Could that have been a major problem with their pass rush techniques? Is Broussard coaching at his best position? In fairness, the D Line seems to have almost always our weakest link. We have beefed up the DE position and perhaps someone can comment on how those guys did. But, DT, regardless of how big our guys are, just can't seem to ever control the line of scrimmage. _

I doubt that is an issue. In his last stint here, G coached Wide receivers. He seemed to do all right with those guys [Brandon Stokley, Donald Richard, et al] without having ever played the position.

DT is the most difficult position to recruit to at every level of football from Pop Warner to the NFL. The skill set necessary to be really good there is very rarely found in one guy. Low center of mass, lots of mass to go with the low center, extreme upper body strength, a cat quick first step, good burst speed .... all those things together are not a common thing.

The only schools that get great ones out of HS are those like Texas, USC, Ohio State, Florida .... very high profile programs. Even BCS conference schools like Texas Tech or Ole Miss rarely sign great DT's. They, and certainly SunBelt schools, have to recruit projects and hope for the best.

Derrick Dean will be studly when he gets stronger. Remember, he is only 18 or 19. We need a few more like him, or a couple who are totally immovable and can occupy two blockers to free Dean, the DE's and the LB's to make plays.

[HoustonCajun]

_ I doubt that is an issue. In his last stint here, G coached Wide receivers. He seemed to do all right with those guys [Brandon Stokley, Donald Richard, et al] without having ever played the position.

DT is the most difficult position to recruit to at every level of football from Pop Warner to the NFL. The skill set necessary to be really good there is very rarely found in one guy. Low center of mass, lots of mass to go with the low center, extreme upper body strength, a cat quick first step, good burst speed .... all those things together are not a common thing.

The only schools that get great ones out of HS are those like Texas, USC, Ohio State, Florida .... very high profile programs. Even BCS conference schools like Texas Tech or Ole Miss rarely sign great DT's. They, and certainly SunBelt schools, have to recruit projects and hope for the best.

Derrick Dean will be studly when he gets stronger. Remember, he is only 18 or 19. We need a few more like him, or a couple who are totally immovable and can occupy two blockers to free Dean, the DE's and the LB's to make plays. _

You don't have to have great ones, just solid ones. Troy's D line dominated UL's O line this year and they aren't BCS. We have good LBs and D backs. We just need D linemen who can make an impact. Unless we develop a pass rush, we'll continue to scramble on defense and struggle to have winning seasons. We also seem to have a lot of big O linemen. Could any of them be moved to defense if we can't find quality D linemen?