Somebody Please Give Me a Ray of Hope

[wcd35]

_ Go to Rivals.com and check out the sunbelt recruiting stats under NCAA football recruiting. We are at the bottom of the list and not even close to anyone else in our conference.

Not sure how indicative this is of our future success, but I'm not very hopeful. Why isn't there more effort on the recruiting front? Schools we claim to be out in front of seem to be kicking our butts in this area. How can you ever hope to achieve success if you don't put some effort into recruiting?

If someone can explain this, please do. I'm not an expert in this area and there may be other sources that paint a different picture, but I really don't like what I'm seeing. _

Ok, I know your not an expert, but seriously. Let me give you a hint, don't go by Rivals stats. We do not have a Rivals website, therefore our recruits do not get updated.

On Scout, we have a site and a person (CajunT) that updates it with interviews and rumors and even puts the commitments up.

Lastly, both of these sites spend little to no time on recruits that are close to 3 stars or below (by their opinion.) You cannot judge recruiting in the Sun Belt, MAC, etc based on stars on a recruiting website. I mean seriously, Tyrell Fenroy was a ONE STAR RECRUIT on Scout. That is enough argument right there.

This recruiting class, like the last couple, will be good. But it is always hard to gauge a recruiting class for a mid-major before they are on the field.

Have hope, we have good players coming soon.

[Clutch0364]

_ Go to Rivals.com and check out the sunbelt recruiting stats under NCAA football recruiting. We are at the bottom of the list and not even close to anyone else in our conference.

Not sure how indicative this is of our future success, but I'm not very hopeful. Why isn't there more effort on the recruiting front? Schools we claim to be out in front of seem to be kicking our butts in this area. How can you ever hope to achieve success if you don't put some effort into recruiting?

If someone can explain this, please do. I'm not an expert in this area and there may be other sources that paint a different picture, but I really don't like what I'm seeing. _

Once you get outside of the top 25 of the recruiting ranking it is a wash in my opinion. Most of the guys non-bcs programs go after and get, do not get much attention from the national media. The star system is the best way right now to look at recruits but not that great of a system. This recruiting class will be better than last years and last years class gave us a lot of good minutes last year, including 3 starters.

Look at it this way Fenroy was a 2 star recruit and look what he did for us.

[CajunT]

_ Go to Rivals.com and check out the sunbelt recruiting stats under NCAA football recruiting. We are at the bottom of the list and not even close to anyone else in our conference.

Not sure how indicative this is of our future success, but I'm not very hopeful. Why isn't there more effort on the recruiting front? Schools we claim to be out in front of seem to be kicking our butts in this area. How can you ever hope to achieve success if you don't put some effort into recruiting?

If someone can explain this, please do. I'm not an expert in this area and there may be other sources that paint a different picture, but I really don't like what I'm seeing. _

Rivals only shows 4 commitments for the Cajuns. It's not current.

[CajunCanaille]

I think we will see some good competition between McGuire and Blaine Gautier for the starting QB job. I hear really good things about Gautier and I think he fits the offense we run a little better than McGuire. I hear he's like Des w/ a more accurate arm. I think Green will be a big contributer next year and should be seeing the ball a lot at both TE and WR. The main thing that I'm worried about is our ground game. I'm not sure that we have anyone who can even come close to filling the shoes of Fenroy.

[VObserver]

For the running game, the loss of Desormeaux is more critical than the loss of Fenroy. That being said, our running game will be fine. McGuire runs about as well as Jerry Babb, and throws better that either Babb or Desormeaux. With Gauthier also coming along, we are fine at QB, just a little different.

At RB, we have more quality depth than we have had in a while. Julian Shankle averaged over 5 yd/carry last year when spelling Fenroy, and RS freshmen Yobes Walker and Draylon Booker were VERY impressive on the scout team last year.

We need someone to step up to assume the Jason Chery role offensively, but we will be pretty good even if no one does, because of improvement at TE.

Defensively, we have a long way to go, especially in the front 7; but we seem to have addressed that in recruiting, plus Zanders, McCoy, Brooks and Fleming all return at LB, and Dean will be an animal at DT with a year's growth and experience. Essentially all the other DL from last year also return. The young kids in the secondary were fine last year, and will be better this time around.

I look for a slight drop in offensive numbers, but a huge leap in defensive strength. If we can avoid injuries in the early going, we'll be fine.

[Just1More]

The biggest hope for this coming football season is the new coordinators. They uplifted this team significantly last year IMO. We have a very solid OL, and as many guys that we were forced to use on defense... with injuries healed... we have some depth we haven't had in a while. JUCO help is also coming. OL and Defense are two groups that cannot be dismissed as if losing MD, Fenroy and Chery is all that matters. Skill players will show skills if the defense can win the field position battle, and the OL is as good as I think they will be.

We rolled the dice last year on a healthy Desormeaux all season long, it didn't happen, and we just missed the cut at the end of line. I really like a QB who can run, but that better be insignificant to his passing ability. Brad, Chris and Blaine will not be hanging out in MD's shadow. They will be a year older and ready to compete like warriors... and the best will rise to the occasion. Munoz will figure out how to capitalize on that top QB's assets.

As for running backs... I cannot wait. Shankle, Walker and Booker... we have no issues whatsoever at RB (ask Coach Jenkins). It has to be exciting for these guys to know that one of them will be our go-to guy next year. Very exciting.

[Boomer]

What happened to Sails???? thought he looked ok when he finally played!!!!

[UL_Cajuns]

_ The biggest hope for this coming football season is the new coordinators. They uplifted this team significantly last year IMO. We have a very solid OL, and as many guys that we were forced to use on defense... with injuries healed... we have some depth we haven't had in a while. JUCO help is also coming. OL and Defense are two groups that cannot be dismissed as if losing MD, Fenroy and Chery is all that matters. Skill players will show skills if the defense can win the field position battle, and the OL is as good as I think they will be.

We rolled the dice last year on a healthy Desormeaux all season long, it didn't happen, and we just missed the cut at the end of line. I really like a QB who can run, but that better be insignificant to his passing ability. Brad, Chris and Blaine will not be hanging out in MD's shadow. They will be a year older and ready to compete like warriors... and the best will rise to the occasion. Munoz will figure out how to capitalize on that top QB's assets.

As for running backs... I cannot wait. Shankle, Walker and Booker... we have no issues whatsoever at RB (ask Coach Jenkins). It has to be exciting for these guys to know that one of them will be our go-to guy next year. Very exciting. _

I hope you are right!!!