With this being a bye week, I figure this is as good of a week as any to break down how things currently stand in the recruiting world with us, which I think to fully understand we need to look at the past, present, and future to get a comprehensive idea of how things stand...
PAST
Focusing more on last summer than this time last year, this is when I started to become really concerned. With the focus on JUCO guys, it was clear to me that there was a short term plan (that would impact future numbers...) and that meant either Weis wasn't planning on being here long and/or was worried about his near future job security. That's concerning...but then add on to this the talent he was recruiting...look at the JUCO commits we had:
Jarek Smalley - didn't land anywhere else after no longer being committed to KU and think he is actually playing JUCO baseball
Cory Butler - 4 star JUCO kid who is starting at CB for Utah...but we were recruiting him as a WR
Michael Mathis - currently at Emporia State...now he was committed to Kentucky then to Kansas and his film was good...so that shows me he struggled in the classroom to end up at ESU
Raeshawn Lee - I have no clue where he is
DeLonte Murray - currently a backup OL for Cincy
Will Smith - suffered and played through a shoulder injury last year, guessing he is redshirting this year to continue the rehab process
Jacky Dezir - had shoulder surgery last year, playing some this year but am guessing he is still rehabbing from that some
Now go ahead and do the math, but you are looking at basically one JUCO kid that would be an impact kid this year and he isn't even playing the position we were recruiting him at...we dogged a little bit of a bullet here to be honest...
PRESENT
We are currently sitting at 10 commits for the year and 2 grayshirts set to join the program. To be honest, I am a little bit surprised at some of the guys this staff has brought in so far. Guys like the DBs we have landed and Maciah Long are pretty surprising to me - we have struggled to get guys like this in the past. The OL they have recruited fit the mold of being athletic guys, which excites me some because I think KU can regularly land kids that Yenser is pursuing, which if he can develop them, means we are looking at having a continuous solid OL for the future. I am pretty encouraged with what I am seeing so far.
Now there also will likely be some guys currently on the team that will earn scholarships. It is debatable who is and who isn't getting one, and we have already debated that enough, so instead of focusing on the who here I think we need to take another look at what this means. It means we are likely going to have less scholarships to give out that we would in a typical class...and I am starting to think this may actually be a good thing. The reason is we are looking at a long season ahead of us and that will make it hard to recruit. So in a way, already having guys tied into those spots can be a good thing and allow the staff to focus on keeping the current class together and not having a lot of spots to fill the class with.
FUTURE
So how will we finish this class? Not sure about that either, but hearing us being mentioned as legit landing spots for guys like Amani Bledsoe and Chris Hughes is definitely encouraging. With the addition to Dom Williams for the 2017 class, KU has landed the earliest commit it ever has in the Rivals era. If they were to land Amani Bledsoe, they would land the highest ranked kid out of HS that they ever have in the Rivals era. We were all excited about the potential of Beaty's recruiting, this would be a clear sign he is doing things on the recruiting trail that has never happened at KU before.
The other thing I think to consider is what if we do have a handful or so spots left in January after a long season. Can this staff still pull in some quality guys? Looking to the recent past, note that so far the following true freshman from last year's class have played this year: Steven Sims, Tyrone Miller, Ryan Willis, Emmanuel Moore, Osaze Ogbebor, Dorance Armstrong, and Larry Hughes. Of those 7 guys, only Willis was committed to the team before December. That shows that this staff can find lower recruited guys late in the process that can contribute. Of course the question becomes is it a good thing that we could only have a few spots left late in the process due to guys getting scholarships currently on the roster, to which I would say remember this is only slightly over a handful of guys and they were being recruited by a new staff versus a staff that just had a poor season. So I think only having a few spots left for guys like this that they can find is a good thing...
PAST
Focusing more on last summer than this time last year, this is when I started to become really concerned. With the focus on JUCO guys, it was clear to me that there was a short term plan (that would impact future numbers...) and that meant either Weis wasn't planning on being here long and/or was worried about his near future job security. That's concerning...but then add on to this the talent he was recruiting...look at the JUCO commits we had:
Jarek Smalley - didn't land anywhere else after no longer being committed to KU and think he is actually playing JUCO baseball
Cory Butler - 4 star JUCO kid who is starting at CB for Utah...but we were recruiting him as a WR
Michael Mathis - currently at Emporia State...now he was committed to Kentucky then to Kansas and his film was good...so that shows me he struggled in the classroom to end up at ESU
Raeshawn Lee - I have no clue where he is
DeLonte Murray - currently a backup OL for Cincy
Will Smith - suffered and played through a shoulder injury last year, guessing he is redshirting this year to continue the rehab process
Jacky Dezir - had shoulder surgery last year, playing some this year but am guessing he is still rehabbing from that some
Now go ahead and do the math, but you are looking at basically one JUCO kid that would be an impact kid this year and he isn't even playing the position we were recruiting him at...we dogged a little bit of a bullet here to be honest...
PRESENT
We are currently sitting at 10 commits for the year and 2 grayshirts set to join the program. To be honest, I am a little bit surprised at some of the guys this staff has brought in so far. Guys like the DBs we have landed and Maciah Long are pretty surprising to me - we have struggled to get guys like this in the past. The OL they have recruited fit the mold of being athletic guys, which excites me some because I think KU can regularly land kids that Yenser is pursuing, which if he can develop them, means we are looking at having a continuous solid OL for the future. I am pretty encouraged with what I am seeing so far.
Now there also will likely be some guys currently on the team that will earn scholarships. It is debatable who is and who isn't getting one, and we have already debated that enough, so instead of focusing on the who here I think we need to take another look at what this means. It means we are likely going to have less scholarships to give out that we would in a typical class...and I am starting to think this may actually be a good thing. The reason is we are looking at a long season ahead of us and that will make it hard to recruit. So in a way, already having guys tied into those spots can be a good thing and allow the staff to focus on keeping the current class together and not having a lot of spots to fill the class with.
FUTURE
So how will we finish this class? Not sure about that either, but hearing us being mentioned as legit landing spots for guys like Amani Bledsoe and Chris Hughes is definitely encouraging. With the addition to Dom Williams for the 2017 class, KU has landed the earliest commit it ever has in the Rivals era. If they were to land Amani Bledsoe, they would land the highest ranked kid out of HS that they ever have in the Rivals era. We were all excited about the potential of Beaty's recruiting, this would be a clear sign he is doing things on the recruiting trail that has never happened at KU before.
The other thing I think to consider is what if we do have a handful or so spots left in January after a long season. Can this staff still pull in some quality guys? Looking to the recent past, note that so far the following true freshman from last year's class have played this year: Steven Sims, Tyrone Miller, Ryan Willis, Emmanuel Moore, Osaze Ogbebor, Dorance Armstrong, and Larry Hughes. Of those 7 guys, only Willis was committed to the team before December. That shows that this staff can find lower recruited guys late in the process that can contribute. Of course the question becomes is it a good thing that we could only have a few spots left late in the process due to guys getting scholarships currently on the roster, to which I would say remember this is only slightly over a handful of guys and they were being recruited by a new staff versus a staff that just had a poor season. So I think only having a few spots left for guys like this that they can find is a good thing...
