Was RU trying to hit a home run with Ash? Most fans would have been happy with a ground rule double, instead of getting hit in the balls by a wild pitch 11 out of 12 at bats.
Md does it again
- Thread starter djrc89
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I think you're nuts. The kid is a 4 star safety and was 3rd fastest kid in country in track. He's a NFL blue chipper and #1 Player in the state of Maryland.
I think DJ put a lot of piece in place. Were it not for horrific QB injuries and the McNair Tragedy deraling out season we had a chance at doing something great. Two Texas wins, almost beating Ohio State and getting 9 million viewers watching that to overtime. I always say a football team needs ONE big win each year to keep fans happy. We may have missed a bowl, but every Maryland fan can walk into Texas head held high.
Yes they were. I remember hearing about being a good interviewer; how great of a closer he was in recruiting; how great he was as a DC for Ohio State. He was supposed to take us to the next level in the B1G.
My memory is different about "how great of a closer he was in recruiting." Don't remember hearing that at all, and even if that was said, Flood could be a great recruiter at Ohio State.
As far as being a great interviewer, that was Hobbs pumping up his choice once he locked onto Ash. Ash always came across as very prepared and knowledgeable about what it takes to build a program, but he also came across as very wooden. I don't think anyone here was particularly moved or enthused about him being a great interviewer.
As far as being a great DC at Ohio State--yes he was, and that still appears to call a good defensive game, as evidenced by his involvement in the latter half of 2018. This was the attribute that most folks were really excited about. He had experience at two of the top programs in the B1G--tOSU and Wisconsin.
But as we learned, and some here warned, not having any head coach experience turned into a liability that erased any positive attributes Ash had. His mistakes have been discussed here at length.
Hobbs swung for the fences with Ashes, but so far the hire has whiffed, and there is nothing to indicate it will improve.
Or striking out swinging on pitches thrown into the dugout.
Quick scan, looks like Pitt and BC are two of the other teams. One would think that Narduzzi would have done better after his team played in the ACC Championship. But we are even with Pitt on Rivals and slightly below them on 247, despite having a 1-11 disaster of a record.
Same for Boston College, which had a solid season at 7-5.
Somewhat same for Syracuse, which has 3 in the top 500) and which had a great season. RU is ahead of Cuse in Rivals and slightly behind in 247.
Maybe recruits don't want to play in the Northeast (excepting Penn State, which is unrivaled :weary
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Depth has been an issue and mostly QB injuries in that time. It's great to have a 5 star WR in Diggs, but if you got a linebacker playing QB that's going to hurt your offense.
It's great to have 4 star and 5 star OLineman but if you have a QB who was your 4th and 5th stringer playing most of season you are going to have problems.
Getting good depth and good QB play is the key to winning in football. Locks as the HC is 10 times better than him just as the OC under Randy Edsall.
RU has had better attendance than Maryland and you are actually fundraising better than we are. Maryland's dysfunction in the athletic department is the reason for that. They raised ticket prices too high after bad seasons. Randy also shut down the football booster group.
Pitt and Maryland are middle of the road, with Maryland having a bigger upside with local recruiting. Where they separate from Rutgers is yes the talent, but the big wins. Head to Head RU and MD are about even.
But signature wins RU has only Michigan in year one. MD has Texas x2, PSU, Michigan, MSU, Iowa, and although not a win taking Ohio State to overtime turned a lot of heads (9 million).
So yea getting blown out sucks, but at least there seems to have been at least one game a year Maryland won the big game. I truly admire the RU fans who suppor their team without these wins, because as I've said, we'll see how many "We Are" PSU fans there really are if they had to suffer a few horrible seasons.
There was no doubt that he was being sold as the next coming. You may also recall that any threads criticizing his hire was immediately locked and removed from this website. In the current situation that seems silly, but that was in fact the situation.
All good points, and wow you are really optimistic about RU compared to a lot of folks on this board.
But still, our recruiting is nowhere near where it needs to be for the B1G East.
I guess the difference in Maryland's and Rutgers' W-L records is that Maryland had at least one key piece of (1) an OL that could block (2) a serviceable QB or (3) a WR that could actually get open and catch. Last season, RU seemed to have none of those, which goes a long way in explaining 0-11 vs. Maryland's record.
And you are right about admiring the RU fans who are left to support the team, but it is very difficult nowadays. But maybe we are in line with Chris Ash, who said that there is "Faith without results." But that can only last for so long.
Many of us feel like Tim Roth's character in Reservoir Dogs:
and on cue James Kratch writes an article;
how alarming is Marylands recruiting surge for Rutgers?
https://www.nj.com/expo/sports/g66l...cent-recruiting-tear-for-scarlet-knights.html
What is your opinion on Maryland having a late start in recruiting and picking up 3 recruits in ESPN top 200?
— Jim Hollasch (@jhollasch) February 12, 2019
It’s about what I expected. If you have doubts about new Maryland coach Mike Locksley, it’s because you are skeptical about him as a coach and a CEO, not as a recruiter. He is clearly elite when it comes to the latter, and he has done a tremendous job galvanizing the Maryland community, exciting the fanbase and hiring a good staff – all of which have led to a few big recruiting wins so far, the latest being flipping and signing four-star in-state safety Nick Cross from Florida State.
how alarming is Marylands recruiting surge for Rutgers?
https://www.nj.com/expo/sports/g66l...cent-recruiting-tear-for-scarlet-knights.html
What is your opinion on Maryland having a late start in recruiting and picking up 3 recruits in ESPN top 200?
— Jim Hollasch (@jhollasch) February 12, 2019
It’s about what I expected. If you have doubts about new Maryland coach Mike Locksley, it’s because you are skeptical about him as a coach and a CEO, not as a recruiter. He is clearly elite when it comes to the latter, and he has done a tremendous job galvanizing the Maryland community, exciting the fanbase and hiring a good staff – all of which have led to a few big recruiting wins so far, the latest being flipping and signing four-star in-state safety Nick Cross from Florida State.
You lost me here.
Attendance at PSU ranked fourth nationally in 2000 (5-7), second in 2001 (5-6) and 2003 (3-9), and fourth in 2004 (4-7).
In the years immediately following the scandal, with a mediocre product on the field, PSU averaged 98,684 fans from 2012-2015.
With the way PSU is recruiting, the chances of a string of poor seasons are slim to none, but the idea that the PSU fan will disappear isn't rooted in reality.
Personally, I was pretty excited to have him, but never envisioned him as any second coming (of Schiano?). The Ash will get us smashed thread was not locked and remains open. It's natural when a new head coach is hired to have people strongly cheering the hire and doubters too (except for when Flood was hired, where most people seemed accepting after Mario turned us down and he seemed to be the last man standing and hired to save the 2012 recruiting class-a lot of good that did us).
That's a long walk.. sure you are up to it?
One thing we can all agree on is James Franklin is an awful person. How the hell is he a head coach in this day and age?
Penn State has a child rape scandal then hires a coach who presided over a rape scandal at Vandy where he either lied to his players (as he claims) or he lied to investigators and in court about whether he saw the video. How does that guy get hired?
Then, in the middle of the current #metoo movement he says he wants his assistant coaches wives to be "hot"... that he won't hire a coach whose wife is not "hot". WTF is that? How does that guy have a job where he can lead young men?
And he goes into Maryland and New Jersey claiming its his recruiting ground. What a douche!
Agreed. You guys are not called the Cult for nothing. No crime can be considered too heinous that would make a Nit question his/her support.
Sounds like kid wanted to go to either FSU or PSU and mom put the kibosh on it. So was this all Locksley or a kid listening to his parents (and will he be happy? With transfers being easier to attain let's see where he finishes up his career)
Cross wanted FSU. The parents, or at least one of them, wanted PSU. Maryland was the compromise. I wish the kid well, but I can't help but wonder if he'll regret this in a year or two.
Same that's why I said let's see where he finishes up. Once he cuts the apron strings he may move on since transferring is that much easier
Did I say anywhere that this kid was in a great talent? No.
Yes some here have said prior HC experience is needed but I didn't agree before Ash and don't agree if Ash fails. I've named plenty of coordinators who did fine jobs in their first HC job and now that that's out there...it's well "program like RU" etc...needs prior HC experience. Still don't agree.
What was a program like TT before first time HC Mike Leach, KU's best days in recent memory were under first time HC Mangino, how about first time HCs Patterson and Whittingham at TCU/Utah, first time HC Wilcox just had a respectable season at Cal, how about first time HC Mark Stoops at Kentucky certainly not a SEC football power like they are in basketball....so that to me isn't the criteria and I don't like narrowing the pool of candidates if there isn't evidence to say otherwise. None of these are high profile programs.
It's an overall profile of a coach I look for not whether he has prior HC experience or not. Of course nothing wrong with prior HC experience but it shouldn't be a disqualifier. If anything IMO Ash's liability isn't that he hadn't been a HC previously, it's that he didn't have enough strong offensive influences and connections in his career and that hurt him in his OC choices and philosophy.
here you go, take a look at this. my point being there are far more misses than makes. So not getting 1 or 2 isn't a killer. the issue is you need A BUNCH of them cause clearly there are no guarantees. (and no, where not getting that either lol)
I'm simply debating the value of "getting" a single 4 star vs. having a great coach who can develop players.
https://247sports.com/college/rutge...tgers-Football-History-128823584/#128823584_4
I think the bigger point is getting a single 4-star kid isn't enough. You'll always have blue-chip recruits who bust and lower-rated kids who blossom. But the data overwhelmingly suggests that you should recruit as many 4- and 5-star prospects as possible.
In fact, if you want to win championships, you NEED to recruit more of those kids than their 2- and 3-star counterparts.
you need to recruit high three stars..mixed in with a couple,or at least one, four star(s) EACH class to Compete in B10 East.
Recruiting 4 of 6 lineman as two star rated,will not cut it in B10 as evidence of Ash recruiting class and the results on field.
I'm not one who follows recruiting much at all but I have stated my tiered pyramid view of recruiting and talent where the tiers of similar talent get wider as you go down.
IMO most programs recruit to a tier corresponding to their general status on the college landscape and to actually move into a higher tier will take a really remarkable recruiter or likely longer term good performance (reverse that for going down a tier as well).
So to me coaching, developing, ease of learning a system and identifying fit to system is the more realistic path and part of what you should look for a in a coach because it's quite unlikely you're going to attract a good bunch of these highly rated players here at the same time for a program like us without prior accompanying consistent results.
Feels like it was Tom Savage, though that may not be right. Maybe Darius Hamilton or someone else in that class?
Franklin is not on the level of Urban, Harbaugh or D'Antonio even though their fans would have him there. Perhaps in recruiting but not in coaching.
The UMD coach was bad at New Mexico. But he's a good recruiter.
OTOH, we have Chris Ash. Who is good at...um...is there an argument he's not the worst coach in the B1G...Lovie must be good at something.
The UMD coach was bad at New Mexico. But he's a good recruiter.
OTOH, we have Chris Ash. Who is good at...um...is there an argument he's not the worst coach in the B1G...Lovie must be good at something.
Franklin is very much a CEO-style head coach/program builder. Which is fine. He is not an X's and O's guy the caliber of the other coaches you mentioned, but with Urban Meyer retiring, Franklin might well be the best HC recruiter in the nation right now. Locksley isn't at that level on the trail; he'll give PSU and other programs some trouble in Maryland, but let's see how he does nationally.
It's never too early with the portal. This USC kid put his name in the portal 37 days after he committed on Dec. 19:
http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...nrollee-bru-mccoy-enters-ncaa-transfer-portal
Franklin is another example of a first time HC at a lower tier program like Vandy and did a solid job. Also Fitzgerald at Northwestern.
I’d say Dabo is still the best CEO style coach in the country, and he’s held on to the best DC for ages which helps
Don’t understand why everyone knocks Franklin on his coaching, don’t think he was ever thought of as a great coach, but he is a great CEO which requires great assistants
I’ve mentioned I’ve always thought Dabo and Franklin are good CEO coaches identifying good assistants usually. Doesn’t hurt to have the super premium budget too in Dabo’s case. Now the second program to have 3 million dollar assistants starting next year with both their co-OCs and Venables. I’m not sure Michigan is anymore since Pep Hamilton went to the XFL.
maybe sweet baby james will announce his candidacy for president in 2020....snake oil salesman of the year