a different perspective on UL football signings

Yesterday, UL football signed 22 players to the football team. Of those 8 of them were JUCO's, and the rest prep players. Like many of the sports media wonks, I honestly do not put a whole of weight on the "star" rankings of players. Is there a talent difference between a 1 star and a 5 star player? Yes. But the gap between 3, 4 and 5 star players is really not that great for the most part. Remember, that rating is not so much a rating based on "talent" as it is the difference between "potential" versus "immediate" impact a player could have. Some kids are more physically developed than others, but that does not mean those that are not, will not become superstar players in college. It just might take a little longer. So I do not put a great deal of emphasis on those rankings.

Looking up and down the players signed by UL, it looks like a solid class. It has some size and speed, mixed in with shoring up some glaring needs that UL has coming into the 2008 season. So all of that is "goodness and light". But I have to say, I have some very serious reservations as to the strategy of recruiting by Kragthorpe and this staff.

My concern is not that Kragthorpe has not and can not find talent, it is that there exists what appears to be an extreme bias against recruiting what has been traditional areas that have resulted in reaping great benefits for UL football.

With this staff the emphasis is in recruiting the western part of the nation far more heavily than UL's history of pulling talent from areas like AL, LA and especially FL.

Unlike some others I am NOT convinced that this is in UL's best interest.

When Schnellenberger came to UL to build a program, he started pulling from talent rich FL. Over 10 years Howard worked that pipeline, building relationships and ties. And over the 20 years since that time, UL, (especially in south Florida), has developed a very strong alumni and prep school presence there. When Schnellenberger left, every coach since has recognized how important that link was to a state that is arguably the most football talent rich state in the nation. And without question IS the most football talent rich state east of the Mississippi river. And having recognized how important those in-roads to talent were, every HC since Schnellenberger continued to develop them.

The single biggest reason why I believe UL should not "focus" on recruiting players from out west is that of geography and demographics. The truth of the matter is that UL simply stands VERY little chance of ever consistently developing a pipeline of top level talent from those states of TX and CA, because quite frankly, UL just does NOT have the "national presence" to develop that pipeline. And historically only ONE school ever HAS done such a feat. That school is Notre Dame. Now having said that, I am not saying that Kragthorpe should never go to TX or CA to look for talent. But I am saying the he should NOT do it as the first option. Instead go after those players selectively and as a one-off process.

Geographically, trying to get a kid to come east of the Miss. river, unless your school name is Notre Dame, is nearly impossible. If it were that simple to develop and pull talent from those areas, you would see a LOT more schools from the Big 10, the ACC and even the SEC trying to do it. But they do not, and there is a reason for that. Most of the kids in TX want to play in fairly similar timezones, so that their families, parents and friends can see them play. In Notre Dame, that is easy, because of ND's virtual TV choke hold on NBC.

The other issue is one of demographics. Regardless of what this staff thinks, there is a HUGE cultural difference between the west and the east coasts. And Louisville just does not have the same type of culture, from an activities standpoint, that west and west coast environs do. (As someone who lived in Denver, CO and Phoenix, AZ for 7 years, I can speak to that a bit.) Not to mention that in the Big East, east coast football is very different than what they play out "west".

And a lot of what I say rang true with the FAILURE of this staff to pull in even mid-level talent from the state of TX. Two of the players that UL were recruiting signed with other teams that were on-par or were below UL's football level. That is VERY telling.

For Kragthorpe to "thumb his nose" at areas that UL has had long standing tradition with, and great success pulling recruits from, speaks to just how completely "out of touch" he is with the history of UL football. And lest we forget, the LAST time a school in the state of Kentucky tried to develop a strong recruiting base from the state of TX or west of the Miss. river; resulted in that school getting smacked with 2 years of probation due to NCAA violations. (*ahem*, see UK history for reference.)

It is my opinion that if Kragthorpe continues to disregard those areas that have resulted in football recruiting success and have deep ties to UL, then UL football is in for a long period of relative obscurity, because it will take at LEAST 5-10 years to even come close to developing the type of prep school recruiting pipeline that UL has cultivated over the past 20 years.