Football Recruits - 2019
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leatherneckcountry
- Posts: 2413
- Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 4:55 pm
Marquae Kirkendoll CB from Chicago Simeon Iowa ST IN St EKU EMU and Fordum.
Updated spreadsheet.
I've been adding guys as I've seen them post about getting offers. I also added a couple of columns to the right of the "status" field (where I put if they are committed somewhere or signed or whatever) for number of FBS and FCS offers. That way if we wanted to do a "rating" of guys by number of offers, it's easier to tally that up. I'll try to keep them updated periodically as best as I can.
I've been adding guys as I've seen them post about getting offers. I also added a couple of columns to the right of the "status" field (where I put if they are committed somewhere or signed or whatever) for number of FBS and FCS offers. That way if we wanted to do a "rating" of guys by number of offers, it's easier to tally that up. I'll try to keep them updated periodically as best as I can.
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
looks like WIU made a lot of offers today and it seemed the majority were to high school kids in Michigan. That seems like it is new territory for WIU. Does one of the new coaches have connections to Michigan? Anyone know what the connection is?
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sealhall74
- Posts: 5854
- Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 1:18 pm
- Location: Wherever, Windblows
From just a common sense point of view, it seems to make a lot of sense. Illinois has a lot of kids, but if its high school graduates in general are fleeing the state for better waters, then you have to believe the trend also applies to those who are athletically inclined. Illinois also has a boatload of other D1 schools and several in the MVFC to compete with. Michigan and Ohio are also both very high population states. We are closer to them than the Dakota schools and I have said it before, you don't out-recruit NDSU (maybe even SDSU) in a head-to-head battle for an athlete. At the moment, I would certainly like my chance out-recruiting the Trees for a kid in either Michigan or Ohio. Aside from the Big Ten schools, the Ohio and Michigan D1 footprint is mostly MAC-affiliated. Only three MAC schools in Michigan and only Central Michigan has their head above water right now. On the Ohio side, six MAC schools and Toledo, Akron, and Ohio U are dominating things recently. I would definitely spend my easterly direction recruiting dime in the Wolverine State.
So to make a long story just a bit longer, it may have nothing to do with coaching connections and just some smart coach scratching his head wondering how best to go about his business.
Embrace the pace of the race.
Right. Here's a map of FCS teams...it's a bit out of date (from 2011), but still shows the relevant information for this discussion:
Take a look at the stretch of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Michigan - population ~10M, zero FCS schools, although 5 FBS schools (including a couple that really probably should be FCS)
Wisconsin - population ~5.8M, zero FCS schools, 1 FBS school
Minnesota - population ~5.6M, zero FCS schools, 1 FBS school
To "generalize" a somewhat familiar rating system:
5 star kids - they can go anywhere they want
4 star kids - many will be going to the big state schools...Michigan, Mich State, Wisconsin, Minnesota
3 star kids - many (especially the kids further east in this region) go to MAC schools...ones in the west might go to Wyoming, NDSU, maybe other Mountain West schools
2 star kids - many of these kids are going to MVFC schools...NDSU, SDSU, USD, UNI in the west, but in the east...YSU, INSU, ILSU?
1 star kids - maybe to nearby Pioneer League schools or to fill in depth or PWOs at MVFC schools
So, you have a big area with lots of kids and a few large-sized metro areas (Detroit, Minneapolis, Milwaukee). You also have a significant lack of schools in the scholarship FCS level. Lots of kids who are good enough to get a D1 scholarship, but aren't quite good enough to (or just don't want to) play on a MAC team. If they want to stay within a day's drive of home (so parents can attend games, so it's not horribly difficult to go home every now and then, etc.), then they don't have a lot of options. It's a good idea to focus on these "underserved" areas to try to get some good kids that might get missed.
Another bonus is that a kid who's grown up playing football in the fall/early winter in MI, WI, or MN...they're not going to flinch at playing football in central IL in the same timeframe. If anything, the weather might be a little warmer (and for kids from MI...with a bit less snow probably).
Obviously there's other regions we like to focus on...we've had a lot of success getting kids from the KC area...kinda for a similar reason probably...but if not a lot of your direct competitors are recruiting in an area and there's a good number of quality kids in the area, it makes sense to put some focus there.
EDIT - one more point...assuming kids are more likely to stay within a state or two of home, kids from the previously mentioned states have fewer options since going north would mean Canada, where the options to play gridiron football are much more limited, and probably would involve a few more "hoops" to jump through.
EDIT 2 - more stuff...
I was added in the new offers to the spreadsheet and noticed that a lot of them have quite a few MAC offers already and some even higher. Like, for example, here's the list of offers Trebron Mosley currently has: Purdue, Morgan State, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan, Michigan, Boston College, Minnesota, Iowa State, Northern Illinois, Indiana, Ball State, Bowling Green, Toledo, Western Michigan, Syracuse, Cincinnati, Central Michigan. So...there's no way we're beating out that list for this kid. There's 5 Big 10 schools on that list. What we're likely doing in this case is, say the kid gets to Michigan, or wherever he goes, but things just don't work out for some reason. Maybe grades...maybe lack of playing time...whatever...but after a year or so he chooses to transfer to an FCS school where he can be a starter. Well, we are now on this kid's radar if that happens. He starts thinking of places to transfer to and he's probably going to start with the schools that showed interest in him in the first place.
This is essentially an investment in the future (that doesn't really cost us anything).
Take a look at the stretch of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Michigan - population ~10M, zero FCS schools, although 5 FBS schools (including a couple that really probably should be FCS)
Wisconsin - population ~5.8M, zero FCS schools, 1 FBS school
Minnesota - population ~5.6M, zero FCS schools, 1 FBS school
To "generalize" a somewhat familiar rating system:
5 star kids - they can go anywhere they want
4 star kids - many will be going to the big state schools...Michigan, Mich State, Wisconsin, Minnesota
3 star kids - many (especially the kids further east in this region) go to MAC schools...ones in the west might go to Wyoming, NDSU, maybe other Mountain West schools
2 star kids - many of these kids are going to MVFC schools...NDSU, SDSU, USD, UNI in the west, but in the east...YSU, INSU, ILSU?
1 star kids - maybe to nearby Pioneer League schools or to fill in depth or PWOs at MVFC schools
So, you have a big area with lots of kids and a few large-sized metro areas (Detroit, Minneapolis, Milwaukee). You also have a significant lack of schools in the scholarship FCS level. Lots of kids who are good enough to get a D1 scholarship, but aren't quite good enough to (or just don't want to) play on a MAC team. If they want to stay within a day's drive of home (so parents can attend games, so it's not horribly difficult to go home every now and then, etc.), then they don't have a lot of options. It's a good idea to focus on these "underserved" areas to try to get some good kids that might get missed.
Another bonus is that a kid who's grown up playing football in the fall/early winter in MI, WI, or MN...they're not going to flinch at playing football in central IL in the same timeframe. If anything, the weather might be a little warmer (and for kids from MI...with a bit less snow probably).
Obviously there's other regions we like to focus on...we've had a lot of success getting kids from the KC area...kinda for a similar reason probably...but if not a lot of your direct competitors are recruiting in an area and there's a good number of quality kids in the area, it makes sense to put some focus there.
EDIT - one more point...assuming kids are more likely to stay within a state or two of home, kids from the previously mentioned states have fewer options since going north would mean Canada, where the options to play gridiron football are much more limited, and probably would involve a few more "hoops" to jump through.
EDIT 2 - more stuff...
I was added in the new offers to the spreadsheet and noticed that a lot of them have quite a few MAC offers already and some even higher. Like, for example, here's the list of offers Trebron Mosley currently has: Purdue, Morgan State, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan, Michigan, Boston College, Minnesota, Iowa State, Northern Illinois, Indiana, Ball State, Bowling Green, Toledo, Western Michigan, Syracuse, Cincinnati, Central Michigan. So...there's no way we're beating out that list for this kid. There's 5 Big 10 schools on that list. What we're likely doing in this case is, say the kid gets to Michigan, or wherever he goes, but things just don't work out for some reason. Maybe grades...maybe lack of playing time...whatever...but after a year or so he chooses to transfer to an FCS school where he can be a starter. Well, we are now on this kid's radar if that happens. He starts thinking of places to transfer to and he's probably going to start with the schools that showed interest in him in the first place.
This is essentially an investment in the future (that doesn't really cost us anything).
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
Kansas City has fallen behind St Louis in Top Level D1 talent this year, but it is still swimming in FCS talent. The problem is, pretty much every school in the MVFC recruits us pretty hard. We have several kids on the rosters for the Dakota schools and a large amount for UNI. Coach Elliott has done a good job building relationships the last couple years, I really hope that continues.
You know it. Check the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing
Just added like 6 or 7 more this morning actually. It's possible I might have missed one or two that fell through the cracks, but I'm pretty sure I've got nearly all of them.
I just updated the map of recruits (I have to do that manually), which you can see here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1glrwn ... sp=sharing
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
And of course...4 more came through overnight. I added them, but didn't sort them yet, so they're at the bottom of the list currently, in case you wanted to see who's new since yesterday.
Scott Lawson - Board AdminWestern Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000