Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Addazio's recruiting class not impressing Recruiting Services

BC lost a lot of momentum coming off a 3-9 season. No aspect of the program demonstrates that more than the recruiting rankings. Understanding that the services are deeply flawed, they all share a the same opinion of BC's latest recruits. (Also note these rankings could change slightly after Signing Day, but not enough to disprove my point.)

Rivals ranks BC 88th nationally and last in the ACC.

Scout ranks BC 71st nationally and last in the ACC.

247 ranks BC 78th nationally and last in the ACC.

As a trend, this is not good. However, I am not all doom and gloom on this group. Its size was going to hurt the rankings. BC touts the transfers, but the recruiting rankings do not. Therefore incoming QB Patrick Towles, incoming OL Jimmy Lowery and incoming punter Satchel Ziffer do not influence the rankings. As I have been pounding home, those sorts of 5th year transfers are a better use of Addazio's scholarship count than a raw freshman. All three of those guys can make an immediate impact.

Addazio's press conference was pretty typical: "leaders" "great kids" etc. I don't think Addazio fakes enthusiasm well, so I take his high regard for this team as genuine. I didn't love his youth excuse making, but let's see how this season progresses.

The only new nugget that stood out to me was Addazio mentioning Catholic schools across the country. We've always recruited pockets of Catholic schools in certain regions, but never tried to blanket all the Catholic schools across the country. It is a great idea. We have a natural "in" and at many of those places the Admission's Office is already familiar with the school's academics.

We won't know about this class for a few years. I won't worry about the rankings. All that matters is what Addazio does with them.

24 comments:

dixieagle said...

The Catholic high school down here in Mobile, McGill-Toolen, is the current champ in Alabama's top high school division for football, which is incredibly competitive. A number of top students from McT have gone to BC, so there is a foot in the door. I would love for BC to at least take a look at these kids.

mod34b said...
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eagleboston said...

Dixie, I agree. My alma mater, a Catholic high school, has won 3 straight state championships and places 3-4 players at D-1 schools every year. BC has not even contacted the coach or the players. BC should have a pipeline to all of the Catholic schools that are dominating their state playoffs. Also, we need to recruit heavier in Massachusetts. If I read the list correctly, there were only 3 players from Mass. BC needs to get 5 or more players a year from in state.

I am not a fan of recruiting rankings. They have zero credibility in my book. Luke Kuechley, perhaps the best linebacker in the NFL, was a 3-star in 2009. He is clearly better than every 4 and 5 star rated linebacker from 2009. Are you kidding me? A 3-star? Kasim Edebali was a 2 star. He is now in the NFL. Mark Herzlich was only a 3 star. B.J. Raji was a 2 star. Matt Ryan was merely a 3 star. All of these are NFL players and are 5 star in reality. I rest my case.

dixieagle said...

Eagleboston.. Losing Dalton and Harrington (especially Harrington, as he was a legacy) was frustrating and embarrassing. As another poster stated, that wall around Massachusetts/New England seems to be keeping recruits out, rather than in.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

Is there ever any really good news coming out of BC athletics outside of hockey and, if you follow it, some of the women's programs like lacrosse and soccer? I know there is always hope - but sometimes we sound like we are at a horrible restaurant raving about the bread sticks. I see MBB dropped another last night. This was not a good recruiting class by any stretch and certainly not what anyone expected from a supposedly good recruiter. Of course, that doesn't mean there won't be some fine college players out of the group - but enough mass/depth to help become a genuine winning program in the ACC? Go look at the recruits from the winning mid tier ACC teams and do a side by side. Going 3-9 without a single conference win and showing an offense that was a public embarrassment has seriously damaged Daz's credibility among recruits. You can't ever let it get that bad without ripple effect consequences. That's why you get paid boatloads of money to make sure shit like that doesn't happen. I'm sure Daz and his staff will work extremely hard to dig themselves out of this hole - but they will need a lot of luck. At this stage (with the damage done)I'm not sure any coaching staff could do a better job unless BC hired someone famous enough to draw recruits on his name alone - and that will never happen. Its gonna be a long, long ride back. I would like to see Daz succeed as he appears to be a decent guy on balance.

Hoib said...

Wondering why no RBs, w/ all the attrition there? Maybe the play of the O line last year scared them off.

OB68 said...

It is difficult to be an optimist when you consistently look at similar recruiting efforts on the part of the football and basketball coaching staff. Every so often even a blind squirel will find a nut, so I am not overly impressed by the success of the staff with players like LK, and MR. Now if you told me that the staff knew these two guys were going to set the world on fire I would be impressed but clearly they were late bloomers with an upside that I doubt the coaching staff ever projected. I had a personal experience a few weeks ago with a guy who played basketball at Xavier. We were talking sports and he asked if BC was ever again going to be a factor on the national scene in either Football or Basketball. I honestly could not even say they would ever be a factor in the ACC let alone on the national stage. I guess I am just tired of watching the decline of these programs. I gave up my football season tickets a few years ago when Spaz made a mockery of the program, my intent was to get back in the game once they hired a coach who actually "got it" and would bring the phoenix from the ashes. Well so far it has been ashes and more ashes year, after year, after year. Will it ever stop? I think it is honestly unlikely, not sure we could even compete in the Patriot league.

dixieagle said...

We better hope that those blind squirrels have found some really choice nuts, then. And even if they have, does our current staff have the ability/skills to coach them up? I'm not optimistic, and that makes me really angry.

Legal Eagle said...

Recruiting has never really been BC's strong suit in basketball or football. That never used to be an issue because BC did an outstanding job, probably as good of job as any university, of developing the talent they were able to get. BC consistently took 2 and 3 star recruits and turned them into 1st round picks.

BC's inability to recruit is now much scarier as we no longer seem to have that consistent ability to get the most out of the talent we have. I am not confident that this coaching staff will be able to take this below average recruiting class and turn it into an above average football team. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

CT said...

The rankings are less interesting to me than the offer lists. Not overwhelming.

Much of this can be mitigated if the QB and Oline play improves against an easy schedule.

Hoib said...

No DTs either, what's up w/ that?

JBQ said...

Addazio is on the clock. All of the comments are very pessimistic as am I. The problem is very obvious and the solution is obvious as well. The roadblock is the three year extension. The entire situation is a mess. It is past Bates and in the lap of Father L. I think that the answer is to can Bates and to bring in Coughlin as an interim AD.

mod34b said...
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Joe said...

Mod you're an idiot if you don't think the facilities are one of the major problems from a recruiting perspective. The '15 record/perspective is #1, but facilities is close to the top in what is holding this program back

mod34b said...
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EL MIZ said...

is it true BC is the only team in the ACC without an indoor practice facility? i believe i had read or heard that somewhere.

i agree the facilities shouldn't be the main excuse (and Addazio as far as i have seen hasn't said that and seems excited about the kids he brought in, for whatever it is worth) - but if the current state of facilities is far and away 14th out of 14, that's a big problem.

mod34b said...
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Guido said...

I believe that only BC and the Univ. of Miami are the last two ACC members that do not have a "dedicated" indoor practice facility for the football team to use during harsh weather. BC has the "Bubble" that is inflated over Alumni Stadium for the winter months , but it is not considered an efficient alternative to a dedicated indoor facility. Wake Forest and Syracuse recently completed their indoor facilities . I believe that VTECH recently completed their facility also. I viewed the Syracuse facility recently online. Wealthy donors are willing to come up with substantial $$$ especially when the facility carries the family name.

Hoib said...

For a school w/ Boston's weather I would think an indoor facility would be a must. An announcement is supposed to be imminent, let's hope so. Probably just as big a problem for a kid to commit is Daz being on the national hot seat list, whether valid or not. Who wants to commit to a 4 or 5 year program when the coach could be gone after one. I'm sure rival schools bring up the point right away. The only way to fix that, is "just win baby".

mod34b said...
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CT said...

I think the larger point is being missed.

Hoib said...

Was it last year or the year before that the Spring game was cancelled because of the weather. Hasn't the bubble collapsed on more than one occasion? Short of a picture of the collapsed bubble I don't know how to be clearer. Of course what I just wrote doesn't matter if one's life's work is to disagreeing w/ everyone about everything.

mod34b said...
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Unknown said...

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