Are we seeing recruiting repercussions from realignment?

[andy4theherd]

CUSA lost it's first batch of teams in 2013 (Houston, UCF, Memphis, SMU) and the rest in 2014 (ECU, Tulsa, Tulane).

seems logical to assume the overall recruiting quality of the conference went down with those departures. i'm not talking "rival ratings" either. are the kids we were fighting (and often winning) for with the departed schools even considering us now? we looked slower and weaker on the field this season than i have ever seen. maybe just an anomaly, or maybe the kind of talent we are used to having on the field is looking at AAC schools...

 

[GreenDuke]

^^^ No question about it. The neighborhood you live in matters.

 

[pdbailey]

CUSA lost it's first batch of teams in 2013 (Houston, UCF, Memphis, SMU) and the rest in 2014 (ECU, Tulsa, Tulane).

seems logical to assume the overall recruiting quality of the conference went down with those departures. i'm not talking "rival ratings" either. are the kids we were fighting (and often winning) for with the departed schools even considering us now? we looked slower and weaker on the field this season than i have ever seen. maybe just an anomaly, or maybe the kind of talent we are used to having on the field is looking at AAC schools...

Attrition with the 2012-2013 classes and younger inexperienced players having to play more prominent roles than backups or 3rd team is the cause of the this year besides some internal team issues and some of the coaching. The defense was never going to be very good after losing 9 starters, the entire starting secondary, and 15 of 22 from the 2015 2-deep, and the offense had internal issues, bad [play calling, bad audibles, and the OL injuries killed the us all around.

We are still going after the same level of players as in the past based on the offer list, and we have landed some good one's in the 2017 class, so I don't believe we are really dropping off, but we did have some misses with some high profile recruits in a few of the classes that have impacted secondary and offensive skill position depth.