Just curious, hes a WV guy. And I see where we offered him (along with many other schools). Were we ever on his radar considering it would have been in state. I realize he is going to WVU but I am curious if we he was also considering Marshall as an in state guy instead of say a North Carolina or Louisville as his '2nd' choice.
Dante Stills
- Thread starter PullmanFinger
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I don't think he ever really considered MU, although we did offer.
Back in March he named a final six of PSU, WVU, Oklahoma, UNC, Va Tech and Louisville:
I am just wondering because I am curious how much the in state guys want to stay in state. Obviously I would love to get some big in state guys, however I would rather them end up at WVU than play out of state. I don't like to see a Switzer end up at UNC instead of WV. I know we do get some in state guys, but you do see some leaving WV in both football and basketball.
The guy for Wheeling Park going to I think Toledo- did we offer and did he consider?
We offered the WP QB but from what I understand cooled significantly on him.
The trend in recent years is for high profile in-state kids to go to out-of-state P5s.
WVU snagged Derek Pitts last year but guys like Riley Locklear, Billy Ross, Dorian Etheridge and Seth Ross went elswhere:
https://n.rivals.com/state_rankings/2017/west_virginia
The 2019 class has a kid from Spring Valley already committed to Ohio State and a lineman from Huntington who is a consensus top 20 player and can literally go anywhere he wants.
https://n.rivals.com/state_rankings/2019/west_virginia
For a guy like Locklear, does it not say 'offer' from Marshall because we knew we couldn't get him or these guys sign so early in the process that no one else recruits them? Its pretty frustrating to lose local guys from Huntington and Spring Valley
He had an offer from us and its listed. He's listed as no interest because he signed his LOI. The system switches all schools over once they do that.
It is amazing to me that Huntington has had so many really great OL lately. I mean I am not shocked we produce some talented kids. Just so highly sought after kids the past couple years. Man I wish we could keep a few of them for sure, but i understand the allure of playing for Ohio State or Tennessee-
Exactly... a couple recruiting classes keeping these local kids would change the dynamic of the program. Funny how our own pipeline should be from the same county
The word I get is Tavis Lee from Martinsburg plans to verbal to Marshall in the near future. For the life of me I cant understand why Doc has not offered the Martinsburg QB as well.
Got that right. Look at the huge lineman from Pt. Pleasant who has already left LSU- - -don't know if it was that Louisiana heat and humidity or if he just saw the handwriting on the wall: playing SEC football at the upper levels is a far cry from WV high school football.
Just wonder if he has given up football for good or if he still wants to play. Remember he gave us a verbal before switching to LSU.
Kids go where they (and their parents) want to go. The old grass is greener and better opportunities if you go to a “big” program. Marshall simply cannot offer every good in-state player IF a position is already filled and going to be for a few years. Kids want to play. If we offer every good in-State kid and then the sit or they red-shirt they generally end up transferring out and then we complain and wonder why. I certainly don’t disagree that it would be nice to keep some of these local kids who probably could impact our program. They attend the camps at MU when they are starting, get better as high school players, and then bigger schools come calling. You can translate this over to the Huntington Preps team and why Marshall is not trying harder to recruit those players.
Most of them end up in premier programs.
Most of them end up in premier programs.
Most of these players wouldn’t sit or redshirt at Marshall. You’ve got it backwards. Smaller schools sometimes get recruits because they’ll play out of the gate versus redshirting at a bigger school. This happens moreso in basketball but it also happens in skill positions in football too.
Family issues caused Stewart to want to leave LSU. I don't believe he has any interest in playing any more based on the last report on him.
I don’t think being from WV has anything to do with being able to play at Big Time programs. If you are a big time prospect being recruited by the biggest programs in the country and you are from WV then that means they think you can play regardless of the competition. The greatest player to ever wear a Marshall Football uniform is Randy Moss. He played his high school ball in WV. There have been several kids from WV that have played at big programs over the years. Heck there have been several kids who have played for WVU and they play against big time opponents and are in the Big 12 and have been in the top 25. I understand WV isn’t Gods gift to college football Florida. But there are some very goid ball players that have come from this state.
I agree I just wish we could do better at keeping them local. We are far removed from IAA. What’s wrong with going to the best non P5 program? There’s still plenty of exposure.
Marshall has many wonderful selling points but exposure is not one of them.
If someone is good enough, the exposure is there. See Vinny Curry
I thought you were talking about the average fan. Pro scouts get visitor passes and use school pro days to scout players. Not the same as exposure in my book, but I could be wrong.
I’m saying they players often go away to bigger schools for the exposure. But if you’re good then it wouldn’t matter. It’s not like we’re division 2. Hell the number one qb prospect is at Wyoming
Doc is missing the boat on WV talent. Charlotte has an oline man starting from Martinsburg that will be a pro football player
We may have missed on the Charlotte offensive lineman (so did everyone else in the country, apparently) but have you seen our 2018 recruiting class? We have three kids from WV currently committed.
yes, much happier and glad but there is still more kids out there. I think he could also do a much better job with the preferred walkons.
Is that why we've only had the scouts of about 25 NFL teams visit our practices this fall? You don't need to be on national TV every week to get exposure. It may help you get drafted higher as there are usually less questions about competition, but the scouts will find you if you are good enough. Hell, Julian Edelman played D3 and the Patriots drafted him.Marshall has many wonderful selling points but exposure is not one of them.
You are absolutely correct about "exposure" to NFL scouts. That concept of exposure could be applied to any college team. No advantage to playing for Marshall.
My comments regarding exposure applied to the average football fan. With a crappy TV contract, following Marshall is difficult at best.
Ha, ha, ha. For some reason I was thinking that he had played at Mount Union. Then again, I hate Patriots so I really don't keep track of their players.Kent State sucks but calling them D3 is a bit harsh
Shepherd University has 3 or 4 kids in the NFL right now. A safety from Jefferson High went to Fairmont and he is with Oakland right now.
I don’t really know how he could do a better job with preferred walk-ons considering the current roster. The following players are/were walk-ons:
Brandon Drayton
Nazeeh Johnson
Kaare Vedvik
Malik Gant
Chase Hancock
Aaron Dopson
Each of the those guys are currently in the two-deep so it seems as if Doc has done a terrific job. West Virginia kids or not, our walk-on program has been one of the better ones in C-USA for quite some time.
Aaron Dopson was a 2009 recruit and he was offered and appears on the commitment list for that season. He also came before Doc got to Marshall. If we are going back to 2009 and we can only come up with 5 then that is not a good number.
Aaron Dobson was a 2009 recruit.
Aaron DOPSON was a 2015 preferred walk-on.
Like I said, our preferred walk-on program is 2nd to none in C-USA.
We are still missing kids in our state and would like to see numbers form other schools. I know Martinsburg has two kids right now would be perfect fits as preferred walkons.
We're going to miss on kids. Recruiting isn't an exact science. That said, in addition to the players Josh listed the following players are from WV and joined the program as W/Os this year:
Tyler Brown (Spring Valley)
Domenick Murphy (Weir)
Jacob Grigsby (St. Albans)
Easton Martin (Parkersburg)
Mikeal Lipscomb (from Belle via Concord)
Phillip Lucas (from Lenore via Fairmont State)
Elijah Smith (Woodrow Wilson)
Jacob Kirkendoll (Lincoln County)
Doc and his staff do a fantastic job of giving WV kids a chance to walk-on. I don't know how you can say otherwise with the names I just listed.
FYI: We also have Eli Gates on the roster, who came to MU as a W/O from Martinsburg in 2014 and is now on scholarship.
We've actually had 19 walk-ons that were Doc recruits earn scholarships from 2011-2017 with 10 of those recruits earning starting jobs. I would say our walk-on program is excellent.
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