Is Brad Davis really that good a recruiter?

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Benjamin Franklin

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I don't see a Benjamin Franklin on staff?

what am I missing?

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What has done recruiting wise that make people say he’s good?

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We don't get recruits simply because we outbid everyone else. We don't have the NIL funds to outspend everyone. Relationships and recruiting still matter. On site visits still happen. Recruiting trips still happen.

Hes a very good recruiter. Look at the talent that has come in under his watch - it speaks for itself.

Now whether or not he can coach worth a flip....

When Kelly accepted the job, Davis was the guy that "held the recruiting class together" - or so we were led to believe. He was the interim coach in that bowl game and was the primary recruiter for Campbell and Jones and those two OL were the cornerstones of that first recruiting class under Kelly. That seems like the main reason that he was the only one retained. We already know that mistakes were made in not retaining others but I didn't believe at the time that retaining Davis was also a mistake. I feel differently now.

I mean, yeah, he helped sign Will Campbell, Emery Jones, Lance Heard(now at Tenn) & for the most recent class he just signed the #1 OL in AR, #1 OL in MS, & the #2 OL in the country Solomon Thomas - (with the help of Alex Atkins).

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So one (or more) of these has to be true:
3. The recruiting services are evaluating players ..they are not perfect.
2. Davis is a bad judge of talent.
1. These recruits are good prospects, but they're not being developed, i.e. Davis is not a good coach

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FIFY
You inadvertently had them in reverse order of team impact.

He’s obviously a poor hahaha

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He must be extremely raw. He doesn't even dress out.

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he is injured. Why wouldn’t that be your initial guess?

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He clearly terrible as an O line coaching. What has done recruiting wise that make people say he’s good?

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If you go back and look at what we had in the offseason before 2022 and what we have now, there’s no question that the talent level and depth are nowhere close to where they were a few years ago. We’ve pulled in 5 5* OL (Campbell, Heard, Davis, Thomas and Curne) in that time period and retained 4 of them. Retention has also been good across the backups, with only a few leaving to get playing time elsewhere and none besides Heard who were threats to get on the field.

You will always have some 3*s on the OL brought into fill out the roster based on potential, but there have been more 4 stars like Adams, Echols and Chester to fill out the ranks than developmental pieces like a Bo Bordelon under Davis. People complain that he’s not identifying the right guys, but when you have this many 4 and 5* players and multiple draft picks- draw your own conclusion there.

The issue isn’t recruiting. There are schools with less overall talent and depth playing better and more consistently right now. We have 2 experienced portal guys with proven P4 track records and 5* and 4* (who is actually playing close to that level) on this starting OL. We have 2 more 5* freshmen waiting in the wings. There are enough pieces here to build a good or better OL. ALL of the evidence points to this definitely being a coaching and system issue.

Benjamin Franklin once said that Les Miles’s offense was outdated.