Recruiting Class Myth

Are you somehow saying having great recruiting classes is a bad thing?

I've had this discussion on here with a couple of other posters. Our classes have been propped up by skill position players. The Offensive and Defensive line recruiting has fallen behind our rivals. I think O and Grimes are recruiting better but it will take time to restock. And you are right the coaches on the offensive side are not doing a good enough job of developing that talent.

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So many here obsess about having the best recruiting classes, 4&5 star commits, etc. We have had top classes the past several years - not #1s but mostly highly ranked. Where has that gotten us? If you don't coach to develop the talent to the next level, and utilize it, it remains what it was - raw talent but unrealized potential. Does that look like a pattern we at LSU have grown quite familiar with?

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I'm for a change. With that said, your point is flawed.

LSU is first or second in n.f.l. players. Someone coached or developed them.

Now, the results on offense has more to do with qb and basic offense. The wr's are taught to block which is a big deal at the n.f.l. level.

I don't think the issue is developing players. To a large extent it's not about coaches not knowing how to teach. It has more to do with a core belief in the head guy as to his philosophy to run the ball 70 to 80% of the time and not willing to adapt to modern day football.

Barry Switzer believed in the wishbone. However, the wishbone's time had passed when Jimmy Johnson came around.

I don't think you have to be a spread team in todays time. I just believe you have to be balanced at what you do and be able to disguise or set up what you do.

Harbaugh, Jimbo, and even saban do not have full out spread offense. However, they disguise and set up what they do well. All three are basically power run teams first. They are not power run teams solely.

College football is about 90% recruiting. You can win 8-10 games a year just by having great talent. That's been the story with miles. Good records but usually not great. Some people are fine with that.
But to compete for championships again we need to retain the talent level and upgrade on the sidelines.
The thing that pissed me off about last year was the powers at Lsu decided being decent was good enough for Lsu, instead of deciding that we want to play for championships. Bama, osu, Fsu, all the big boys have fired good coaches because they didn't want to just be good, they wanted to be great. But for some reason Lsu is supposed to be content with middle of the secw.

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Where has that gotten us?

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Winning a bunch of games with a less than stellar gameday coach.

You are also not maximizing your recruiting classes if you pair 4 and 5 star receivers with a QB who can't throw accurately. That also minimizes the value of your blue chip running backs and o-line.

Sounds while you might have a 3rd ranked class, you really have to rank it around 10-15 because you are neutralizing some of your value.

Recruiting good players is not enough. You need to recruit good players at all positions to assemble a good team. LSU has recruited good players in large part, look at NFL rosters for evidence. It just has not recruited enough good players at QB or OT recently.

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Where has that gotten us?

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Have you stopped to think that maybe the talent on the field has made up and overcome the coaching ability. We have won many games on talent alone, despite the offense.

Recruiting is half the battle, coaching is the other.

Excellent recruiting + below average coaching = average results

and thats where we are at

Excellent recruiting + excellent coaching = excellent results

see Bama, OSU, FSU