Is Mack taking a new approach to recruiting?

T

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In the past several months we have picked up 2 JUCO's and received a verbal for a grayshirt. In the past even with glaring holes, we didn't go after the JUCO's who could have stepped in and contributed and I can't remember grayshirting anyone who was healthy and ready to play.
You look at Saban and what he's built at Alabama with rampant oversigning and grayshirting and wonder if Mack feels that in order to compete for championships we need to take advantage of the loopholes that Saban has been exploiting. I know Mack won't take it as far as Saban but I'm just talking about this seemingly new sense of urgency to keep the program elite year in and year out.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately with how successful Alabama has been and curious if Mack and other coaches are just saying to hell with the old and being much, much more aggressive about landing whoever they need.
Thoughts?
 
The urgency connected to a rapid rebuilding of the program and new blood in the coaching staff opened the door for the JUCOs. If they work out look for more in the future, The grayshirt allowed a good LB to come in when numbers are tight.
So far there has been no oversigning and kids are not getting booted. Some are being given tough choices to make but thos who stay don't get ships yanked. Mack isn't going to go Saban on us. Give thanks for that.
 
You can't copare what Saban does to Mack's recent grayshirt offer. The kid really wants to play with his brother, and who wouldn't. Instead of saying "sorry kid, we are all full at LB," or offering him a schollie that he would later give to someone else, he told him the truth and made him a grayshirt offer. Saban would have offered him and every other promising player who wanted an offer, and then separated the wheat from the chaff next February. Not even remotely the same. As for the JUCOs, we needed immediate depth as a result of lazy recruiting in the past. It may never happen again, or maybe if these two guys work out, it will. I don't see a major change in philosophy. There does seem to be change in the method.
 
We have all heard the prognotications about a strategic change to recruiting, and we have seen a few definitive signs. At this point IMO they look like refinements to an already excellent system as opposed to a complete clean-sheet to the strategy. Top notch, academicaly eligible JUCOs is one tweak and a longer spring evaluation period is another. Although we already have 11 commits with a half dozen or more outstanding offers out.
Refinements and tweaks, not wholesale changes.
 
I would think the presence of Stacy Searels (since 2003, LSU & Georgia in the SEC) and Bo Davis (LSU, Miami Dolphins, Alabama 2007-2010 in SEC) on the staff has a big influence on what kind of student-athletes to bring in, and where/how to go about getting them.

Add Manny Diaz to the mix as well. Then there's Bryan Harsin, but I tend to think the recent connections to the SEC via Searels and Davis is really key. Those guys know what you HAVE to have on the line on both sides, and they bring experience in recruiting for those positions, to include staging them from first year to last year in eligibility. And that spills over into linebacker positions, and on offense to the end positions as well.

Overall it certainly could have changed how to go about all the recruiting as a whole. Sure feels that way. I don't think Searels and Davis would be so willing to buy into the longevity of things here if the recruiting and development of the 'non-skill' positions did not change.

For all I know, the kinds of things personally conveyed to the recruits by Searels and Davis must be having a big impact on the recruits. Like that line from Doc in Back to the Future about "seeing some serious ****," (when the car hits 55 mph) something along that line. That what's coming together here at Texas is some serious ****, and do you want to get on board cause we'd sure love you to.
 
Yes, it is a new approach - coaches working hard on every evaluation and every decision. It has been years since the staff put in the necessary work. The pity is that had MB been grinding his staff and himself the way he should have, UT would probably have another NC or two. Greg Davis would probably also be OC.
 
I believe that we offered Robert Brewer's son a gray shirt, and he passed in favor of a full ride to Tech. Impressive that Hughes accepted - he must REALLY want to be a Longhorn.
 
For anyone who hasn't seen this... I have not seen it in a thread, but I've been.... working?! Yeah. Got to sometime.
It's dated today, Feb 29, but goes back to the beginning of spring practice.

Juco DT Moore making big impression

This gives me chills.... listen, no kidding, it will sound like an aggie talking, but this team could be ... okay, I'll just keep it inside. Make up your own mind.
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Don't get me wrong, I welcome this. As long as Mack keeps it on the up and up and levels with grayshirts (unlike Saban) I am all good with it.
I love the JUCO signings. A couple of years ago (2005,2006?) it seemed like OU had a depleted O-line and they looked like that was going to keep them down for a while but then didn't Stoops go out and bring in a bunch of JUCO's to plug in? And OU never really went through those growing pains. I always wondered why we didn't do that same thing when we had needs. And now we have and I think it's fantastic.
This staff is very, very different from anything we've seen under Mack. Maybe it's the youth, I odn't know but from recruiting to what is expected on the field seems to have shifted dramatically in just 1 year.
 
Having come from bama and hearing what we have so far, it makes me wonder why he was a rivals 3* and not listed in their top 50 JUCO list for 2012.

I just looked at bama's 2009 class and Moore was ranked as a 5.8 4*.
 
It's clear that Mack's strategy has evolved. Right now, he's acting as if every scholarship offer is extremely precious. In previous years, some early offers would go to kids with whom some recruiting "experts" were less than enamored and some the "experts" had clearly overrated. No one seems puzzled about the kids pulling in offers this year -- studs with outstanding measurables and productivity.
 
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