So Much For That Excuse

[AppStFan1]

No way we should be focusing 90% of our time on HS players. We would have even more depth issues. A coaches responsibility is to find the best players available to make the team better. In this era, you got to find talent on a year to year basis due to the fact that if you lose a great player to nil, your depth has taken a hit. The current state is living year to year. I can only imagine what our OL would have been this year if we had went with that philosophy..

That would be great if not for the admissions policies and lack of NIL that is holding us back. Right now we have to go to the portal heavily because 2020, 2021, and 2022 classes were so bad. If we had just hit on the OL in recruiting the last few years we would have only needed to sign 1-2 OL instead of 8. Our portal filled OL is bad so not sure you want to use that example.

There are a lot of players in the portal I am 100% for signing that could help us but we can't afford 95% of them. Building through HS with targeted portal additions to fill gaps is what is best for our budget. We are currently 4-5 going after the portal players we can afford.

There are a lot of good HS players that could help us big time after 1-2 years on campus but we are missing them. There is a lot more talent going JUCO simply because they don't like their offer list and that is why we are seeing way more in JUCO to recruit than we use to. There should be more HS talent out there that can help us win who we could reach now because the demand for them has dropped with the portal.

[AppStFan1]

Worse than this one ? Ugh.

Exactly. We keep complaining how we have lesser talent but our talent started declining when we abandoned what we are and started focusing more on the portal than HS recruiting. With just 12 2025 commits now we are probably going to end up signing 15 in the portal this year. How many of them are going to be studs? We are just going to be back complaining how we need change in 12 months if we keep doing the same and don't make major changes in our football staff.

[AppStFan1]

The x and o's are horrible. If we don't have the big ugly up front that is fine...you should know after three games and as a coach you would make changes. Our offensive plays and schemes have been the exact same for 3 years. This is on the coaches. The transfer portal is going no where. Highschool recruiting is a waste of time. It is literally get the best players you can get each year and run with them. Same for basketball. The only thing we have to sell players is that we will give you opportunity to make plays to get paid by another team next year. Come to App and we will provide you the training facilities to better yourself to get paid somewhere else the next year.

The issue is we can't afford the best players. Donate 10M to our NIL fund and then we can go get the best players out of the portal so we can win games. Right now we are 4-5 with a starting group built on portal OL that we can afford.

[AppStFan1]

So is this board a waste of time with the same tried excuses or not.

Everyone in CFB is facing various problems. Great leaders navigate the landscape in front of them and in this business the W/L records is the KPI.

If you aren’t willing to set measurable goals and hold yourself accountable this isn’t the business for you.

Exactly. If we have anyone on our football staff who are giving boosters excuses beyond the fact they just are not able to get it done then I suggest those people leave App State or be fired so we can find people willing and able to fix the problems. I want the people with excuses to get out because we can do better.

[BambooRdApp]

Worse than this one ? Ugh.

Evidently...as those HS grads are not starting

[BambooRdApp]

Bahaha..on one side of our mouths, we say we are too 2 or 3 in SBC in nil funding...then the other side of our mouth, we say we cannot go out and get players with nil....
We ain't getting the best portal guys....and...we ain't getting the best HS players. We are getting players that should play at G5 based upon talent eval. There will be good ones and ones that do not work out in HS recruiting and the same in the portal.
It is a year to year deal in this era. If you are focusing too much on one versus the other, you are more than likely not going to be successful...

[AppStFan1]

Worse than this one ? Ugh.

Evidently...as those HS grads are not starting

I am talking about the ones we are missing on offering and getting. We are hitting below 35% on HS recruiting.

Just go look at the 2021 class: https://247sports.com/college/appalachi ... l/commits/

Stroman is the only one contributing among our top 5 rated players. Most of them are gone. If you grade us on how many are playing for us still we have Stroman, Robinson, Hughes, Favors, Sullivan, Ramsey, and Arnholt. That is 7 of 23, which is 30%. Of that 30% only Robinson, Hughes, and Favors are All-Sun Belt caliber players.

We signed 7 players in the portal that year and only 2 panned out.

The reason we are going to the portal so heavy now is because our staff has missed on a high number. We need 50% of HS recruits to pan out and should have 80% of portal players pan out but it is not happening.

[AppStFan1]

Bahaha..on one side of our mouths, we say we are too 2 or 3 in SBC in nil funding...then the other side of our mouth, we say we cannot go out and get players with nil....
We ain't getting the best portal guys....and...we ain't getting the best HS players. We are getting players that should play at G5 based upon talent eval. There will be good ones and ones that do not work out in HS recruiting and the same in the portal.
It is a year to year deal in this era. If you are focusing too much on one versus the other, you are more than likely not going to be successful...

I am not using NIL as an excuse but I am saying to get the players that you think we need to get out of the portal we need a lot more. Say we have 700K for football for NIL. If we take that and look to sign 3-4 players then we can go get good ones but when you need 15 it is harder because you have to divide the money up amongst a lot more players.

Of course there will be some who work out and some who don't but right now our staff is hitting at less than half of what Satt's staff hit and we are actually seeing players regress.

I personally think NIL is a lame excuse and believe we should be focused on finding FCS and D2 stars who can help us and go after them. Right now P4 schools are putting feelers out to those type of players to try and lure them into the portal. They have spent this whole fall scouting those type of players to help them focus on who they should try to get to go into the portal.

[AppinVA]

Bahaha..on one side of our mouths, we say we are too 2 or 3 in SBC in nil funding...then the other side of our mouth, we say we cannot go out and get players with nil....
We ain't getting the best portal guys....and...we ain't getting the best HS players. We are getting players that should play at G5 based upon talent eval. There will be good ones and ones that do not work out in HS recruiting and the same in the portal.
It is a year to year deal in this era. If you are focusing too much on one versus the other, you are more than likely not going to be successful...

I am not using NIL as an excuse but I am saying to get the players that you think we need to get out of the portal we need a lot more. Say we have 700K for football for NIL. If we take that and look to sign 3-4 players then we can go get good ones but when you need 15 it is harder because you have to divide the money up amongst a lot more players.

Of course there will be some who work out and some who don't but right now our staff is hitting at less than half of what Satt's staff hit and we are actually seeing players regress.

I personally think NIL is a lame excuse and believe we should be focused on finding FCS and D2 stars who can help us and go after them. Right now P4 schools are putting feelers out to those type of players to try and lure them into the portal. They have spent this whole fall scouting those type of players to help them focus on who they should try to get to go into the portal.

Those are the hungry ones with something to prove.

[appst89]

Just have fun and slide down the hill. Nothing else matters.

[Stonewall]

https://collegefootballnetwork.com/coll ... k-12-2024/

[Bootsy]

Yes, there are challenges App must face. But every program faces challenges. From the numbers stated above, it appears we’ve been haunted by recruiting busts in both HS and the TP. But based on the criteria referenced above (starters/regular contributors & top-tier SBC performers) how does App compare to our peers? I’m not sure anyone has the time, energy or curiosity to research this, but it would be interesting to see.

Another thought: does the complexity of App’s offensive/defensive schemes factor into all of this? For example,

• Does Sloan’s defense need a “perfect” player fit at each position in order for everything to function properly?

• Is the scheme too complex for this day and age, where you don’t have the luxury of players being exposed to it for multiple years before being able to execute on the field?

These aren’t rhetorical questions. I’ve spent a lot of time watching plays being called in over the past two seasons and the defense still looks confused as the ball is being snapped.

[spacemonkey]

The x and o's are horrible. If we don't have the big ugly up front that is fine...you should know after three games and as a coach you would make changes. Our offensive plays and schemes have been the exact same for 3 years. This is on the coaches. The transfer portal is going no where. Highschool recruiting is a waste of time. It is literally get the best players you can get each year and run with them. Same for basketball. The only thing we have to sell players is that we will give you opportunity to make plays to get paid by another team next year. Come to App and we will provide you the training facilities to better yourself to get paid somewhere else the next year.

The issue is we can't afford the best players. Donate 10M to our NIL fund and then we can go get the best players out of the portal so we can win games. Right now we are 4-5 with a starting group built on portal OL that we can afford.

I didn't say we could afford the best players...I said get the best you can get. This is why x and o's are so important. We are not going to be able to out athlete people anymore. I don't think we have ever been able to out athlete the FBS level schools, we have been able to out coach them. As soon as we get a high caliber player, another higher NIL school is going to take them.

We have to have a dynamic offense and spend money on DEFENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of my money would go to pay defensive players. There are plenty of "Hot dog" offensive players that want a shot to play. We could probably recruit second string ACC offensive players each year to build a decent offense. We need to pay for Defensive players.

[Stonewall]

A couple years back I voiced concerns about o line recruiting and development. Was basically called an alarmist, which hurt deeply, and told we had a plan. To their defense they didn’t say it was a good one…

[Bootsy]

A couple years back I voiced concerns about o line recruiting and development. Was basically called an alarmist, which hurt deeply, and told we had a plan. To their defense they didn’t say it was a good one…

Fair point. The margin of error on recruits was slim before…now it’s razor thin.

[311neers]

A couple years back I voiced concerns about o line recruiting and development. Was basically called an alarmist, which hurt deeply, and told we had a plan. To their defense they didn’t say it was a good one…

Same goes at LB. Huge misses there. This converting safeties to LB’s stuff isn’t working. And somehow the converted safeties to LB’s are still slow.

[AppStFan1]

Bahaha..on one side of our mouths, we say we are too 2 or 3 in SBC in nil funding...then the other side of our mouth, we say we cannot go out and get players with nil....
We ain't getting the best portal guys....and...we ain't getting the best HS players. We are getting players that should play at G5 based upon talent eval. There will be good ones and ones that do not work out in HS recruiting and the same in the portal.
It is a year to year deal in this era. If you are focusing too much on one versus the other, you are more than likely not going to be successful...

I am not using NIL as an excuse but I am saying to get the players that you think we need to get out of the portal we need a lot more. Say we have 700K for football for NIL. If we take that and look to sign 3-4 players then we can go get good ones but when you need 15 it is harder because you have to divide the money up amongst a lot more players.

Of course there will be some who work out and some who don't but right now our staff is hitting at less than half of what Satt's staff hit and we are actually seeing players regress.

I personally think NIL is a lame excuse and believe we should be focused on finding FCS and D2 stars who can help us and go after them. Right now P4 schools are putting feelers out to those type of players to try and lure them into the portal. They have spent this whole fall scouting those type of players to help them focus on who they should try to get to go into the portal.

Those are the hungry ones with something to prove.

Exactly why I think we should be going after more of them when we use the portal! The issue with the portal is you have less time to vet players. We have taken a couple who did not pan out because of things that we normally would have known for sure in HS recruiting.

[AppStFan1]

The x and o's are horrible. If we don't have the big ugly up front that is fine...you should know after three games and as a coach you would make changes. Our offensive plays and schemes have been the exact same for 3 years. This is on the coaches. The transfer portal is going no where. Highschool recruiting is a waste of time. It is literally get the best players you can get each year and run with them. Same for basketball. The only thing we have to sell players is that we will give you opportunity to make plays to get paid by another team next year. Come to App and we will provide you the training facilities to better yourself to get paid somewhere else the next year.

The issue is we can't afford the best players. Donate 10M to our NIL fund and then we can go get the best players out of the portal so we can win games. Right now we are 4-5 with a starting group built on portal OL that we can afford.

I didn't say we could afford the best players...I said get the best you can get. This is why x and o's are so important. We are not going to be able to out athlete people anymore. I don't think we have ever been able to out athlete the FBS level schools, we have been able to out coach them. As soon as we get a high caliber player, another higher NIL school is going to take them.

We have to have a dynamic offense and spend money on DEFENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of my money would go to pay defensive players. There are plenty of "Hot dog" offensive players that want a shot to play. We could probably recruit second string ACC offensive players each year to build a decent offense. We need to pay for Defensive players.

We are seeing our peers offer and get players that we use to get but we are just not offering or winning those anymore. Give the money then so we can get them!

My big issue with the staff lately is we are not seeing development of HS players like we use to and hearing that our staff is being called lazy in recruiting hurts because that is one thing I never thought about our coaching staffs. If Clark returns I hope he makes a lot of changes with his assistants and support staff.

[Appy137]

Who is in charge of recruiting our football players?

[Stonewall]

In charge? The head coach.