i just finished catching up on the part about SIUE's recruits. i can see how an uneducated user could find that "shady" or whatever you called it. but actually i think that if you look at it intelligently - you reach quite the opposite conclusion - that crop of recruits almost PROVES i am not cheating. allow me to elaborate.
first, to say i have 1 local player is incorrect or misleading (i didnt check the 3 local recruits to see if over 360). the standard recruiting area of SIUE includes MS, and usually but not always, OH. the standard recruiting area of south carolina and university of southern california ABSOLUTELY do not include ohio, and MS, as neither has a single recruit within 360. i recruit locally with south carolina (check out the roster if you doubt me), but for d2 and d1 mid majors, i recruit all over (all my recent d2/low d1 teams rosters make that ABUNDANTLY clear - even USC to me is a lower d1 team, and look at those recruits - all over. i didnt look, but i am 99% sure they are all over - my first 2 were both over 1000 miles away, which is par for the course, for me).
so, those 2 guys + the guy from IN, those are all SIUE only scouting areas, not my d1 scouting areas. then, i have 4 internationals. *IF I HAD FSS FOR THE WHOLE NATION THROUGH MY D1 TEAMS, WOULD I REALLY SIGN 4 INTERNATIONALS????* simple answer - hell no! i sign internationals because i failed to find national players i liked. anyone in the GLV conference can testify ive been pretty significantly unhappy with my last few recruiting classes, striking out every year. all those internationals are very indicative of that, no way in hell i would strike out that bad using my FSS data from d1 schools. no way in hell.
then, you look at the other recruits... of which there are 4. so far the 7 mentioned couldnt possibly suggest more strongly, that i dont share FSS data. of these 4, two are from TX, one from FL, and one from CA. i do not scout FL on south carolina, its too far and there are big strong ACC schools down there. i think i scouted it once, trying to find a diamond in the rough. part of FL is within 360, looking at the top 15 recruits, 2 are within 360. so most of the state is out of range, and GA tech, FL state, miami fl, and flordia (from the SEC) are all right there and that is not my zone. im almost positive i have signed 0 recruits from florida in my entire tenure at south carolina. as ive explained before, after local scouting fails, i usually do big states - so having those 4 guys from CA, TX, and FL is pretty damn consistent with my strategy. also, i even listed CA, TX, and FL as my common ones in a post a few days ago, before this suggestion. TX is a place i scout on USC actually regularly, because i scout the entire western half of the country, looking far and wide for players (as i play them like a low d1 school). interesting that i have 0 recruits from all the western states who are not CA and TX, though :) besides, ive been signing TX guys specifically to SIUE like its my job, for years, thats by far the #1 state i recruit from outside local. aejones recently ribbed me for recruiting so much from texas like 2 seasons before i picked up USC.
finally, if you think only having a few local recruits is fishy in and of itself, i challenge you to compete in a conference like the GLV. a few seasons back, i did the math - of the BOTTOM HALF teams in our conference, those coaches had about TWENTY national championships. thats the bottom half teams from that season. the top half teams roughly doubled that. the conference is hard as hell and its extremely hard to mop up local talent with so many great and all-time great, hall of fame type coaches, in the conference. my failure to sign local talent is probably a big part of why i feel ive failed in recruiting the last few seasons (which wouldnt be the case if i used my d1 FSS data), and why i had to go to the far states like tx, ca, fl, and especially, to go internationally (which again, i would never do if i was essentially for-free scouting the whole damn country)
4/19/2013 11:43 PM (edited)