MVP2110 wrote:BigO wrote:MVP2110 wrote:
I think this is a little bit off. I think Gard is a decent(not great but decent) recruiter. He's had 3 straight freshman make the 1st team All Freshman team in the Big 10, he landed a transfer commit that became 2nd team All Big Ten as a sophomore, the Freitag commitment was one of the highest rated recruits they've ever landed. I think it's moreso a development problem. Chucky, Crowl, Wahl all are decent players but none are great. Guys like Davison, Trice, Ford, Reuvers all similarly became solid but not great players. Johnny Davis is really his only big developmental win.
You gave a few examples, but none of these are high ceiling guys. The only one I am excited about is Freitag. And that's over a many year cycle. I think others have gone over how recruit and develop is much harder now with open transfer and NIL. It's why good coaches are leaving college ball.
The coaches, like at Duke, will continue to exist because they never relied on development. They are 100% recruiters and zero percent developers.
I mean I'd say Storr was a high ceiling recruit, Chucky definitely appeared to be a high ceiling guy, I think Blackwell could have a really high ceiling. Freitag is certainly a high ceiling recruit. I mean a coach doesn't just accidentally bring in 3 straight years of first team all freshman guys, that's not development, that's recruiting. And part of the issue is Gard hasn't been able to take those guys and develop them into more than they were their freshman year(remains to be seen with Blackwell)
Yeah, Gard is
starting to understand the post-2020 college sports world and showed it by getting Storr. Chryst completely refused to and that's why he was canned.
The problem is that Alabama, Illinois, Iowa State bring in like 5 of these guys each season and just move on from the 3-4 that don't work out. I think Gard actually gets it but it's maybe too late.
Oats, Underwood, etc. would've told Crowl to transfer 3 years ago. He's a great story, but Gard spent 2-3 years cultivating him into a solid player. Meanwhile, the modern coaches go out and get a higher ceiling guy instead.