Recruiting Momentum

Em_Jae20

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So I'm up watching the replay of the Duke/Texas A&M Chick-fil-a Bowl, and it got me wondering. Duke recruiting seems to have picked up following their 10 win season, I'm curious to know was it the same way for us when we won the ACC and made it to the Orange Bowl?
 

Eric

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Not at all.

We did a lot that hurt recruiting.

- We fired out DC (Wommack)
- We lost our DL Coach and Recruiting Coordinator in Giff Smith
- We changed from a 4-3 to a 3-4
- Followed our 10 win year with a 6-7 year..which really killed the momentum
- Slapped by the NCAA a year later
 

Em_Jae20

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Thanks @Eric I was wondering why they got so much momentum as well opposed to us, but as usual you go above and beyond. Thanks for clearing that up for me
 

Eric

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Duke also has become a media darling for one good season and that has helped change the image a lot. I am interested to see how that class holds up.
 

Yaller Jacket

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I've often wondered how much success on the field changes things. IIRC, we had a so-so class after our national championship year. We like to think we are close to breaking out, but from an objective, outside perspective we have been in a rut of mediocrity for several seasons now. And yet, we are off to our best year recruiting in....well, a long time.
 

daBuzz

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Well, it also doesn't hurt that their head coach is considered to one of the great QB tutors of all time.

Every time you hear about Peyton Manning or Eli Manning and the piece is over 2 minutes long, you can just about count on Cutcliffe's name being mentioned. And when you hear that Peyton still sends him game film of every game he plays for Cutcliffe to break down and send back to him, that just reinforces the man's bonafides.

So the publicity certainly helps.

The big deal at Duke though is can they create a culture of winning? It's one thing to have a winning season, but when you get your players to start expecting to win every game, that's when you start building momentum year after year in recruiting and on the field.
 

GTJason

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@Eric got this from your twitter, but this is an amazing stat about Duke. http://t.co/YsQfjXE2R1

73.4: Yards/game Duke was outgained in ACC play
Despite posting the best season in school history, winning the Coastal Division and finishing 6-2 in the regular season, the Duke Blue Devils were still statistically much worse than their opponents. In nine ACC games, Duke produced just 377.7 yards per game of offense while allowing 451.0 yards per game on defense. This means the Blue Devils were outgained by a per game average of 73.4 yards. It’s hard to repeat when the opposition is dramatically out-producing the offense on a regular basis in a league with so much balance.

I get it, they won the games they played and made some teams look silly in the process, but it's hard to sustain success with stats like that.
 

daBuzz

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@Eric got this from your twitter, but this is an amazing stat about Duke.
I get it, they won the games they played and made some teams look silly in the process, but it's hard to sustain success with stats like that.

I'm too lazy to look it up but I wonder how our 2009 team stacked up in that stat. We had a ton of yards but boy did we give up a ton as well.
 

Yoda

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The a hole dawg homers started the negative recruiting when the 2008 season ended and gathered momentum during our '09 season. The "you won't go to the NFL in that offense" hurt more than anything and still does to this day.
 

xenoabe

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We've also been mediocre for quite some time now and had a really good year whereas Duke has been just plain bad and had a big year. They were a much bigger story than our spike.
 

Techster

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It also helps that Cutcliffe has sent almost every QB that's started for him to the NFL. He's also shown that he can adjust his system to talent, but still keep the "pro system" moniker that recruits seem to gravitate towards.

He sends guys to the NFL, AND Duke is a pretty good name school, AND he's finally winning. Like other people have said, Duke is a media darling right now, and it doesn't hurt that Cutcliffe is very media savvy and friendly. He knows how to play the game.
 

alaguy

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There is some good vibes on this class.The problem is can PJ outlast his pretty mediocre recruiting of the last several yrs.This yr is real test case on how good or not it has been.Replacing a bunch of guys leaving successfully will tell the tale .
 

jayparr

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I've often wondered how much success on the field changes things. IIRC, we had a so-so class after our national championship year. We like to think we are close to breaking out, but from an objective, outside perspective we have been in a rut of mediocrity for several seasons now. And yet, we are off to our best year recruiting in....well, a long time.
I think after that year Ross had the nfl more on his mind than recruiting!
 

jayparr

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It also helps that Cutcliffe has sent almost every QB that's started for him to the NFL. He's also shown that he can adjust his system to talent, but still keep the "pro system" moniker that recruits seem to gravitate towards.

He sends guys to the NFL, AND Duke is a pretty good name school, AND he's finally winning. Like other people have said, Duke is a media darling right now, and it doesn't hurt that Cutcliffe is very media savvy and friendly. He knows how to play the game.
You are on the money!
 

takethepoints

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A comment:

True, Puke can probably recruit NFL pure drop-back passers for QB then we can.

So what? We don't use such players in our O, as many of you have probably noticed. Further, we can also get really good QBs who fit our system - Thomas and (yes) Tevin - more easily because the Pukes of the world aren't recruiting them to play the position. This is a wash, as far as I can see. The only QB we have lost out on in recent years that probably could have been pretty good in our system but left is Llewelyn. As to other O positions, the same thing goes. our AB recruits are often as fast as TBs, but are usually smaller and are recruited as DBs, not runners. We actually recruit real FBs from high school and then let them run instead of fattening them up to be extra OGs in the backfield (Brendan Douglas take note; blubber is in your future). The OLs are not always NFL prototypes either, though we get pretty good ones (the pros recast every OL they draft anyhow).

In short, the recruiting advantages and (supposed) disadvantages we have in the present O are part of the package. And that, I might add, is probably why we so consistently outperform our "star" ratings. And why we suddenly find ourselves in the unenviable position of having our recruits trolled by other teams; i.e. we recruit them and, all of a sudden, interest from other schools goes up. (Pretty much the same ones, btw: Stanford, Puke, Wisconsin, Louisville, Cincinnati, Miami, ect.) None of this is a coincidence.

Oh, and I don't think Puke will come close to equalling last year's run.
 

CobbTech

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Not at all.

We did a lot that hurt recruiting.

- We fired out DC (Wommack)
- We lost our DL Coach and Recruiting Coordinator in Giff Smith
- We changed from a 4-3 to a 3-4
- Followed our 10 win year with a 6-7 year..which really killed the momentum
- Slapped by the NCAA a year later

Never thought about it this way. Interesting take.
 

Techster

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A comment:


In short, the recruiting advantages and (supposed) disadvantages we have in the present O are part of the package. And that, I might add, is probably why we so consistently outperform our "star" ratings. And why we suddenly find ourselves in the unenviable position of having our recruits trolled by other teams; i.e. we recruit them and, all of a sudden, interest from other schools goes up. (Pretty much the same ones, btw: Stanford, Puke, Wisconsin, Louisville, Cincinnati, Miami, ect.) None of this is a coincidence.

Oh, and I don't think Puke will come close to equalling last year's run.

Well, you can say that about Ross, O'Leary, and Gailey as well. O'Leary started our bowl and ACC non-losing record streak, Gailey kept it going, and now CPJ is extending it. Outside of the 2007 class, and even including them, pretty much every coach during the modern era of GT football HAD to outperform recruiting rankings if they wanted to be competitive. Just the nature of the beast at GT.
 
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