re: Buccees Mascot Coaching Edition (Former Jet Tracking)

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Justin Hokanson
@_JHokanson
Freeze wants it, Rhule is asking questions about Auburn, Kiffin could be the top target, and Sanders will get a serious look

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Would be happy with any of these.


So that means it'll be none

Rhule doesn't do it for me. His lack of recruiting is scary.

19 threads on the SECRant right now are about Auburn. On page 1.

We’re back, bitches

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Rhule doesn't do it for me. His lack of recruiting is scary.

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I don't think there is a lack of recruiting. It's not "obvious", but people who know his background and competency understand. He's a freak from a process standpoint - that's part of the reason why the NFL jumped on him so quick.

Most people don't appreciate that he had zero ties or connections to the state of Texas and he took a job that was radioactive (literally an institutional sexual assault problem) and he managed to find players IMMEDIATELY and completely change the narrative about Baylor. He was extremely prudent and hired influential HS coaches who knew the lay of the land and put them to work. He's not a lazy recruiter either; he apparently took a helicopter when he first came there and flew all over the state.

Baylor isn't an elite recruiting school and he left for the NFL just as they were starting to get good, so who knows where he would have taken their recruiting moving forward. His ~2018 class was ranked higher than any of Dave Arranda's classes to date there.

Most importantly he has an extremely good eye for the right TYPE of player to target. This was one of the things they did freakishly well there at Baylor. And at Temple too.

And one other thing to point out: several of his original hand-developed assistants from freaking Temple have blossomed into elite recruiters at other P5 schools. The DL coach at A&M is his guy and he's one of the best recruiters in the SEC. The CB coach at Georgia is another one of his guys and he's only the primary recruiter on 5-star AJ Harris from Central HS. Where did those guys learn to recruit?

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People are idiots comparing Harsin to Rhule in that regard.

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I wouldn't say they are idiots...but there certainly is a stark difference in how Harsin and how Rhule have historically approached recruiting.

Rhule has shown he knows how to (1) prioritize goals, with recruiting being #1 at least on Day 1 and (2) how to make progress or achieve those goals even if it isn't his core competency, like hiring the right guys around him at Baylor to recruit the area well.

This may be the first coaching search in school history where we act like a top 10 CFB brand and approach it like a business move. I am excited.

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Rhule's Baylor classes weren't fantastic (at least from a ranking standpoint) so a casual glance at them would make most pause and hesitate on the hire.

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Its all about context. Briles had an exciting offense that skill players loved and this recruited very well - but the scandal completely devastated that program.

People forget that 2017 was the last recruiting cycle before ESD. The day Rhule was hired at Baylor they had one commit, and were #137 in the composite class rankings. He busted his arse to get in front of Texas HS coaches to sell them on his vision of the program. They ended up with a solid class by February, despite the constant drumbeat of the ongoing investigation into the Briles regime.

The other thing about that time was the restrictions on transferring were still in place - there was no such thing as the portal in those days. As a result, one of the few legitimate unconditional releases from a scholarship was if the HC was fired. Ad a result more than half of Baylor’s 2016 signing class never set foot on campus. Its also one of the reasons we ended up with Stidham, one of the top recruits from their 2015 class.

Here’s what SI’s Andy Staples had to say about Baylor’s future prospects going into the 2016 season under interim HC Jim Grobe:

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It's possible Baylor will hire a coach on the rise who can begin the rebuild with the 2018 recruiting cycle, but it's just as likely this job won't attract a strong candidate pool in the wake of the scandal. Baylor has an excellent location and excellent facilities, but the next coach will have to fight negative recruiting for years. The chances are much higher that Baylor's program in three years will look much more like the Baylor that toiled at the bottom of the Big 12 before Briles arrived.

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Instead, in 3 years Rhule had them with an 11-win regular season and back in the Big12 title game.

That’s a more impressive achievement than any other candidate we’re considering IMHO.

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Rhule's Baylor classes weren't fantastic (at least from a ranking standpoint)

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Why in the world would they be fantastic? That program was radioactive

Listening to Cube this morning. He had Hart on. Another guy who claims Cohen is a homerun and will run us like a business