What is up with the instate recruiting?

quote:

---

Remind me when Sam got his big contract again?

---

Because he “wanted to be here”

Even though he left voluntarily a few years prior

quote:

---

Boone, Worth, Young and Walker are the transfers that have been god awful.

---

You forgot Sorey. How you could be a 23 yr old senior and suck that bad is beyond me. Dude is constantly out of position.

I leave him out because he’s on a different level of disappointment.

He has the body and athleticism to compete at this level. He pretty clearly doesn’t have it between the ears or DGAF. Probably both.

I think the scheme sucks right now too.

Maybe, but other SEC teams are showing they don't believe that.

For as small as the number is or can be year to year, you can't allow linemen and defensive players to go to other SEC schools, no?

quote:

---

Maybe, but other SEC teams are showing they don't believe that.

---

Five of the top 20 you listed are committed to other SEC schools, and two of them are committed to Missouri. Don't you think it's a problem when some of the top 20 players in our state are committed to G5s like Georgia State, Charlotte, and Appalachian State? One of them is committed to UCA, for frick's sake. Yeah, UCA is in-state, but that's an FCS team. If you expand it to the top 25 players in-state on 24/7's ranking, we have two players committed to Arkansas State, two committed to Charlotte, one committed to North Texas, one committed to Appalachian State, and one committed to FCS. Two are still undecided. That's atrocious, man.

We have five players who are 4* this year. The highest ranked one is 92. Most of them are just barely scraping the 4* basement. Our #25 player is ranked 80, which is the lowest you can be without being 2*. We quite frequently produce the lowest number of 4* and 5* players in any of the 12 SEC states, and it's usually the lowest by a country mile. The upside is we're the only one besides Missouri and Louisiana who don't have another P4 team in-state to split the pot with.


Texas:
5*: 3
4*: 40
Highest rated player: 98 (3)
Rating of #25 player: 91

Florida:
5*: 5
4*: 33
Highest rated player: 98 (5)
Rating of #25 player: 91

Georgia:
5*: 6
4*: 27
Highest rated player: 98 (6)
Rating of #25 player: 90


Alabama:
5*: 1
4*: 14
Highest rated player: 98
Rating of #25 player: 88

Mississippi:
5*: 2
4*: 10
Highest rated player: 98 (2)
Rating of #25 player: 87

Lousiana:
5*: 1
4*: 9
Highest rated player: 98
Rating of #25 player: 87

Tennessee:
5*: 2
4*: 6
Highest rated player: 98 (2)
Rating of #25 player: 87


Kentucky:
5*: 0
4*: 8
Highest rated player: 93 (2)
Rating of #25 player: 83

South Carolina:
5*: 0
4*: 5
Highest rated player: 93
Rating of #25 player: 86

Arkansas:
5*: 0
4*: 5
Highest rated player: 92
Rating of #25 player: 80


Oklahoma:
5*: 0
4*: 4
Highest rated player: 91
Rating of #25 player: 86


Missouri:
5*: 1
4*: 1
Highest rated player: 98
Rating of #25 player: 85

Even though there are actually a couple of states worse off than us at the top end, look at the numbers for the #25 in every class. We're one of only two states below 85 for the 25th best player in the state, and we're handily the lowest. We have a handful of players who are SEC caliber. Then we have the rest of our top ten who are P4 caliber. Then we don't really have jack shite.

And that's just this year. I had to go all the way back to 2016 to see when Arkansas produced its last 5* player. And that 2016 class was one 5* and two 4*, lol. #25 was 80 again. Before that was 2010.

Locking down all our good players is a start, but the "We GoTtA rEcRuIt TeXaS" people aren't really wrong. Texas could sign an entire class of 4* and have some to spare, plus some 5*. I think Arkansas fans got a little bit robbed. Our high school football is dismal, but the NIL and transfer portal should have been godsends for us. Instead, we have some puritanical jackasses who're slow on the uptake making the calls, and now we've fallen behind because of our lack of going all-in. And we're just making miss after miss in the portal, paying players like Taylen Green well into six figures and eating up what little budget we have.

We're ranked #65 in recruiting at the moment, and that's unacceptable even by our apparently new standards.

Petrino, for all his coaching prowess, was kind of a shite-arse recruiter. The NIL era should play to his strengths a lot more, but I also consider that the numbers from 2013 onward show us that he's not the same Bobby Petrino that he was here and during his first Louisville stint.

He's been a head coach for 17 seasons. Of those 17, he's broken ten wins four times. Almost every other year has been 8/9 wins. He went 2–10 his last year at Lousville, then 5–5, 8–4, and 5–6 at an FCS team, for Christ's sake. We need to be realistic with what we're looking at, here. I do believe he liked Arkansas more than the rest of those teams - yes, even Louisville. And I think he'll give 110% here again. But I think 2012 was going to be an 8/9 win season, and I don't think he has it in him to do better than that. And after Missouri state, I'm not sure he can even achieve that consistently.

I say this because I know we're just going to hire him at the end of the year because it's the easiest, laziest thing this administration can do, and they'll make a bunch of excuses for why he didn't do any better than Sam was when he took over, yadda yadda. I'm keeping an open mind, but a spade is a spade.

If anyone expects us to win more than 8/9 games a year, you’re going to be severely disappointed for a long time.

quote:

---

If anyone expects us to win more than 8/9 games a year, you’re going to be severely disappointed for a long time.

---

I don't expect more than that. My point is enough time has passed now that we can see 8/9 wins is who Bobby Petrino was at his zenith. And his last four seasons have been 2–10, 5–5, 8–4, and 5–6. Those last three were at an FCS team, and this is the SEC. He's on the downward slope of his career, so we're better off hiring Dan Mullen. The dude got fired for one bad year at Florida, and look at the leash Napier got. He must have said or done something to piss off someone very important.

I'd much, much rather have BP than Mullen. Not close. At least with BP you're getting a fun, exciting offense to watch

In state recruiting means zero now. It's all about ROI. Both fans and the administration need to get out of the mindset of college football. We are semi-pro now.

No need to take an underdeveloped in state kid just to have them leave the next year if he pops.

I don't think he's able to get to 9 wins anymore, that's really all I'm trying to say. Maybe once in a great while, but with the change of conference schedule, we should average 7/8 wins a year, but every four or five years we should be able to punch through to a legitimately good season. And honestly, if we'd start using the fricking portal and NIL wisely, the sky could be the limit for us.