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TIL on Doogman
insinceredawg
Member Posts: 5,117
UW has the same odds of consistently landing top 15 classes as Fatters has at dating Miss America. Might as well shut the program down.
Comments
Fetters: UW will never be a great program so just accept mediocrity and enjoy it.
Eklund: we can't make any judgement on UWs recruiting because these guys haven't played any college football yet.
Kim: If you're critical of Jen, Jimmy, or Hop you clearly don't understand sports and lead a miserable life
Sad!
With Kim, it’s like he can’t help his awkward douchey-ness, so it doesn’t bother me.
But Fetters is just so self-satisfied and Eklund is so whiny. It’s literally difficult for me to hear their dumb voices.
Temper your expectations OOS Recruits- We need visits10VIP
DawgLifeIzzo
Been a few months since I last posted something substantial. (Missed you guys)
I've been keeping in the loop offline occasionally popping in when some news breaks, and talking to a couple of folks and insiders that I trust, as to how things have been going. I have some thoughts to share:
**TLDR is at the bottom**
We need visits, yes more than other schools--- plain and simple. I understand that the other pac12 schools also do not have visits, but the inconvenient truth of the matter is that UW recruits in a traditional fashion and this handcuffs them during COVID. Its worse than other schools, I'm sorry. I hate it. Its just true and we have to live/deal with it. It's not getting better for out of state recruiting until then, so lower your expectations.
There is a reason that pre-covid, we heard all the time the emphasis from staff that "parent's always need to attend on visits" .Our recruiting strategy has not changed and is rooted in setting proper expectations about what is necessary to become 'NFL-ready' (work ethic/work load), and expectations surrounding truly how high academics are prioritized. With a less 'proven' coaching staff (in the context of winning and losing in their current position), your fighting with two hands tied behind your back. But it STILL doesn't mean they should bail on this being a focus of their value proposition.
Just understand how difficult that is to speak to players about, while not being able to walk a player onto the 50 yard line at Husky Stadium... not being able to walk the parents through Red Square and into our facilities to talk through what the Built For Life Program really will be like for their kid.
Herm Edwards, Clay Helton, Mario C., are dealt different hands. What they have to sell, and what they have to leverage as 'sales-tools' are totally different. They are not immune to the effect of not having visits, but to pretend like they are effected as much as we are is disingenuous. It is not an excuse. But properly showing a kid and his parents through a phone how Built For Life is going to tangibly change their future, and the beauty and vibe of UW's campus is insane in my eyes. It is not the same as selling Oregon through zoom call. I promise. Pretty promise. We're impacted differently.
You might say "well we should've pivoted to pitching something different earlier on... I dont want excuses when the other schools don't seem to have a problem!"... Think about that. Is talking about different subjects aside from B4L and campus life and academics something that they haven't done? Is that lost on them to speak toward the # of players in the NFL? --------- They live in this world, you visit it via Dawgman.com and blog posts (okay now I sound like Jack on trial in 'A Few Good Men').... But yeah, what's the pitch that you suggest that they aren't likely already saying to kids/parents? Should we start saying exactly what other pac12 coaches say despite Jimmy not having the same name recognition as Herm Edwards? Say the same thing that Mario is saying to recruits, but without NIke and flashy apparel? Should we pitch the same things as Clay Helton despite UW football being much more successful in recent years, and us being in the rainy PNW versus being blocks away from Leimert Park and Crenshaw in sunny Los Angeles? I could go on, but I hope my point isn't lost on you:
You can't just totally change the value proposition, when everything is so rooted in B4L and expectation setting. Especially since it fits the university's identity and has produced so much success. You can't pitch recruits the same way at UW that you can when you are selling USC, Oregon, ASU, Texas, etc. It's not the same at all.
If you want all of this to change, you likely have to hit the restart button with the entire staff... That's going to set you back some years, and how do you know the next staff is going to be any better? How do you know that next flashy awesome coach that you think might do well at UW, even wants to come here?
My expectations are low for recruiting kids outside of the state, until we can sell this program and staff and location and school to players/parents on campus. Getting an out of town kid to commit without having visited UW is an insanely difficult task for any staff, let alone a newish staff after a 4 game season. If we struggle huge once we can get guys here on campus, then I will start to panic. But I just don't see guys like Malloe, Junior Adams, Will Harris, etc. missing on out of state talent at the current rate they are, after these guys take a trip to Montlake...
Especially when UW looked more prepared than any other pac-12 school for the season last year (even though it was a sloppy year all-around for the conference) and UW looks primed to be the favorite in the conference next year.
Last year's class could've been better. This years class needs to improve, but FULLY understand what you are expecting given the circumstance before you call for coach's jobs or before you suggest we need to change the strategy entirely.
TL;DR: Lower your expectations on out-of-state recruits until visits reopen, otherwise you’ll be certainly be disappointed more often than not. We can’t win recruiting battles (a lot of the time) trying to sell what UW has to offer over zoom calls. It’s way more difficult for us in large part because we don’t have the name recognition or flashy sales tools and we pride ourselves in staying away from the somewhat-disingenuous tactics that other schools might deploy (over promising on playing time, NFL likelihood, a strength coach who has insta/tik-tok fame with a ‘cool’ mustache, etc.). On top of that, the most valuable and impressionable aspects of UW's Football program are things that are impacted heavily when presented via Zoom vs In person. More so than competitors we need those levers given our head coach's tenure in his position, for example. And finally, changing our value proposition in a drastic way from what it is now does not make sense given the no-visit situation being temporary.
We absolutely need to have visits to get the type of class that all of us are hoping for. So we are all going to have to wait a bit to see big success with out of town recruits, and give the coaches some time. Things with COVID are trending steadfast in the right direction. Things will get better on the recruiting front
Keep those excuses at doogman, no one here gives a fuck about excuses.