Cooper McDonald, 2020 3* LB, Justin (Northwest), TX (Committed)

NLdawg said:

LaMichael_Corleone said:

FirePete said:

LaMichael_Corleone said:

FirePete said:

Tequilla said:

I’m going to laugh if this guy turns out to be really good

I think he is going to be good,

Tequilla said:

I’m going to laugh if this guy turns out to be really good

@NLdawg this is an example of what I meant by evaluating the process of recruiting isn’t about grading the player, it’s about grading the coach.


No one thinks Cooper McDonald or Mason West are going to be bad players. At least I don’t and I really try not criticize abilities and projections of HS kids. Differentiating a player’s abilities and how well of a job a coach did recruiting isn’t really a “strawman argument” when people often blur the lines by saying stuff like this or saying that UDUB did a good job of recruiting LB’s in 2017 just because Joe Tryon is good.

Ohh I understand that the coach is not doing their part.

But I am looking at from a roster point of view he has the tools to be a good player. So he is not Kyler many who is eating up roster spot

No I got you. I just wanted to show examples of how people can read what you posted and then make the jump to equate: if a player is good = the job of recruiting by the coach

I agree to an extent. But if you’re saying we can’t evaluate the quality of a coach’s recruiting work relative to how that player turns out, I think that’s wrong. A big (maybe the biggest) part of recruiting is projecting how a guy will develop after 2-3 years in the program. That’s where we’ve separated ourselves from most programs.

The counter to this is the thought that nearly everyone will develop to their potential in our program so we need to go after the highest ceiling guys bc our program is sure to get them to that ceiling. While it’s certainly true that our program can be gas on the fire for the most talented guys, the buy in we expect is extraordinary. There are guys who lack the make up to handle it and flame out. If a coach fails to project in that regard and we waste a scholly, that’s as bad or worse than missing on targets or process failures.

TLDR: How a player turns out is relevant to evaluation of the recruiting job.

It’s really not that relevant tho. That’s moving the goalposts. If Skinny turns out to be a stud for us for two years even, does that mean we did a good job recruiting him? Of course not. Just because BBK has a good year doesn’t mean you did a good job of recruiting LB’s in 2015.



Nick Harris is a good player who didn’t have ANY other D1 offers. Good job on evaluating, horrible job selling your program to the other guys the coaches themselves had ranked higher. Just because Nick Harris is good doesn’t mean we must retroactively go back and say Strausser did a better job recruiting than we thought.



Talent evaluation =\= ability to recruit.


Huff deserves eval credit for Gaard but everyone and their mother have offered Murao, Hatchett, Rosengarten. Huff sold those guys and didn’t need to be a great evaluator of hidden talent in order to close the best class possible.



Jimmy Lake offering Esteen early is a great example of evaluating. Jimmy Lake offering and whiffing on every other guy out west until he offered Jacobe way later than the rest of his top schools an example of poor recruiting sales/management.