2018 4* OG Trey Hill (UGa)

[lutzcammed 469]

Shame on me, I've kind of been thinking he was ours the whole time.

[Grumps 3,704]

Maybe

2 hours ago, thaitopher said:

With losses like this on the recruiting trailer, Gus wont last through the end of his contract because we wont be beating UGA very regularly. Now he is getting paid seven million a year, expectations are much higher.  

So maybe we should fire Gus now. I mean it is so obvious...not getting a commitment from this kid will result in losses in the future that will result in Gus getting fired anyway. Maybe we should go ahead and fire the coach after Gus now also, for losses he is sure to have. THEN we can get a jump on hiring the coach that will never lose a recruiting battle or a football game.

[Tiger 8,818]

I see it as:

We have been getting top 10 classes for years now -- we should expect top 10 finishes. Seems logical.

We are now paying our coach a top 5 salary...to me this means we aren't getting our money's worth if we aren't hovering somewhere in the top 10 when the 2nd half of November rolls around on a regular basis IMO

[SKIPPER_01 99]

This is the same discussion as the mega thread. I don't know what "recruiting at a high level means". We can finish 3rd nationally, but if our arch rivals are 1 and 2 every year, then that means we are getting our butts kicked. 

Here is the thing, I'm not upset about Trey Hill, kid was born with a 99% chance of playing OL at Georgia. Ellitor and Clayton have been saying it over and over, Auburn fights an uphill battle in the living room in these two states.

We cannot give up this area, obviously. We still have to fill most of our roster with AL, GA, and FL kids.

However, AU's recruiting strategy does not need to be regional. We will never consistently beat bama and georgia in bama and georgia. We have to fight head to head in recruiting, but we also need to out flank them. 

In GA, especially, the recruiting coordinator and coaches need to have a feel for when to hold em and when to fold em. In AL we have a more legit shot being in state, but the same applys. 

The philosophy that Auburn can only recruit regionally, and at the same time knowingly fighting uphill battles in the living room's of our home states, it's is strategically a flawed plan.

Spread wide and Out-flank them.

Multiple 10 win seasons will be instrumental in this war.

[aujeff11 6,243]

24 minutes ago, AUDevil said:

we wouldn't, and didn't, do that.  Our 2 biggest rivals are at the top of their game...expectations are not going down any time soon.

Expectations drive the market rate .We pay 7 mil to beat those rivals.

[ellitor 33,077]

6 minutes ago, SKIPPER_01 said:

The philosophy that Auburn can only recruit regionally, and at the same time knowingly fighting uphill battles in the living room's of our home states, it's is strategically a flawed plan.

Spreading a wide net when you aren't a blue blood national brand is just as flawed if not more so. Most kids are not going to leave their recruiting regional area. Spending a lot of resources against teams who have a major location advantage is very ill advised to say the least. This ain't the old EA Sports NCAA football games where you can cherry pick who you want regardless of where they are from.

[LKEEL75 2,566]

1 minute ago, aujeff11 said:

Expectations drive the market rate .We pay 7 mil to beat those rivals.

Well then based on that then we did the right thing.  Only 2 coaches have multiple wins against Little Nicky and ours is one of them.

[ellitor 33,077]

2 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Expectations drive the market rate .We pay 7 mil to beat those rivals.

Well in this case we paid it to beat them once in every 4 years.

[bg5 536]

I love this. We miss on a player and all the sudden the meltdown begins again. I know Gus doesn't read message boards but I'm not sure $7 mil is enough for having to deal with some of our fans. We will get a top 10 class and we will end up in the top 10 in the final poll. Seriously some of you really need to chill out. If y'all are so good you should really go into coaching. Since everyone knows what to do and how to do it you should be a great success. Maybe you will end up at Auburn one day and everyone can be critical of you if you miss out on a kid that probably grew up a fan of the team that beat you out for him. Saban taught Kirby all of his tricks. It's going to be tougher for sure. I would have loved to get this guy but I'm not going to go home and kick the cat.

[ellitor 33,077]

3 minutes ago, bg5 said:

I love this. We miss on a player and all the sudden the meltdown begins again. I know Gus doesn't read message boards but I'm not sure $7 mil is enough for having to deal with some of our fans. We will get a top 10 class and we will end up in the top 10 in the final poll. Seriously some of you really need to chill out. If y'all are so good you should really go into coaching. Since everyone knows what to do and how to do it you should be a great success. Maybe you will end up at Auburn one day and everyone can be critical of you if you miss out on a kid that probably grew up a fan of the team that beat you out for him. Saban taught Kirby all of his tricks. It's going to be tougher for sure. I would have loved to get this guy but I'm not going to go home and kick the cat.

[GwillMac6 20,657]

4 minutes ago, bg5 said:

I love this. We miss on a player and all the sudden the meltdown begins again. I know Gus doesn't read message boards but I'm not sure $7 mil is enough for having to deal with some of our fans. We will get a top 10 class and we will end up in the top 10 in the final poll. Seriously some of you really need to chill out. If y'all are so good you should really go into coaching. Since everyone knows what to do and how to do it you should be a great success. Maybe you will end up at Auburn one day and everyone can be critical of you if you miss out on a kid that probably grew up a fan of the team that beat you out for him. Saban taught Kirby all of his tricks. It's going to be tougher for sure. I would have loved to get this guy but I'm not going to go home and kick the cat.

Well I sure as hell am not going to kick the dog!!! SO if I have to sacrifice kicking someone it is going to be the cat!!! lol

[ellitor 33,077]

1 minute ago, GwillMac6 said:

Well I sure as hell am not going to kick the dog!!! SO if I have to sacrifice kicking someone it is going to be the cat!!! lol

Well at least it will always land on its feet.

[GwillMac6 20,657]

12 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Spreading a wide net when you aren't a blue blood national brand is just as flawed if not more so. Most kids are not going to leave their recruiting regional area. Spending a lot of resources against teams who have a major location advantage is very ill advised to say the least. This ain't the old EA Sports NCAA football games where you can cherry pick who you want regardless of where they are from.

Auburn is top 12-15 in every statistical category you can come up with in regards to on field success for football in ncaa history. we are the first non state school on all these lists as well. We are not a blue blood BUT we are close to a blue blood as you can get without being one. We def need to cast a wider wet because arguably the 2 best recruiters in the country are at the 2 schools where we look to get a lot of our players. No harm in trying. Everyone knows about Auburn. Auburn is big time even if it does not seem like it down here. WAR DAMN EAGLE!!!!! #striveforgreatness #finishstrong

[kd4au 1,145]

Would have loved to get this kid, but we need tackles a lot more than we need guards. Mikey said we had 7 commits from GA. that's about a third of the class, looks like we are doing well in GA to get 7 if the state is locked down as some think. You can't tell me there is only 25 good players in GA and uga is getting all 25. We just need to keep getting the ones we can from GA,FL and AL and fill in the gaps with players from MS and TN and maybe the corndog state and we will be OK.

[AUApostle 7,651]

18 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Expectations drive the market rate .We pay 7 mil to beat those rivals.

Exactly my original point.  Market rate does not drive expectations.

[thaitopher 807]

Sorry, 

14 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Well in this case we paid it to beat them once in every 4 years.

Sorry, but we aren't paying a coach 7 million dollars a year to beat our rivals one out of every four years. With that kind of money, he better be getting us into the top 5 routinely (at least every couple of years) or else he is getting overpaid. This won't happen which is why our fan base will ultimately be disappointed. I am still one of e few at truly doesn't believe Gus magically turned a corner this year. 8-5 seasons will sadly still be the norm under Gus.

[ellitor 33,077]

8 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

Auburn is top 12-15 in every statistical category you can come up with in regards to on field success for football in ncaa history. we are the first non state school on all these lists as well. We are not a blue blood BUT we are close to a blue blood as you can get without being one. We def need to cast a wider wet because arguably the 2 best recruiters in the country are at the 2 schools where we look to get a lot of our players. No harm in trying. Everyone knows about Auburn. Auburn is big time even if it does not seem like it down here. WAR DAMN EAGLE!!!!! #striveforgreatness #finishstrong

Yes we are as close to a blue blood school as it gets but that's still a sizable margin perceptionally.

& yes there is a harm in trying too much to recruit outside your area. You sacrifice talent within your area that you could have gotten. That means less talent on roster to be developed. I know less talent on roster is something you specifically can not accept Mr. Star Guy.

Until we consistently are winning 10+ to expand the brand the only reason in most cases we should go outside our territory to get kids is if the have AU connections to them or they express interest in AU themselves. There is enough talent in Georgia, Florida, & Alabama for the UGAs, UAts, Florida's, & FSUs to get their talent & AU to get ours too.

[AU-HANDLEY-TIGER 205]

He’s moved on let’s do the same, I didn’t know this kid prior to a few weeks ago, we don’t even know if he’ll make it on to the field at this point but our entire future is in jeopardy? Doubtful , Walker Culver seems to me to be a better get anyway? Auburn fan who probably wants to play for Auburn, that’s immeasurable.

[ellitor 33,077]

15 minutes ago, thaitopher said:

Sorry, but we aren't paying a coach 7 million dollars a year to beat our rivals one out of every four years.

 

Ummm. Look at what just happened. We beat Bama & UGA 1 time the past 4 years & got 10 wins. I'm not saying it's ideal by any means, nor am I remotely satisfied, but that's exactly what we just paid for.

[ellitor 33,077]

3 minutes ago, AU-HANDLEY-TIGER said:

He’s moved on let’s do the same, I didn’t know this kid prior to a few weeks ago, we don’t even know if he’ll make it on to the field at this point but our entire future is in jeopardy? Doubtful , Walker Culver seems to me to be a better get anyway? Auburn fan who probably wants to play for Auburn, that’s immeasurable.

With due respect it is measurable, in wins & losses. Talent has to be there to.

[thaitopher 807]

Ok, I think I have flamed this thread enough today. I have said my piece. I will bow out. 

[kd4au 1,145]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

there is a harm in trying too much to recruit outside your area

I agree if you try to do to much, but we did get Braden Smith and he was out of the area. So there are kids out of area that we can land we just have to know which ones will listen and if they don't move on.

[ellitor 33,077]

28 minutes ago, kd4au said:

I agree if you try to do to much, but we did get Braden Smith and he was out of the area. So there are kids out of area that we can land we just have to know which ones will listen and if they don't move on.

Drago is precisely why I said in most cases in 1 of my posts. He's the exception, not the rule...And he came from Kansas where there is no football powerhouse. I do think we should cast a wider net  on cases like this where the state does not have a college power but a big time prospect or 2.

[mcgufcm 4,096]

Actually, we paid him $7M per year to beat our rivals twice in five years, to win the division twice in five years, to win the conference once in five years, and to play for national title once.

Our expectations and Gus' expectations are the same:  play for championships. In the SEC, there were only three coaches that have legitimately done that in the last five years:  Saban, Gus, and Smart. Add Jimbo to the list. It's a four-man list. That's it. If he continues to play for championships (SEC and/or national) during the life of that contract, it's a good and appropriate deal. If he doesn't, it's a bad deal for Auburn. If he wins three conference titles or one national title (with another SEC title season in there) in that span, it's a great deal for Auburn.

As for Trey Hill or "getting our butts beat" by UGA, please. If we're recruiting in the top 10 classes, we have an almost identical chance at having a productive class as UGA. Outside of Bama, class #3 or class #9 hasn't had a historically significant impact. We need to scout well and land a significant % of our targets. If you do those things, you can win big. If you don't, you probably won't. Simple as that. And in this class, we've certainly done the second part (landing a large number of the guys we really targeted early:  Smoke Monday, Joey Gatewood, Asa Martin, Coynis Miller, Jalil Irvin, etc.). Only time will tell if we scouted well, and only time will tell how guys develop as players and adjust as college students. This is going to be a really good class. If you care whether you have the #2 class or the #6 class, you're the guy flipping the burger 7 times instead of just once. Step away from the grill because all that attention isn't getting you anything. There is no discernible difference between those two things at signing day.

Hate that we lost a guy we wanted, but when you target top players, you have to know that's a possibility.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,648]

3 hours ago, ellitor said:

Spreading a wide net when you aren't a blue blood national brand is just as flawed if not more so. Most kids are not going to leave their recruiting regional area. Spending a lot of resources against teams who have a major location advantage is very ill advised to say the least. This ain't the old EA Sports NCAA football games where you can cherry pick who you want regardless of where they are from.

yeah theres only like 5 or 6 programs that AT THEIR PEAK with excellent coaches can expect to roll into any state and get a commit reasonably. And one of those programs unfortunately shares the same state as us so they'll probably be above in that pecking order