Football Recruiting Updates

AugWave · Wed Dec 04, 2013 12:56 pm

Leondre James just got offered by Southern Miss.

Zach Harris added offers from LA Tech and North Texas.

Booth Lloyd added a USC offer.

Daren Williams already holds offers of UCF and USF. Kansas St and Mississippi St might pull the trigger.

dpm wave · Wed Dec 04, 2013 1:13 pm

Is the USC offer from the new regime or from Orgeron?

AugWave · Wed Dec 04, 2013 2:24 pm

dpm wave wrote:Is the USC offer from the new regime or from Orgeron?

I think it was Coach O, so it might or might not count now..

lurker123 · Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:23 pm

AugWave wrote:
dpm wave wrote:Is the USC offer from the new regime or from Orgeron?
I think it was Coach O, so it might or might not count now..

The "State of USC" under Sarkisian will be L.A., Orange and S.D. counties. Not saying he won't offer others but one of the implications of his hiring is a feeling that his predecessor (LK not the interim) had taken his eye off the home turf.

USC is unique in being the only college team and not an NFL team that "owns" a major metro area. I know Carroll cast a national recruiting net. For at least a couple of years, I just don't think you'll see it (non-SOCAL recruiting) that much at USC.

DrBox · Wed Dec 04, 2013 7:37 pm

AugWave wrote:Leondre James just got offered by Southern Miss.

Zach Harris added offers from LA Tech and North Texas.

Booth Lloyd added a USC offer.

Daren Williams already holds offers of UCF and USF. Kansas St and Mississippi St might pull the trigger.

Williams and booth-lloyd have solid offers, obviously. Good thing we got out early and evaluated them.

tnelly15 · Sun Jan 05, 2014 11:45 pm

So what's going on? Jimmy Smith was asked for a Tulane update on twitter and this was his response:

They don't have any spots left. Maybe one. Watch out for Darren Williams looking. Deldrick Canty is next.

Is that correct, we only have "maybe one" spot left? And are we really keeping 2 kickers?

OUG · Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:16 am

tnelly15 wrote:So what's going on? Jimmy Smith was asked for a Tulane update on twitter and this was his response:

They don't have any spots left. Maybe one. Watch out for Darren Williams looking. Deldrick Canty is next.
Is that correct, we only have "maybe one" spot left? And are we really keeping 2 kickers?

Regarding Smith's tweet, it seems he is saying that we could potentially lose Williams, who is soft on his verbal. And if we did, we would move quickly to the next DE on our board, Deldrick Canty, a 3-star DE from Scotlandville who is sort of a tweener but has a lot of upside and athleticism.

Second, I think we have two spots left, assuming Williams stays in the fold. The reason Smith may be saying we have one spot left is because Deondre Skinner is heavily rumored to be in our '14 class.

Third, YES we need to recruit two kickers. Kickers are very hard to project and evaluate. We have gotten spoiled for years on Cairo, who bailed out our anemic offense. Replace Cairo with an AVERAGE college kicker and we are probably not in a bowl game last month. I'm not being hyperbolic. The evidence is there. So we need TWO top kickers in this class who can come in and compete for a job. These two are both top 50 in their position according to ESPN, and both three stars according to ESPN which is high for a kicker. One will win the job in 2014, and the other won't want to ride the pine and I would guess would transfer to any of the quality NCAA programs who are annually in desperate need for kicking talent. But we need to win games here, this is not a fantasy football draft. Taking two quality kickers is a "pro" personnel move because it limits out exposure to one kid. We figure to be in a lot of close games next year in the AAC (if we are that lucky -- we played 8 games this year decided by single digit points), and if we have to rely on a freshman kicker in those games, we want to give ourselves a margin of error. If this seems trivial, I'd point out that our freshman long snapper cost us a win last year early in the season despite his being highly regarded as a prospect.

tnelly15 · Mon Jan 06, 2014 3:51 am

Based on his twitter account, Skinner is committed to Tulane and it looks like he's trying to be enrolled for January.

AugWave · Mon Jan 06, 2014 9:03 am

You think Jimmy knows how many spots we're gonna have come signing day? I frickin doubt it..

OUG · Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:49 pm

As a follow up to my post up the thread, someone reported during Kushner's chat that we will not be honoring Jorge Powell's scholarship offer, and therefore we are back down to 23 commits. This is JUST A RUMOR at this point though.

Combined with the now strong indications from Raul Diaz' twitter page and BMT's blog that Diaz is starting classes next week, that means that we now have at least 3 scholarships left to give.

Hard to speculate on the needs, but I would think that Russell Gage and Edgar Cerenord are the two primary targets for those slots, filling needs at Safety and DT. Beyond those guys there aren't any other obvious needs to fill on the roster at this point, so we may go for a "best available athlete" type recruit that we feel will has "difference-maker" upside.

TXWave88 · Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:19 pm

I have heard people argue about why the 2 kickers in 1 class is ok, and I will agree somewhat to some valid points. But if I was a kicker, I would probably not stay committed to a school that received a commitment from a 2nd kicker after I was already on board. Either kid could win the job, but if you do not win the job, you will be behind the other kicker your entire career (unless he chokes, hurts, transfers, fails, etc.). If I had other offers that I was interested in, I would definitely entertain all of my options. If this is true, I think it would work out best for the recruit and for Tulane. No hard feelings and will wish him luck if this is the case.

51WaveBG · Fri Jan 10, 2014 5:51 pm

Both appear to be good prospects. ESPN shows Powell with a national of 16, 3*, their rating of 76. ESPN shows Dirocca with a national of 44, 3*, their rating of 74. Dirocca is the larger of the 2 and may have greater KO range. Both appeared to be accurate on FG kicks. To my knowledge, we would not have any backup, if injury occurred, if we only recruit 1. Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

tnelly15 · Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:25 pm

What? We have multiple backup kickers, they're probably walk-ons though. Most schools don't keep more than 1 scholarship kicker. We actually have about 4 kickers right now.

51WaveBG · Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:50 pm

Did not include the walk-on kickers in the mix. Just assumed that they were not that good, so that was why we offered 2 kickers. I guess we'll know something on 5 Feb 14, but until then we'll just have some fun kicking it around with each other.

tnelly15 · Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:06 pm

Most starting college kickers aren't very good, so yea those guys probably aren't anything special. But really, how many teams carry 2 scholarship kickers?

tnelly15 · Sun Jan 12, 2014 1:49 pm

Niguel Falkins looks to be another early enrollee.

ccap05 · Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:29 pm

Interesting story on Bailey Grainer de-committing to Vandy and considering Tulane. This is a big kid and looks like an athlete- something we need on the OL.

http://dawnofthedawg.com/2014/01/11/geo ... w-targets/

mbawavefan12 · Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:59 am

ccap05 wrote:Interesting story on Bailey Grainer de-committing to Vandy and considering Tulane. This is a big kid and looks like an athlete- something we need on the OL.

http://dawnofthedawg.com/2014/01/11/geo ... w-targets/

Grainer would be a huge signing. TU is as close to Vandy as you will get in the Gulf South. Come to TU and play early, go to LSU and forever be battling against players that that staff targeted.

AugWave · Mon Jan 13, 2014 12:22 pm

Trai Turner (PURPLE KNIGHT!) just announced he's leaving LSU for the NFL. So uuhhh, LSU might pull the trigger on Grainer.

wave runner · Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:04 pm

Mike Coppage ‏@MikeCoppage 30m
Newman 2015 rb Kendall Bussey getting tighter with Tulane. He's a longtime Green Wave commit even though only junior. Full update ahead

mbawavefan12 · Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:51 pm

AugWave wrote:Trai Turner (PURPLE KNIGHT!) just announced he's leaving LSU for the NFL. So uuhhh, LSU might pull the trigger on Grainer.

LSU (especially on offense) is being shredded. Will their losses at WR and RB impact TU?

Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:41 pm

mbawavefan12 wrote:
AugWave wrote:Trai Turner (PURPLE KNIGHT!) just announced he's leaving LSU for the NFL. So uuhhh, LSU might pull the trigger on Grainer.
LSU (especially on offense) is being shredded. Will their losses at WR and RB impact TU?

Could be a domino effect.... Too bad football doesn't have an early signing period.

lurker123 · Mon Jan 13, 2014 3:44 pm

tpstulane wrote:
mbawavefan12 wrote:
AugWave wrote:Trai Turner (PURPLE KNIGHT!) just announced he's leaving LSU for the NFL. So uuhhh, LSU might pull the trigger on Grainer.
LSU (especially on offense) is being shredded. Will their losses at WR and RB impact TU?
Could be a domino effect.... Too bad football doesn't have an early signing period.

LSU and RB domino will be the most interesting one. It may hurt LSU and not help it. I think the roster both up and down may be clearing out because of the Fournette media machine. I'm not saying that pushed Jeremy Hill into declaring pro by itself but let's just say his "advisors" were telling Hill, first you could get hurt as a senior and second if you're splitting carries with Fournette, how is that going to increase your value enough to justify delaying your pro career, qualifying for free agency later, etc.

Similarly I think potential RB recruits will look elsewhere because there is only one football and LSU will (apparently) have Fournette. That's like signing as back up guard to Pete Maravich.

At other positions like Riley last year, Tulane may be hampered.

How Pete Carroll had six or so (??) NFL caliber tailbacks on his roster at USC at the same time including Johnson and McKnight is beyond me. That may be the best recruiting ever by any college HC.

AugWave · Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:54 pm

^^ I agree about Carroll's recruiting at USC. Dude just stockpiled talent. I know that players LOVE to play for him and they had more fun during practice/games than the rest of their college lives.

As far as LSU's departures go, it might hurt us, it might not. They have other players they're looking at too, not just ours. I hope they don't offer Gage though. If we could get him to go with Veal and Encalade, we'll have some dangerous weapons on offense, especially if (when) Breaux turns it on next season. Pair them with the tight ends we have coming in? Could get really interesting in the AAC..

RobertM320 · Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:15 pm

lurker123 wrote:
tpstulane wrote:
mbawavefan12 wrote:
AugWave wrote:Trai Turner (PURPLE KNIGHT!) just announced he's leaving LSU for the NFL. So uuhhh, LSU might pull the trigger on Grainer.
LSU (especially on offense) is being shredded. Will their losses at WR and RB impact TU?
Could be a domino effect.... Too bad football doesn't have an early signing period.
LSU and RB domino will be the most interesting one. It may hurt LSU and not help it. I think the roster both up and down may be clearing out because of the Fournette media machine. I'm not saying that pushed Jeremy Hill into declaring pro by itself but let's just say his "advisors" were telling Hill, first you could get hurt as a senior and second if you're splitting carries with Fournette, how is that going to increase your value enough to justify delaying your pro career, qualifying for free agency later, etc.

Similarly I think potential RB recruits will look elsewhere because there is only one football and LSU will (apparently) have Fournette. That's like signing as back up guard to Pete Maravich.

At other positions like Riley last year, Tulane may be hampered.

How Pete Carroll had six or so (??) NFL caliber tailbacks on his roster at USC at the same time including Johnson and McKnight is beyond me. That may be the best recruiting ever by any college HC.

Simple. Follow the money. Never liked Pete Carroll. Total lack of ethics. Don't tell me he didn't know what was going on at USC, and bailed from a sinking ship. And don't think he wasn't aware of all the Seahawks players using PEDs. Lack of institutional control, or in this case, lack of morals. It seems he's got the motto, "cheat until they catch you." I'm not cool with that.