# tomorrow is LOI day!



## HighLakesDrifter (Sep 13, 2007)

Letter Of Intent day

Tomorrow is the day high school players follow through on their verbal commitments and make it official that they will play for <insert college name here>.

I like the way the classes are forming up for BYU and Utah. Hopefully there are no surprises for anyone (meaning that someone who verbally committed months ago changes his mind). The major player left uncommitted in these parts is defensive lineman Ricky Heimuli. He's listed Utah as one of his finalists.

Anyone follow this stuff? I do, but I try not to let a 17-year-old's decision affect my mood.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

BYU is on the verge of signing their 'best' class ever. I am hopeful it works out somewhat close to what the kids have said and what the experts think these kids will do on the field.


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## bowhunter3 (Oct 18, 2007)

I don't pay much attention to it, it means nothing. Notre Dame has had one of the so called best classes for a while and they have done nothing. It really is just a guessing game. How high was Alex Smith listed, how about Dennis Pita, Steve Smith, Eric Weddle what happened to Walsh who was supposed to be the best QB in the country when he signed for BYU then went to UCLA after his mission, he was so bad. It means nothing.


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## HighLakesDrifter (Sep 13, 2007)

BH3, I agree. Coaches find kids who they think will fit in their system and mold them into great players. NFL rosters are full of two-star kids, and many four- and five-stars don't pan out. But it is nice to land a big one once in a while.


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2010)

bowhunter3 said:


> I don't pay much attention to it, it means nothing.


While it is true that recruiting is not an exact science, anyone who really thinks that it "means nothing" does not know much about Division 1 football. There is a good reason why coaches spend so much time and money on recruiting. The programs that do it best are consistently the best teams in the country, while those that struggle to recruit good talent are consistently among the worst. You cite some of the relatively few examples where a highly recruited kid turned out to be a bust at the college level, or an overlooked kid turned out to be a great player, but these examples are exceptional. The majority of the most talented players at the D1 level are 3 star or better recruits.


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## bowhunter3 (Oct 18, 2007)

I know plenty about d 1 football, of course recruiting is very important, but I am saying that you dont know that a 5 star kid will be better than a 3 star kid. You have no clue. I have plenty more examples but that would be a long list. Teams like Utah and TCU build there programs on speed and athletes and mold them into players. Hell whats his name from tcu was a running back in college and they turned him into one of the best DE I have seen in college for a long time. BYU also gets a lot out of there so called sub par talent, how high was one of my favorite players of all time ranked, that being TY Detmer. I am just saying the so called best signing classes mean nothing. It is a guessing game, and you have to RECRUIT the right players to make your team good.


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2010)

I don't disagree with anything you say except the part where you say "it means nothing". If that were true then coaches wouldn't spend the entire off-season on the road and away from their families recruiting. They would just have try-outs. You can cite all the examples you want, and I know there are lots of exceptions, but the fact remains that the upper echelon of D1 football leans heavily towards the schools that recruit the best talent. The 85 scholarship limit imposed by NCAA has helped to level the playing field a great deal, but it has not eliminated the need to recruit the best talent you can in order to have a successful program. It is true that Utah and TCU use a different strategy in their recruiting, and it has been very successful for them, but you are naive if you think that the coaches at those programs don't want to get 4/5 star recruits. They want them badly, they just know that they can't always compete with the bigger BCS programs, so they specialize in looking for athletes that were overlooked. BYU's strategy is slightly different in that they recruit mostly from a very specific demographic of LDS athletes, so they have a smaller pool of talent to choose from, but they also have an advantage over other schools due to their LDS affiliation. Still, even with this advantage they lose a lot of recruiting battles to bigger name schools like USC and Notre Dame, but Bronco has been very successful the last few years at winning some of those recruiting battles, and time will tell if it translates into more wins on the field.

Speaking of Notre Dame, they may not be in that upper echelon of programs right now, but they have been in the past, and most likely will be again in the future. Notre Dame has its own recruiting challenges as well. They are very similar to the challenges that BYU has, except they have a much bigger pool of talent to choose from.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Detmer was one of the highest recuited QBs in the country in 1986. Don't let the folk lore obscure the facts on Detmer. He was HIGHLY recruited by some heavy hitters. But his Dad (and high school coach) knew he could throw like there was no tomorrow at BYU. 

But otherwise, YAWN. I'll get excited at the spring game. If Bronco decides to have one this year :roll: :roll: :roll:


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## bowhunter3 (Oct 18, 2007)

I am not saying that talent doesn't matter it does, I am just saying just because Rivels.com says someone is a five star talent doesn't mean that they are better than the three star guy, Coaches spend so much time and and money on recruiting to find the right guy for there program and they try and find the best guys you are right, and yes the best programs are that way because of the talent that they land. I am just saying that right now it is a crap shoot if that player pans out a lot. The bigger programs are good because the get so many of the so called blue chippers so that if a few don't work out they have more lined up. And Notre Dame has had a top five class for about 5 years in a row now so don't go down that road. The difference between the floridas and the Utahs of the world is depth, that is where they have the advantage in recruiting. You put TCU's first string last year or Utahs last year against the big boys and they can play with them or beat them like Utah vs Alabama last year, the difference comes when the smaller schools lose a player and have to fill them with a back up that is sub par to the back ups from florida.

As for Detmer, Gary he was not that highly touted, yes he had some other offers from some big schools but he was small and didn't have a great arm so he was rated very low and BYU ended up with one of the best all time QB's in college history.


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## bowhunter3 (Oct 18, 2007)

also I was not saying that recruiting means nothing I was talking about how they rate players and how they say florida has the best class, when in reality they have no clue yet. Recruiting means everything in college sports you are right on that.


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## hockey (Nov 7, 2007)

Utah wins the best names award hands down:
Dres
Shaky
Princeton
Wyke
Star
Oh and I can't forget Joseph Smith (can't believe BYU missed on this guy)


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

> As for Detmer, Gary he was not that highly touted, yes he had some other offers from some big schools but he was small and didn't have a great arm so he was rated very low and BYU ended up with one of the best all time QB's in college history.


Ty Detmer was Texas' Player of the Year in football. He was named the best player in the best high school football state in the country. He threw for over 8,000 yards as a high schooler! Sonny Detmer is respected as one of the best coaches in Texas high school football history. The Detmer brothers are legends where I used to live in South Texas. Believe me, Ty had offers rolling in from everywhere. 
All that being said bowhunter3, I somewhat agree with you. Yes, recruiting is extremely important, but kids do change quite a bit from their senior year in high school to their senior year in college. Talent is talent, though, and if you've got it to begin with you're a lot better off than someone who has to be developed.


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## HighLakesDrifter (Sep 13, 2007)

FYI: Here's an article I found linked on a sports site about recruiting.

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2010/...d: wsj/dailyfix/feed (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)


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