Beliema Recruiting Class Rankings as Head Coach...

[Gbhog]

Just doing some research as to his success recruiting (slow Thanksgiving week ha)... thought others might be interested

Wisconsin
2006 - #40
2007 - #34
2008 - #41
2009 - #43
2010 - #88
2011 - #40
2012 - #57

Arkansas
2013 - #27
2014 - #29
2015 - #25
2016 - currently #34

[JaketheSnake]

And I assume we will finish arnd 25 again

[TNhawgfan]

you can win a lot of games in the big 10 with recruiting rankings in the 40s. the SEC is a different animal

[lefty08]

you can win a lot of games in the big 10 with recruiting rankings in the 40s. the SEC is a different animal

Yep, in the SEC you need to be in the 20s.........

[Gbhog]

Will a consistent mid 20s ranking get us to where we want to be? Top 25 program and a division title every 3-4 years?

[Peter Porker]

If we recruit solid classes, not classes that have a dozen WRs and 1/2 linebacker, redshirt most of them, and develop them we can win.

Also, we have to find a few diamonds like Drew Morgan. There's a guy the recruiting services threw a star or two at. They didn't truly look at his film and they couldn't measure his heart.

[RebelW]

Of course! After we get the depth we need, because of how he rested shirts along with his juco program.. Win with more experience vs raw talent

[ThisTeetsTaken]

Will a consistent mid 20s ranking get us to where we want to be? Top 25 program and a division title every 3-4 years?

Eventually

[Razorfox]

you can win a lot of games in the big 10 with recruiting rankings in the 40s. the SEC is a different animal

The irony is that every team but one that we beat in the SEC this year had better recruiting rankings than us:  UT, Auburn, Ole Miss, and LSU. 

And then we lost to two teams (Toledo and Tex Tech) that we had better recruiting rankings. 

[Bubba's Bruisers]

The irony is that every team but one that we beat in the SEC this year had better recruiting rankings than us:  UT, Auburn, Ole Miss, and LSU. 

And then we lost to two teams (Toledo and Tex Tech) that we had better recruiting rankings. 

The SEC is down largely due to poor QB play over the last 2 years.  We had a QB, while most of our competition did not.  It's a QB driven game.

[HSVhogfan2]

Will a consistent mid 20s ranking get us to where we want to be? Top 25 program and a division title every 3-4 years?

No. Those classes will still get you last in the SEC west pretty much every year.

[ricepig]

No. Those classes will still get you last in the SEC west pretty much every year.

Are we last?

[DeltaBoy]

We are building a Solid Team and Program.

[Call a Hog]

Just doing some research as to his success recruiting (slow Thanksgiving week ha)... thought others might be interested

Wisconsin
2006 - #40
2007 - #34
2008 - #41
2009 - #43
2010 - #88
2011 - #40
2012 - #57

Arkansas
2013 - #27
2014 - #29
2015 - #25
2016 - currently #34

Just proof of how out of whack recruiting rankings are.

[pigroots]

The SEC is down largely due to poor QB play over the last 2 years.  We had a QB, while most of our competition did not.  It's a QB driven game.

This

[Science Fiction Greg]

No. Those classes will still get you last in the SEC west pretty much every year.

[870hogfan]

No. Those classes will still get you last in the SEC west pretty much every year.

To bad Auburn is last with back to back top 10 recruiting classes.

[ThisTeetsTaken]

We are building a Solid Team and Program.

Yea gotta start getting quality players at every position though.  Can't neglect any one position. 

[Cinco de Hogo]

We can have very solid teams with 20's ranking as long as the classes are balanced, coach fills weak spots from the JUCO ranks and most importantly we have some real studs come from the Arkansas HS ranks.

Once we get past five of BB's classes the JUCO route may decrease in importance.  What will never change is needing at least 25+ great players from Arkansas on the roster at all times. 

If we could ever work our way into the top 15 THEN we can win SEC championships. We don't have to have top ten classes and the reason for that is the impact of the Arkansas players that come in under appreciated.

[Oklahawg]

*yawn*

Another one?

[ArkansasI]

Friends,

I believe Bret's classes are often under-ranked for a couple of reasons.

First, Wisconsin and Arkansas are not widely considered hotbeds for football talent or sexy recruiting rankings. This is to say, people that rank recruits are almost always going to give higher ratings to many of our competitors despite Bret's success.

Second, I believe Bret has seldom recruited 25 man classes. Smaller recruiting classes produce lower rankings. That stated, I like the lack of turnover. Football is a man's game - the Hogs' record will improve as the team matures.

[LZH]

Just as with Nutt and Petrino, I would like to mark this date and note that everyone says "recruiting rankings are so overrated"..... until we get the hell beat out of us about three or four games a year.

Just sayin.

Mike Tyson once said "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the f****** face."

[whosiskid]

Just doing some research as to his success recruiting (slow Thanksgiving week ha)... thought others might be interested

Wisconsin
2006 - #40
2007 - #34
2008 - #41
2009 - #43
2010 - #88
2011 - #40
2012 - #57

Arkansas
2013 - #27
2014 - #29
2015 - #25
2016 - currently #34

We are not 34th. We are 28th. This according to 247, which is far and away the best of all the recruiting services. I don't pay attention to the other services, since 247 does both their own evaluation and a composite of all the other services, so you get a double view of each prospect.

If you used someone other than 247, you should go back and redo the poll, since ESPN does recruiting as an afterthought, and Rivals and Scout, which both used to be OK, now are pretty lousy (and the best of their former people now work for 247).

[Hog Pharm]

No. Those classes will still get you last in the SEC west pretty much every year.

Are we last?

Crickets

[Nuttcracker, Sweet!]

Just as with Nutt and Petrino, I would like to mark this date and note that everyone says "recruiting rankings are so overrated"..... until we get the hell beat out of us about three or four games a year.

Just sayin.

Mike Tyson once said "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the f****** face."

That has happened ONCE in the last two years. I guess someone forgot to tell the scoreboard operator the recruiting rankings get you extra points to start the game...

Is 20-30 the ranking we'd like to achieve most years? He!! no, we'd like to be Top 5 every year.

How do you propose we do that? With 5-10 AR players being SEC caliber in a good year, most years less than that and every team in CFB beating the bushes in Texass and being a 4 hour drive or more to where most of the top players are...

History shows that when we have our best years, it's always been when there have been difference makers coming out of our state. There SHOULD be 4-5 SEC type players in LR most every year. there usually are not. What do we do about that?

[TNRazorbacker]

Will a consistent mid 20s ranking get us to where we want to be? Top 25 program and a division title every 3-4 years?

Consistent top 25 recruiting, the right kind of recruits, and keeping them in the program can definitely make you consistently competitive in the SEC and put you in the position to win the division on occasion.  I think Bielema tends to excel at recruiting the right kids that buy into the program. I think that makes a bigger impact than the ranking, although I'm not one that acts like recruiting rankings don't matter. They clearly do.

That said if the Hogs want to start being consistent division contenders we need to be recruiting top 10ish consistently, or top 15ish and keep a steady stream of playmakers feeding the QB position. This is basically the formula for winning at top levels, at least where championships are concerned, regardless of who you are. Im skeptical that this is possible at AR from a recruiting perspective and for that reason I think the likelihood of our ever winning an SEC championship is low, however not impossible. If we keep a team that's consistently competitive we'll be in position to exploit opportunities as they arrive.

[whosiskid]

I hate to break it to people, but we are simply not a Top Ten destination school. We have never been and likely will never be. The state is too small and produces too few athletes compared to the other states in the SEC. This is a brute fact of demographics. If we had twice the population we would have twice the prospects. We are in the middle of the pack in population compared to all the states in the United States, we are dead last of the states in the Southeast Conference.

So we have to do the best we can do with the cards dealt us. It isn't settling; it is a matter of playing those cards more intelligently than others play theirs. We have to try and find the hidden gems that the schools from more populous states miss. We try to get better assistant coaches than most of the other schools in the conference. We try to steal a few players from those states that can't take every top prospect in their state.

If we were a conference that played schools in Idaho and North Dakota and Wyoming the situation would be reversed, but it is what it is. It is easy to say that we need to be in the top ten each year in recruiting, but it is going to prove nearly impossible to pull off. The fact is that we've done a great job lately, consistently getting in the Top 30. That is simply the reality of Arkansas football. The only thing that would change matters would be causing the population to double. I think it is remarkable how many years we have been competitive nationally in football despite the challenges we face as a program. Historically, we have had to rely on getting better headcoaches than many of the other schools. Like Broyles, Lou Holtz, and Bobby Petrino (yes, he was not a good recruiter, but the man was a master at offensive football). And Bielema. I know some like to bellyache about him, but other schools recognize that he is a very high quality coach. He does a great job of compensating for the late of instate football talent and he allows a lot fewer of the top players to leave the state than most.

But people want to imagine that we ought to be doing better in recruiting, when the fact is that we will never do much better in recruiting. Frank Broyles had to overcome this disadvantage when he was in charge. Whoever replaces Beilema whenever he leaves will also face it. We have offered only four instate players this year: Agim, Capps, Hammonds and Jordan Jones.  Four!!! Imagine if the state had produced 12 major Division One players. Only when the state does that year in and year out can we talk about Top Ten recruiting classes. Until then, we are going to have continue keeping most of our best players instate while enticing a few top prospect from out of states to come while looking for hidden gems around the country. What we have now is what we will always have. But, over time we've had more success than what we ought to have had given the burdens placed upon us. Hopefully we will continue to. We've often been just  below the top tier in the SEC, whereas our recruiting disadvantages ought to place us dead last. And yes, I would rather we had 40 instate prospects that everyone wanted instead of less than 10, or better, more than 100 instate prospects that people wanted, like Florida. But I personally get a lot of satisfaction pulling for the underdog. It makes those times when we improbably manage to run with the big boys all that more satisfying.

[Arthur pigby sellers.]

     Several ways to improve recruiting are to concentrate on coach retention and continued relationships with certain schools and areas especially La and Tx.  LSU can't take all the La players and we need to be involved with the rest of them.  We also need to get more involved with Texas.  Lots of these kids want to go to the SEC and it sickens me to see them choosing schools like Ole Miss instead of us.
     We need to produce more home grown recruits.  I think Lunney and the staff have done a great job identifying diamonds in the rough i.e. Liddell and Greenlaw to name a few.  The real key to consistently produce more home grown recruits is continued population growth in NW AR and fixing the school system in LR.  The NW AR football conference is probably the best at preparing college ready football players in the state.  Another 100000 to 150000 people in this region would probably churn out another 1-2 recruits per year.  LR school systems and athletics are in a shambles.  A highly competitive football conference in LR should be producing about 5-7 SEC recruits per year.  If the state could start consistently producing 9-14 SEC level recruits per year, this would be a much more attractive job and we would start contending for the SEC west. 

[Cure]

No. Those classes will still get you last in the SEC west pretty much every year.

The difference is Bielema has proven to develop players that stay in his program and put them in the league at a high clip, not many other coaches in the conference do that because they are getting highly rated players.

Arkansas is not going to be getting great classes every year, but they do have a staff in place that will get the talent out of their recruits, that's why he succeeded at Wisconsin. They went toe to toe with everyone.

[jgphillips3]

Redshirts and a solid walk on program will give us loads of 5th year seniors in about 2 more years.  Combine tons of 4th and 5th year talent with some truly gifted athletes here and there at playmaking positions on both sides of the ball and you can equalize young 5 star talent that is constantly turning over.

[Redhogs]

I hate to break it to people, but we are simply not a Top Ten destination school. We have never been and likely will never be. The state is too small and produces too few athletes compared to the other states in the SEC. This is a brute fact of demographics. If we had twice the population we would have twice the prospects. We are in the middle of the pack in population compared to all the states in the United States, we are dead last of the states in the Southeast Conference.

So we have to do the best we can do with the cards dealt us. It isn't settling; it is a matter of playing those cards more intelligently than others play theirs. We have to try and find the hidden gems that the schools from more populous states miss. We try to get better assistant coaches than most of the other schools in the conference. We try to steal a few players from those states that can't take every top prospect in their state.

If we were a conference that played schools in Idaho and North Dakota and Wyoming the situation would be reversed, but it is what it is. It is easy to say that we need to be in the top ten each year in recruiting, but it is going to prove nearly impossible to pull off. The fact is that we've done a great job lately, consistently getting in the Top 30. That is simply the reality of Arkansas football. The only thing that would change matters would be causing the population to double. I think it is remarkable how many years we have been competitive nationally in football despite the challenges we face as a program. Historically, we have had to rely on getting better headcoaches than many of the other schools. Like Broyles, Lou Holtz, and Bobby Petrino (yes, he was not a good recruiter, but the man was a master at offensive football). And Bielema. I know some like to bellyache about him, but other schools recognize that he is a very high quality coach. He does a great job of compensating for the late of instate football talent and he allows a lot fewer of the top players to leave the state than most.

But people want to imagine that we ought to be doing better in recruiting, when the fact is that we will never do much better in recruiting. Frank Broyles had to overcome this disadvantage when he was in charge. Whoever replaces Beilema whenever he leaves will also face it. We have offered only four instate players this year: Agim, Capps, Hammonds and Jordan Jones.  Four!!! Imagine if the state had produced 12 major Division One players. Only when the state does that year in and year out can we talk about Top Ten recruiting classes. Until then, we are going to have continue keeping most of our best players instate while enticing a few top prospect from out of states to come while looking for hidden gems around the country. What we have now is what we will always have. But, over time we've had more success than what we ought to have had given the burdens placed upon us. Hopefully we will continue to. We've often been just  below the top tier in the SEC, whereas our recruiting disadvantages ought to place us dead last. And yes, I would rather we had 40 instate prospects that everyone wanted instead of less than 10, or better, more than 100 instate prospects that people wanted, like Florida. But I personally get a lot of satisfaction pulling for the underdog. It makes those times when we improbably manage to run with the big boys all that more satisfying.

Oklahoma and Oregon did not get your memo.....