We shouldn't keep high hopes for that, though. Charlie will pick who he wants, and the ones who like Charlie's ways of doing it will be the ones who will come to us. He recruits differently than everybody else. We will offer only after the coaches see the junior film, do spring evaluations, and in some cases wait for senior year film if it's needed. They will wait till they are convinced, regardless of what the recruiting rankings say in any given year (as that is bound to change till January 2017). So, you will see some 3-star guys being offered and some taking it up too.
But Charlie will only do it at his own pace, and won't be held hostage to the schedule that other coaches keep, when they all continue to try to be Mack Brown who pioneered the junior year recruiting style and won an NC with (and went 66-6 or whatever!). That doesn't work much anymore, and CS will turn the table on people. Once again, Texas will lead the way on how recruiting should be done.
At least from this year onward, most players won't get cheesed off about delayed offers and lack of contact at times etc, because they know that is how he does it. Many of these top-200 players who became die-hard unshakeble commits this January had had their issues at times with how Charlie was doing this, but in the end, by January, they all figured out that there was a plan behind it and that it is not any game being played. They know that it is nothing personal and that once Charlie and staff are convinced they will show love and you can't say no to them
... They are convinced about you, and you better be convinced about them. Well, if you aren't convinced and go away, then you just may not be the kind of guy who will fit Charlie's family of players who are a team together and on a singular mission.
So, you can bet that Charlie will not have some of the top-10 guys in Texas. he will find others who are generally as good. I will be surprised if CS ends up with top-3 type classes. We could win 12 or 13 this year, and still may only land a top-8 class. But that class will have as good or better talent and more importantly better fit than a top-3 class he could have had, if he did it like other coaches do. Charlie won't change easily. I am convinced now, especially after this latest recruiting cycle.
It was refreshing to hear Charlie talk yesterday about how he picked Andrew Fitzgerald. "I turned the film on, and immediately said we need this guy". That was when he was in nobody's radar. He had an earlier offer and committed earlier, than many other higher rated players we offered later. But he finished his senior year and his ranking shot up. And after the all-star game, he made the largest ranking jump of anybody this January itself, up from national-300 to national top-100. Some now think he should be top-25 but it is too late to re-rank him. But the head coach sitting down and watching film to pick somebody, rather than follow the myriad recruiting evaluations, is kinda refreshing to hear of, these days... It's old school recruiting.
As for 2017, you can see that we offered Lagarryon from Texarkana earlier than many others rated higher in the Texas top-20 at the beginning of their junior year. But he has gone up now at the end of the junior year and many think he will end up as even a national top-20 player (Texas top-3) after his senior year. Good to have him already committed. CS is not as convinced of many others in the Texas top-30 and will wait to see more on them. He will wait even till the end of the year to be convinced. He knows he can convince them as long as he is convinced of them, even with only 2 weeks or even 2 days! The guy is supremely confident of that.
Ehlinger is a 3-star QB now (barely top-50 in texas), but watch his junior tape, and you will see that he may even be better than Shawn Robinson. We offered Robinson also, but we were convinced of Ehlinger earlier, and had him all wrapped up. Robinson actually had an inexplicably poor junior year, meanwhile, though his ranking hasn't dropped that terribly (but he fell from 5-star status). Stuff like that is the norm for Charlie.
Re-rank Charlie classes' even a year after they are in college, and you will see that they were under-ranked. Heck, his 2011 class at UL was barely top-25, but got re-ranked on productivity as a top-5 four years later with so many NFL picks. That has been the case for 5 of the last 6 classes he has recruited as a head coach (except the 2014 class at Texas for which he only got 2 weeks of recruiting time). That will be the case with the 7th class (2016) that he just brought in. That will be the case for the 2017 class too. We have a good start and we may finish top-5, but if we do, it will be better than the top class because the lower-rated players he picked that brings down the class ranking may be much better. Also because the chance for a top ranked guy being unproductive (because he didn't buy into working hard with CS and his team on what he is trying to do) is much less. Count on it. When he has done it every damn time in recruiting at UL and UT, it is no fluke, and it will continue to be the case
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