State Champions = Better recruits? Sorry Fitz, how about City Players?

[Turk]

It seems to me that when Fitz was introducing his latest recruiting class, which I believe was another good job by Fitz, that he unnecessarily focused too much attention on the fact that almost half the players he got were on a team that went to the state championship.

I pretty much discounted that whole praise as I didn't really see where it was relevant to individual recruiting. Not saying I'm right, but can someone explain why this would take up an important part of the recruiting press conference? Much better, imo, would be to focus moreso on the individual talents of each player [which there are many], unless a particular player is the QB.

For instance, for Green, I would mention that he led his team to the state championship as their QB and was USA today Offensive player of the year in Missouri. QB's often get credit for leading teams, as well they should.

But an OL? DL? DB? I don't personally see any position, other than QB or a really really really good running back, that can lead a team into a state championship.

At any rate, I guess we are #1 with players recruited who also went to their state championship games. But what does that mean?

This post was edited on 2/10 7:57 AM by Turk

This post was edited on 2/10 9:49 AM by Turk

 

[kreggk]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?

Better coached / learn systems, techniques, etc. - head start at next levelDevelop winning habits in HS / bring these habits with themCompeting at state championship level requires a higher level of talent (team-wide) - therefore, it isn't surprising that a lot of these talented recruits are on championship teamsThere are more...

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?


There really is nothing about which NU fans won't complain.

Is it really a bad thing to have the top players from top programs? It never hurt anyone to have guys in the program who know how to/are used to winning.

 

[Turk]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?

I think it just shows that we have a lot of suburban players. I'm not saying that as a knock but most city teams don't have the resources for coaching or much less anything else in high school ball so they get spanked and almost never see state champ games.

I may be wrong but that's the first general image I got when Fitz said he had a lot of state champ kids. Nothing against Suburban players but I will generally say they aren't as tough [insert softer here] as city players unless they went to some Catholic powerhouse out in a suburb, regardless of what state or city. That's not to say there aren't any tough suburban players, but my hunch is that, if they are tough/dirty/mean, that it's most likely a result of their father being raised in a city.

Hey, I know what I'm saying isn't scientific and that someone can point out boatloads of tough suburban players, I'm just saying I would rather have a city player as tough as a junkyard dog, but on a team that went 2-8, OVER a suburban kid who won a state championship...if all other things are equal.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?

They are also tend to play more games, practice more, etc.

 

[Turk]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?

The inequity in High School football, imo, challenges your views. When was the last time any city team won a state championship? I've watched Maine South for years. It is long considered a top program due to Charlie Bliss and Inserra, and before that the other head coach [forget his name]. I watched them absolutely dismantle and clobber a few city teams which has players on them who were ranked as consistent 4 stars and 5 stars.

So when I think "State Champ", I think suburban schools, or Catholic schools. Given that Illinois is our own recruiting base, I thought that Fitz would have had greater success recruiting city players. I understand that the academic curriculum at some shitty high schools may limit the potential for a player to come to NU, but there are many players in the city of Chicago which either could come here, or should be otherwise considered based on their academic potential as well.

Having 'state champ' players is almost meaningless to me. It would really show advancement if he could say "Today we signed more public league players than my history". I heard a player say that we simply don't have any mean players on the team. Talented, athletic, etc., but not mean as hell. It's tough to get someone who is tough and mean if they were raised on silver spoons.

I watch it almost in every NU game. We are winning, but other teams are meaner and get that extra yard or that extra TD to steal our victories. We need some mean as hell players. Smart, but mean and tough as well. We've had some but we need more.

Maybe my views of the image of "State Champ" is wrong, but other images are in sore need of a tune up. The image of NU football in the city of Chicago, particularly city high schools is non existent. That needs to change. And I think NU needs to do a better job canvasing the city of Chicago in football and BB, and advocate a internal program/structure that allows those gifted athletes who are also very smart, but under the ceiling of a shitty high school, to be a part of our program. Otherwise, I'd say that NU is stuck up. They need to do what they can to reach out, or do a better job of reaching out, to city players, and develop a pathway to enable and overcome any challenges NOT due to the IQ of the player, but due to the lack of resources in the high school.
This post was edited on 2/10 9:48 AM by Turk

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?


What's your point? That we should recruit city kids just because they're city kids? Fitz mentioning our recruits winning state championships is nothing more than a feather in their respective caps, not any kind of differentiator amongst them as players or prospects.

You really don't think we try to recruit kids from the city of Chicago and the Public League? We had two coaches dedicated exclusively to recruitingi n the Public League. That's a whole lot of resources. The problem is that high-quality players with the academic credentials to get into NU are very VERY few and far between.

 

[pawildcat]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?

I'm pretty certain Northwestern already lowers its acceptance standards somewhat for football players. If a kid is borderline and we can work with him, fine. I believe in giving kids a chance, and I think we've done that.

If a young man is in true academic disarray and needs remedial help, he should consider the academy or CC route to get him the help he needs. If he truly does have a reasonable IQ and is willing to put in the work necessary, he's got a shot at pulling himself up. Northwestern is probably not a place you want to try to undo 12 years of poor schooling. I'll leave it to the admissions department to figure whether they think someone has what it takes to do adequate work at NU.

If having high academic standards is "stuck up," I'm all for being stuck up.

By the way, I've seen kids from dots on the map in Pe. who will rattle your teeth as well as any city kid. I think Brad Phillips put some pretty good shots on people when he was at NU. Do Yates and his OL buddy, the kids from Oak Park-River Forest, right on the border of Chicago, count as city kids? Did we have more city kids when we went 10-3 than when we went 5-7?

This post was edited on 2/10 11:48 AM by pawildcat

 

[Catreporter]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?

Fact is, most of the great athletes in the city choose to play basketball, not football. The city has only a handful of solid football programs. The rest are run on a shoestring. Then throw in the academics and you can see why we don't get many players out of the public league (the last was Corbin Bryant-Morgan Park). By the way, many of the Catholic School programs pull some of the best football players out of the city. Lots of African-American families in the suburbs as well. This is not the 1950s.

 

[Katatonic]

Re: State Champions = Better recruits?

Same thing for NYC and Philly, as well as Balt and DC.

In the NYC metro area, it's pretty much all NJ (might be a few on LI or suburban NY, but NJ really dominates when it comes to producing D1 caliber players).