CATS LAND COMMIT NO. 8
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
Wow, I was in Milford last night. I like to think I had something to do with this.
Welcome Connor!
Welcome Connor!
The quickie story...
Northwestern landed its third straight offensive lineman, three-star tackle Connor Foster of Milford (Ohio).
Northwestern's OL run continues with Foster's commitment
Northwestern landed its third straight offensive lineman, three-star tackle Connor Foster of Milford (Ohio).
Northwestern's OL run continues with Foster's commitment
Time to put the full court press on Carpenter. Another Cincy area gem of an OL prospect.
GOUNUII
Yes, thank God for the facilities. How else would we have lured him from such P5 conference powers as Purdue, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
Nice welcome. Sometimes it’s better to say nothing if you can’t find anything good to say.
Expecting the uptick in recruiting we were told would come with the facility upgrade, a Top 5 facility in all of college football we’re told, makes me a bad fan, hm? Okay.
Don’t recall me calling for a coach’s head the last 10 years, personally criticizing players, or bitching about donating $600 per year to get a parking pass next to the stadium. But yeah, I guess this is the flavor of the day now.
Can someone who likes to review all the game tape, offers and such tell me how many kids we’ve been beaten out for by Kentucky, Purdue and Vanderbilt over last 10 years? Is THIS the number we were hoping to improve? This facility didn’t just drop of the sky unexpectedly, surprising everyone. It’s been promoted and shown to kids for years. You think kids who redshirted in 2017, when they were being recruited three years ago, weren’t being shown pictures and told their careers would play out with this as their home? If they weren’t, and THIS is the reason most of our recruits now have zero to a few low to middle of the pack P5 offers before committing to NU, then shame on the coaches. But bad fan as I am, I don’t think this is on them.
Maybe, just maybe, a source behind Fitz’s rant last weekend was the fact that he’s realizing that this facility isn’t doing what he hoped it would, and is recognizing it is something else (eggheaded apathetic student fan base) that is making kids go elsewhere.
It’s a fan message board PPD. Not a sycophantic tribute page. Bake him cookies and effuse praise on his Twitter page if you’re so inclined.
So your defense is essentially: "Yeah, I might be crapping on a high school kid who just decided to commit to play at Northwestern because I don't like his offer list, but at least I haven't bitched about other stuff for the past couple years!"
Starting to think fans like you are the reason Fitz went on his rant in the first place.
Really? He isn’t seeing an empty seat when he looks up at where I sit every single game for the last 30 seasons.
But if he is going to keep touting Big Ten West titles and BT Championships as the goal, then we need to beating out the schools who have been getting those titles for kids.
And once again, I’ll say it. For all I know, Connor will be in the NFL in three years as a first round draft choice. I hope he will and it’s as likely to me as any five star kid doing it. Frankly, I don’t have the ability to review tape and see all the promise all the posters who love every single tape of every kid who commits to NU.
This is NOT about the promise of individual kids. It’s about our recruiting pitch and how well it’s playing. You can all see the kids we are offering with Michigan, Notre Dame and Stanford offers. My expectation is that we’d be landing more of THESE kids now. Again, for all I know, Connor is better than any OL recruit any of these schools is going to land this class. But my complaint is that I don’t see the results of this facility making us a more attractive option to those schools’ commits to the point they are choosing us at any greater rate than they ever have.
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I'm thinking more the "get on board" part of his rant. You know, don't bitch about things that don't need bitching about.
We need good players to keep progressing toward winning divisional and conference titles. Foster is a good player. Did you bother doing even a cursory glance at his tape or anything else besides "HOLY CRAP HE DOESN'T HAVE OFFERS FROM ALABAMA AND OHIO STATE!!!! THE FACILITIES ARE POINTLESS!!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!!!!"?
He's a big, athletic kid on tape who's put on a bunch of weight since his junior season; it was mentioned in stories that he's now up to 280 and still looks skinny. He's got a frame to grow into the 6-7 320 OT that we haven't seen around Evanston in a long time. He was scheduled to visit Notre Dame in a couple weeks and likely would have gotten a bunch more offers when the Spring Evaluation period opens next week. And he's a 4.1/26 student on top of it all.
Get out of here with your mess.
If you have an issue with Fitz, take it up with him. Don't piss on some high school who arguably just made the biggest decision of his life to date (and a good choice).
Just watched his film. Absolutely giant athlete. Really moves well and has great hands and concentration. I'm pretty excited.
I personally have no problem with your prospective on expecting the facilities to play a larger part in helping us secure those with offers to ND, Stanford, Whisky etc. in fact, I have recently shared a concern that we seem to have had difficulty wrapping up some recent visitors that seem to be in our wheelhouse.
Having said that, my post alluded to your timing. This is the kids commitment post! You commented that you don’t take after the players, yet did exactly that by using his offer list to support your argument. You just as easily could have started a good discussion on your exact concern in another post without crapping on this kids moment.
Isn't this the high school that Gil Thorp coaches? He is able to put out consistently good talent!
Welcome Connor ! Great choice and great to have you aboard. ( BTW, if you have read through the thread, Darthcat is atypical of our fan base. His handle speaks for itself )
Without fans - all of them - Fitz is waiting tables when not volunteering to coach at his alma mater. So let him bitch - we bitch about him too. I doubt either party will experience any measurable response from the other.
‘Nuff said. Another 6-7 giant in the Zach Strief mold would be fantastic! Welcome aboard, Connor!
We’ve got another 2021 kid on the OL at Milford to keep an eye on.
He’s already camped at NU and is great family friends with Zach Strief and Connor.
Then you probably know Zach Carpenter too? Milford kid playing for Moeller who also has interest in NU.
Sorry but I'm just sorta ok with this commitment as all of our OL recruits were passed over by most major colleges. The way I figure, recruiters are true professionals of the trade, so why only Vandy, Purdue, and other programs that are lower than NU offered? I'm not saying this guy can't be the next Anthony Munoz but only a few professional recruiters offered this kid. The good news is that some of our recruits, including him, do have at least a couple power 5 offers and we aren't competing with Hofstra and Brown as much this year. This class is shaping up as another x >50 class. Nothing wow so I'm a bit disappointed since we have such wonderful practice facililties. Personally, I think Fitz needs to be the one to step up recruiting and not just fans stepping up according to him. I know this perspective is not going to be popular but most of the objective members of the board have been run off by pollyannas. Go ahead claim this kid is Zack Strief and I'll claim Cushing is as solid as Aaron Kromer.
You speak the truth. Haven't seen the "game changer" recruits from Taj Fitz yet. So far, another year of slightly better than average kids who may grow into solid players. Not exactly JJTBC or Godwin Iggy or Clay Thorson who are all future NFLers.
Keep in mind, Connor is a tight end and really wanted to play TE in college, but Purdue was the only P5 school to offer him for that. Other schools discussed OL, but until very recently, Connor didn’t really want to play on the OL.
There is no film on him playing T, so that’s why his offers appear to be lesser.
Kid is an athlete and knows the value of a NU education.
I trust you’ll be pleased with this pick up in 2-3 years.
