He's also moved five players into the WR and OL positions recently.
That screams that there's a problem with the talent we've been recruiting at these positions!
Also screams, "It's not the coach's fault. It's the players!" What do you think about my last post, that it's very hard to see an entire position group collapse and think it has nothing to do with instruction.
Again, I don't put much stock in recruiting rankings or offers. Kyle Prater clearly should have been a 3-star at best, and he's not nearly as good as zero-star and 2-stars like Markshausen, Ebert, Peterman, and Lane. Possibly the best talent we've landed at WR was 2-star Fuessel, who had hardly any offers from BCS schools. Unfortunately, he no longer can play football and is pursuing a baseball career.
Oh, the Fuessel argument rears its head. Ifs and buts. He never played a down so we can't really say. If Drew Moulton had never played a down due to illness, people would have theorized that Drew would have been the best based on his camp performance that one year.
I realize that you have never put much stock in recruiting rankings, but you don't put any stock in offers?
We already know that Ebert and Peterman should have been higher than 2 stars, but they were under-recruited and didn't they both play out of position in H.S.?
As I said, the higher star ratings are based on offers and I think many offers deserve credence, but unfortunately--and we know this--the opposite is not true. If a guy is 2 star because of few offers, we have no idea if he's really a 2 star. In other words, I buy on the 4 stars more than I buy the 2 stars, especially if a guy was an early commit (he lost offers because schools stopped recruiting), if a guy was hurt, if a guy played out of position, if a guy played for a school with no exposure.
Nobody is arguing with you, least of all me, on these points.
Yeah, I think recruiting has been a problem and needs to be considered when evaluating the cause of poor WR and OL play. Even Fitz says this is so, and as you point out, it's apparent in our recruiting emphasis and position moves in the program. Again, we've moved 3 people to WR and two DL to the OL!!! Hard to deny there isn't a significant talent issue here.
My suggestion is to compare how the coach's position group fared with better recruits vs. how he fares with lesser recruits. If the disparity is too great, then Fitz should at worst consider the assistant's teaching methods. Is he doing that? No way to know without asking. I just might ask around and I think more people should. Fitz doesn't really like it, but he usually does answer my emails (or Cody does).
What we have seen for sure is that Fitz thinks it's the players' fault and that's why he's devoting so much resources in that direction.[/QUOTE]