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Wake Forest Football Recruiting

It seems like the staff is trying to put together an all-conference sun belt team. It makes sense to me. If you went through a g5 conference and cherry picked all their best players, then you would have a heck of a team.

Mix that in with some of the higher rated players and I don't see why Clawson can't win games.
 
I mean, by all accounts, Stanford has the same level of expectations as Wake, if not higher in terms of academics, character, etc, and they are able to reel in top 20 classes in the country. We've got a really long way to go before we can start comparing Wake football to Stanford, but shouldn't we aspire for that level of success?

The declining perceived quality of recruits is concerning to me. Many top coaches, including Meyer, Franklin, etc. have said how much pride and competitiveness they have in "winning" the recruiting rankings - i.e. recruiting kids that fit their systems and ending up with the highest possible ranked class. As competitive as Clawson is, it's very surprising to me he seems to not care at all about this.
 
One more thought for today. If Wake continues its trend of not taking on P5 programs late in the process I will miss some of the memorable recruiting moments that have happened over the past few years. It’s been fun to celebrate with everyone on this thread. Some of my favorite January/February moments:

Beating out Mizzou at the very last minute for Arkeem Byrd. For me, that was my #1 most memorable moment just because of the way it unfolded.

Beating out Iowa for Jessie Bates, despite the fact that Wake and Iowa started recruiting Bates at roughly the same time.

When Greg Dortch cancelled his official visit to Maryland just hours after the staff firmed up his commitment during his official visit to Wake.

Outhustling Vanderbilt for Waydale Jones.

Rocky’s Reid’s commitment.

Getting confirmation that Wake had solidified Nathan Gilliam after Mississippi State had made him their top target (regardless of position).

Although we didn’t land him, Wake fans going all out on Twitter for Quarvez Boulware deserves mention as well. That was great stuff.
 
Deac94 said:
One more thought for today. If Wake continues its trend of not taking on P5 programs late in the process I will miss some of the memorable recruiting moments that have happened over the past few years. It’s been fun to celebrate with everyone on this thread. Some of my favorite January/February moments:

Beating out Mizzou at the very last minute for Arkeem Byrd. For me, that was my #1 most memorable moment just because of the way it unfolded.

Beating out Iowa for Jessie Bates, despite the fact that Wake and Iowa started recruiting Bates at roughly the same time.

When Greg Dortch cancelled his official visit to Maryland just hours after the staff firmed up his commitment during his official visit to Wake.

Outhustling Vanderbilt for Waydale Jones.

Rocky’s Reid’s commitment.

Getting confirmation that Wake had solidified Nathan Gilliam after Mississippi State had made him their top target (regardless of position).

Although we didn’t land him, Wake fans going all out on Twitter for Quarvez Boulware deserves mention as well. That was great stuff.
Click to expand...

But now we can gloat big time over App, Coastal, and Mercer! Such fun!
 
For Clawson to go over the projected scholly limit now means that the staff must really like the recruits that just committed. I have no doubt that Clawson and his staff are better, smarter, work harder and are more adept at determining who's game is most likely to translate to the major college level than other coaching staffs (if not, than WF is in trouble because if WF just simply offers the same guys as the Power V conference guys do; that's not a long term winning recruiting strategy for WF). Clawson simply doesn't GAF who else has offered a player, if he sees something that he likes in a recruit, he doesn't need the affirmation by other Power V programs.

Also, wouldn't be surprised if part of Clawson's strategy with this late flurry of commits just before the December singing period is to get these guys signed before other Power V schools start sniffing around. Pretty common that once WF is on a recruit doesn't take long for other programs to starting flirting as well.
 
tigerswood said:
I mean, by all accounts, Stanford has the same level of expectations as Wake, if not higher in terms of academics, character, etc, and they are able to reel in top 20 classes in the country. We've got a really long way to go before we can start comparing Wake football to Stanford, but shouldn't we aspire for that level of success?

The declining perceived quality of recruits is concerning to me. Many top coaches, including Meyer, Franklin, etc. have said how much pride and competitiveness they have in "winning" the recruiting rankings - i.e. recruiting kids that fit their systems and ending up with the highest possible ranked class. As competitive as Clawson is, it's very surprising to me he seems to not care at all about this.
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This is the key point. Thank you tigerswood. There's more to recruiting than just getting players who can serve their purpose. It's an entire game within a game. A recruiting ranking establishes a program's place in the P5 hierarchy. Some of us, and at least me, have aspired for Wake to become a well regarded mid level FB program and not continue being "the little engine that could". Now if you buy into the old timer rj and bkf mindset of lowf that Wake will never be able to achieve that goal for institutional reasons then, yeah, Wake taking Sunbelt recruits and winning seven games is a great coup. On the other hand, if we have to stoop to that level, not for one or two overlooked prospects but for the bread and butter of our team, we have not really achieved anything. We have not elevated our *program*. I will see success when (a) it is sustained over at least a decade and across multiple coaches; and (b) we are recruiting players at a moderately high level according to outside recruiting standards. I don't want to dignify comments such as those from UVa's smug coach that "Wake does a good job given their unique little recruiting base." I want US to establish a level playing field. We don't necessarily need the facilities we're building to secure the players we're currently signing. The facilities don't hurt, obviously, but they are not being used to elevate us into the P5 mainstream.
 
tigerswood said:
I mean, by all accounts, Stanford has the same level of expectations as Wake, if not higher in terms of academics, character, etc, and they are able to reel in top 20 classes in the country. We've got a really long way to go before we can start comparing Wake football to Stanford, but shouldn't we aspire for that level of success?

The declining perceived quality of recruits is concerning to me. Many top coaches, including Meyer, Franklin, etc. have said how much pride and competitiveness they have in "winning" the recruiting rankings - i.e. recruiting kids that fit their systems and ending up with the highest possible ranked class. As competitive as Clawson is, it's very surprising to me he seems to not care at all about this.
Click to expand...

Is this from quotes you've read by Clawson or from the speculation and rationalization on this board?
 
Pilchard said:
For Clawson to go over the projected scholly limit now means that the staff must really like the recruits that just committed. I have no doubt that Clawson and his staff are better, smarter, work harder and are more adept at determining who's game is most likely to translate to the major college level than other coaching staffs (if not, than WF is in trouble because if WF just simply offers the same guys as the Power V conference guys do; that's not a long term winning recruiting strategy for WF). Clawson simply doesn't GAF who else has offered a player, if he sees something that he likes in a recruit, he doesn't need the affirmation by other Power V programs.

Also, wouldn't be surprised if part of Clawson's strategy with this late flurry of commits just before the December singing period is to get these guys signed before other Power V schools start sniffing around. Pretty common that once WF is on a recruit doesn't take long for other programs to starting flirting as well.
Click to expand...

This.

94, how many of those recruiting battles you mentioned got going after mid-December?
 
Neurodeac said:
Is this from quotes you've read by Clawson or from the speculation and rationalization on this board?
Click to expand...

This comes from posts by 94 and others who seem to be much more "in the know" than I am in terms of our FB recruiting strategy.
 
Given Dave Clawson's track record I trust him immensely. He has not shown anything that in my mind would cause me to doubt the fact that he knows exactly what he is doing.

If things go south on the field and these guys don't pan out then I will complain, but I'm simply not going to waste my time being concerned about what MIGHT happen when Claws has won everywhere he has been and has already turned Wake around.
 
Deac94 said:
One more thought for today. If Wake continues its trend of not taking on P5 programs late in the process I will miss some of the memorable recruiting moments that have happened over the past few years. It’s been fun to celebrate with everyone on this thread. Some of my favorite January/February moments:

Beating out Mizzou at the very last minute for Arkeem Byrd. For me, that was my #1 most memorable moment just because of the way it unfolded.

Beating out Iowa for Jessie Bates, despite the fact that Wake and Iowa started recruiting Bates at roughly the same time.

When Greg Dortch cancelled his official visit to Maryland just hours after the staff firmed up his commitment during his official visit to Wake.

Outhustling Vanderbilt for Waydale Jones.

Rocky’s Reid’s commitment.

Getting confirmation that Wake had solidified Nathan Gilliam after Mississippi State had made him their top target (regardless of position).

Although we didn’t land him, Wake fans going all out on Twitter for Quarvez Boulware deserves mention as well. That was great stuff.
Click to expand...

If I recall this correctly, and maybe I don't, I remember Wake got LB Brian Andrews to commit in 2002. He was offered by Ohio State among a slew of other P5s, but they all wanted him to play DE at 6'5, 235 as an 18 year old. Andrews wanted to stay at LB. Wake said he could play LB. He was buried on depth chart till his RS Jr. year, and he was finally moved to DE and was a starter or played a good amount of time on our Orange Bowl team.
 
PhDeac said:
This.

94, how many of those recruiting battles you mentioned got going after mid-December?
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All of them. Whether we were playing offense or defense, it didn't really get going until mid-December or early January. Maybe Rocky Reid would be an exception as Wake recruited him while he was committed to Tennessee.

But this cycle I think all coaching staffs started going through their options and targets for the end game earlier in the process given the earlier signing date.
 
Exactly. So we're trying to lock up players who would be getting late P5 interest.
 
Pilchard said:
For Clawson to go over the projected scholly limit now means that the staff must really like the recruits that just committed. I have no doubt that Clawson and his staff are better, smarter, work harder and are more adept at determining who's game is most likely to translate to the major college level than other coaching staffs (if not, than WF is in trouble because if WF just simply offers the same guys as the Power V conference guys do; that's not a long term winning recruiting strategy for WF). Clawson simply doesn't GAF who else has offered a player, if he sees something that he likes in a recruit, he doesn't need the affirmation by other Power V programs.

Also, wouldn't be surprised if part of Clawson's strategy with this late flurry of commits just before the December singing period is to get these guys signed before other Power V schools start sniffing around. Pretty common that once WF is on a recruit doesn't take long for other programs to starting flirting as well.
Click to expand...

I doubt Wake is going over the scholly limit. Much more likely that a few players informed the staff after the season that they were leaving the team. Less likely, but still possible, is that one or two of the recruits is a greyshirt.
 
Will be interesting to see how many guys we lock up in the early signing period. I would guess we are trying as hard as possible to get them all signed.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Will be interesting to see how many guys we lock up in the early signing period. I would guess we are trying as hard as possible to get them all signed.
Click to expand...

A bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush. Lock up these guys and swing for the fences on a few in February.
 
One way to look at it is if this is really clawson's preferred recruiting strategy oh, then it wouldn't really transition to a big-time power 5 school. Maybe he really does mean it when he says he is at wake for good
 
dreadthedeacs said:
Checking up on Laronji Vason, I found this interesting nugget from January 2017:

What was the biggest obstacle in your life you had to overcome, and how did you overcome it?

Not being able to got to wake forest because they didn’t accept 2 of my high school classes and I over came it by not giving up and sticking with the dream of playing ball.

https://www.nfldraftdiamonds.com/laronji-vason-db-university-of-west-georgia/
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This is a very powerful statement.
I never heard the real reason Laronji didn't come to Wake at the last minute, but for a highly rated recruit/player to say several years later that he really regretted not getting into Wake is something.
In hindsight, I really wish he'd been a Deac.
Today, I wish him the best at what he does.
 
ChrisL68 said:
One way to look at it is if this is really clawson's preferred recruiting strategy oh, then it wouldn't really transition to a big-time power 5 school. Maybe he really does mean it when he says he is at wake for good
Click to expand...

Unless this strategy is a response to recruiting at Wake. He might prefer going after the guys he really wants, knowing that Football U will recruit itself. It seems part of the algorithm is identifying talent that you will be able to get to commit and not wasting time where we are unlikely to get a commit.
Regardless, I think we are all now grateful he is here now. Let's enjoy the ride. He seems to be a good fit here.
 
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