Question about the last three years of recruiting

[BanditVol]

Here is how many commits we have had the last three years...

2011 - 27
2012 - 21
2013 - 21

I don't understand why we had back to back classes of 21 when we were hurting so bad talent wise?   It's really odd.  Maybe in 2012 we had to compensate for taking 27 in 2011 (but that should mean we could take 23?), but back to back classes of only 21 when we were hurting so bad?  

The only explanation I can come up with is that Dooley just recruited poorly in 2012 regardless of what the numbers game was, and Butch"fillers".  I think he may have given some of those schollies to walk ons also, but (a) it suxes that we had low numbers in back to back years when we are at our lowest talent level since at least 1988 (and more likely 1981 or so) and (b) wow, did Dooley sux!

Of course, the silver lining is that no doubt only taking 21 last year helps us with numbers this year, which might have been part of Butch's reasoning last year.

So does anyone else have an explanation why we would only take 21 in back to back years?  I can understand doing that one year, but not two in a row.  

[Black Diamond Vol]

Well I'm not sure about 2012, but as for last year, I think it was a combination of two things.  First of all, Dooley saw the writing on the wall pretty early on in the season, and basically just quit recruiting.  Second, the recruits saw the same thing and dropped us like a bad habit.  Do you realize that the last player to commit to Dooley (Reeves-Maybin) did so on August 10?  That's right, we went the entire season (and the 3 weeks before) without landing a single commitment.  

When Butch took over, we were sitting on 11 commits.  He did well to get us to 21 in little more than a month.  I'm sure he could have taken a few more marginal players to fill out the numbers, but like you said I think he wanted to save some schollies for this year's class.

[Clockwork Orange]

When Butch took over, we were sitting on 11 commits.  He did well to get us to 21 in little more than a month.  I'm sure he could have taken a few more marginal players to fill out the numbers, but like you said I think he wanted to save some schollies for this year's class.

Yep. This class is greatly benefiting from Butch's decision not to fill out the 2013 class with warm bodies.

[Black Diamond Vol]

Well I'm not sure about 2012, but as for last year, I think it was a combination of two things.  First of all, Dooley saw the writing on the wall pretty early on in the season, and basically just quit recruiting.  Second, the recruits saw the same thing and dropped us like a bad habit.  Do you realize that the last player to commit to Dooley (Reeves-Maybin) did so on August 10?  That's right, we went the entire season (and the 3 weeks before) without landing a single commitment.  

When Butch took over, we were sitting on 11 commits.  He did well to get us to 21 in little more than a month.  I'm sure he could have taken a few more marginal players to fill out the numbers, but like you said I think he wanted to save some schollies for this year's class.

Minor correction: Butch took the job on 12/7 (for some reason I was thinking 12/19), which means we only had nine commits when he took over.  NINE. There's little doubt in my mind that Dooley had pretty much checked out by mid-September.  Probably after that abortion of a game vs UF.

[BanditVol]

Minor correction: Butch took the job on 12/7 (for some reason I was thinking 12/19), which means we only had nine commits when he took over.  NINE. There's little doubt in my mind that Dooley had pretty much checked out by mid-September.  Probably after that abortion of a game vs UF.

Wow, yeah, that sheds some light.  Dooley basically quit recruiting last year and Butch had to salvage what he could.

I'm still a bit puzzled that we only took 21 in 2012 though...that still seems a couple too low.  But man...Dooley couldn't even get the min, apparently.     Ugh.

Well thank God Butch is doing so well this year.  This is a great start...1-2 more years like this and we could be fully back, at least in talent.    

[BanditVol]

I'm still a bit puzzled that we only took 21 in 2012 though...that still seems a couple too low.  But man...Dooley couldn't even get the min, apparently.     Ugh.

Oh yeah...now that I think about it, losing to UK for the first time in 28 years + 7 assistants leaving, and how could it not have been bad?  We should probably feel fortunate that it was somehow still ranked 17th on Rivals...by all rights it should have been worse, probably.   Recruiting was definitely going to shizzle under Dooley...at least Butch has corrected that. 

[Black Diamond Vol]

I assume that coaches' phone and travel records fall under the Sunshine law, right?  If some intrepid journalist were to request those things from Dooley's last season, it would probably shed some light on his recruiting tactics (or lack thereof).  We already have anecdotal evidence from guys like Jalen Hurd and Vonn Bell, who have stated that they were never even contacted by Dooley.  It would be interesting to see exactly what did or didn't go on between August and December of 2012, and compare it to what's going on in this year's recruiting cycle.  I bet we'd see some stark differences.