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Jesus Christ...

Stefan Claiborne has now decommitted. He is planning on camping at Michigan State, Ohio State, Pitt, and more.

(05-31-2015 08:23 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  The word is out, about Fleck and Co. The big boys look at who he's offering and then swoop in. I hope Coach Fleck has some tricks up his sleeve.

Yeah, this is brutal. Eight months to go and everyone's cheating off our test.

Junior McMullen found out what a few of these guys are going to find out. Holding out for bigger and better only works if bigger wants you, and when you don't you wind up 500 miles away at a school trying to cobble together three wins.

(06-02-2015 12:19 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Junior McMullen found out what a few of these guys are going to find out. Holding out for bigger and better only works if bigger wants you, and when you don't you wind up 500 miles away at a school trying to cobble together three wins.

I think we are in a "doldrums" transition year. The reality is we ARE a glamorous, prestigious place. Recruits haven't totally grasped that yet. Those who come and get a glimpse of it from the inside will love it here. But they have to have the faith in them at a level deeper than hype.

(06-02-2015 12:33 PM)Dirty Ernie Wrote:  

(06-02-2015 12:19 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Junior McMullen found out what a few of these guys are going to find out. Holding out for bigger and better only works if bigger wants you, and when you don't you wind up 500 miles away at a school trying to cobble together three wins.

I think we are in a "doldrums" transition year. The reality is we ARE a glamorous, prestigious place. Recruits haven't totally grasped that yet. Those who come and get a glimpse of it from the inside will love it here. But they have to have the faith in them at a level deeper than hype.

WMU is an impressive, prestigious and glamorous place. These decommits should have no reflection on the quality of the program. PJ and his staff are top notch coaches and people. It's just a part of the process and indicative of the age and maturity level of these players...and possibly the early stages that they made their commitments. They are still kids, trying to make good decisions and sometimes they make a decision too soon without having had the opportunity to explore other opportunities. Who can fault them for being excited about WMU but then a few months down the road, their "dream school" starts paying attention and they want to hear what they have to say too. The pressure these kids are under is actually pretty intense. It's a very emotional process. If you aren't walking in their shoes...you can just never know what it's like for them. Just my thoughts, from inside the process as a parent.

A lot of recruits think they have s bird in the hand. So they soft commit or decommit to shop the P5s believing that that fall position will ALWAYS be there. Like McMullen, a lot of coaches (Fleck and Cubit) will only deal with that drama for so long and then they move on to others.

Western gets a commitment from OL Jordan Asbury. 6 other offers.

Some much needed good news...

Western Michigan has received a commitment from Warren (Mich.) De La Salle OL Jordan Asbury

Twitter says 6'4, 270. Had an offer from Northwestern.

We'll get more than our share of the talent. As for the folks who depart because they were luke-warm on WMU in the first place, too bad. Frankly, we don't need folks like that in our program. I've seen too many of them over the years get bypassed for a starters job by some kid who next to nobody recruited but he really WANTED to be at Western. Seen it many, many times. Talent projections are at best a crap shoot, except for the very top athletes-and we don't get them anyway.

Thats good! With all the decommit its good to hear we get a commit.

(06-02-2015 05:42 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  We'll get more than our share of the talent. As for the folks who depart because they were luke-warm on WMU in the first place, too bad. Frankly, we don't need folks like that in our program. I've seen too many of them over the years get bypassed for a starters job by some kid who next to nobody recruited but he really WANTED to be at Western. Seen it many, many times. Talent projections are at best a crap shoot, except for the very top athletes-and we don't get them anyway.

That sounds noble but it's really not true. Babin really wanted to go to MSU and would have were it not for a knee injury his senior year.

Jennings was UM bound until they ditched him over academic issues.

Outside of kids who want early PT few come to MAC schools because of a perceived loyalty.

(06-02-2015 06:16 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(06-02-2015 05:42 PM)BroncoPhilly Wrote:  We'll get more than our share of the talent. As for the folks who depart because they were luke-warm on WMU in the first place, too bad. Frankly, we don't need folks like that in our program. I've seen too many of them over the years get bypassed for a starters job by some kid who next to nobody recruited but he really WANTED to be at Western. Seen it many, many times. Talent projections are at best a crap shoot, except for the very top athletes-and we don't get them anyway.

That sounds noble but it's really not true. Babin really wanted to go to MSU and would have were it not for a knee injury his senior year.

Jennings was UM bound until they ditched him over academic issues.

Outside of kids who want early PT few come to MAC schools because of a perceived loyalty.

The lack of loyalty, not sure that's the right word, goes both ways. In the two examples above, did MSU and UM show loyalty to Babin and Jennings? No, they did not. Whereas we WERE there for them, and we showcased them in ways that lead to NFL careers. My take is WMU has been more loyal, over the years, than many schools.

(06-02-2015 10:35 AM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  Stefan Claiborne has now decommitted. He is planning on camping at Michigan State, Ohio State, Pitt, and more.

WMU was reportedly looking at him as a Safety. Does he want to play WR somewhere?

(06-02-2015 08:36 PM)Hiller4Hyz09 Wrote:  

(06-02-2015 10:35 AM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  Stefan Claiborne has now decommitted. He is planning on camping at Michigan State, Ohio State, Pitt, and more.

WMU was reportedly looking at him as a Safety. Does he want to play WR somewhere?

Illinois just offered him.

I think we are seeing some fundamental differences in recruiting strategies used by Fleck, versus how Cubit would recruit. I think they both have merit, however I think that the extra energy that Fleck is using can have greater impact on pulling those higher quality of athlete over time...

I feel like Cubit would sit back during most of the early recruiting stages and actual WAIT for talent to fall to him either through kids who had some injury their senior season and bigger schools backed off, or he would follow kids, show commitment and wait. This resulted in quite a few talented players falling to the Broncos, sure, but we didn't see this level of de-commit because he never really raged the trail early like Fleck and staff are...

Now Fleck, albeit taking MUCH more energy and time... is out blazing trails and knocking on doors to kids who likely respond immediately with "Western what? Western Michigan?". He's getting tons of kids on board, and spreading the WMU mantra all over the place... This can only do good things for the future of the program... even after Fleck leaves... I loved having Cubit as our coach, he really put a fine face on this program during his years... and I am not using this as a way to beat down our old coach, but to show some fundamental differences in how they recruit... and why we are getting antsy these days about de-commits... I can't believe we had that many actual commits this early....

I see good things on the horizon... and I think that there isn't a coach out there that has more energy on the recruiting trail than our fearless boat rowing leader! #RTB!

(06-03-2015 08:59 AM)flushtheherd Wrote:  I think we are seeing some fundamental differences in recruiting strategies used by Fleck, versus how Cubit would recruit. I think they both have merit, however I think that the extra energy that Fleck is using can have greater impact on pulling those higher quality of athlete over time...

I feel like Cubit would sit back during most of the early recruiting stages and actual WAIT for talent to fall to him either through kids who had some injury their senior season and bigger schools backed off, or he would follow kids, show commitment and wait. This resulted in quite a few talented players falling to the Broncos, sure, but we didn't see this level of de-commit because he never really raged the trail early like Fleck and staff are...

Now Fleck, albeit taking MUCH more energy and time... is out blazing trails and knocking on doors to kids who likely respond immediately with "Western what? Western Michigan?". He's getting tons of kids on board, and spreading the WMU mantra all over the place... This can only do good things for the future of the program... even after Fleck leaves... I loved having Cubit as our coach, he really put a fine face on this program during his years... and I am not using this as a way to beat down our old coach, but to show some fundamental differences in how they recruit... and why we are getting antsy these days about de-commits... I can't believe we had that many actual commits this early....

I see good things on the horizon... and I think that there isn't a coach out there that has more energy on the recruiting trail than our fearless boat rowing leader! #RTB!

lap dog

I think that in 2015 we no longer need to compare anything between Fleck and Cubit.

(06-03-2015 09:06 AM)broncofan1 Wrote:  I think that in 2015 we no longer need to compare anything between Fleck and Cubit.

I used the Cubit comparison to to give context to how we are getting all antsy about de-commits this early... and how we never really dealt with that before... nothing more.

(06-03-2015 09:24 AM)flushtheherd Wrote:  

(06-03-2015 09:06 AM)broncofan1 Wrote:  I think that in 2015 we no longer need to compare anything between Fleck and Cubit.

I used the Cubit comparison to to give context to how we are getting all antsy about de-commits this early... and how we never really dealt with that before... nothing more.

Good analysis providing context. Some would rather just move on because it was pointed out that Kristof, Beavers, Terrell, Moten, Zamort, Currie and Celiscar and some others came from the previous staff.