BeerNuggets Wrote:Here is a point for discussion. Does anyone think that our recruiting class was hurt by the uncertainty of when Coach Novak will retire? (The Joe Paterno factor?) If I were a kid and made my choice based on the coach, which I believe many of the NIU recruits do, then I would be worried about a coaching change midway through my 4-5years.

It's quite possible. However, I think our recruiting was hurt more by our mediocre performance last year, our getting blown out in the bowl game, and our disheartening loss in the 2005 MACC due in large part (IMO) to some poor coaching decisions - all on national TV.

Dog Fan Wrote:

BeerNuggets Wrote:Here is a point for discussion. Does anyone think that our recruiting class was hurt by the uncertainty of when Coach Novak will retire? (The Joe Paterno factor?) If I were a kid and made my choice based on the coach, which I believe many of the NIU recruits do, then I would be worried about a coaching change midway through my 4-5years.

It's quite possible. However, I think our recruiting was hurt more by our mediocre performance last year, our getting blown out in the bowl game, and our disheartening loss in the 2005 MACC due in large part (IMO) to some poor coaching decisions - all on national TV.

Well luckily the coach that held us back the most is gone! So thats a relief.

MaddDawgz02 Wrote:

rocketfootball Wrote:

MaddDawgz02 Wrote:Stop the presses, vandelay ranks Toledo as having an excellent class :) I didnt even have to read it to know that.

Did you look at all of his recruiting info. Since he has been doing this he has only ranked Toledo #1 one time. Even though he has Toledo rated as an excellent class, we are ranked 4th in the MAC in his rankings. Rivals has us #1 and Scout has us #3 in the MAC. Out of the 20 players we signed, 7 of them are rated three stars by either Rivals, Scout, or both and 11 of our 20 players had BCS offers (2nd only to Miami University). We signed two players that were committed to BCS schools (Kansas State and Minnesota), but signed with us instead. One of our signed running backs was the Division 1 Player of the Year in the State of Ohio both as a junior in 2005 and as a senior in 2006. He was rated four stars by Scout.com until they recently dropped him to three stars.

For anyone to not think it's an excellent class that is rated in the top four of the MAC would be absurd.

RF you have to learn to not take things so personal. Im just saying that Vandelay has NEVER reported anything negative about Toledo. It is a homer website, you can't deny that.

I'm not taking it personal, but I am sick and tired of everyone else in the MAC calling him a homer. He rarely picks Toledo as the best recruiting class and rarely picks us to win the MAC title. He's been known to pick us to lose a lot of games in his weekly predictions too. But everyone sees him as a Toledo homer for some reason because of his allegiance. And that is funny because I don't think anyone sees Dave as an EMU homer.

MaddDawgz02 Wrote:

BeerNuggets Wrote:I've read Nicks reviews for years, and sure he has homer tendencies for Toledo, wouldn't you have them for NIU if you were the person writing the reviews? Nick is only comparing the recruits against our other conference teams recruits. If they picked higher ranked kids, then ok, on paper, they had a better class. But he puts a positive spin on EVERY review, that's what I like about Nick's articles. You have to admit, the guy loves the MAC. And he flat out said that Coach Novak and his staff are unique talent evaluators that seem to find the kids who are late bloomers. That's enough for me. Nick does a great job, even for someone who went to Toledo. Keep writing them Nick, I find them very entertaining.

I do like the site also, Im just saying you have to take it with a grian of salt when every year Toledo is said to have a recuriting class best in the MAC. You can copy and paste their toledo reviews and ratings from any year and it will be teh same.

Again, he has only had Toledo with the best recruiting class once and this year he has us 4th. How is that putting Toledo as having the best recruiting class in the MAC every year?????

Dog Fan Wrote:

BeerNuggets Wrote:Here is a point for discussion. Does anyone think that our recruiting class was hurt by the uncertainty of when Coach Novak will retire? (The Joe Paterno factor?) If I were a kid and made my choice based on the coach, which I believe many of the NIU recruits do, then I would be worried about a coaching change midway through my 4-5years.

It's quite possible. However, I think our recruiting was hurt more by our mediocre performance last year, our getting blown out in the bowl game, and our disheartening loss in the 2005 MACC due in large part (IMO) to some poor coaching decisions - all on national TV.

I don't know about that. Toledo went 5-7 this year and didn't even play in the MACC the year before. Miami went 2-10 I believe this year. Yet both had very good recruiting classes. One off season is not going to kill your recruiting......and you at least still made it to a bowl game.

rocketfootball Wrote:

Dog Fan Wrote:

BeerNuggets Wrote:Here is a point for discussion. Does anyone think that our recruiting class was hurt by the uncertainty of when Coach Novak will retire? (The Joe Paterno factor?) If I were a kid and made my choice based on the coach, which I believe many of the NIU recruits do, then I would be worried about a coaching change midway through my 4-5years.

It's quite possible. However, I think our recruiting was hurt more by our mediocre performance last year, our getting blown out in the bowl game, and our disheartening loss in the 2005 MACC due in large part (IMO) to some poor coaching decisions - all on national TV.

I don't know about that. Toledo went 5-7 this year and didn't even play in the MACC the year before. Miami went 2-10 I believe this year. Yet both had very good recruiting classes. One off season is not going to kill your recruiting......and you at least still made it to a bowl game.

Yeah, but Toledo has Tom Amstutz. Enough said!

Dog Fan Wrote:

rocketfootball Wrote:

Dog Fan Wrote:

BeerNuggets Wrote:Here is a point for discussion. Does anyone think that our recruiting class was hurt by the uncertainty of when Coach Novak will retire? (The Joe Paterno factor?) If I were a kid and made my choice based on the coach, which I believe many of the NIU recruits do, then I would be worried about a coaching change midway through my 4-5years.

It's quite possible. However, I think our recruiting was hurt more by our mediocre performance last year, our getting blown out in the bowl game, and our disheartening loss in the 2005 MACC due in large part (IMO) to some poor coaching decisions - all on national TV.

I don't know about that. Toledo went 5-7 this year and didn't even play in the MACC the year before. Miami went 2-10 I believe this year. Yet both had very good recruiting classes. One off season is not going to kill your recruiting......and you at least still made it to a bowl game.

Yeah, but Toledo has Tom Amstutz. Enough said!

And Miami has Shane Montgomery. ;-)

Dog Fan Wrote:However, I think our recruiting was hurt more by our mediocre performance last year, our getting blown out in the bowl game, and our disheartening loss in the 2005 MACC due in large part (IMO) to some poor coaching decisions - all on national TV.

+1

Totally agree with this.

The blowout in the bowl game did not affect this year's recruiting as was 95% done by the bowl game. If there is any damage to recruiting from that game it will be next year and beyond. Remember we had a lot of early commitments this year, which we retained all but 1. These early commitments were before the year turned disappointing.

huskiebob Wrote:

Dog Fan Wrote:However, I think our recruiting was hurt more by our mediocre performance last year, our getting blown out in the bowl game, and our disheartening loss in the 2005 MACC due in large part (IMO) to some poor coaching decisions - all on national TV.

+1

Totally agree with this.

Most of our commitments were before the bowl game. It seemed like we had a lot of people verbal earlier than last year. This would leave me to believe that we are getting commitments from group A of recruiting. Schiller was a group B offer along with Thorgeson. Only time will tell. My only concern with so many early commits is are we setting out sights high enough. We offered Martez Wilson but probably did not follow up a lot with him. Maybe we need to pursue more heavily recruited players more.