(10-10-2021 10:52 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: Interesting how Pera's shotgun approach is diametrically opposed to the minimalist concept used by Bloomgren. To this point, it looks like a huge talent advantage to MBB's theory.
The thing is that Pera's shotgun approach hasn't necessarily worked, even if this year's team looks to be the best we've had in a few years. Instead, he's just proven to be tidy at scouting and projecting. You typically use the Bryant "offer as many people as possible" strategy to maximize your opportunity to lure in somebody who might have more attractive offers (e.g., pitching Rice to 40 guys with power conference offers might be more successful than pitching it to 15 guys) or to target guys who you expect to blow up. Excluding Pera's first real recruiting class (Mullins, Murphy, Peterson, Osborne, Moore): Sheffield's best offer was probably from James Madison, Poteat's best offer was probably from Wofford, Fiedler's best offer was probably from Furman, Olivari's only D1 offer was from Charleston Southern, McDowell's best offer was probably Montana St, Geron's only offer was UC San Diego, and by the time Hutchins was ready to commit most of his interest was mid- or low-major.
The measurement for how well a recruiting strategy works probably has to be the number of commits you get who are above your "weight class" in terms of offers. Of the 8 high school recruits on the roster, seven of them didn't even have one mid-major (let alone high-major) offer.
But I do agree that Pera's approach is interesting, because it really does go against the grain when compared to similar schools. For example, Bucknell, Colgate, Lehigh, William & Mary, and Lafayette have a combined 17 outstanding offers (9 of which are Lafayette's). We alone have 16. And it's impossible to know the reasoning behind it. Does Pera just prefer offering more kids? Is the staff good at identifying kids, meaning a lot of the offers are to players who then blow up? Is the staff having trouble selling Rice to kids? Are other teams using the youth of Pera's staff against him?