2014 recruiting Class is Strong's first class

[Son of Wasatch]

Decided to start a new thread on this topic since we were cluttering up the recruiting thread with this BS.

From 2014, who? He even honored a medical that chose to go elsewhere because he wanted to play but Texas wouldn't clear him.

Bottom line, the 2015 kids are the kids that came to play for Strong.

Bottome line is everyone that signed on to play for the University of Texas in the 2014 class, signed on to play for Charlie Strong. Charlie Strong signed that letter telling them he was their coach. He didn't have a full cycle to recruit them, but they are his class.

The whole point in all of this is that this current freshmen class was Strong's first class where he had a whole year to go after guys he specifically wanted in whole. This current class is HIS first real class. Bottom line. He held onto Mack's recruits and was able to snag a few more but he didnt have a whole recruiting cycle as the Texas coach. He had a few months to step in and hold it together. Period. Next year's freshmen class will be Strongs second full class that is completely his. End of discussion.

The 2015 class was his first class at Texas where he had a full cycle to recruit them, but the 2014 class was the first class he signed at Texas. That is a fact that cannot be disputed. Every LOI that was signed has Charlie Strong's signature on it. Some might have originally committed to Mack, but everyone of them had to re-commit to Charlie Strong, and Strong made a commitment to them. There isn't that agreement between Charlie Strong and his staff and the 2012 class or the 2013 class. However, Charlie did tell the 2014 class if you sign with Texas I will be your coach, mentor, and I will develop you has a student, an athlete and as a man. He certainly told that to the 2015 class.

When you guys say things like 2014 is not Charlie's first class, it's a slap in the face to 23 Texas Longhorns that picked Texas and Charlie to lead them and develop them. They don't matter because Charlie didn't have a full cycle to recruit them. Seriously, who give a flying flip if he had a full cycle, Charlie sure seems to be treating them like they are his first recruiting class.He has 11 of them either starting in the rotation. His career at Texas may very well depend on the growth and development of Jerrod Heard.

Think about it, we are talking about firing him after 4 seasons, That is Heard's senior year. You better believe Heard is probably the most important recruit in Charlie Strong's career. And He came in a class that doesn't matter? Seriously?

 

[TexExSpur]

Who were those 2014 players? You said an OL and a CB....


I'm not going to argue this any further, it's not that important to me. Charlie's career will be based off "his" 2015 class when referenced in the future.

 

[Metcalf #2]

No, it wasn't. /thread

 

[Jagged Horn]

It's Charlie's class but will have an asterisk (*) because he obviously didn't originally recruit them. He locked them up but they were previously committed to Texas.

 

[Son of Wasatch]

Who were those 2014 players? You said an OL and a CB....


I'm not going to argue this any further, it's not that important to me. Charlie's career will be based off "his" 2015 class when referenced in the future.

I can't remember their names, most here were pissed we even offered them scholarships and when Charlie took over he never once called them so both de-committed, I think one ended up at Abilene state U and not sure if the other even got a offer from another school.

 

[TexExSpur]

I can't remember their names, most here were pissed we even offered them scholarships and when Charlie took over he never once called them so both de-committed, I think one ended up at Abilene state U and not sure if the other even got a offer from another school.

Didn't happen with the 2014 class. There we decommits like Alaka when Mack was fired, but no slow playing.

http://texas.247sports.com/Season/2014-Football/Offers

 

[Son of Wasatch]

The real bottom like is in 4 to 6 years when some from that class are high NFL draft picks, some of you in here are going to be tripping over yourselves to pat Strong on the back for recruiting and developing that class. Then some Aggsy will come in and call it Mack's last class, and you will be arguing with them for 5 pages how it was Strong's class.

 

[DrinkToIt]

Charlies is going to be judged for the 2015 class and beyond. Period. Mack gets credit for Heard and Vahe etc. His signature was on the 2014 class because he had just been hired and held that class together. Im not sure what the point is of insisting Strong gets credit for 2014.

 

[TexExSpur]

They will be Strong developed players, regardless of class.

 

[Son of Wasatch]

Charlies is going to be judged for the 2015 class and beyond. Period. Mack gets credit for Heard and Vahe etc. His signature was on the 2014 class because he had just been hired and held that class together. Im not sure what the point is of insisting Strong gets credit for 2014.

You can think that, everything I have said about Strong and Jerrod Heard is 100% correct. If Heard fails at Texas it's pretty likely that it will cost Strong his job at Texas.

Charlie is going to be judged on wins and losses, He has 4 years to turn this around, you can bet 2014 is his class

 

[oldhorn2]

much ado about nothing....I say it is pee and vinegar and I say the hell with it.

 

[misterTeasyEmalcomXf'inAkicksome]

This is a silly argument. The answer is, it's kind of both. It wasn't his class in the same way that last year and this year will be, but he put work into it. He'll be coaching them all. But yeah, the class might have been drastically different if he had been here for longer. Call it half his class. Call it players he inherited. Call it players he's depending on and will ultimately be involved with their development. It doesn't really matter. Ultimately, even the remaining upperclassmen are part of his team right now.

If you are wanting to make a strict timeline for when Coach Strong is expected to win x number of games because he's had y number of recruiting classes... you're going to make your own arbitrary values for x and y regardless of which recruiting classes "officially" count as his. No reason to come up with a definition like this to rationalize it. Make your timeline, whatever you want it to be. And, aside from giving yourself permission to complain more than usual, it won't actually affect anything because the people who will make the ultimate decision on the matter are probably not those who are posting on this board about what x or y should be (since they can actually do something more about it than post on a message board or not buy their seat for a season).

There is no official set of rules to determine which class "really" counts as his first. And we're all entitled to our own opinions about how long Coach Strong should get to turn things around and what defines a turnaround. Some people just have more of a concept of patience, reality, and perspective than others. Which is funny, because even that patience is probably way shorter than it would be at almost any other school.

 

[Longyac]

Strong did not evaluate and offer anyone but Poona and Nelson. He honored all of Mack's commitments. Those guys chose to stay with Texas through the coaching change. Rumor is he had to work to keep Heard.

Now if your point is that the 2014 class has talent I agree.

 

[Jagged Horn]

You can think that, everything I have said about Strong and Jerrod Heard is 100% correct. If Heard fails at Texas it's pretty likely that it will cost Strong his job at Texas.

Charlie is going to be judged on wins and losses, He has 4 years to turn this around, you can bet 2014 is his class

I'd say Heard is already succeeding so this is silly. If Heard "fails" it's due to serious injury. Charlie will have time to turn this around. Texas is not a knee-jerk boss. Look how long we gave Rick Barnes before he was finally gone. Not to mention Mack was given 4 years after the dumpster fire he created.

 

[Son of Wasatch]

Strong did not evaluate and offer anyone but Poona and Nelson. He honored all of Mack's commitments. Those guys chose to stay with Texas through the coaching change. Rumor is he had to work to keep Heard.

Now if your point is that the 2014 class has talent I agree.

Give it a rest, you have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[Son of Wasatch]

I'd say Heard is already succeeding so this is silly. If Heard "fails" it's due to serious injury. Charlie will have time to turn this around. Texas is not a knee-jerk boss. Look how long we gave Rick Barnes before he was finally gone. Not to mention Mack was given 4 years after the dumpster fire he created.

Time will tell, but don't use basketball as an example to what will happen with the football coach. We don't even know who our AD is so what makes you think the same rules will apply.

 

[BringBackRoyal]

The real bottom like is in 4 to 6 years when some from that class are high NFL draft picks, some of you in here are going to be tripping over yourselves to pat Strong on the back for recruiting and developing that class. Then some Aggsy will come in and call it Mack's last class, and you will be arguing with them for 5 pages how it was Strong's class.

The two things are not mutually exclusive. It's mostly a Mack-recruited class, and if they find success here and in the NFL, it will be Strong and his staff that helped develop them.

 

[Hunger Buster Combo]

Not Charlie's class. It was Mack's. 2015 is Charlie's first.

 

[UTGrad87]

Lets just say 2015 was Charlie's first FULL class where he and his team did all the heavy lifting and 2014 was part Charlie's work and part Mack's work . . . and move onto more important discussions like K-State in 10 days.

 

[bubba2023]

Does it even really matter? Strong is going to have to get production out of that class regardless if it's his or not. He's not getting 4 years of .500 football with several blowout losses along the way just because there are still Mack's players on the roster. He's going to have to start putting it together with Mack's players and his. We just saw this team can play, now Strong needs to keep building this season, and going into this offseason. Every unit of this team should be better next season if Strong and this coaching staff keep building and don't waste an offseason with poor coaching like they did this past one.

 

[TexasTrill]

Didn't happen with the 2014 class. There we decommits like Alaka when Mack was fired, but no slow playing.

http://texas.247sports.com/Season/2014-Football/Offers

I think sonofwasatch is confused...is he talking about Johnny Shaw and Bryce English? If so, they were from 2015, not 2014 (we had some early commits for 2015 that Strong put no effort into keeping around). Not that it matters, as we can all see that fellas agenda; as we all know Strong has to play with who he has, regardless of who recruited them. I think he is looking for something to complain about, and he doesn't want any kickback, when it comes to who Strong recruited.

 

[Son of Wasatch]

If I remember right the olinemen had a Muslim name, everyone was saying he sucked and never should have been offered. When strong took over he never once heard from Strong and eventually decommitted and ended up signing with some lower division school.

Same thing with the DB we had, again I wish I could remember their name.

 

[TexasTrill]

I now recall who you are talking about.

 

[TexExSpur]

I now recall who you are talking about.

Who was it?

There weren't any Muslim or scrub CBs with 2014 offers.
http://texas.247sports.com/Season/2014-Football/Offers


Jalen Campbell was 2015
Bryce English was 2015

Happened to both of them...

Rami Hammad was 2014, signed with Texas and enrolled. He chose not to play for Wickline and transferred to Baylor.

 

[TexasTrill]

Who was it?

There weren't any Muslim or scrub CBs with 2014 offers.
http://texas.247sports.com/Season/2014-Football/Offers


Jalen Campbell was 2015
Bryce English was 2015

Happened to both of them...

Rami Hammad was 2014, signed with Texas and enrolled. He chose not to play for Wickline and transferred to Baylor.

Rami is who I thought he was talking about. But you're right...sonofwasatch is incorrect. Game over.

 

[Longyac]

Give it a rest, you have no idea what you are talking about.

The old can't refute the message so attack the messenger.

 

[Son of Wasatch]

Well no. You answered my question for me. Remi was the guy I was thinking about, but I got him mixed up with Bryce English. And yes, Jalen Campbell was the DB I was referring to as well.

So thank you, for finding the recruits I was referring to.

It was well talked about on this site when it went down. Strong never made an effort to talk to those guys once. The message was simple, we don't want you.

He pulled their offers. You can call it what you want, but it got pulled.

As for your other comments, John Bonnie committed to Strong as did about 3 or 4 other guys outside of Ford and Nelson. We lost some great players, but Strong did a good job of replacing them.

 

[TexExSpur]

Dude, you were referring to 2014. I agreed long ago that it took place in Strong's first full class (2015). You were adamant that it occured in the 2014 class! It didn't so STFU.

John Bonney committed on 9/05/2013...

I'll gladly tell you that you don't have a clue what you're talking about. Or, you are talking in circles. Strong's foundation class is 2015, he is not fully credited for the 2014 class and he signed every kid willing to stick with their Texas commitment in the 2014 class, he rejected no one from that class, he couldn't afford to. He and his staff added 4 to the class, Alex Anderson, Elijah Rodriguez, Chris Nelson and Poona Ford...

He didn't have time to start over, it was keep what you could and add what you can with 4 weeks to signing day!

Strong and his staff are responsible for developing the class as I said, but they are not fully credited for the recruitment of the class and never will be. It's simple, you cant reboot the prior staffs work with four weeks until NSD and they didn't.


The only kids our current staff didn't pursue upon being hired are from the 2015 and 2016 classes.

The 2014 class consisted of 4 kids who committed in 2012 Roberson, Heard, Joe and Catalon, 12 kids that committed between 1/30-2013-9/05/2013 and 2 that committed after Strong was hired in Freeman and Whiteley. That's 18 of the 22 that Strong had to bust his ass to "hold on to" because he couldn't afford to replace or look for replacements. The other four members of the class are Strong's and were mentioned above.

 

[q1w2e3]

Well no. You answered my question for me. Remi was the guy I was thinking about, but I got him mixed up with Bryce English. And yes, Jalen Campbell was the DB I was referring to as well.

So thank you, for finding the recruits I was referring to.

It was well talked about on this site when it went down. Strong never made an effort to talk to those guys once. The message was simple, we don't want you.

He pulled their offers. You can call it what you want, but it got pulled.

As for your other comments, John Bonnie committed to Strong as did about 3 or 4 other guys outside of Ford and Nelson. We lost some great players, but Strong did a good job of replacing them.

Rami Hammad was class of 2013
Charlie didn't "pull" a single scholly from the 2014 class. He didn't even have a staff assembled until less than 3 weeks from signing day.

 

[Son of Wasatch]

Oh good another sock to ignore.