FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Macon]

So, do you bring in an additional 50 players to find two or three players that may contribute?  Is it best for coaching staffs (especially their time) to evaluate players before arriving on campus or after being on campus as part of a large class?  It may depend on the program.  Mt. Union (and others) has been successful with the large class approach.  Likewise, most USA South schools have used large class approach with little success.  I'd contend that the USA South schools need the tuition funds.

As to HSC, do they need the tuition dollars?  I'd think not, but their enrollment has dropped from 1100 to 850 in the last five years or so.

At the end of the day, you may have 50 very unhappy players and students.

Good luck to HSC for the first nine games.

[jknezek]

I looked up the four-year graduation rates for HSC and W&L:

HSC - 57%; W&L - 92%.  (source:  US News comparison)

That tells me that if W&L recruits you to be on the football team (or anywhere else) that the expectation is you will graduate from there and they will work with you to make it happen.

Very different schools. I'm not comparing W&L and H-SC other than the one throw away line. The rest of the post was me comparing how H-SC handled football recruiting/acceptance in the past versus bringing in 80+ freshman this year and the possible reasons for switching methodologies. My bias against over-recruiting probably came out a bit, but schools are going to do what they need to do to stay open, even if it's things I think are less than wholesome.

There is no way H-SC recruited 80+ freshman the coach actually believes has a chance to compete. He recruited 30-40, and they lip serviced the rest to show up and try out. Very, very common among D3 schools, but not something I, personally, agree with.

[jknezek]

So, do you bring in an additional 50 players to find two or three players that may contribute?  Is it best for coaching staffs (especially their time) to evaluate players before arriving on campus or after being on campus as part of a large class?  It may depend on the program.  Mt. Union (and others) has been successful with the large class approach.  Likewise, most USA South schools have used large class approach with little success.  I'd contend that the USA South schools need the tuition funds.

As to HSC, do they need the tuition dollars?  I'd think not, but their enrollment has dropped from 1100 to 850 in the last five years or so.

At the end of the day, you may have 50 very unhappy players and students.

Good luck to HSC for the first nine games.

I'm not sure UMU actually has to convince 120+ freshman to choose UMU. I suspect they do convince 30-40 and the rest just "walk on" because they think playing on a national championship caliber program will be awesome and it's D3, so how hard can it be? The results are usually the same. Most quit the team when they realize how wrong they are.

And yes, the vast majority of schools that "over recruit", at least by what I consider over recruiting, are doing it for the tuition. With H-SC's drop in enrollment, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a choice when finding a new coach to find one who would be willing to bring in a lot more students. Though Luvara comes from W&J, and I think they typically only had 40-50 freshman. So who knows? Maybe it's his first year as head coach and he was just fired up and went all out on recruiting and really blew it out of the water.

That being said, I still think 80 freshman, 160 players, and a staff of 8 is not conducive to a good experience. Especially when you know at least half of those 80 are just wasting your and their time.

[Macon]

JK, I'm in your camp, not liking the large classes.

But, here's another angle for the new HSC coach.  Maybe he doesn't think he has much quality returning and he's getting his players in this freshman class.  Overall, I agree that the large class approach isn't fair to most of those incoming freshmen.

[Macon]

If Pedro brings in 120 freshmen this year, then I'll immediately thinks it's a good idea!!!

[jknezek]

It's all possible. But I'll stick with Occam's Razor.

[y_jack_lok]

I just took a look at RMC's 2023 roster. There were 36 freshmen, 38 sophomores, 19 juniors, and 40 seniors/5th years. Given the small size of the rising senior class, should we expect a larger freshman class in 2024?

[Macon]

^^^  You may be right.  May want a few more freshmen to augment those 19 rising seniors this year.  Also, how many of those last year seniors will become 5th years (I think this is the last COVID year?).

I do know that overall the RMC freshman class is huge.  The school is short 120 beds at the moment.

[Macon]

The fact that HSC has a 2024 roster up is interesting to me.  How many of those players don't even show up and how many don't make it through camp (especially given the large numbers)? 

Conversely, RMC typically doesn't load a roster until the first game.  Actually, some years the roster isn't up for the first game.

Not saying one approach is right or wrong, just a useless observation on my part.

[y_jack_lok]

The fact that HSC has a 2024 roster up is interesting to me.  How many of those players don't even show up and how many don't make it through camp (especially given the large numbers)? 

Conversely, RMC typically doesn't load a roster until the first game.  Actually, some years the roster isn't up for the first game.

Not saying one approach is right or wrong, just a useless observation on my part.

At one time it frustrated me not to be able to peruse the RMC roster in the week or two preceding the first game. But now that I understand the relatively short pre-season training period and the likelihood that some players won't complete camp and actually put on a uniform, it makes sense to wait until just before the first game to know who will suit up and what positions they will play. Some freshmen won't be playing the position they were recruited to play, some upperclassmen might be playing a different position from the previous year, depending on their skill and the needs of the team.

[Macon]

Don't think I'm sharing a secret here (as it's been widely reported, maybe even on this site), but RMC has picked up a starting FCS QB (University of Dayton) in the transfer portal.

[CNU85]

RMC QB from Dayton

[jknezek]

Seems like it could be a nice pickup, but I'm not seeing anything crazy here.

Started 5 games before he got hurt at Dayton. Went 2-3 in those 5 games. Dayton finished 4-7 on the year, 2-6 in non-scholarship Pioneer conference.

He had wins against D2 Central State (5-5) and NAIA Taylor University (2-9). Lost to FCS Illinois State in a blow out, as well as conference mates San Diego St. and St. Thomas (MN).

Time will tell, but just being a transfer from a bad Pioneer team doesn't really mean much at the D3 level.

[Pat Coleman]

Seems like it could be a nice pickup, but I'm not seeing anything crazy here.

Started 5 games before he got hurt at Dayton. Went 2-3 in those 5 games. Dayton finished 4-7 on the year, 2-6 in non-scholarship Pioneer conference.

He had wins against D2 Central State (5-5) and NAIA Taylor University (2-9). Lost to FCS Illinois State in a blow out, as well as conference mates San Diego St. and St. Thomas (MN).

Time will tell, but just being a transfer from a bad Pioneer team doesn't really mean much at the D3 level.

I agree that it's likely Randolph-Macon was better than Dayton last year.

[Macon]

^^^  All that may be true, but RMC needs a QB with some experience as they only have two rising sophomores QBs with little to no college experience.  While I say that, one of the sophomore QBs did look sharp in a few snaps last season. Good luck to the RMC QB room.