|
Post by wildcatter on Feb 9, 2017 12:38:03 GMT -6
It's such a weird industry. I do think Houston Baptist signed some good players though. I'm not sure what their recruiting pitch is but for an unproven program from an unappealing location in Houston with unappealing facilities they are making it work. They have a good location in Houston that has a lot of talent and can attract guys from the area that may not be able to play at a bigger school because of grades or other issues. It's not a good location. In fact, other than Rice, UofH, Houston Baptist, Texas Southern are all in rough parts of town. Houston itself has lots of talent, but the school, other than being in Houston, doesn't offer much IMO.
|
|
|
Post by strobro on Feb 9, 2017 13:08:55 GMT -6
They have a good location in Houston that has a lot of talent and can attract guys from the area that may not be able to play at a bigger school because of grades or other issues. It's not a good location. In fact, other than Rice, UofH, Houston Baptist, Texas Southern are all in rough parts of town. Houston itself has lots of talent, but the school, other than being in Houston, doesn't offer much IMO. Im from houston, most kids who go to houston schools want to stay home. I do think you are being quite hard on the schools. The areas for each school are really not bad at all.
|
|
|
Post by wildcatter on Feb 9, 2017 13:32:57 GMT -6
I live in Houston. Other than being centrally located, HBU is not in good area. Sharpstown isn't a 'college atmosphere'. I'm not trying to say Abilene is. Going back to their facilities, the gym there was smaller than any high school gym I've been in and most by now are aware of the high school stadium in a CVS parking lot.
|
|
|
Post by wildcatter on Feb 9, 2017 13:35:21 GMT -6
Fwiw, I love Houston. But all I said was I'm not sure how, but Houston Baptist is already signing some solid players. Kudos to them, but the school doesn't offer as much imo other than its in central houston and close to other things.
|
|
|
Post by wildcat1997 on Feb 9, 2017 13:43:49 GMT -6
Fwiw, I love Houston. But all I said was I'm not sure how, but Houston Baptist is already signing some solid players. Kudos to them, but the school doesn't offer as much imo other than its in central houston and close to other things. I guess it's just a product of them being in Houston and good players form Houston not wanting to leave home.
|
|
|
Post by wildcats0075 on Feb 9, 2017 14:50:50 GMT -6
I live in Houston. Other than being centrally located, HBU is not in good area. Sharpstown isn't a 'college atmosphere'. I'm not trying to say Abilene is. Going back to their facilities, the gym there was smaller than any high school gym I've been in and most by now are aware of the high school stadium in a CVS parking lot. I view HBU's area as decent. Sharpstown used to be really nice when they first expanded to it 40 years ago, but the area has certainly not been well maintained. I have been impressed with what HBU is doing to the campus. President Sloan (formerly of Baylor) is really aggressive about capital expansion, just like he was at Baylor. For these that don't know, HBU sits about a half mile off of I-69 (US 59), which is insanely busy every day, but due to some strip centers and a large hospital you would not know it is there. As it turns out, HBU actually owns the strip centers on the freeway (which were in terrible shape) and they are doing a pretty massive updated of the space to make it the entrance to the university and add like mixed retail around the entrance. This will give them a tremendous amount of viability that I don't think they have now. www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HBU-expansion-focuses-on-revitalizing-shopping-6925104.phpKind of like the project that ACU is trying to develop on I-20 but I-69 sees more cars in a day than the stretch of I-20 past ACU see's in a month. As the 100,000 cars a day are slowly creeping by HBU on their way to Sugar Land, then can not look at HBU's campus.
|
|
|
Post by acucatdad on Feb 9, 2017 17:10:23 GMT -6
Don't ask an HBU student to blow up a balloon and light it on fire, cause that bad boy is liable to explode from them sucking in all the pollution emitted from the Texas-size SUVs that traverse that section of I-69 and the hundreds of chemical plants just down the road in Pasadena, Deer Park, and Texas City. I live just outside the Houston city limits and take my word, Houston is a DUMP compared to Abilene. Are you guys up there in Abilene enjoying all that clean air? If so, quit hogging it and blow some Catdads way.
|
|
|
Post by acucatdad on Feb 9, 2017 18:22:43 GMT -6
With all the hoopla surrounding signing day, I plum forgot to let you guys know how big boy did at the combine. The morning of and on the way to Mobile he somehow managed to scratch the cornea of his eye and he arrived with his eye almost swollen shut. Never the less nothing was going to deter him from the task at hand. Max Emfinger did a write up on it. I'm still trying to figure out how to post it. If you go to your search engine and type in 2017 Lestini Free Agent Super Combine MEARS Rankings! By Super Scout Max Emfinger you'll get the lowdown on how it went. Scroll down past the coaches bios and it'll explain the MEARS system and how Josh ranked. He didn't do too bad considering he was half-blind at the time.
|
|
|
Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Feb 9, 2017 18:41:42 GMT -6
Wow, CatDad. Big Boy did really well. I sure hope that gets him into a camp this summer. Or maybe even drafted.
|
|
|
Post by acucatdad on Feb 9, 2017 18:49:36 GMT -6
Apoplogies for posting that on this thread, I didn't mean to take anything away from the guys coming in. Seeing HBU made me snap to it as he will be at another combine on HBU's campus in another week or so.
|
|
|
Post by strobro on Feb 9, 2017 19:15:28 GMT -6
I live in Houston. Other than being centrally located, HBU is not in good area. Sharpstown isn't a 'college atmosphere'. I'm not trying to say Abilene is. Going back to their facilities, the gym there was smaller than any high school gym I've been in and most by now are aware of the high school stadium in a CVS parking lot. Ok, I can agree with this. Not really a very college like atmosphere. However, most people go there to stay in houston near family.
|
|
|
Post by acucatdad on Feb 9, 2017 19:24:01 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by wildcat90 on Feb 9, 2017 22:06:34 GMT -6
Had the opportunity to spend some time at lunch today with Coach Dorrel and several past players. Dorrel confirmed that 9 linemen will be available in the spring. Spring ball starts the 28th of Feb. and spring game is April 7th. FYI! I cannot express how impressed I was with our new coach! I am more excited than ever!
|
|
|
Post by acufbdad on Feb 10, 2017 7:48:00 GMT -6
It is disappointing that we didn't get some higher rated recruits this year, just choosing to believe in the ones we got to step up and prove themselves. I agree that we got players with the character we want who are eager to step up and I think we have a staff in place to help coach them up. I think coaching and player development while critical at the FBS level, is even more important at the FCS and D2 levels. I was really pretty impressed that we put together a class recognized by at least one service as being in the top 50 nationally and close to the top of our conference. I was surprised given our late start. Also, I was impressed we were able to get a foot in the door with some recruits who were already committed elsewhere. We didn't get them to come to ACU but we got a pair of twins who both play DB to look at us even though they were committed to Sam Houston. Both twins and their mama started following a couple of our coaches. When you get the mama on board, that's usually a good sign. I am thinking with an earlier start, we will get more players like these in the future. There was a coaches meeting the day after Signing Day - and the meeting was "Recruiting Plans for 2018 and 2019". The new coach and staff are already working towards next year and beyond on the recruiting front. Kind of like the new pres, these guys aren't wasting any time in their efforts to get our football program on the right track!
|
|
|
Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Feb 10, 2017 8:54:53 GMT -6
I agree that we got players with the character we want who are eager to step up and I think we have a staff in place to help coach them up. I think coaching and player development while critical at the FBS level, is even more important at the FCS and D2 levels. I was really pretty impressed that we put together a class recognized by at least one service as being in the top 50 nationally and close to the top of our conference. I was surprised given our late start. Also, I was impressed we were able to get a foot in the door with some recruits who were already committed elsewhere. We didn't get them to come to ACU but we got a pair of twins who both play DB to look at us even though they were committed to Sam Houston. Both twins and their mama started following a couple of our coaches. When you get the mama on board, that's usually a good sign. I am thinking with an earlier start, we will get more players like these in the future. There was a coaches meeting the day after Signing Day - and the meeting was "Recruiting Plans for 2018 and 2019". The new coach and staff are already working towards next year and beyond on the recruiting front. Kind of like the new pres, these guys aren't wasting any time in their efforts to get our football program on the right track! So you are saying we are building a wall to stop Oklahoma coaches from poaching Texas recruits? Or barring refugee recruits from Kansas and other foreign states? A little OWC humor. Ok, seriously. I think someone posted we have already offered at least one 2018 recruit from Missouri who has a couple of offers from FBS schools. I like hearing we are getting an early start and that we are building relationships with the Texas coaching community.
|
|