Juco players recuiting.

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Gopher Mac

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Is recuiting Juco players a bad sign? I don't know just asking. It appears to be a different strategy this year. I don't remember too many times it has worked not well in the past but again maybe I am forgetting past successes.
 
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No I don’t think it’s bad at all. A lot of these guys hold multiple offers from good schools. Also, there is that question of JUCO football not counting towards eligibility, if so it’s not a bad strategy because those extra years of development could certainly help.

Is it a risk? Yes, all of them are risks but in the era of NIL any recruiting advantage could work. Heck Snyder at K State did it for years and it worked well for him and that’s with it counting towards eligibility.
 

Gopher Mac said:
Is recuiting Juco players a bad sign? I don't know just asking. It appears to be a different strategy this year. I don't remember too many times it has worked not well in the past but again maybe I am forgetting past successes.
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All 3 guys have excellent offer lists that we'd normally be thrilled about.
One data point does not make a pattern either.
And yes you are forgetting about successes like Damien Wilson, Devondre Campbell, and Cody Poock.
 

JUCO recruiting kind of fell by the wayside for us the past few years with the portal but there are still good recruits in the JUCO ranks. In the past they tended to be hit and miss but in reality high school and transfer recruiting is very hit and miss as well.

My guess is the eligibility piece might be making JUCO players really attractive right now, if it does end up being that their JUCO years don't count against their eligibility you suddenly have older players with potentially 4 years left to play.
 



Maybe JUCO will open up as an even better opportunity than in the past?

Reasoning: the major programs and blue bloods that normally might be able to get top JUCO players over the Gophers, are now focused on signing top transfer portal players intead.
 


GopherGrit said:
Maybe JUCO will open up as an even better opportunity than in the past?

Reasoning: the major programs and blue bloods that normally might be able to get top JUCO players over the Gophers, are now focused on signing top transfer portal players intead.
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Might be a reach. The elite programs will try to get players, who they think help them win games, wherever they can find them. At least UGA and USC think so.
 

I think eligibility plays a key factor. Getting an older player who might contribute earlier is a bonus. I think it does show that we missed on a few recuits. I think the last transfer class did not work out very well. We have holes to fill only fear in JUCO is can we evaluate them properly. I remember a JUCO quarterback that we liked and he was bad left and became a linebacker.
 



Reading some of the posts in this thread and the ones about the guys that committed I get the feeling that some forgot the JUCO ranks even existed.

It isn't a route we have gone often in the past few years due to the portal but it feels like some of you are looking at recruiting a few JUCO guys as some sign of desperation.
 

It's not like we regularly relied on / picked up JUCO in the past or anything.

Bama in their prime picked up JUCO guys too ...

I suspect the lack of JUCO activity (if there is any) is just due to us seeing a lot of guys who academically are better prepared ... or prepped.

Even in the past JUCO ranks would go a year or two without anyone notable and then suddenly a couple guys who are big prospects show up, and then it would get quiet again.
 
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I get the sense coaches have been underwhelmed by most portal transfers (with some outliers, especially QB). A successful player from a top JUCO program and loads of playing tape is probably lower risk than some overrated 4-star that never made it off the bench at an FBS program. Similar to finding top players from G5, FCS, etc. It would require understanding why the student needed to go the JUCO route in the first place.
 

Nothing wrong with JUCO, in more ways than one, to me no different than recruiting the portal. It’s just a different tool.
 



Word said:
All 3 guys have excellent offer lists that we'd normally be thrilled about.
One data point does not make a pattern either.
And yes you are forgetting about successes like Damien Wilson, Devondre Campbell, and Cody Poock.
Click to expand...
 

And speaking of D. Campbell, the 49ers suspended him for the next 3 games for refusing to play against Rams, and 9ers say they're done with him.
 

Mustang68 said:
And speaking of D. Campbell, the 49ers suspended him for the next 3 games for refusing to play against Rams, and 9ers say they're done with him.
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His career seems to be coming to a kind of rough ending but he had a really solid 9+ year NFL career.
 

Gopher Mac said:
Is recuiting Juco players a bad sign? I don't know just asking. It appears to be a different strategy this year. I don't remember too many times it has worked not well in the past but again maybe I am forgetting past successes.
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I had similar thoughts at first, but after I took a step back and thought about it it's really not such a big deal or deviation from what should be a sound strategy in the portal era. It used to be that you had a recruiting class (of varying levels of success) and you could count on those guys to stay in the program and hopefully develop in your system. The portal changed all that and teams are going to be looking for players with some level of experience that can mitigate the fall off of guys leaving the program after one or two years. I think a team still needs solid recruiting class and aim to hold onto as many guys--especially impact guys--that they can, but going forward teams are going to have to scour the portal and JUCO ranks to plug guys in.
 

We have what 30, 31 guys coming in if Petershon flips, three JUCOS all from the top JUCOS program in the country. Especially if they get four years instead of two, got nothing to lose and if they suck will just push them out for new recruits in 2026
 

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