Will Iowa Hawkeyes' "Moneyball" Recruiting pay off?

Donate To GopherHole

Crabtree kind of goofs up when he fails to mention that Bulaga and Clayborn were both 4-star guys coming out of high school. Iowa has had a pretty strong pipeline into the Chicago suburbs and they've landed a lot of top-tier recruits from that area, so I don't know if the analysis holds all the way down.

Ferentz has found a number of kids from South Dakota (Greenway, Reiff, Clark) who he has developed into really good football players and one has to give credit to the coaching staff for that.

I do see some similarities to what Kill is trying to do, but the bottom line is you get a core of guys that you can keep in the program through their eligibility. In recent years, Iowa has had some early departures (for the draft, injuries, or assorted hi-jinks) and I think that shows in the bit of a trough they've experienced since their 11-2 season in 2009-10.

But this approach isn't a whole lot different than what Wisconsin established under Alvarez. Find line recruits on both sides of the ball with physical growth potential. Get them bigger and refine their technique. Sprinkle in top-tier guys at the skilled positions. You still need guys who can amp it up.

Iowa and Wisconsin have always brought the lumber. Physical football teams. One of Kill's goals appears to be to match that level of physicality and I think that's a quality the Gophers have lacked since Holtz's short tenure in the early-1980s. I think we can build on that.

I don't know about anyone else here (and I respect the heck out of Billy Beane), but I'm just so tired of the "Moneyball" comparisons for anything that appears to be even remotely unorthodox.
 

"You have the guys from places like Illinois, and now especially Ohio and Indiana, that were overlooked because Ohio State and Notre Dame are recruiting on such a national level. Those kids play so much harder because they have a chip on their shoulder. Ohio State and Notre Dame told them they weren't good enough to play there, and recruits like to prove they were wrong."
Click to expand...

This is something that Kill has a knack for finding in a recruit. But, going into places like Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Texas, N. and S. Carolina for example to find under the radar recruits hopefully pays off more during bowl time when the Gophers might face SEC territory opponents. These players will have extra motivation playing teams in December and January imo.
 

50PoundHead said:
Crabtree kind of goofs up when he fails to mention that Bulaga and Clayborn were both 4-star guys coming out of high school. Iowa has had a pretty strong pipeline into the Chicago suburbs and they've landed a lot of top-tier recruits from that area, so I don't know if the analysis holds all the way down.

Ferentz has found a number of kids from South Dakota (Greenway, Reiff, Clark) who he has developed into really good football players and one has to give credit to the coaching staff for that.

I do see some similarities to what Kill is trying to do, but the bottom line is you get a core of guys that you can keep in the program through their eligibility. In recent years, Iowa has had some early departures (for the draft, injuries, or assorted hi-jinks) and I think that shows in the bit of a trough they've experienced since their 11-2 season in 2009-10.

But this approach isn't a whole lot different than what Wisconsin established under Alvarez. Find line recruits on both sides of the ball with physical growth potential. Get them bigger and refine their technique. Sprinkle in top-tier guys at the skilled positions. You still need guys who can amp it up.

Iowa and Wisconsin have always brought the lumber. Physical football teams. One of Kill's goals appears to be to match that level of physicality and I think that's a quality the Gophers have lacked since Holtz's short tenure in the early-1980s. I think we can build on that.

I don't know about anyone else here (and I respect the heck out of Billy Beane), but I'm just so tired of the "Moneyball" comparisons for anything that appears to be even remotely unorthodox.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but it's only unorthodox until you think about it, and then it's usually just common sense.
 



50PoundHead said:
Crabtree kind of goofs up when he fails to mention that Bulaga and Clayborn were both 4-star guys coming out of high school. Iowa has had a pretty strong pipeline into the Chicago suburbs and they've landed a lot of top-tier recruits from that area, so I don't know if the analysis holds all the way down.

Ferentz has found a number of kids from South Dakota (Greenway, Reiff, Clark) who he has developed into really good football players and one has to give credit to the coaching staff for that.

I do see some similarities to what Kill is trying to do, but the bottom line is you get a core of guys that you can keep in the program through their eligibility. In recent years, Iowa has had some early departures (for the draft, injuries, or assorted hi-jinks) and I think that shows in the bit of a trough they've experienced since their 11-2 season in 2009-10.

But this approach isn't a whole lot different than what Wisconsin established under Alvarez. Find line recruits on both sides of the ball with physical growth potential. Get them bigger and refine their technique. Sprinkle in top-tier guys at the skilled positions. You still need guys who can amp it up.

Iowa and Wisconsin have always brought the lumber. Physical football teams. One of Kill's goals appears to be to match that level of physicality and I think that's a quality the Gophers have lacked since Holtz's short tenure in the early-1980s. I think we can build on that.

I don't know about anyone else here (and I respect the heck out of Billy Beane), but I'm just so tired of the "Moneyball" comparisons for anything that appears to be even remotely unorthodox.
Click to expand...
You make some very solid observations 50Pound. One the schools that used to be known for this formula, has lost it a little over the past decade: Nebraska.
 

NewBerlinBucky said:
You make some very solid observations 50Pound. One the schools that used to be known for this formula, has lost it a little over the past decade: Nebraska.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing out Nebraska. Bob Devaney started, and Dr. Tom continued, Nebraska's famed walk-on and red-shirt programs where they took a bunch of corn-fed kids from the plains, beefed them up, and then threw a Johnny Rodgers (or Mike Rozier or Turner Gill or Tommy Frazier or Ahman Green or etc.) into the mix. It's the "thunder and lightning" thing.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, there is very little new under the sun. I suppose that the challenge for the modern coach is that there is so much more information out there about all these kids with the scouting services and the camps that as a result there are fewer hidden gems.
 

The only thing that was new about "Moneyball", was that baseball management had forgotten that it's a team game, Billy Beene just reminded them. It's not a problem in football because teams that forget underachieve.
 




You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom