Your the coach, which JUCO positions do yo address?

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James Gillum a JUCO RB has reportedly been offered by Kill and the Gophs and supposedly coming in for a visit. Got me thinking which other positions would you recruit for a JUCO player. I'm thinking a FS and SS are tops on the list with DT and a shutdown CB close behind. Looking through the depth chart yesterday showed very little in depth at the DT position so this may be a position of need much less talent. Shutdown CB are hard to find (replacing Stoudermire) but with a starting position essentially guaranteed with a big ten school there's got to be a top level JUCO corner interested.
Thoughts?
 


Cornerback and then any other secondary guy you can get. Also keep pounding that offensive line.
 

station19 said:
Is there a Russell Wilson out there.
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I am still surprised Coach Kill didn't bring in a JUCO QB in his first class. Maybe he tried.

At least there would have been some experience at the position.
 

Defensive secondary is a top need. Look at all the huge cushions we need to avoid getting beat deep. Beyond that, both lines could use some stiffening.
 


Anywhere that is an upgrade in talent. I don't know the APR rules etc., but if I was Kill I would bring in a ton of JUCOs.

I would add any kid that I thought would be in the two deeps.
 

I dont think I would bring in very many JUCOs, I would rather those scholarships be used on incoming freshman that will help build this program for the long haul.
 

I think JuCo guys can definitely help us with building the program over the long haul. JuCo guys allow more players to RS. For instance, it'd been nice to RS Wells and Cedric Thompson this season and that would have been easier to do had we signed a couple JuCo DBs.

It also evens out our classes a little bit. It'd be nice to have a few more guys who will be done after the 2013 season because that class is so small and therefore the recruiting class that season (2014 signings) will have to be small. You want roughly the same amount of players in most of the classes because that helps make sure you are not going to be super young.
 




DT and middle linebacker, have to be strong up the middle to build a defense

Both of our starting defensive tackles are seniors and so is our middle linebacker. We do not have young guys
in the pipeline with a lot of game experience. Need some time to build up the younger guys in there spots and who knows if Beal will be able to recover enough to man the middle. Would not hurt to bring in a JC QB if he fits Kills system to push Gray and Shortell either.
 

Tough question til we see what players are gone at the end of the year and also if Kill thinks we can be more competitive next year with 3-4 Juco additions. Essentially, I would say bring in zero Juco talent unless that talent gets us one of two things: The ability to redshirt a FR or over the top to compete for a bowl game. I think we are not going to compete for a bowl game next year based on where we are at right now...so the only Juco recruits we should grab would be to protect RS options in the incoming FR class.

So areas of depth are DT, CB, FS, SS and DE. Any of these areas for a two year player would be worth while...I think our Oline depth is sufficient to RS all the Oline recruits, same at WR, RB and QB. Not to say we don't need to add talent at these positions, but I don't see any Juco talent putting us over the top at the skill positions, so why bother...protect red shirts and young developing talent at all costs in year two...so year 3 and beyond can start to normalize.
 

I wouldn't bring in a single JC kid. This strategy absolutely killed us with Brewster. Our defense was pretty solid in Brewster's 2nd and 3rd years because he added a lot of JUCOs, E. Small, C. McKinley, T. Simmons, S. Lawrence, T. Brock, etc. Since half our defense was JUCO's, we didn't recruit and develop enough high school kids and fell off a cliff in year 4. Kill needs to add high school kids who will be in the program for 4-5 years. This is how we can build the program and be solid a few years down the road.
 

John Galt said:
I wouldn't bring in a single JC kid. This strategy absolutely killed us with Brewster. Our defense was pretty solid in Brewster's 2nd and 3rd years because he added a lot of JUCOs, E. Small, C. McKinley, T. Simmons, S. Lawrence, T. Brock, etc. Since half our defense was JUCO's, we didn't recruit and develop enough high school kids and fell off a cliff in year 4. Kill needs to add high school kids who will be in the program for 4-5 years. This is how we can build the program and be solid a few years down the road.
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I disagree because we need to bring in more people than we feasibly can with all H.S. players. We need a little more evening out of the classes and JUCO's can do that. I agree that going JUCO heavy is a time bomb, but I think there is a time and a place. If we could get a DT and a DB or two, I would be satisfied. Just something to add depth to places that we direly need it. I do agree that successful teams are made with 4 or 5 year talent. I do like how Kill found Moulton and next year adds Fruechte, since both have 3 years to play. That extra year can be huge.
 



Coach Kill has expressed the importance of having a speedy pass rushing DE, fast DB's and a solid MLB.
 

CB & DB is the most pressing need, especially with Stoudermire & Royston being a seniors. A pass rushing DE would also be nice.
 

John Galt said:
I wouldn't bring in a single JC kid. This strategy absolutely killed us with Brewster. Our defense was pretty solid in Brewster's 2nd and 3rd years because he added a lot of JUCOs, E. Small, C. McKinley, T. Simmons, S. Lawrence, T. Brock, etc. Since half our defense was JUCO's, we didn't recruit and develop enough high school kids and fell off a cliff in year 4. Kill needs to add high school kids who will be in the program for 4-5 years. This is how we can build the program and be solid a few years down the road.
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Recruiting JuCo kids didn't hurt us a single bit under Brewster. What hurt us is that the traditional HS recruits didn't develop and the attrition that occured within our highschool recruits.

Signing Lawrence allowed us to RS Cooper, which if he had turned out better, would have helped us and Cooper quite a bit. Your assumption is that Cooper would have been a better football today (and next year) if he had played as a true freshman?

The same could be said with Jeff Wills. If we didn't have Wills, we likely would have had to burn Gjere or Lenkiewicz RS.

This holds true for most of our JuCo guys. They allowed the few players we've had a chance to RS, actually RS.
 

Kill's defense relies heavily on 1 CB

being able to shutdown 1 side of the field, this has been stated numerous times and something Stoudermire was supposed to provide. With Stoudermire gone next year is there anyone on this roster able to fill that role. Henderson, i don't think so. Vereen has shown some tackling ability but can not handle a shutdown assignment.
 

I'm of the opinion that we won't be trying to address our DE need with a JuCo. I could be wrong, but our best players are young at this position and I think that Perry and Amaefula will see a ton of snaps (and we still have Garin, Wilhite and KGM). While those guys aren't that good, they provide enough depth that we wouldn't have to pre-maturely burn a RS (unless the FR was ready).

DB is definitely a need.
I could see an OL.
RB makes sense.
MLB...I think we are going to be alright there. I could see Rallis getting some snaps at MLB next season, we have Ryan Grant and a couple young guys who are being RS.
 

DT IMO and a DB. RB if the staff doesn't see Wright/Cobb/Kirkwood/R. Williams as a full stable of runningbacks.

DT for me seems the most likely, Kirksey and Jacobs are leaving. Right now Hageman, Jacques, and/or Botticelli would start. Guys like Hinjosa, Ekpe and Twitty would be pressed into action which is not ideal in a power running conference.

DB looks thin with CB's likely being Vereen and Wells and safeties of Thompson/Manuel/Haviland, or unproven Montgomery/Moss/Levine.

I like our LB redshirts to fill depth holes there ok, Matilus/Baudacco/Westerhaus look like contributors. Who knows if Beal can play going forward.
 

I'd be very leery of bringing in any more JUCO's now. We're beyond any realistic quick fixes now. JUCO's can be academic and character risks unless you are well informed of their history. What the program needs now is exactly the opposite. We need driven, smart, fast football players that have outstanding character. Sure, you can find quality players in the JUCO ranks as long as you do your homework but, again, I wouldn't be looking for quick fixes at this point.

Speaking of JUCO's, though. I can't wait to see what Isaac Fruechte has to offer. A receiver with his size and reported 4.4 speed would make for a great stretch the field guy which is always in demand. :clap:
 

We aren't good enough to not bring in a bunch of Juco's. This is the situation we are in-we need juco's.
 

I agree with bringing in some JUCOs on defense. This would still allow the younger players that are ready to be rotated in during the line-changes that Coach Kill prefers. It would even out classes better and also create some competition. Even if they are equal to some of the players that we currently have they will have to fight to earn their playing time. If the kid wants to play they have to show they want to play by outworking the player that is equal in caliber. Competition during practice would hopefully translate to a competitive attitude during games.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Recruiting JuCo kids didn't hurt us a single bit under Brewster. What hurt us is that the traditional HS recruits didn't develop and the attrition that occured within our highschool recruits.

Signing Lawrence allowed us to RS Cooper, which if he had turned out better, would have helped us and Cooper quite a bit. Your assumption is that Cooper would have been a better football today (and next year) if he had played as a true freshman?

The same could be said with Jeff Wills. If we didn't have Wills, we likely would have had to burn Gjere or Lenkiewicz RS.

This holds true for most of our JuCo guys. They allowed the few players we've had a chance to RS, actually RS.
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I agree with this part, which is why we shouldn't add JUCOs. If we signed 6 additional high school kids instead of the JUCOs AND they got proper coaching, we could have had several more upperclassmen on the defensive side of the ball both last year and this year, instead of having to start 9 new players last year because all the JUCOs graduated. Programs are built by guys that have been in the system for 3-5 years. I would only advocate taking a JUCO if you feel there are no other high school kids deserving of a scholarship, or when you get a chance to land a guy that has all-Big 10 potential.
 

John Galt said:
I agree with this part, which is why we shouldn't add JUCOs. If we signed 6 additional high school kids instead of the JUCOs AND they got proper coaching, we could have had several more upperclassmen on the defensive side of the ball both last year and this year, instead of having to start 9 new players last year because all the JUCOs graduated. Programs are built by guys that have been in the system for 3-5 years. I would only advocate taking a JUCO if you feel there are no other high school kids deserving of a scholarship, or when you get a chance to land a guy that has all-Big 10 potential.
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I can see your point that you'd just assume to have as many scholarships available to HS kids as possible. However, keep in mind that we are so thin across our depth chart that being able to build our program around kids who have been in our system 3-5 years won't be possible as we won't have hardly any kids who will be able to RS. JuCo's make it much easier to RS our younger kids.

Like I said, the other point is that it spreads out our classes a little bit. Having one gigantic class kind of throws everything off and it's hard to be a consistant program with one gigantic class (assuming that it will be a repeating phenomenon, as the large class graduates, it's replaced by a larger class).

We will have enough open spots to sign a few extra kids than we would normally be able to sign. I think that adding some JuCos to what will be a large class regardless would help us quite a bit as far as spreading those scholarships out, retaining RSs, bringing some competition, helping the development of the younger players.
 

Bringing in a few JuCos especially on defense would be alright for the reasons already mentioned. On offense, I think we have to look for a JuCo TE/HB, unless they think one of the walk ons or incoming frosh can contribute right away next season.

On defense I think we are fine at DE. The two freshman have been playing fairly well and we have depth at that position. Plus Cockran has supposedly looked good so far in practice. We definitely need help at DT and in the secondary.

By the way, does anyone know if Isaac Fruechete got hurt this year? The Rochester CC roster has him listed as a redshirt. Did he do that so he had another year of eligibility at the U or did something happen?
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm of the opinion that we won't be trying to address our DE need with a JuCo. I could be wrong, but our best players are young at this position and I think that Perry and Amaefula will see a ton of snaps (and we still have Garin, Wilhite and KGM). While those guys aren't that good, they provide enough depth that we wouldn't have to pre-maturely burn a RS (unless the FR was ready).
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Don't forget, the best freshman is a DE that is redshirting, according to Kill. I don't remember his name but there is a thread about him on here.
 

tikited said:
We aren't good enough to not bring in a bunch of Juco's. This is the situation we are in-we need juco's.
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Any chance for a JUCO/ Preferred Walk-on Mix? A preferred walk on for every CC/ JUCO player could work. Assuming the walk on player earns it, If/ when scholarships open up, give it to said player to even out the classes.
 

Don't sign a JUCO DE! That would just serve as a road block for Amaefula, Cockran, and Perry! But we definitely need to sign AT LEAST 3, probably 4, defensive backs. Also, I'd be all for signing a JUCO running back. The JUCO could contribute right away, and we could consider redshirting Cobb. That way Cobb and Kirkwood are not in the same class.
 

Can we get a JUCO at every position?

I am really excited to see Steve Montgomery play next year. Hopefully he can step in immediately and help our secondary woes.
 

Former Goofer said:
I am really excited to see Steve Montgomery play next year. Hopefully he can step in immediately and help our secondary woes.
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Anyone know why he redshirted? When he signed he looked like the kind of player who could contribute this year.
 

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