RB07OSU;1654937; said:
I don't think so honestly. It seemed to me we possibly put out more offers than normal, we just didn't produce the commitments. Then the guys we put most of our effort into recruiting went elsewhere.
I understand what you're saying, but I do think too few offers went out, and perhaps I can explain my thinking a bit better than before. I see recruiting as a fluid thing. Early on, the staff seems to evaluate talent and create an offer board with a hierarchy at each position of need. From that board, they then make initial offers to the best-of-the-best in-state, a handful of the best-of-the-best nationally, and a handful of really good national recruits that have some known connection to or adoration for Ohio State. Then they give it a little while to see what kind of response they get (particularly in the form of commits/silent commits, but also in terms of how interested those early offers seem to be).
Depending on the initial wave of response, other offers continue to trickle out. Visits and in-homes are made. Depending on the responses, more evaluations are made and new waves of offers are sent.
My point is that, for a long period of time, we gradually saw kids either push off their decisions or commit elsewhere. Those that remained uncommitted but supposedly interested were not primarily pipeline kids (aside from Bryant and Anderson, if Anderson actually qualifies) or recruits whose best offer was from tOSU, but were big-time 4 and 5 star recruits (mostly from out-of-state) that had incredibly competitive offer sheets. In other words, they were the kids OSU almost
always misses out on late in the game. At this point, more offers should have gone out to cover our butt, but I don't think that really happened to the extent it should have.
So when I say that the staff was too selective with offers this season, I come to that conclusion by looking at the sheer number of offers sent out, but also by considering other circumstances (the nature of the recruits offered, the pattern of offers, etc.). In some years (hopefully 2011), 45 offers may be plenty for a 25-28 kid class. In other years, I'd like to see upwards of 75-90. Although this was bound to be a smaller class, when it became apparent we were going to be waiting until relatively late in the game for guys like Henderson, Hicks, Floyd, James, Anderson, Morgan and Joyner, I would have liked more offers to go out. Certainly, hold a few spots, because you'd like to land 2 or 3 of those guys late, but counting on almost all of them seemed somewhat unrealistic. It's a tough decision making process (that I think an early signing period could help with, BTW); do you promise a big time recruit that a spot will be held, or do you decide not to chance it and go after "good-not-great" prospects you feel more confident about wrapping up? Like I said, I think that we get 20 for this class if our offer sheet had gone up to about 75 or so--and I'm talking about offering legit 3 and perhaps 4 star caliber recruits that, although perhaps not as highly regarded by the staff as a Henderson or Joyner, could possibly contribute in a few years just like so many others have.
I want the best players, but if we can't get them, I don't want to miss altogether. That said, I can't help thinking the staff has really good early indications about 2011, so perhaps that played into their reluctance to send out more offers to lesser-valued prospects this go round.
