Saturday, April 21, 2018

Clater to Transfer


More transfers from the football program.  This one is on offense and at WR.  Calvin Clater, who came from Fort Worth.  You will remember him from being the Texas HS High Jump champion and as a two-star recruit.

No idea what is going on.  Easiest guess is he doesn't like where he ended the spring on the depth chart but I have no idea.  Coach has said he has been selling the recruits on playing time, so perhaps they have an expectation.

Anyway, the larger issue is that the biggest reason we had to believe in Coach Jinks was his recruiting and specifically this class.  He has talked about the need to "stack up" strong recruiting classes.  Well, of that '17 class, three of the players left without ever stepping on the field and one is suspended after playing only one season.

The team was bad last year and I think the consensus was a combination of poor talent and poor defensive coaching.  Coaching has been addressed, but the margin of error on when this gets turned around is relying on these recruiting classes.

On this year's recruiting, BG has no verbals yet.  Miami has 13 and 10 of them with 3-stars.  Toledo has 3, all with 3-stars.  In all, 6 teams have at least one verbal.

Last year, BG's first verbal didn't come around until Patrick Lupro on April 24, and he went to WMU anyway.  It will be interesting to see how BG's recruiting goes this year.

Best of luck to Calvin in his future endeavors.

7 comments :

NWLB said...

It is absurd how these kids label things as "reopening their recruiting." But then I think that is the nature of kids in this sport now. They are commodities and so they see the schools they play for as being.

Orange said...

I agree, it is delusional to think you're fooling anyone with that phrase.

NWLB said...

I'll offer this, which is strictly observational. But I watched WRs giving up and throwing the kind of little fits on the field last year, which you get when they are more focused on not getting a ball, or thinking about what the QB didn't do, than what their jobs. That is, the body language, the head bobbing, throwing of arms around in frustration, etc.

I'm sensitive to overstating this at this point however. Shake-outs occur, happened in major ways when Urban arrived. On the other hand it didn't when Blackney arrived. But different eras, kids who simply don't match in attitudes and upbringing.

The situation bears watching. Kids shaking out because the defensive staff is finally calling kids to the floor and making them stick to fundamentals is par for the course. We've seen it before. Kids shaking out of the offense because the QB doesn't mesh with them, or they think they aren't going to get their precious "special snowflake" time happens.

The concern will remain pondering if we are wrong and these aren't signs of normal and customary events and are because the staff is losing the team.

Given all other factors, I'm not inclined to think the worst. Going to be a long summer though.

Orange said...

Agree. Not the worst but clearly not the best. Also, these shake outs are with his players, not from a previous coach.

Anonymous said...

Just a guess, but probably not an easy sell after 2 weak seasons. ( can you say Browns?) Saying P.T. Is prime reason for coming is OK for a new coaching staff, but two yrs in a row is about as far as it goes. All 3 of recent transfers are out of state kids who might think home cooking would be better.

Anonymous said...

BG is incredibly THIN at both WR and DL. There is big trouble coming in 2018 for the run D. I see no improvement on D line in 2018. There is simply not enough depth or talent. It could be ugly.

Anonymous said...

An unfortunate loss for BG. They struggled last season with the WRs they had dropped balls, not to mention an obvious player who was negative and was called out by the commentators. I believe they should have played this kid and from what I saw in the Spring Game and articles written after scrimmages his name was listed in each article and he was one of the most consistent, polished WRs. There's no way they should have redshirted him when he is a 7ft high jumper and you struggled catching balls all season. Good luck to him