Report from WMU evokes comparisons, musings

Here is an interesting article from Graham Couch of the Kalamazoo Gazette.  I think Couch is one of the best beat writers in the MAC.  I've pointed you to some of his stuff on the decline of MAC basketball, but here he has an interesting piece on an issue the WMU football program is facing.

It is interesting in that it highlights the very same issue that BG is having.

The last of the Broncos’ 2006 recruiting class is checking out, taking with it the first batch of the 2007 crew, what little is left of it.

Both classes have their football success stories, just not enough of them and ridiculously few on defense.

Coach Cubit points to two reasons in the article as to why this particular class is so thin...the first (and this is a remarkbaly candid thing for a coach to admit) is that his assistants were out looking for other jobs.

“That was the group ... the five coaching changes and it was hard to hold onto the class,” Cubit said, of his third offseason as head coach, during which he lost his defensive coordinator, secondary coach, receivers coach, quarterbacks coach and offensive line coach.

“Sometimes coaches, when you have some success, they’re looking because there’s more money out there. Near the end (of recruiting), where you have to hone in, sometimes (coaches) don’t do all their homework, because they’re doing other things. All those guys, they got really good jobs. We had success, so they took advantage of it. That’s the business.”

The second reason, and the one I want to focus on, is that some of the players were not good choices for WMU....

Of the group, Cubit regrets losing Cyrille, who he said faced family pressure to leave. As for most of the rest, “Ahh, there were some guys,” Cubit began, before pausing and smacking his lips, “ ... it wasn’t a good fit.”

Of course, we are facing the same issue at BG. We had some guys in the Brandon class who (smack lips) were "not a good fit."  To say the least.

I think it is worth remembering when we all sit down and review the recruiting ratings each year.  You almost wish you could rank guys based on ability and likelihood of making it to senior day.  And you really think that when you get a guy it seems like you should never have been able to get (ie, Glen Stanley), that there might be a reason why that happened.

I know coaches sometimes think they will take a chance on a guy and hope he works out.  You can certainly understand that--the pressure to recruit talent is as intense in the MAC as it is for any other team.  There's an upside and a downside...a risk/reward diagram that is much the same for any other business.

On the other hand, sometimes you figure the best way to succeed is to methodically hit singles and doubles.

One thing is for sure.  If you choose the upside risk, you are going to be accountable for your decisions, because you will be standing on the sideline watching teams run all over your guys.  Or maybe you figure you'll be gone by then.