I fully accept the sentiment of the Most Interesting Man in Maine. I'd like to take a different cut at this year's recruiting though.
A team has twenty-two position players to field. In any given "average" year, a coach does not count on a freshman manning one of them, though some precocious ones do. In fact you don't count on that many sophomores starting either. [Our D-Line etc are VERY unusual]. Let's, just for discussion purposes, say that you would hope that each recruiting class could get you 9 or ten players who would start at least two years --- make it mathematically simple and say 19 juniors and seniors starting. [I'm leaving out ST players, though they'd average recruiting one "new starter" per year, and we have one in Daly].
So, I, the coach, will think that I've done well if I can see 9 or ten really good ones in each year's recruiting class. These guys will start two, maybe even three years for me, and I'll be solid everywhere.
Who does it seem that we'll get this year? Shepard, Shumate, Prosise, Turner, Baratti, Greenberry, Brown, Ferguson, Russell, Mahone, Decker, Harrell, Stanley, Okwara, Jones, Day..... how many of these guys do you feel will be starters as upperclassmen? In principle, when you count to nine or ten, you should say :thanks coach, great job!!
And we're not done. What if some other names are Armstead, Wright, Ekanem, Garnett, Fuller, etc? How's Coach doing on the 9/10 upperclass starters rule?? What if you count Carlisle, even Badger, or the elder Armstead, as joining the team in a given year??
How's the Old Coach doing??
