The Myths and the Realities of YSU Football Recruiting ...

[Just Toyin]

 The Self-Proclaimed Expert (SPE) and Know-it-All of this message board continues to make posts with what appears to be a relentless attempt at undermining the support and perception of our programs while seeking to generate as much negativity as possible!?!  I thought I would try to add some reality to all the lies and false information being spewed regarding the competency of YSU football recruiting since Tressel departed!

 I will be the first to admit that I'm no recruiting expert - and there are certainly plenty of folks who get paid large sums of money for their recruiting expertise that miss the mark badly on many occasions (i.e. top QBs drafted highly in the NFL who bomb out year after year!?!).  So I'm not trying to make anyone look incompetent here (I'll let our SPE do that to himself) - I'm just trying to illustrate that the bashing of our last two recruiting classes is very likely as inaccurate as most all of the prior opinions of our SPE (despite his repeated claims to have always been correct).  Finally, I'm not trying to compare our two prior coaches and/or disparage either of them in any way - I was optimistic over both hiring's, I believe I was a strong supporter of them both as best I could (even though I did not care for one's personality), and I would have to admit that I was happy to see changes made to replace each of them when the time came.

 >>>  CONFERENCE RECORDS/ACCOMPLISHMENTS (comparing results of Heacock's supposed abysmal recruiting classes vs Wolford's tops-in-conference recruiting classes):

 Heacock -
      Record in Conference:  34 - 30 (4 of 9 seasons above .500 record)
      Two Conference Titles:  2
      Playoff Appearances (16 Teams):  1

 Wolford -
      Record in Conference:  18-22 (1 of 5 seasons above .500 record)
      Conference Titles:  0
      Playoff Appearances (20-24 Teams):  0

Now consider the significant increase in football expenses/salaries, huge facility upgrade w/ the WATTS, and the expansion of playoff bids from 16 to 24.  Could someone please add the common sense to the equation that shows how Wolford's significantly better recruiting classes + higher salaries + WATTS + 24 playoff bids = poorer results in all aspects than Heacock???

 >>>  BLUE CHIPPERS (comparing 1st and 2nd Team All-Conference Selections between Heacock's abysmal classes vs Wolford's best-in-conference classes).  Note, in fairness, we should expect the numbers to be slightly higher for Heacock due to the fact that there were 1 or 2 few teams in the conference for most of his tenure.

 HEACOCK:
 2001 (sorry, I neglected to record data for this year - we'll just credit any accolades to Tressel anyway)
 2002 - 6 1st and 2nd Team All Conf Players (Mays, Roberts, Mazard, Tekac, Barone, Stuvaints*)
 2003 - 3 (Roberts, Davis, Bracken)
 2004 - 4 (Ison, Roberts, Bracken, Wright)
 2005 - 9 (Ison, Jewell, Scholes, Terry, Jackson, Mason, Brown, Perry, Bishop)
 2006 - 12 (Mason, Jewell, Walker, Phelan, Savage, Hutchinson, Terry, Jackson, Perry, Bishop, Bush, Samsa)
 2007 - 10 (Williams, Samsa, Savage, Terry, Zetts, Bush, Tanner, Palmer, Banford, Gliatta)
 2008 - 2 (Samsa, Fernandez)
 2009 - 4 (Jones, Savage, Rodemoyer, Wicks)

 WOLFORD:
 2010 - 6 (Barnes, Cook, Coates, Blose, Nicholsen, Ross) - ALL HEACOCK RECRUITS
 2011 - 4 (Hess, Cook, Pratt, Johnson) - Two 1st Teamers from Heacock, Two 2nd Teamers from Wolford
 2012 - 3 (Elkins, Cook, Shaw) - One of Three still from Heacock
 2013 - 5 (Elkins, Stubbs, Ruiz, Hess, Teven Williams who was then dismissed from team) - Still one from Heacock
 2014 - 3 (Rivers, Ruiz, Williams)

A couple points that just don't seem to pass the sanity test here:  (1) The SPE warned everyone how pathetic Heacock's recruits were, yet Heacock had an astounding 31, I repeat 31, 1st and 2nd team selectees in years 5 thru 7 of his tenure!?!  (2) in WOLFORD's five years on the job, he could only produce 11 of his own 1st and 2nd team performers from all of his "top ranked recruiting classes", yet 10 lowly players left over from Heacock managed to attain these accolades!?!  How is this possible to recruit so outstandingly yet barely have any of these players achieve all conference status - and worst yet nearly be outnumbered from the players left over from a guy who left 6 years ago and couldn't recruit a lick per our SPE???

 Final point - I will admit this is currently far more subjective at this point in time, but as far as Pelini's first recruiting class goes, it is clearly a long way to go to look back and assess all conference performers as well as win/loss successes (admittedly, not a great start?!?).  But I do believe anyone who calls Pelini's first class (or 2nd for that matter) a stinker is full of it!  Too many Freshman on the two deep already contributing significantly in year 1 (Place Kicker, Long Snapper, LB, DL, DB, OL, WR, ...) to go along with some highly touted transfers in Alexander, Moss, Wright, Pinnock, and Powell.  Everyone is entitle to their opinion, but most anyone with an open mind would have to say the 1st recruiting class has already made more significant contributions than one would expect from any recruiting class after just one year with the team!!!  Of course, others are simply hell-bent on spreading enough negativity that they hope it will resonate to potential future recruits and make it that much more difficult to obtain any sustained level of success.

 I would advise everyone to take our Self Proclaimed Expert's opinion with a grain of salt, but that would greatly diminish the value of the salt granule!!

[penguinpower]

You bring up some good points, however keep in mind that the MVFC has gotten better and better since Heacock and Tressel days.

[guinpen]

Most folks have him figured out

[ytownchief22]

Let it go. Tired of arguing this crap over and over.

[HappyPenguin]

Well done, thanks for putting this together.

[IAA Fan]

Some of those names on that list are a nice trip down memory lane. Some of them I completely forgot about them and they were so good ...Samsa, Ison, Savage, Rodemoyer and several others

[Penguin Nation]

Ahhhhh.....nothing quite stirs the blood like a "Heacock was a competent HC" claim, or that he was as good as, not just the Wolf, but any former or current YSU HC.

Yes....JH made the post-season once in 9 years.....so did Jerry Slocum.

JH inherited the Great Ones's players....the Wolf inherited JH's players.  If you take out the first two seasons where they were playing with someone else's recruits.....JH does not have a winning MVFC record, but EW does.  That's because the EW record was one of progressive improvement (sans the final year) and JH was one of progressive decline.  Looking at the final 2 years, EW has a winning MVFC record, and  JH has a losing MVFC record.  This is even more pronounced because, as was correctly mentioned earlier, the MVFC was in a recruiting arms race triggered by NDSU.  During every year but one of of EW's tenure, the National Champion was from the MVFC, and in the final year, so was the runner-up.

In his very first HC game, EW was beating Penn State, and eventually beat Pitt.  JH....noncompetitive against FBS teams every time.

EW beat the National Champions in their house, and beat UNI.....JH.....folded like a cheap suit.

When the Great One left, he went to tOSU.  EW went to the NFL.  JH? He took a year off (at great expense to YSU...furthering his damage to the program) and then went to Can't.

Neither are among the legends of YSU...Beede, Narduzzi, or Tressel....but JH is in a special category of suckitude.

[paladin]

Well said, Nation.  But the title here is "MYTHS and REALITIES".  Heacock was a really bad HC who didn't like recruiting. Wolf damn near recruited his first class single handedly as his staff had not been hired yet. And Wolf ran off most of Heacock's poor players and played his young boys while advancing in record year after year. But not making the playoffs, the idiot AD  let him go when he should have kept him as the MVFC was getting tougher and tougher. Beating a D -I team ( and not a MAC team) and being competitive with them was overlooked.  Heacock got blown off the field against D-I teams and was never competitive. The MVFC has been the BEST league in FCS for at least 5-6 years, while the MVFC had one good team during Heacock's tenure.  When Heacock was falling off in annual record , he should have been fired not extended. When Wolf was improving each year with winning records and beating a D-I  team and being competitive with them, he should have been extended.  But the incompetent AD showed his intelligence level, as he has done with men's BB and women's BB.

And lets be fair -- JT had great teams, won 4 national titles. And another at Ohio St. Yet YSU will ( maybe forever) be doomed as long as the memory of cheating here ( and at Ohio St.) is remembered.  YSU has been eligible several times only to have BS reasons used to keep them out. Read other boards.  Many believe the YSU titles are tainted with cheating. YSU will have to go over and above to get into the playoffs again. That was against Wolf and will be against future coaches here as well.

Back to the SPE (?). Paladin  predicted the outright MVFC championship & the playoffs under Heacock. Was that negative ?  No, but it was forgotten. I predicted the first  Heacock losing season and was called crazy. Yet it got quiet here when I was proved right. Was I negative ?  No, just accurate. I predicted the second losing season and again was called crazy. Presto !  Again I was right and most here looked like fools as the talent level was exposed. Yet I was called negative for being right. I called most of Wolf's years correct as well and missed only in projecting the playoffs ( they were eligible record wise).  Yet, somehow I'm always negative.

Heres the best part................... while most here show no knowledge of talent evaluation and ALWAYS project good things, I'm on the record again  ............... Bo's first two classes are stinkers.  Everyone     will get to see if Paladin is TRUTHFUL AND CORRECT. Or if he is negative and wrong.

Meanwhile, please continue to hype it up. Please tell us how great Bo is as a coach and a recruiter.

And pass the popcorn. The  party is getting started.

[YSU FAN#34]

So....Paladin.  If i were to raise my hand and scream out that you were correct with all your predictions.  Would you FINALLY go away??? You relentlessly b**** about how we think you are wrong...well ok...you're right.  Now please S. T. F. U. and go away. 

Dear God you are honestly worse than the NDSU fans who come here to stir it up.

And btw...not sure how calling people on here "scum" could be considered anything BUT negative.  Go back in time and rehash whatever it is that has you hating Stollo and everyone else so bad, twist it up, smoke it, and eat some Doritos.  Seriously, what motive has you coming here to post that our coaching selections suck, our recruiting classes suck, Our bean counters suck, the AD sucks and finally that the members of this board suck week after week year after year?  Are you that bored and lonely?  Your a damn troll...find somewhere else to grind your axe.  It's flipping beyond irritating already. 

[Wick250]

I had been a participant on this board since 1997.  I stopped coming here last October, completely fed up with wading through the hate that this man directs toward our university.  I decided to return today to read about members' impressions about our recruiting class, fully expecting to confront more hate-filled garbage.  My expectations were met.

IAA Fan, why can you not see what this character has done to your board?  Do you not understand that YSU fans resent this constant stream of insults against the institution that we love?  Do you not realize that you have lost over a dozen of the best and most intelligent YSU fans who left this board because of their disgust over this hater?  Wake up.

[guinpen]

The easy thing to do is to just not read his posts, I stopped a long time ago.

[penguinpower]

I had been a participant on this board since 1997.  I stopped coming here last October, completely fed up with wading through the hate that this man directs toward our university.  I decided to return today to read about members' impressions about our recruiting class, fully expecting to confront more hate-filled garbage.  My expectations were met.

IAA Fan, why can you not see what this character has done to your board?  Do you not understand that YSU fans resent this constant stream of insults against the institution that we love?  Do you not realize that you have lost over a dozen of the best and most intelligent YSU fans who left this board because of their disgust over this hater?  Wake up.

Great to see a post from you Wick.  I haven't posted much either.  For some reason you reminded me that we lost a talented FB in spring or summer practice.  Don't remember his name bit I think we get him back this year.

[IAA Fan]

I had been a participant on this board since 1997.  I stopped coming here last October, completely fed up with wading through the hate that this man directs toward our university.  I decided to return today to read about members' impressions about our recruiting class, fully expecting to confront more hate-filled garbage.  My expectations were met.

IAA Fan, why can you not see what this character has done to your board?  Do you not understand that YSU fans resent this constant stream of insults against the institution that we love?  Do you not realize that you have lost over a dozen of the best and most intelligent YSU fans who left this board because of their disgust over this hater?  Wake up.

Well I got rid of him twice already, then everyone says "well let's let him back and see what he does". Did you think he is going to change? Just some old guy sitting in a library stirring up trouble on websites. If you think that we are the only one that he does this to, I am sure we are not. BTW he does not even know that Heacock recruited much W's first class, then Wolf simply melted at the chance of letting a HS recruiting website choose his recruits for him. Even he never made that mistake again. Then even when you present facts to YSU's biggest fan and Paladin Nation ...that shows H's best came when he had all of his own recruits ...not to mention the fact that coach H recruited most all of the defense for Tressel ...they simply turn into what #34 says better than anyone ...NDSU fans.  Simply say the word and I will get rid of him again.

If you like variety of foods then you have to take the bad dishes with the good. All site have haters, hecklers and trolls. Paladin is all three. I, for one, only eat certain foods ...just as the only sports team I follow is YSU.

[ScarletRook]

IAA

Paladin can be very informative; unfortunately, he seems to delight in being combative instead.
When he is informative, I read his posts - when he is just stirring the pot and spewing his YSU hate messages, I just quit reading.

[Penguin Nation]

Geez.  The Ytown I remember was a bunch of tough MFers that would give you the shirt off their back.  When did Ytowners grow glass jaws?  Is this forum a "safe space"?  Should I get a "trigger warning" if I mention the Strollo record of failure? Is referring to Heacock's contract renewal as he was nuking the program a "micro-aggression"?

My suggestion would be to create a "code of conduct."  I wouldn't include criticisms of the program as a violation but its not my call.  Maybe the goal is have a fantasyland forum where every coach gets a participation trophy.  If that's the goal, warm up some chamomile tea, snuggle up and ban contrary opinion.

Sieg Heil.