I stand by what I say, if they were really good then they would go bigger. It isn't like the Ville is a powerhouse or anything.

 

I have met Charlie Strong and he is a for sure great guy, a family man IMO. He took the time to speak to me on a business tip I had a few years ago. I would rather have him than Joker at UK.

I still say picking Louisville over a big school is like picking North Dakota State JR College over Louisville.

Plus I give, it is obvious I am no fan of the Ville, but you probably do have a better head coach and we got a has been in Greg Nord from UL. Bet you laugh at that.

While I think you are wrong, I do not feel you are totally crazy in what you are saying. As an earlier post of yours mentioned, it is not just about UL but you even mentioned UK. If a highly sought after recruit is going to a less than stellar program (such as UL or UK) from the deep south, it is most often because one of the bigger schools past. What I think you discount is that kids care a lot less about tradition these days and are sold to Universities based upon who the coach is, not who the program is. Strong is well connected and that counts for a lot more than what attractions there are (or not) in Louisville.

UL has pulled their offer from Cincy Colerain verbal DB Chris Dukes to make room for the new commits...

I held off in commenting in this thread, but I think I'll set a few things straight.

 

Louisville, and I know this makes some of your heads explode, is pulling in some high-level kids from Florida and beating out established football powers for these kids. Would Louisville have picked up Rogers and Bridgewater if Miami hadn't fired Shannon? We'll never know, but I can assure you that they were working South Florida like a punching bag before that and were close to getting those recruits regardless. Those "two more 4 stars" that started this thread were Ole Miss commits, but just because Louisville picks them up some people would like to imagine that they aren't SEC-level recruits. This is the saddest of sour grapes.

 

So why does Louisville have four 4-star kids by Rivals' count and one 5-star and two 4-star kids by scout's? Why do they have more consensus high-level recruits in the wings (and I assure you, they're working on some good ones)?

 

First, Miami made a huge mistake by letting Hurtt get away. Canes fans were mostly happy to see him go, they saw him as an under-performer in developing the defensive line and in recruiting. At Louisville, Hurtt is currently killing it recruiting talent in the Miami area, successfully poaching a lot of kids. This thread doesn't even address the level kids that Louisville has been in on but failed to seal the deal. For every Bridgewater or Holliman, there have been plenty of talented kids that Hurtt got us in with that DON'T make the recruiting headlines.

 

But Louisville isn't just recruiting the Miami area, they're all over the state. Louisville benefits from having an historical connection recruiting in Florida that ran through every coaching staff from Schnellenberger on, with the exception of the Kragthorpe staff which was focused on western recruiting avenues that never really panned out in the same way.

 

Besides the history of their recruiting, Louisville has a new Florida connection in Charlie Strong, whose ties in the state are as good as they come at the high school level. The respect that he has there does him a lot of favors, and coaches tell their players good things about him.

 

Strong also is benefiting from his professional collegiate associations at Florida. Florida is a big state with an even bigger top-shelf talent population, and quite frankly they can't all be Gators. Sometimes there are kids that aren't a good fit at Florida, because they don't fit the scheme or they aren't at a position of need or for plenty of other reasons. The staff at Florida would much rather see these kids end up at Louisville then FSU, Miami or somewhere else in the SEC; they've been very helpful in identifying talent for Strong and Hurtt as well as talking them up to the recruits.

 

And I'll go ahead and say it- some of these kids were committed to a black head coach in Randy Shannon. In college football, if you find playing for a man of color attractive, there are only so many options, and Charlie Strong is one of them.

UL has pulled their offer from Cincy Colerain verbal DB Chris Dukes to make room for the new commits...

That's not exactly the way I've heard it, but the result's the same. Dukes won't be a Cardinal.

That's not exactly the way I've heard it, but the result's the same. Dukes won't be a Cardinal.

 

Do tell. Dukes was firmly committed to UL and not looking around at anyone else only to have his spot pulled 3 weeks before signing day. I'm sure the spin from UL is quite different...

Do tell. Dukes was firmly committed to UL and not looking around at anyone else only to have his spot pulled 3 weeks before signing day. I'm sure the spin from UL is quite different...

I heard he was asked to greyshirt, and Dukes wasn't interested. Like I said, not exactly the way I heard it (and understandable from Dukes' end, as I'm sure he can find a D-I program that wouldn't ask that of him.)

I held off in commenting in this thread, but I think I'll set a few things straight.

 

Louisville, and I know this makes some of your heads explode, is pulling in some high-level kids from Florida and beating out established football powers for these kids. Would Louisville have picked up Rogers and Bridgewater if Miami hadn't fired Shannon? We'll never know, but I can assure you that they were working South Florida like a punching bag before that and were close to getting those recruits regardless. Those "two more 4 stars" that started this thread were Ole Miss commits, but just because Louisville picks them up some people would like to imagine that they aren't SEC-level recruits. This is the saddest of sour grapes.

 

So why does Louisville have four 4-star kids by Rivals' count and one 5-star and two 4-star kids by scout's? Why do they have more consensus high-level recruits in the wings (and I assure you, they're working on some good ones)?

 

First, Miami made a huge mistake by letting Hurtt get away. Canes fans were mostly happy to see him go, they saw him as an under-performer in developing the defensive line and in recruiting. At Louisville, Hurtt is currently killing it recruiting talent in the Miami area, successfully poaching a lot of kids. This thread doesn't even address the level kids that Louisville has been in on but failed to seal the deal. For every Bridgewater or Holliman, there have been plenty of talented kids that Hurtt got us in with that DON'T make the recruiting headlines.

 

But Louisville isn't just recruiting the Miami area, they're all over the state. Louisville benefits from having an historical connection recruiting in Florida that ran through every coaching staff from Schnellenberger on, with the exception of the Kragthorpe staff which was focused on western recruiting avenues that never really panned out in the same way.

 

Besides the history of their recruiting, Louisville has a new Florida connection in Charlie Strong, whose ties in the state are as good as they come at the high school level. The respect that he has there does him a lot of favors, and coaches tell their players good things about him.

 

Strong also is benefiting from his professional collegiate associations at Florida. Florida is a big state with an even bigger top-shelf talent population, and quite frankly they can't all be Gators. Sometimes there are kids that aren't a good fit at Florida, because they don't fit the scheme or they aren't at a position of need or for plenty of other reasons. The staff at Florida would much rather see these kids end up at Louisville then FSU, Miami or somewhere else in the SEC; they've been very helpful in identifying talent for Strong and Hurtt as well as talking them up to the recruits.

 

And I'll go ahead and say it- some of these kids were committed to a black head coach in Randy Shannon. In college football, if you find playing for a man of color attractive, there are only so many options, and Charlie Strong is one of them.

 

Even though Rogers committed to Miami, the consensus was that he was never going to actually be a part of this class. Knew that the day he committed.

 

I never felt Bridgewater wanted to go to Miami. I think he was pushed to commit there. He was determined to have Shannon promise he would be the only QB in the class, which Shannon stupidly did.

 

U of L can have Hurtt, he's a very good recruiter but is not great at player development IMO. I do think his coaching philosophy fits well with Charlie Strong's though. It will definitely help them with MNW and a few other schools, but after seeing the crap the recent MNW boys have done at Miami I'm ready to cut my losses. I do think he's a better recruiter than most Miami fans believe, I think it was Shannon who was truly the poor recruiter at Miami though I doubt many here will believe it. Without Barrow, Hill and Hurtt the last few years I don't know that Miami has any talent on their roster at all due to how RS recruited.

 

I don't think the U will be sorry they let Hurtt get away. Brennan Carroll was a huge pick-up for them, and Golden is known as one of the best recruiters in the game, even though he was at Temple. I don't know how well Miami can realistically close this season, but I'm interested to see next year.

The defensive line for UofL this season was a minor miracle. Is that attributable to Hurtt, Strong or Pat Moorer (Louisville's strength and conditioning coordinator)? I can't answer for certain, but I think Hurtt deserves at least a little credit.

I heard he was asked to greyshirt, and Dukes wasn't interested. Like I said, not exactly the way I heard it (and understandable from Dukes' end, as I'm sure he can find a D-I program that wouldn't ask that of him.)

 

They did ask him to gray shirt, but only after they recruited over him and no longer had a spot in 2011. No one understands the nature of the game more than me, but it's not good business to put a kid in that situation after he had closed his recruitment long ago, and is now scrambling with limited time to make visits before signing day...

The defensive line for UofL this season was a minor miracle. Is that attributable to Hurtt, Strong or Pat Moorer (Louisville's strength and conditioning coordinator)? I can't answer for certain, but I think Hurtt deserves at least a little credit.

 

He's the position coach so he should get credit IMO. He didn't get much out of Miami's D-Linemen though. But, it's possible that was an extension of how Shannon ran the program.

Jerrill Moore of Fern Creek also was pulled.

Pulling offers just because a coach found a better player is crap. There are few decent men left in the profession of coaching on the large college level.

Jerrill Moore of Fern Creek also was pulled.

 

Official party line is that Moore stated that he was 90% on coming to UofL and Strong demanded absolute commitment. Like I said, that's the party line so take it for what it's worth.

The defensive line for UofL this season was a minor miracle. Is that attributable to Hurtt, Strong or Pat Moorer (Louisville's strength and conditioning coordinator)? I can't answer for certain, but I think Hurtt deserves at least a little credit.

 

Strong and Hurtt. I will go back to what I heard Skip Holtz say about UofL's defense on his show prior to the USF/Louisville game up there.

 

"They play a lot of man because of improved corner play. So they blitz a lot. At the beginning of the year they blitzed less than 20% of the time. Against the Cuse they blitzed 56% of the time. Holtz said they have shown every defense this year short of straight sixes. 4-3, 3-4, 2-5, 5-2, 6-1, 5 man fronts, 8 man fronts, and you don't know where the blitz is coming from. The defense never sets and is always moving. This creates confusion for the QB."

 

It was scheme over personnel last season. I can't imagine what that defense will be like with better talent. It's scary.

Emotions unstable after losing to NCAA, Pitt, UGA and in recruiting in 48 hours. Poor guy...

 

It was one of the worst couple of days that I can remember in my many years being a UK fan!