I think the moral of this story is that it's clear our staff is not recruiting before the bowl. Guess Dax was right.
Guess, you would first need to define "recruiting" in relationship to our staff.
Dax is right. He's been around long enough to know exactly how Snyder works in this regard.
There is a common argument out there that even when we had the greatest assistant coaching staff of all time, we still had to recruit JUCOs heavily and get grayshirt kids, therefore, we've always used the coach'em up philosophy. Well, duh. The difference between that staff and this staff is that staff would drive to a JUCO and smuggle Jeff Kelly out of there in the trunk of their car if they had to, while this one sends Michael Smith to counter Mike Gundy to lock up one of the two crown jewels of the recruiting class.
The one thing that LHC Bill Snyder has always been able to do, and still can, is evaluate and identify talent where others may not see it. Even now, I'm still very impressed by his ability to seek out and find some of these kids. He was the first on Zac Robinson. He was the first on Kennard and Meshak Williams. He was the first on Daniel Sams, and I don't care what anyone ends up saying, but that kid is lightning in a bottle and easily Snyder's best prep recruit since Sproles. There are few better than Snyder in finding these kids and figuring out what does and does not equate to D1 success. So, in that regard, his "recruiting" ability in terms of identifying talent is top notch.
The problem is that everyone knows this. Teams like Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have made a living poaching our recruits over the years. What Snyder lacks now as opposed to then are hungry, young assistants that will do anything to go get these guys. Instead of surrounding himself with coaches with huge egos that are trying to make a name for themselves in the game, he's surrounding himself with "fine football coaches" that are old and lack the drive and enthusiasm to do crazy stuff like his first staff did because they don't have a future. Del Miller isn't going to take a different job. Mo Latimore isn't going to take another job. Michael Smith will stay here forever if he can, as will Joe Bob. Those who actually do have talent and a sliver of a career left (Dimel, Dickey, Burns, Rahne) aren't good enough that they are going to get poached by a school with more money or prestige. We stole Dimel from Arizona. Dickey came from Arizona. Burns came from San Jose State. Rahne, while pulling his weight, is a TE coach that's doing a good job in recruiting, but not a great job. He has no incentive to move unless he really wants to.
Snyder is too concerned with "family" and surrounding himself with people he's comfortable with to do what he needs to do, and that's cut the dead weight and go get some young, hungry guys that want to make a name for themselves. Until he does, we're going to be shooting for lower tiered bowls, at best, until he retires.
Kennard is a symptom of a larger problem. Anyone who doesn't realize that is in total denial.
