Any college coach worth his salt, no matter which sport, will tell you how important recruiting is; the best teams are almost always near the top of the recruiting rankings.However, members of the American Athletic Conference rarely find themselves high up on any rankings list. In fact, for the 2015 recruiting rankings (according to ESPN), only five AAC teams find themselves in the top 75, with UCF at the top of the conference at No. 49 overall. With that in mind, there’s no reason to think that Cincinnati shouldn’t be miles ahead of the pack.
Looking at the recruiting areas that tend to have top-level players coming out of them, the Bearcats are actually in a great place. The state of Ohio is one of the top states for high school football, with the cities of Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland boasting some of the best programs in the country, like Cincinnati’s St. Xavier, Cleveland St. Ignatius, and Pickerington Central. At least one of these dozens of teams is nationally ranked in the top 10 high school programs every year.
While many of those top players may choose the Ohio State Buckeyes, that still leaves dozens of players with Division 1-A talent, all of which the Bearcats should target. The proximity to home can be a huge selling point to players that want to have their family close by and able to watch them. But that isn’t the only major recruiting location that plays into the Bearcats’ hands.
Let’s take a closer look at coach Tommy Tuberville’s coaching past. His last three jobs before taking the UC coaching position were as the head coach of Texas Tech, Auburn, and Ole Miss. What do those have in common? They’ll all force a coach to win recruiting battles in areas packed with great football talent. Texas is considered to be the heart of high school football, and, despite only being in Texas for three seasons, Tuberville knows the terrain of the state and how to garner great players from the state.
With Tuberville’s experience at Auburn and Ole Miss, being in the SEC, many of the best prospects in the country will be from the state of Florida. Winning those battles were important to winning in the SEC, something that Tuberville can continue to use at every job he has. Tuberville’s experience should be used to grab these great prospects. With 97 of the top 300 prospects coming from Texas and Florida alone, and another eight from Ohio, Tuberville has plenty of opportunities to grab top prospects, even if it’s only 3-5, less than the average a top 75 recruiting class averages.
Unfortunately for Bearcat fans, they failed to grab a single Top 300 recruit, despite racking up 26 total. Only one four-star recruit signed with the Bearcats, in a scale out of five stars, and he’s an 80 grade out of 99, with the 2015 high grade coming in at 93.
Despite all the opportunities that this Bearcat coaching staff has had in grabbing top players, they keep coming up short. That’s not to say that this coaching staff is doing anything wrong beyond maybe reaching for players that might be higher in the rankings than a team like UC should focus on.
In the end, coaching staffs should be given adequate time to bring in their own players, instead of just working off what the last staff brought in. Tuberville has proven to be a great coach and a top recruiter, but that can only happen if the Bearcats can prove themselves on the field. Being AAC co-champions in 2014 and getting the national spotlight through back-to-back bowl games to start Tuberville’s tenure is a good start, since most top players want to be seen on television.
What they want more than anything, though, is to play for a winning team. So if the Bearcats want to start picking off some of those top players, winning is the only path. If they’re able to begin that trend, there’s no reason to think that they can’t win the AAC on their recruiting prowess alone.
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