Many Ron Prince critics want to make a big deal about the state of his football team this year. But what about the future?
The Wildcats have 10 commitments for their 2009 class. None of those recruits have scholarship offers from another BCS school. Only two of K-State’s committed players, Andre McDonald and Michael Bowie, have scholarship offers from a non-BCS school, both from Tulsa.
According to Scout.com, the Wildcats’ 2009 recruiting class is ranked 86th in the country. That is worse than every BCS university except Syracuse, which is 1-6 this year.
K-State is getting out-recruited by traditional bottom feeders like Temple and Louisiana-Monroe. The Wildcats are even doing worse than Washington, a school that fired coach Tyrone Willingham after the team’s 0-7 start.
Now, K-State still has about 15 available scholarship spots and could finish much higher in the recruiting rankings. We could also give Prince the benefit of the doubt and say maybe he’s just good at finding talent that other coaches might have overlooked.
Still, there is no reason for Prince to sign this many players whom no other BCS coach wants. He has months to fill out the recruiting class.
Two of the K-State commits, Richard Evans and Kadero Terrel, have not had significant affects on their respective junior college teams this season. There is no reason to offer scholarships to players like that. There is a good chance Prince could get a player like that to walk-on.
Would it make sense for a college graduate to settle on the first entry-level job that any recent grad could get? Of course not.
You should always try to find the best possible job. There are plenty of entry-level jobs out there. You should not settle for something that will be available later.
Also, I doubt Prince has proven himself to be a guru when it comes to recognizing talent that other coaches might overlook. If you look at most of the Wildcats’ good players, they are players who had offers from other schools.
Prince needs to be more patient with his recruiting. He needs to evaluate these players during their senior seasons of high school.
There’s no reason for the Wildcats to offer right away, especially when they’re the only team interested. Chances are, that same player, or a similar one, will be around a few months from now.
Whatever the case, if Prince can’t turn around his recruiting, there’s very little hope for him turning around the Wildcats.
Jon Garten is a senior in print journalism. Please send comments to sports@spub.ksu.edu.
Prince needs to stop settling on mediocre recruits with no other offers from schools
Published: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Updated: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
4 comments
Andrew
The bottom line is that Ron Prince was brought in with the expectation of competing for at least conference championships. He's had 3 years to get the people he wanted both on and off the field, and his record is getting worse with little sign of changing. I'm sure he's a great guy but it's time to move in a different direction. It's time for Ron Prince to go.
Jason
FIRE PRINCE FIRE PRINCE! I knew he was a joke from the beginning, it's a shame nobody else believed me.
Dean
It’s hard to recruit when you lose so many coaches each year to lateral positions. Prince needs to learn how to respect his current coaches. He’ll never attract top quality assistant coaches if he continues to treat them the way he does now. Good programs attract and keep great assistant coaches…something Prince has failed to do.
Kevin
If I were a parent of a high school player who was being recruited by KSU, I wouldn't want him to come here, given the way our "fans" are reacting to the team this year.....we all have our issues with the way we are playing, but give me a break......the way our fans are handling the issue with all the "fireronprince.com" and "hirepatterson.com" bull%$#.....unfortunatley the old saying........be careful what you ask for...................may be in our immediate future....and if anyone thinks starting over from scratch at this point without giving our current plan 4-5 years to properly evaluate, then you are smoking some good sh%$#t!!!! The fact of the matter is this: We (the fans of KSU) have sabotaged this years team and any chance we have of solidifying a future with our current staff!!
