KaneFan29 said:

Good points, but here at UTEP we don’t deal with 4 or 5 star recruits on a regular basis. 3 or less. There’s countless examples of 1 or no star recruits being great and 3 stars not amounting to anything. My approach when it comes to recruiting, is waiting until they actually enroll and actually play.

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Power cartel teams are full of 4 and 5 star players and they are better than our zero and 1 star players of the past decade. They also get 90% of the attention from the people that do the rankings. A 2 star might actually be a 3 or a 1 but he’s not a 5 except in extremely rare cases. And yea we can all find the exceptions that prove the rule.

If you put Oregon’s team at utep under Walden he’d win the conference. They’d win it under Kug or Nord. The last time we had recruiting classes anywhere near this good was the Price years.

So in summary is anything guaranteed? No. But I’ll take the top recruiting class over the bottom every day of the week and twice on Sunday

FiliUTEP said:

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Why the sad emoji?? 😥😥

MinerManiac said:

Statement 1: UTEP has the highest rated recruiting class in CUSA this year.
Statement 2: UTEP has the best recruiting class in CUSA this year.

The difference between these two statements may, on the surface, seem to only about semantics, but the truth is that they are quite different. Statement 1 is demonstrably true, as all you have to do is go to the recruiting rankings to confirm. The veracity of statement 2, however, won't be known until four or so years from now. It is impossible to predict right now which recruits will play above their rankings, which will play below them, who will drop out, and who move onto other schools. It is for this reason that some of us don't get as excited about recruiting ratings as do others.


I disagree. I bet that if we were to go back and look at recruiting rankings from four and five years ago, and look at how each player performed in college, the average 5 star will have been more successful than the average 4 star, the average 4 star more successful than the average 3 star, etc. But I do agree that they are far from being the be all, end all. Fred Rouse, a 5 star All American out of high school, wasn't anywhere near the best the best receiver on the team the year he played for the Miners, Jeff Moturi was. I have no idea how many stars that the recruiting services gave Moturi coming out of high school, but I'd be surprised if it was more than two, and am positive that it was no more than three.

On the other hand Thomas Howard, a walk on, was a defensive star at UTEP, and had good NFL career.

Recruiting rankings are an educated guess, based on how the players perform at the high school. It is impossible to know how they will perform against better competition in college, which players are early bloomers versus late developers, who will put in the work in college and who won't, etc. Some recruiting gurus and some coaches are really good at making these educated guesses, but, at the end of the day, guesses is what they really are.




Kane is completely right. Everyone on here is a Miner fan. We all want this to be the best recruiting class in whatever conference we're in. But, as I pointed out above, we are four years away from knowing if that will be the case.

I called for Golding to be fired last year. I have not called for Walden to be fired, but I have been highly critical of his coaching this season. My fondest wish, however, is for Golding to run the table the rest of this season, and for Walden to run the table next season. This is pretty much impossible, but if the basketball and football teams end out to be really, really good, I will happily eat crow, and consider it delicious. Other fans that have been complaining about our coaches all want to be wrong, and want them to succeed here. Wanting better than the sh!t show that has been Miner Athletics for the past forever does not make someone a bad fan.

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Good points, but here at UTEP we don’t deal with 4 or 5 star recruits on a regular basis. 3 or less. There’s countless examples of 1 or no star recruits being great and 3 stars not amounting to anything. My approach when it comes to recruiting, is waiting until they actually enroll and actually play.

MinerManiac said:

One thing that i meant to add to the above. What does impress me about Walden is his tireless recruiting efforts, his fearlessness in going after higher ranked players than we are accustomed to seeing here at UTEP, his refusal to use El Paso as an excuse, and his ability to close the deal a high percentage of the time. I hope that this recruiting class is everything and more that he expects it to be.

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listening to a replay of the press conference they had on X (only link on the UTEP football page is to the X broadcast). He mentioned they won't take no for an answer for anyone, even higher recruits, since the relationship needs to be established and will come back to help if they go into the portal. How we got the AZ St one to flip.

We all know that Walden will be gone as soon as we hit a winning season, but, him and his staff are really working at it to get recruits here and not letting any thing about El Paso being an excuse.

Yes, have to flip your phone horizontally

One thing that i meant to add to the above. What does impress me about Walden is his tireless recruiting efforts, his fearlessness in going after higher ranked players than we are accustomed to seeing here at UTEP, his refusal to use El Paso as an excuse, and his ability to close the deal a high percentage of the time. I hope that this recruiting class is everything and more that he expects it to be.

Statement 1: UTEP has the highest rated recruiting class in CUSA this year.
Statement 2: UTEP has the best recruiting class in CUSA this year.

The difference between these two statements may, on the surface, seem to only about semantics, but the truth is that they are quite different. Statement 1 is demonstrably true, as all you have to do is go to the recruiting rankings to confirm. The veracity of statement 2, however, won't be known until four or so years from now. It is impossible to predict right now which recruits will play above their rankings, which will play below them, who will drop out, and who move onto other schools. It is for this reason that some of us don't get as excited about recruiting ratings as do others.

KaneFan29 said:

Either way, my point is recruiting rankings are trash and mean absolutely nothing.

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I disagree. I bet that if we were to go back and look at recruiting rankings from four and five years ago, and look at how each player performed in college, the average 5 star will have been more successful than the average 4 star, the average 4 star more successful than the average 3 star, etc. But I do agree that they are far from being the be all, end all. Fred Rouse, a 5 star All American out of high school, wasn't anywhere near the best the best receiver on the team the year he played for the Miners, Jeff Moturi was. I have no idea how many stars that the recruiting services gave Moturi coming out of high school, but I'd be surprised if it was more than two, and am positive that it was no more than three.

On the other hand Thomas Howard, a walk on, was a defensive star at UTEP, and had good NFL career.

Recruiting rankings are an educated guess, based on how the players perform at the high school. It is impossible to know how they will perform against better competition in college, which players are early bloomers versus late developers, who will put in the work in college and who won't, etc. Some recruiting gurus and some coaches are really good at making these educated guesses, but, at the end of the day, guesses is what they really are.

MinerFan79 said:

Sounds like Coach Walden is killing it. Really must anger some of his haters on this board

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KaneFan29 said:

Everyone WANTS him to win and succeed. Some don’t THINK he will accomplish that. Nobody is angry about recruiting rankings.

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Kane is completely right. Everyone on here is a Miner fan. We all want this to be the best recruiting class in whatever conference we're in. But, as I pointed out above, we are four years away from knowing if that will be the case.

I called for Golding to be fired last year. I have not called for Walden to be fired, but I have been highly critical of his coaching this season. My fondest wish, however, is for Golding to run the table the rest of this season, and for Walden to run the table next season. This is pretty much impossible, but if the basketball and football teams end out to be really, really good, I will happily eat crow, and consider it delicious. Other fans that have been complaining about our coaches all want to be wrong, and want them to succeed here. Wanting better than the sh!t show that has been Miner Athletics for the past forever does not make someone a bad fan.

PickMyAxe915 said:

UTEP has committed a lot of talented WRs, so I'm not surprised by a decommit.

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That or they could be bringing in someone else through transfer portal. That QB Eli Marcos is also available again. He chose Tulsa but then went Texas A&M and how he left them.

KaneFan29 said:

That’s reasonable and fine, buuuuutttt this guy was a 4* recruit that was committed to Alabama and Auburn before coming to UTEP. Is it unreasonable to believe he would be ahead of the curve? It’s also reasonable to believe that he is nowhere near as good as a typical 4*, that’s why he’s here and not in the SEC.

Either way, my point is recruiting rankings are trash and mean absolutely nothing.

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To be fair, it is probably why he's at UTEP and not Auburn or Bama. He wasn't developing how they wanted or it was for academic reasons.

KaneFan29 said:

That’s reasonable and fine, buuuuutttt this guy was a 4* recruit that was committed to Alabama and Auburn before coming to UTEP. Is it unreasonable to believe he would be ahead of the curve? It’s also reasonable to believe that he is nowhere near as good as a typical 4*, that’s why he’s here and not in the SEC.

Either way, my point is recruiting rankings are trash and mean absolutely nothing.

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Yeah in this case I agree completely. Recruiting services are known to inflate players’ rankings based on the offers received. In Collins’ case, looks like he was a moderate offensive threat in varsity for two years but then played DE his senior year?

Either way dude is massive with an ability to play offense and defense. Glad we signed him

JCorona said:

It reflects poorly on you when you’re unable to respond with a coherent counterargument.

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"counterargument?" Counterarguing with a known troll is like wrestling a pig: the pig enjoys it you get covered up with pig s**t.

Heard this Albertsons in Horizon City is really nice.

PickMyAxe915 said:

I mean he was a freshman and according to Walden, the TE has one of the largest learning curves on the entire team. It's why Vinson didn't see much of the targets until late into the season. Unless Collins transfer out, id assume he will be seeing more targets next season. I only saw him on the field during special teams.

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That’s reasonable and fine, buuuuutttt this guy was a 4* recruit that was committed to Alabama and Auburn before coming to UTEP. Is it unreasonable to believe he would be ahead of the curve? It’s also reasonable to believe that he is nowhere near as good as a typical 4*, that’s why he’s here and not in the SEC.

Either way, my point is recruiting rankings are trash and mean absolutely nothing.

MinerFan79 said:

If they don’t mean anything then why do coaches put such a high value on star rankings and class rankings? Of course they mean something. You cherry picked one example

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If anything it'll put more pressure on Walden. He's bringing the talent. If he can't win with it, it's on him.

And yet not a word being celebrated about this….

This site used to always crush the miners for their dead last recruiting classes but now apparently we have the top class and not a peep

KaneFan29 said:

Everyone WANTS him to win and succeed. Some don’t THINK he will accomplish that. Nobody is angry about recruiting rankings.

BTW, how did that 4* recruit from Auburn or whatever do this past season?

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I mean he was a freshman and according to Walden, the TE has one of the largest learning curves on the entire team. It's why Vinson didn't see much of the targets until late into the season. Unless Collins transfer out, id assume he will be seeing more targets next season. I only saw him on the field during special teams.

FiliUTEP said:

Decommited


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UTEP has committed a lot of talented WRs, so I'm not surprised by a decommit.

JCorona said:

Vegas is always quick to jump in with unhelpful comments, adding nothing to the discussion except calling others trolls. Maybe it’s time for him to focus on something more productive.

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I disagree, JCorona, calling your ass out helps posters identify you guys and maybe not take you seriously. Very productive, if you ask me.

Here’s UTEP’s own coach dispelling the notion that it’s hard to recruit to El Paso. An excuse heard many times on this board and on radio shows for poor performing teams.

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MinerFan79 said:

If they don’t mean anything then why do coaches put such a high value on star rankings and class rankings? Of course they mean something. You cherry picked one example

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Because that’s their job. If the stars are good, they accentuate that aspect. If they get a class full of zero stars, they don’t mention it.

KaneFan29 said:

I found it was Martavious Collins. A TE that participated in 8 games and didn’t record a single statistic. Our season would have been a disaster without him!

Recruiting rankings mean nothing until they actually suit up and play.

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If they don’t mean anything then why do coaches put such a high value on star rankings and class rankings? Of course they mean something. You cherry picked one example

KaneFan29 said:

Figured. You don’t know, couldn’t pick him out of a lineup and know nothing about him. Yet complaining about being a Debbie downer on a player with no stats who didn’t make an impact.

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God bless you, my son.