Why WVU has not won a NC in football

[bbwvfan]

Top Ten Signing Classes Are Necessary For National Titles | FOX Sports

I know there are some WVU fans who would rather have a 2 star player with a chip on their shoulder than a bunch of 4 and 5 star players, but this is the reality of WVU's situation.

 

[Slaton10]

While there on no guarantees...the you certainly better the odds...no question!

 

[bbwvfan]

I guess the day after NSD makes this a popular topic today…

Don't deny climate change: Recruiting rankings matter | AthlonSports.com

 

[jarringjev]

Figures don't lie but liars figure. The articles are from a news source who are trying to sell their wares. Sports information. To me stars are proportional to the size of a players' high school.


Case in point: Heath Miller of the Steelers came from Honaker High School & was a quarterback. UVA took him for a tight end. (Honaker is a tiny town in Va.) He was probably a two star player. The same is probably true of NFL'ers Thomas & Julius Jones who were from Tiny Appalachia Va. Both Schools were Single A - real small.

 

[bbwvfan]

Figures don't lie but liars figure. The articles are from a news source who are trying to sell their wares. Sports information. To me stars are proportional to the size of a players' high school.


Case in point: Heath Miller of the Steelers came from Honaker High School & was a quarterback. UVA took him for a tight end. (Honaker is a tiny town in Va.) He was probably a two star player. The same is probably true of NFL'ers Thomas & Julius Jones who were from Tiny Appalachia Va. Both Schools were Single A - real small.

No doubt individual star rankings by the recruiting sites can be biased by a number of different factors; however, the facts presented by both articles point to the importance of having a top ranked recruiting class in multiple years.

There was an interesting article the week of the Super Bowl reviewing the recruiting rankings and draft round status of the players from both teams.

If you look at the results of our football NC's, the stats don't lie…

 

[DCWV4life]

3 of the 4 teams in this years college playoff had been ranked in the top 5 of recruiting the 3 previous years before...the star system may be crap, but it seems to work for some teams.

 

[WVUDAD]

What is not mentioned are the big reasons wvu, and many others have not been voted "champion", the first requirement is your name, just as has been said, even by urban meyer, had baylor and texas traded resumes this year, ohio state wouldnt have been in the four teams. Next, those schools who are voted top have great coaches who motivate and get the most out of every player. As long as we award a championship by a vote among a small number of teams, this is a self fullfilling prophesy, they rank a player five stars because he goes to alabama, saban gets great play from him, the team, coach, and player are given the benefit of doubt, because they are alabama. Alabama and ohio state were included this year, not because of their great team, but because of their names, there were other teams, without those five star players who were just as good, with only one loss as well who were left out ONLY because they lack the name.

 

[DCWV4life]

I would say the biggest reason IMO that WVU has not won the NC....it ha failed to win all of its games in any particular season.

 

[bbwvfan]

I would say the biggest reason IMO that WVU has not won the NC....it ha failed to win all of its games in any particular season.

Lotta truth to that.

Plenty of examples of HC's who won NC's at elite level schools, then couldn't do so at a lower level school...

Spurrier, Coker, Schnellenberger, Erickson, and Holtz. All great coaches who could not win all of their games at lower level programs.

 

[Anotherwvufan]

I would say the biggest reason IMO that WVU has not won the NC....it ha failed to win all of its games in any particular season.

We have had 3 legitimate chances and blew it. None of those were with a top ranked recruiting class. The odds are against us. It can be done but it takes luck and good coaching with innovative schemes that confuse and equalize the team against a stronger faster opponent. RR did it, HCDH is innovative. The 3-3-5 can be difficult for teams to prepare for. We see what Georgia Tech ,and Kansas State can do with a top 50 class. It takes great coaching.

What we need is someone like Sills to come in and play like Peyton Manning and K. White to play like his brother. We saw what White and Slaton did in their years here. It can be repeated, but it is a tough road to hoe.

What we need to. Do now is start winning. It is no coincidence that teams have better recruiting after great seasons. We need that momentum like we had in 2005-2007 to. Generate that buzz and excitement. it will take years to get there. But at least we look like we are going in the right direction.

 

[GoldRusher]

IMHO you don't need a BUNCH of 4/5 star guys but you DO need to get at least 3-4 at certain positions. Those type of players make others around them better ect. Gotta have SOME.

 

[DCWV4life]

What we need to. Do now is start winning. It is no coincidence that teams have better recruiting after great seasons. We need that momentum like we had in 2005-2007 to. Generate that buzz and excitement. it will take years to get there. But at least we look like we are going in the right direction.

I think you bring up something interesting here and in hindsight it shows just how much the admin screwed up by hiring Stew(this is not a anti Stew post)but at this point and time the program was as hot as it ever was we just had the wrong leadership in play. Shows to win these titles you have to have your ship right from top to bottom. Stew's classes were rated high, but they were full of guys who never made it to campus...if we would have brought in the right guy at that time, I doubt we would have had to focus on so much off the field stuff as we have going into the big 12. The mere fact that is has taken this staff this long just to get healthy numbers in camp is very telling.

As a full time Anti Stew guy from the beginning, I can tell you it was nothing really against Stew....my displeasure came from the fact we had a great opportunity to bring in someone top notch at that time and we failed to do it....also tell you not once did I ever hope he would lose, I was hoping he would prove me wrong. I brought up the class numbers way back on CBS and that became a reality...it is something a lot of the DH hate crew does not want to admit, but it is a reality.

 

[bbwvfan]

We have had 3 legitimate chances and blew it. None of those were with a top ranked recruiting class. The odds are against us. It can be done but it takes luck and good coaching with innovative schemes that confuse and equalize the team against a stronger faster opponent. RR did it, HCDH is innovative. The 3-3-5 can be difficult for teams to prepare for. We see what Georgia Tech ,and Kansas State can do with a top 50 class. It takes great coaching.

What we need is someone like Sills to come in and play like Peyton Manning and K. White to play like his brother. We saw what White and Slaton did in their years here. It can be repeated, but it is a tough road to hoe.

What we need to. Do now is start winning. It is no coincidence that teams have better recruiting after great seasons. We need that momentum like we had in 2005-2007 to. Generate that buzz and excitement. it will take years to get there. But at least we look like we are going in the right direction.

Actually, the '88 team was composed of a top 5 class. I saw a discussion about the best recruiting classes of all time over on BGN, and the '85 or '86 class was ranked #4.

 

[Slaton10]

IMHO you don't need a BUNCH of 4/5 star guys but you DO need to get at least 3-4 at certain positions. Those type of players make others around them better ect. Gotta have SOME.

I think it takes depth...you have to be 3 deep to assure you can go the entire year without running out of steam..I can't speak for last year but the prior 3 years you can absoltuley point to the lack of experience and depth in running out of gas down the stretch..