Friday, April 30, 2010

Did the Cats drop the ball?

(Photo Brian Swartz, miamivalleysports.com)

Michael Bennett is one of the fastest rising prospects in the 2011 class and plays in the same conference as Braxton Miller (QB). Bennett was recruited by several schools as a lineman, however he wants to play on the defensive side of the ball. Both Ohio State and Northwestern are offering him that opportunity. Considering Bennett is from Dayton, OH and the Cats need to sign at least one DT in the 2011 class, did they miss an opportunity?

2 comments:

  1. I don't know if this guy can play or not, but he sure looks like a player. Since Ohio State has offered you have to assume he can. But since Dayton looks to be closer to Columbus than Lexington, that may be why UK hasn't offered, players like to play for their home state U anyway. That is the biggest reason UK can't pry the 4*s from the SEC, most want to play close to home for the State U, and the few that don't want to play for the real powers. And if they are 4*s they usually have a choice.

    UK is starting to be able to compete for some of these players though, if they can have a good year this year and 2011 is special then----

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  2. UK's coaching staff is one of the most thorough in the South. In fact, the recent hirings of Mike Summers and David Turner have given a shot of adrenaline to UK's recruiting board, especially with regard to prospects for both lines. And since UK's staff has been recruiting Braxton Miller for months, it is a certainty that they also know about Michael Bennett.

    Before we address the question of whether UK's coaching staff has dropped the ball with Bennett, we would need to know the answers to three other questions:

    1) Is Bennett interested in UK?

    2) Is Bennett willing to visit Lexington?

    3) Where does Bennett rank on UK's DL recruiting board?

    Here, I would just point out that Bennett appears interested in playing in the Big Ten. It is certainly possible that Joker's staff might have talked with Bennett and may have learned that he isn't interested enough to visit Lexington. In that case, of course, there would not be much point in expending recruiting resources on him.

    And, where does Bennett rank on Turner's recruiting board, which also includes DT prospects such as Clint Tucker, Isiah Norton, Jamon Brown, Frederick Moore, Joel Hale, Terry Redden, Christian Coleman, Terrence Coleman, and Tony Gillespie? I realize the ESPNU ranking is impressive, but UK's staff does their own evaluations.

    Finally, I posit to my good friend Jack, the previous poster, that UK's staff does not use "star ratings" from internet recruiting services to rank their recruiting board. "Star ratings" are basically used by these services to sell subscriptions to the fans of high profile programs like Ohio State. These "star ratings" are based on an internet service's perusal of a few minutes of selected highlight film shot and produced by prospects' high school coaching staffs. But UK's staff actually meets the prospects, their coaches, and their families. Then Joker's staff watches practices and attends a game or two in person. Then, Joker, Chuck Smith, and the position coaches spend hours breaking down film on the kid and discussing their recruiting board at staff meetings. So Joker does not need "star ratings" from internet services and, in fact, does not believe in them.

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