You guys only lease? Didn't realize Stig was to stingy on recruiting incentives. ;)
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QB Jordan Rodgers hopes to make a decision in the next week or so. He plans on enrolling for the spring at whatever school he decides on. He has offers from Kansas, Western Kentucky, NDSU, several other FCS schools. He also has taken official visits to Washington State and Vanderbilt. He has stated that he wants to play right away and make a difference. Maybe NDSU still has chance with him.
Not according to the question/answer post Hallstrom made on Dec 9:
Q: There are a couple quarterbacks out there who say they have offers from you, true?
A: Not really. We've already got a QB who says he's coming so we're probably good. It's tough to take two in the same class.
(my note here....WDAY has reported that Esley Thorton from Bismarck has verballed, so that must be the guy he's talking about but he can't comment on him until signing day...Some have speculated that Thorton may be moved to safety or OLB, but this comment makes it pretty clear in my mind that they're locked in on him as a QB.)
Later in the same day, Hallstrom posted this:
* Bison are not considering Esley Thorton (Bismarck QB) to play safety or linebacker. He will likely be the only QB taken in this year's class.
Maybe Stig was a bit lucky with how some of his recruits turned out too. We will see if Stig continues to do well on a low budget. Still can't believe the wait and see what happens philosophy can work better than being aggressive and pursuing recruits early.
Either Stig can find every under the radar player he needs and then turns them into good individual / great team players (not probable) or he is somewhat lucky and things worked out well for a couple seasons (more likely). I don't think SDSU has been, or is at this moment, such a highly desirable place to go to school and play FCS football that they can wait for recruits to come to them.
I don't think your getting it. Coach Stig doesn't have "sit on my thumbs, wait and see" mentality.
He does what most FCS schools do, even what NDSU used to do until this year. They hold summer camps, they put out their feelers in the fall, they get their official visits in the winter, and they get their verbals in December & January. Having 15 verbals before the season is over is a rarity, not typically the standard. There are still plently of good recruits out there, especially for the FCS. This is the time of year that recruits who were waiting for an FBS offer realize it's not coming and start picking out their FCS options.
Has Coach Stig/SDSU got lucky with their recruits? Yes, but that's what recruiting is. It's an evaluated risk and you try to take players that have less risk, but they all have risk.
So while you wait other schools will come knocking if the recruit is that desirable for FCS. Can't tell me all these recruits that turn out well just happen to be unknowns who only SDSU can find.
Granted I believe Stig and staff have done well developing players that play well in their system. But in FCS you have to get good athletes too. That means competition with other schools for a limited number of the better recruits. You are not going to get these guys unless you have some advantage. SDSU's one season blip on the radar does not buy them that much.
Not all of SDSU's recruits are "hidden gems" and they do compete with other schools for players.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/huskerlandpr...oehlmoos-75084
Here's a recruit from last year who was offered by Wyoming and recruited by your former D-Coordinator Breske. (Notice he committed 01/22/09, this is a fairly normal time for a recruit to make his decision)
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footbal...recruit-search
If you choose South Dakota State from this link you will get 19 players that are being recruited by SDSU this year that are also being recruited by other schools.