K-State Spur

[HuskerinSA]

How do you and other K-state fans feel about Ron Prince? I know Snyder had a lot of success with juco's but I don't ever remember him recruiting as many as Prnice. He's got 19 juco's for this year and he just asked one of their top high school Oline recruits to grey-shirt to make room for another. Bill Callahan recruited juco's hard and I think it really hurt our program. As hard as it is for me to admit, Nebraska and K-state are close to the same level right now and I'm just trying to get your opinion. We need to the power to swing back to the north. In the back of my mind I knew Callahan was running our program into the ground but I didn't want to admit it. I'm glad he's gone. Is that how you feel about Prince?

[K-State Spur]

At UNL, you can recruit successfully nationally consistently with the right guy in charge.

At KSU, you have to take advantage of the state's JC system to have any chance to consistently field the talent that is necessary to win.

Now, we're a bit heavier on the JCs than we have been in the past. However, the collapse down the stretch last year was unheard of in Manhattan the last 2 decades, and a lot of it can be pinned on the poor play/effort from the upperclassmen.

I'm not terribly worried about Capriglio de-committing. I know that Rivals had him rated as a decent looking 3-star. But if Prince proved one thing in his years at Virginia, it's that he knows OLs.

Overall, we'll see, I think he's scrambling a bit to get back on track. He lost a lot of the faith that the fan base had in him (and a lot of folks still never forgave him from the get-go for not being Bill Snyder). I think the ultimate hope here is that if the Cats can get back to say 8 wins next year - not an easy task - he can recruit off that record and get the team going. But if they took it on the chin again with a younger group, it doesn't matter how good they're going to be in 4-5 years because he might not be around to see it.

[K-State Spur]

I'll also add that I think the staff's success at recruiting California JCs surprised even them this season. They got a few commits in January and it snowballed into a very good group (with Kuli still having KSU in his top 3). Even in their best hopes, I don't think they had allotted for that many guys selecting them from the golden state.

[MajorMike]

2 years ago, he was the B12 coach of the year if it not for darth visor's hot streak at uo. This year he had some inexperience and lost some heartbreakers and ran up against some hot teams at the wrong time. The middle to end of the year was darn near tragic.

[K-State Spur]

Actually, for the most part, the inexperience played as well as we could have expected.

It was some of the older guys that you wouldn't have expected it from that saw huge drop-offs in their games following the OK State game (big 12 game of the year). Whether it was because these guys 'quit' or just became gassed due to too much playing time with a lack of depth, I won't say.

But an influx of a number of guys who will be ready to compete immediately is just what this program needs right now. In 2 or 3 years, we'll deal with it then.

(It should also be noted that over half of JCs committed have a RS available, so they can space this class out a bit.)

[MajorMike]

Most JUCOs committ with the understanding that they will play right away, not RS.

[K-State Spur]

Depends on the program. We've redshirted a lot of JCs over the years - including some who came in with some hype (i.e. Quincy Morgan).

[HuskerinSA]

juco's come with all different types of eligibility. You gamble most on the 2 to play 2, but it helps if they can enroll early. Not sure what Kuli has for eligibility, but he would be an immediate impact player. With Callahan, we had problems with some juco's getting through the clearing house and enrolling late or not at all. Others showed up out of shape and not ready to play at that level. I'd say less than half ended up starting or being major contributors. juco's are a roll of the dice just becuase you have less time to develop them.

[HuskerinSA]

My bad, Kuli is going to Oregon St.

[K-State Spur]

I didn't see that. But it looks like the Cats got a commitment from the back-up plan today, so I'll take your word for it.

At the very least, next year they'll finally have the size up front to run a legit 3-4.

Why they switched last year with two 250 pound ends and a 270 NT is beyond me...

[ReggieF]

Prince also just pulled a Gundy, he asked someone to Grayshirt so they could have a spot for a JUCO....bad business.

[K-State Spur]

a grayshirt is really not a bad deal. a kid actually gets a max of 5.5 years of school paid for vs. just 5.

mack brown, les miles, and pete carroll have yanked schollies altogether at the last minute to make room for others - how's there business?

[Ignignokt]

Yeah husskerss!! RESTORE THE ODOR!!

Scoreboard es!!!

[MajorMike]

Prince also just pulled a Gundy, he asked someone to Grayshirt so they could have a spot for a JUCO....bad business.

This stuff is way blown out of proportion in respect to what it really is. The established teams do it on a daily basis and there is no news ever made of it. Even if a HS coach hates a college coach, he can try and taint the kid all he wants against him, but the final decision is the kid's, who is really going to give a crud about what happened to some guy on the team last year? And if this happens, does this make the HS/JUCO coach any better than the college coach that pulled it? Then the internet whackos get ahold of it and add lies that build like a dirty snowball.

[dallaskd]

dude has done a good job considering he replaced coach snyder. runs a good defense and if the JUCO kids can play...why not?

[K-State Spur]

dude has done a good job considering he replaced coach snyder. runs a good defense and if the JUCO kids can play...why not?

Prince's background is offense, he lets the DCs do their own thing for the most part. Also, while I still like Tibesar and think that he will grow into the role, tough to be overly impressed with anything the defense did in the final 7 games of last season (every game after the Texas game).

[ClingingMars]

Ron Prince is a of a coach, another assistant that Groh let get away.

-Mars

[K-State Spur]

doubt there is much groh could have done there. we were offering a head coaching position.

[SrA Husker]

This has been floating around some Husker boards. I can't confirm any authenticity, so it's probably bull, but at the same time, the points about losing assistants left and right *IS* true so this might not be far from reality.

I asked him what he thought about taking 20 jucos in a class. He laughed and said that dude is crazy. He going to graduate half his team in a few years and it will take them years to get their numbers back up. Also relayed the story about Prince making the coaches run stairs and not letting the oline coach travel to one game. (because Prince said the coach didn't show the commitment to winning) Said no wonder coaches are bailing on him left and right. He relayed this story about Scott Frost. Prince had told Frost that if a full time defensive came open he wanted to hire him for that position. Of course a position came open and Prince called Frost in his office and told him he can't hire him. Frost inquired as to why not and Prince told him it's because he doesn't get along with the other coaches. Frost said what are you talking about, I get along fine with the other coaches. Prince told him you think you do but they don't like you. Frost told him that's a BS reason that he is just making up so he doesn't have to hire him full time. Prince told him if he questioned his character again he'll throw him off the balcony. Frost said he thought for a second to tell him to give it his best shot, but decided he didn't want any part of his program anymore so just left. He wondered how hard it must be for Snyder to watch what is happening to his program.

[SrA Husker]

Yeah husskerss!! RESTORE THE ODOR!!

Scoreboard es!!!

You let a really really bad Nebraska team score 50 on you.

[Ignignokt]

You let a really really bad Nebraska team score 50 on you.

scoreboard!

biotchh!!!

[K-State Spur]

This has been floating around some Husker boards. I can't confirm any authenticity, so it's probably bull, but at the same time, the points about losing assistants left and right *IS* true so this might not be far from reality.

Message board rumors from people who admittedly don't like us very much don't carry a whole lot of weight.

Frost was just the GA and wasn't going to get hired as a full staff member, so it made sense for him to move on.

However, the exodus of assistant coaches is a bit disheartening. Yet, all but one received a significant pay raise in their new post, so it's tough to say exactly how much of that is about a career move vs. a relationship with the head coach.

The 19 JCs (1 of the 20 is a signee for next year) makes more sense the more I look at it. Snyder underrecruited his last 2 years. We also had the inevitable transfers with a new coach taking over. That left the program with a severe lack of players in the '08 & '09 graduating classes.

Even with the influx of JCs this year, I think we're still only looking at a JR class of 27 or 28 guys (which is about equal to what Snyder's class sizes looked like from the '97-'03). I'm highly skeptical that this type of thing could be done every year (although I'd expect 10-12 JCs in most seasons), but the numbers this year made this possible.

[SrA Husker]

dun, dun, dun, and another one bites the dust.

K-State football has lost another coach. Matt Wallerstedt, who served as linebackers coach and was in charge of special teams, has resigned, the Wildcats announced. He has accepted a position to coach at Air Force, a source close to the situation said.

Wallerstedt becomes the seventh coach to leave the Wildcats’ program, including one who didn’t have his contract renewed, since Prince was hired in December 2005. Wallerstedt was a linebacker for the Wildcats during 1985-87. His first coaching job was as a student assistant at K-State in 1988.

http://www.kansascity.com/177/story/497188.html

A former Wildcat, no less, to a MWC school. This one is mighty tough to explain.

Recruiting can't be easy when there's a good chance your position coach on signing day won't be the same during spring practice, much less the season.

[K-State Spur]

snyder lost a lot of assistants in the early years as well.

the demands that a coach must make to win at KSU aren't appealing to every assistant.

it's a concern no doubt, but nothing that winning won't cure.

[MajorMike]

I see what you are saying... but Snyder lost them to go get better jobs and move up in the world, not to take lateral or step-down jobs.