(12-20-2020 09:59 PM)C1ncy4Life Wrote: (12-20-2020 09:36 PM)Racinejake Wrote: Woah Todd McShay just said fickell is building what Dabo built at clemson 8-9 years ago. Pretty awesome
If Fick remains here the sky truly is the limit IMO.
Go back and look at the recruiting rankings. The avg recruit was like .81 just 5-6 years ago. Now we have multiple classes over .85. It’s not just us either. The entire American conference has improved their class the last few years. We are still the leaders of the conference in recruiting, but the entire conference is going to continue improving and the more P5 wins the conference gets on top of our wins it will continue to legitimize all of us and as the team most likely to dominate the conference or will benefit us.
With the built on advantages we have of being in a metro area with a rich and fertile recruiting ground we will only see better and bette classes. With recruits seeing more and more Bearcats getting drafted and winning AAC championships and going to NY6 bowls the momentum is building to something special.
The key is to keep Fick and Co as long as possible and have suitable replacements for any coordinator or position coach that leaves. Right now if Fick leaves we have his replacement in Freeman, but that’s not always going to be the case and may not be after this season. We just have to make sure we are grooming good coaches and make the right hires and we will be fine.
If this happens, the P5 will cut off the head of the upstart conference.
They did it in 1977. The WAC became very respectable, with Arizona State, Arizona, and BYU having ranked teams in the previous 3 years and several other solid programs like Utah and Colorado State. The PAC swooped in and took Arizona and ASU.
They failed to do it in 1992. They allowed the Big East to elevate the profile of minor programs Virginia Tech and Rutgers (and to a lesser extent, West Virginia).
The ACC tried and failed to correct this error in 2003. It only served to elevate previously minor programs in Cincinnati, Louisville, USF, and UConn.
They finally cut off the head in 2011. The Big East was finished off by picking off the top 4 programs. They also cut off the head of the MWC by taking TCU and Utah.
The lesson: if you want to gain entry into a top conference, you better boost up your conference mates. But make sure you're still at the top of your conference or else you'll get left behind.