Okay, so I've decided to give TCY a crack again. I've rearranged the Sol-8 to more or less represent the
WIAC, with the exception of UW-River Falls, who got kicked out in favor of Lawrence University.
I'll be taking over my alma mater, the UW-La Crosse Eagles. It's a good thing TCY isn't reflective of reality, or you could pretty much hand UW-Whitewater the WIAC crown every year from now until eternity.
UW-Stevens Point is considered our rival in this TCY setup, though I'd personally consider UW-Eau Claire our true rival. But that's not worth changing everything around for. I'll just call the UWEC game the rivalry game every year.
Offhand I'd say UW-Stout looks like the class of the WIAC this season. They've got a few authentically good players unlike virtually all of the rest of the conference.
I'm going to make the entire state of Wisconsin legal for recruiting, but outside of that, I'll set an initial max recruiting distance of 200 miles and expand as we get winning seasons, possible bowl bids and wins, etc.
Scouting is going to be a bit of a pain in the ass, because we're involved in both the Great Lakes region and the Midwest region, so that means keeping tabs on two scouts rather than just one, as would be the case with a more interior school.
Other recruiting restrictions: I can go after a maximum of 1 red player a year, but have my pick of blue and green players. Also, one call and one visit a week per player to avoid that exploit. I'll also try to avoid the academic powerhouse exploit, though by the same token, I'm not taking any red GPA or SAT players. UW-L does have a good regional academic reputation, after all and in fact is considered the #2 school in the UW system academically, behind only the flagship campus in Madison.
With that in mind, let's take a look at our scouts for those two regions.
Adrian Stoltenberg - Great Lakes Scout (67)
QB: Decent
RB: Terrible
WR: Decent
OL: Lousy
DL: Lousy
LB: Pretty Good
DB: Fair
KP: Excellent
....Well, he can help us find great kickers and punters! Heh. Replace next year.
Bart Hayes - Midwest Scout (70)
QB: Pretty Good
RB: Lousy
WR: Decent
OL: Poor
DL: Pretty Good
LB: Excellent
DB: Terrible
KP: Terrible
Looks like our old guys are really good at finding linebackers, but can't be stuffed to tell a good running back from a bad one. They'll both be replaced next year.
And now our roster.
Code:
Mandel, Lincoln 1 QB Sr* 10 10
Cheramie, Dustin 11 QB Jr* 5 32
Matthews, Claude 9 QB* Fr 5 9
Gomez, Keith 17 QB* So* 7 7
Scrub city. Cheramie looks like the best player, so the RS SO will get the start. I actually like Gomez as the #2 QB, but this is a priority.
Code:
Woodling, Bob 35 RB Jr 29 29
Szalay, Donovan 41 RB Sr* 17 35
Hitchcock, Jeremy 21 RB So 19 19
Shea, Brady 32 RB Jr 11 26
Ranek, Jake 27 RB Fr 15 45
Ranek will be redshirted, because he's got upside and we need to have guys here so we don't have to recruit this position with our horrid scouts. Woodling gets the starting nod, Szalay the backup role. We have 2 scrub FBs that aren't even worth mentioning.
Code:
Hayes, Roosevelt 80 TE Sr* 8 8
Malloy, Chad 94 TE So* 12 21
Kahn, Don 89 TE Jr 13 13
Keith, K.C. 86 TE So 18 28
Barrington, Sherman 85 WR Sr* 16 30
Duran, Randall 4 WR Sr* 13 13
Hyland, Heath 3 WR Jr* 38 59
Fredrickson, Randal 81 WR Jr* 4 29
Reinert, Edgar 83 WR* Fr 11 11
Drake, Jon 8 WR* Fr 5 16
Richmond, Russell 2 WR* Fr 3 9
Keith gets the start at TE and WR goes to Hyland and either Richmond or Fredrickson.
I'd also like to point that Heath Hyland is a Park High Panther! He and RB Hitchcock (Horlick) are the two Racinians on the roster. Heh, the last time a Park WR looked that good was back in the days of
J.C. Dawkins, who played with
Brent Moss on the 1988 state championship team.
Code:
Veen, Heath 52 C Sr 22 30
Reed, Alonzo 54 C Sr 40 54
Woods, J.J. 66 G Jr* 19 34
Brooking, Raymond 77 G Fr 0 0
Campbell, Robbie 62 G Sr* 8 13
Malone, Clifton 61 G Sr 24 24
Keisel, Cornell 64 T Sr* 21 41
Copeland, Alvin 78 T Sr* 10 41
Ellison, Burt 63 T So* 4 4
Key, Kris 71 T Sr* 18 18
Reed deserves better than this, so I'm going to redshirt him. Keisel's our LT and I'll probably make Ellison our RT because his bars are much better than the ratings say. Guard is a pile of crap all around. O-line, we're recruiting you.
Code:
Hoover, Marty 14 P Jr* 21 23
Brock, Josh 5 P Jr 25 25
Osborne, Grady 12 K So* 22 46
Jennings, Clay 18 K Jr* 15 46
Brock and Osborne. We may recruit here, but honestly, we have so many other positions of need, I may just let it slide for now.
Code:
Wagner, Bryce 97 DE Sr 18 45
Crane, Keith 70 DE Sr 19 19
Tanner, Al 76 DE Fr 4 21
Schwartz, Lonnie 75 DE Fr 22 32
Hamilton, Norm 74 DE* So* 6 22
Plangeard, Doug 72 DT Jr* 3 27
Barber, Leroy 96 DT Sr* 22 22
Nichols, Lamont 73 DT Jr* 10 10
Spinks, Cary 79 DT* Fr 10 32
Emerson, Luther 92 DT* Fr 9 26
We're actually not terrible at DE. Wagner and Crane are the starters with Schwartz the backup. Spinks is getting redshirted and Barber's an obvious starter at DT. But 4-3 or 3-4? Tough call.
Code:
Kamstra, Jumbo 99 ILB Jr* 7 24
Muyers, Cary 48 ILB* Fr 7 7
Turner, Ricardo 95 ILB* Fr 0 5
Berggren, Benjamin 93 ILB* Fr 0 12
Schafluetzel, Mickey 90 OLB Fr 4 34
Frederick, Orlando 98 OLB Jr* 9 9
Parrish, Rico 56 OLB Sr 18 18
Reagor, Tito 45 OLB So* 0 10
Randle, Andy 57 OLB* Fr 8 28
...Okay it's a 4-3 by necessity. I'll redshirt Schafluetzel. Otherwise I've got
two players with all green bars... 0 red ANYWHERE. This is a huge mess of throw a body out there and hope it does something.
Code:
Bensen, Sherman 40 CB Sr 14 17
Lyon, Irving 31 CB Sr 34 34
Rider, Dusty 49 CB Sr* 13 21
Whiting, David 43 CB Sr 18 18
Pearson, Bryant 28 CB* So* 1 32
Newton, Billy Joe 44 S Fr 5 27
Knight, Sammy 25 S So* 9 32
Dillon, Tyrone 24 S Sr 35 35
Maugh, Jared 46 S Fr 9 9
Lyon and Whiting at CB, Dillon and Maugh at S. I think this is definitely going to be a top WR orientation rather than a left/right one. Sheesh!
Recruiting Priorities
Everywhere, although we could probably get away with not recruiting RB if we had to. LB and O-line I would call our two most pressing areas, but that's splitting hairs.
With the rest of our staff, we've got a good enough Syndicate Coordinator, also old at 66.
Bobby Jeffries - DC (39)
PC: Good
IA: Decent
RHB: Pretty Good
CHA: Decent
DL: Pretty Good
LB: Decent
DB: Good
A keeper! Young and talented for this level.
Ronnie Musso - OC (67)
PC: Pretty Good
IA: Excellent
RHB: Terrific
CHA: Good
QB: Lousy
RB: Poor
WR: Excellent
OL: Terrible
KP: Pretty Good
Offense: Flexbone (5 years)
Love his intangibles, but he can't develop worth a damn, so he's gone after next year. As a going away present, we'll let him run his beloved Flexbone this season.
Recruiting Targets - Scholarship Offers - Week 1
QB Ernest Welch - Our red player. We have almost no shot at getting him, but I have to try because everyone else within our range sucks.
TE Kennedy Strickland
WR Morris Peterson
WR Eric Puente
G Artie Bidwell