Team talent

[Brave Volunteer]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

 

[Hurley Mooncalf]

It's really hard to say since even though it's been a decade to look at, the recruiting/team building process has significantly changed. I think that Butch got a lot of highly rated guys but didn't necessarily fill needs when he did. He absolutely stacked talent at wide receiver that never really got to accomplish much here.
Pruitt seemed like he knew what talented players were worth but didn't really lite the world on fire with them. His players were solid and apparently coachable once a coaching staff with sense got to them.
In comes Heupel and he did coach up the previous staff's recruits. Even discounting the exodus of players, he has had to sacrifice some units to be able to build up others do to restrictions. Like not really getting more than one tight end for a couple of years. Interestingly, I think he has recruited better defensively than I expected. Overall, his approach has been much more balanced. I think this year and next year will tell the story on how good his recruiting has been as the young players from the last two classes develop.

 

[perico]

Talent on paper wasn’t an issue with Butch Jones for much of his time here. His problem was winning 7-9 games with the talent to win 11 games. Jones also had a talent retention issue in the days before the transfer portal was existed. We should’ve been a playoff team with the talent Jones had in 2015 and 2016.

Yes this is a more talented team than some of the squads Pruitt put out there.

 

[camp_steveo]

More talented coach.

 

[NighthawkVol]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

Yes. Obviously.

 

[Oldvoldad]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

Butch recruited some great talent, but had no idea how to manage / coach it.

Take a screen shot of the starting lineup vs Syracuse and five years from now you will see quite a few of these guys in the NFL.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

we have a more talented coach, but we all already knew recruiting wasn't his strong suit and it shows, our recruiting rankings have all been worse than what Butch was able to do.

we are winning more games with or without better talent and I'll take that.

 

[cherokeeeVOL]

I think so, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

 

[OffTackleVol]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

I'm not sure. Butch had a couple of really, really good classes. Pruitt had one strong one. What I do know, we have a much more talented Coach that's done a great job of building a tremendous culture and has brought back great respect for the Power T and all the traditions.

 

[Nico ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va]

Talent on paper wasn’t an issue with Butch Jones for much of his time here. His problem was winning 7-9 games with the talent to win 11 games. Jones also had a talent retention issue in the days before the transfer portal was existed. We should’ve been a playoff team with the talent Jones had in 2015 and 2016.

Yes this is a more talented team than some of the squads Pruitt put out there.

Agreed on Butch. His main problem was the coached not to lose instead of coaching to win. It's why we started so slow and behind in a lot of key games under Butch, and that we relied very heavily on second half heroics. Its more complicated than that of course but you could tell the longer Butch was here that he was never going to be a big game winning coach. He could certainly recruit, so we had the talent to hang with some better teams, but his coaching style just wasn't aggressive enough to match that talent.

 

[Nico ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va]

I'm not sure. Butch had a couple of really, really good classes. Pruitt had one strong one. What I do know, we have a much more talented Coach that's done a great job of building a tremendous culture and has brought back great respect for the Power T and all the traditions.

That is one nice thing about Heupel. He certainly wants to build a team culture of accountability to each other.

I heard the story of his time as QB at OU where he helped start / continue a tradition for the QBs where a younger QB asked to join him in some morning throwing practice before the main practice. He told the younger QB he was welcome to join, but if he didn't show up once then not to bother ever coming back to that morning session again. He wasn't the best QB in the nation that year, but you could tell he was a team player who knew the value of consistency and team building from an early age.

 

[LittleVol]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

Yes.
- Better QB play (despite the past 2 seasons)
- RBs better
- More speed at WR
- TE depth
- More talent at Online
- Young elite talent in Dline
- Edge is better than every
- Lb has size and speed and depth
- CBs is a push at this moment
- Safety play has been better

The record past 4 years in indicative of that answer.

But yes, we are STILL more talented in year 5 - despite losing Nico

 

[VOLociraptorr]

I think quarterback talent is better

I think the middle class is stronger.

Outside of quarterbacks, We don't have as many splash recruits as previous coaches.

Overall, I think the talent composite would be similar but the disparity between the worst recruit versus best recruit would be drastically different with previous staffs.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Agreed on Butch. His main problem was the coached not to lose instead of coaching to win. It's why we started so slow and behind in a lot of key games under Butch, and that we relied very heavily on second half heroics. Its more complicated than that of course but you could tell the longer Butch was here that he was never going to be a big game winning coach. He could certainly recruit, so we had the talent to hang with some better teams, but his coaching style just wasn't aggressive enough to match that talent.

Spot on with Butch. Just didn't know what to do with the talent he had. Dobbs made him look like a better coach than he was. Pruitt could evaluate talent but was such a terrible HC and micro manager of his staff, see Chaney, they couldn't doe their jobs and it turned into a cluster F. Hype better coach all around.

 

[jackaro]

Heupel has built more depth than Pruitt or Jones, especially on the defensive line. We lost a lot of games under previous coaches because the defense was gassed in the fourth quarter.

 

[Bigorangefaninga]

Heupel has built more depth than Pruitt or Jones, especially on the defensive line. We lost a lot of games under previous coaches because the defense was gassed in the fourth quarter.

Dobbs is what made Butch look better than he really was. Not the best passer, but he could ad-lib with the best of them and make a play out of nothing. If Dobbs had never came here Butch would not have lasted as long as he did! As far as recruiting, I think Heup does as good a job as any. We have had some good classes since he’s been here, but it’s just a different time now days with recruiting. Heck it pushed Saban to throw in the towel and be a talking head.

 

[farmdogvol]

10-3, 9-4, 11-2 the only thing that matters.

 

[B81]

The 247 team talent composite is what you are looking for. You can look up by year.

Most years since 2010 we have had around 35 4 and 5 star players. The low mark was in 2022 with 26, and the high mark was 2024 with 41.

So, we bottomed out after Pruitt left due to transfers and the sanctions, and CJH has done a great job getting us back to where we were and higher than we have been the last decade.

 

[VOLtaism]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

It's impossible to rate due to the ever-increasing talent level in SEC teams via NIL/portal. This year's teams will contain more raw talent than last year; the bar is being raised quickly every season. Maybe we have more talent than last year, but it's still possible we lost ground against the top SEC teams. The talent is moving to the Big 10/SEC and competition level last year is obsolete this year.

 

[Hank Bukowski]

Talent on paper wasn’t an issue with Butch Jones for much of his time here. His problem was winning 7-9 games with the talent to win 11 games. Jones also had a talent retention issue in the days before the transfer portal was existed. We should’ve been a playoff team with the talent Jones had in 2015 and 2016.

Yes this is a more talented team than some of the squads Pruitt put out there.

To me, Jones’s unforgivable sin was not using Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara together to wreak havoc on opposing defenses. I will never forgive him for that.

 

[IndianaVol]

Butch Jones could have made a better living being a coordinator and lead recruiter at a big school under a great coach.
He had no problem attracting the talent - his problem was coaching that talent to be a team.

 

[Volanta]

Tough to say bc butch was a great recruiter but not developer or coach.

Pruitt could recruit some but also not a good developer.

Huep can recruit but his strength is development and coaching. Although he needs to let his buddy Elerbe walk.

Also the truth is recruiting is a team effort and so is coaching. I like our team now but I remain resolute that CJH should be more aggressive in the portal.

 

[Pride85]

we have a more talented coach, but we all already knew recruiting wasn't his strong suit and it shows, our recruiting rankings have all been worse than what Butch was able to do.

we are winning more games with or without better talent and I'll take that.

Maybe he just does a better job evaluating recruits and doesn't stargaze like some on here. That was the problem with CPF. He stopped evaluating himself and let the "experts" decide for him.

 

[Geoengineer]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

About the same, but Heupul has done more with the talent.

 

[HeuperDrive]

I think the right way to look at it is that Heupel is doing more with less, while Butch did less with more.

Heupel with Dobbs, Kamara, Jennings, and Barnett does a lot better than 9-4. Butch, meanwhile, never goes 11-2 with our 2022 team, and definitely isn’t 10-2 with last seasons team.