2015 Commitment List

[CARDIAC_CATS]

Colter Nuanez @Bobcat_Beat
· 1h 1 hour ago
It's interesting seeing who MSU has offered and who they have landed. IMO, top prospects have verballed elsewhere or are still waiting...

One of the few times I will disagree with Colter. Saying that has no benefit to anyone. Their are plenty of people already committed to MSU that read his tweets, seeing that isn't great for the moral. Every one of these guys was good enough that our coaches offered scholarships to them. There may not be the "star" player like Garrett Marino, Prevost, Dodd, ect yet. . . but this recruiting class has a ton of players who add depth and a few that I think could play early.

Also, we still have most of December and all of January to recruit. . . at this point last year we had 2 verbals (connor Sullivan and Joey Marinello), so one could argue that we already have a better class at this point than we did at this point last year. We had a great class last year, and I fully expect this one to be as well. Plenty of great players on the board still, most of these guys will wait till January to commit to view our beautiful campus. . . I guess I don't appreciate that comment made by Colter. We didn't get those big time players until January, and I expect the same this year. . . guessing we get 8-11 more players.

I agree with you as well. There are still a ton of recruits that haven't decided or have decided 90% but just haven't verballed yet. We have large groups of recruits in the past that always visit in January as well and signed right after the visit.

[DicTater]

Colter Nuanez @Bobcat_Beat
· 1h 1 hour ago
It's interesting seeing who MSU has offered and who they have landed. IMO, top prospects have verballed elsewhere or are still waiting...

One of the few times I will disagree with Colter. Saying that has no benefit to anyone. Their are plenty of people already committed to MSU that read his tweets, seeing that isn't great for the moral. Every one of these guys was good enough that our coaches offered scholarships to them. There may not be the "star" player like Garrett Marino, Prevost, Dodd, ect yet. . . but this recruiting class has a ton of players who add depth and a few that I think could play early.

Also, we still have most of December and all of January to recruit. . . at this point last year we had 2 verbals (connor Sullivan and Joey Marinello), so one could argue that we already have a better class at this point than we did at this point last year. We had a great class last year, and I fully expect this one to be as well. Plenty of great players on the board still, most of these guys will wait till January to commit to view our beautiful campus. . . I guess I don't appreciate that comment made by Colter. We didn't get those big time players until January, and I expect the same this year. . . guessing we get 8-11 more players.

And look how well all of those guys have done for us so far

Preach....haha I still have hope in Dodd, I think he will be a big time running back for us.

Colter's tweet is no surprise to anyone, including the recruits.I mean, the kids know how many offers they have. A lot of the high priority players are waiting to see if a bigger program comes up with a scholly. A lot of the kids we're after are told by the bigger schools to wait out the committing game because a scholarship may open up for them if a higher priority kid commits elsewhere. It happens every year that a kid we really want ditches us when a last second offer comes from a bigger school. Sometimes a good recruit falls into our laps because an expected offer to the kid falls through. Remember, the higher touted kids probably have offers from multiple schools and won't commit until they take their official visits. I think the only real top prospect who has verbaled so far is Daum.

[Colter_Nuanez]

Colter Nuanez @Bobcat_Beat
· 1h 1 hour ago
It's interesting seeing who MSU has offered and who they have landed. IMO, top prospects have verballed elsewhere or are still waiting...

One of the few times I will disagree with Colter. Saying that has no benefit to anyone. Their are plenty of people already committed to MSU that read his tweets, seeing that isn't great for the moral. Every one of these guys was good enough that our coaches offered scholarships to them. There may not be the "star" player like Garrett Marino, Prevost, Dodd, ect yet. . . but this recruiting class has a ton of players who add depth and a few that I think could play early.

Also, we still have most of December and all of January to recruit. . . at this point last year we had 2 verbals (connor Sullivan and Joey Marinello), so one could argue that we already have a better class at this point than we did at this point last year. We had a great class last year, and I fully expect this one to be as well. Plenty of great players on the board still, most of these guys will wait till January to commit to view our beautiful campus. . . I guess I don't appreciate that comment made by Colter. We didn't get those big time players until January, and I expect the same this year. . . guessing we get 8-11 more players.

And look how well all of those guys have done for us so far

Preach....haha I still have hope in Dodd, I think he will be a big time running back for us.

I have nothing to do with morale nor do I care what the morale of the program is.

My point is: The best players in Montana — Holden Ryan, Jesse Sims, Josh Hill — are still out there. What Montana State needs is guys on defense. I think Ferriter is a diamond in the rough, a guy who should've gotten a scholarship. The other defensive linemen who have committed are good players, but the guys who are on the top of MSU's board committed to other schools — Nick Connelly committed to Minnesota, Cody Baker committed to Montana — or are still uncommitted like Amadeo West, Chris Robinson and Steven Latu.

The kids who have committed are good enough to play in the FCS. Like you said, MSU offered them scholarships and they should be proud of having their hard work rewarded. But when you are trying to sign a class o 20-25 and you have 60 offers out there, you aren't going to get all your top guy and you will have to settle for guys you didn't want quite as much.

Of those 60 offers, 14 have committed to Montana State. Two have committed to Utah State. The other schools MSU lost out to: Central Florida, Fordham, Colorado, Eastern Washington, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon State, San Jose State, Syracuse and Yale. Not a whole lot of FCS guys there, so they are shooting high.

The recruiting class this year is by no means better than last year at this point just because they have more commits. The current list of verbals, in my opinion, contains seven lunch-pail/walk-on type kids, two kids with a ton of potential who are big-time projects, two receivers who could play early if not right away, a stud who got hurt and a diamond in the rough.

Of those 60 offers, the six best DBs on MSU's board, 3 of the 5 best defensive linemen, 7 of the 8 best linebackers, the top QB and 4 of the top 6 wide receiver remain uncommitted. As you said, this staff's main strategy is to bring in big groups in January and hope they gel and commit together. A slew of early commits when using that strategy might not be a good thing. You don't want to run out of spots before you bring your big recruits to town.

[TomCat88]

Actually stuff like what Colter said is great for morale and a great motivator, especially coming from someone with such a high profile as Colter and there's added value with him coming here and confirming it's what he really meant, and not backing away from his words. I agree it isn't as good of a class as last year's. I didn't really think last year's class was all the great to be honest, but I never said that at the time, because I didn't want everyone to call me a Debbie Downer...again.

After I got home from boot camp my friend's mom had a little heart-to-heart with me and told me she thought I'd be better off joining up full-time (I was in the reserves). Basically she was saying that was the best I could do. I enrolled at MSU shortly after. That's still the best motivation I've had in my entire life.

You guys should be hoping Ash says something like that on Signing Day. "Yeah, we didn't have much of a recruiting year, but I think a few of these guys can make it for a couple years and maybe get a spot on special teams."

[DicTater]

Last year the Cats brought in 23 scholarship players. Of those, 3 never panned out, Leota, Prevost, and Marino. Two were a punter and a kicker who never saw the field. On the other hand, there were guys that made big splashes, Herbert, Paige, Fa'anono, Knight, and Keeton.

Then there are the guys everyone is excited about, Collins, Dodd, King, Yates, Sullivan, Webster, Alley, Evans. Out of all those guys, only Sullivan verbaled before January

[BigBruceBaker]

Colter Nuanez @Bobcat_Beat
· 1h 1 hour ago
It's interesting seeing who MSU has offered and who they have landed. IMO, top prospects have verballed elsewhere or are still waiting...

One of the few times I will disagree with Colter. Saying that has no benefit to anyone. Their are plenty of people already committed to MSU that read his tweets, seeing that isn't great for the moral. Every one of these guys was good enough that our coaches offered scholarships to them. There may not be the "star" player like Garrett Marino, Prevost, Dodd, ect yet. . . but this recruiting class has a ton of players who add depth and a few that I think could play early.

Also, we still have most of December and all of January to recruit. . . at this point last year we had 2 verbals (connor Sullivan and Joey Marinello), so one could argue that we already have a better class at this point than we did at this point last year. We had a great class last year, and I fully expect this one to be as well. Plenty of great players on the board still, most of these guys will wait till January to commit to view our beautiful campus. . . I guess I don't appreciate that comment made by Colter. We didn't get those big time players until January, and I expect the same this year. . . guessing we get 8-11 more players.

And look how well all of those guys have done for us so far

Preach....haha I still have hope in Dodd, I think he will be a big time running back for us.

I have nothing to do with morale nor do I care what the morale of the program is.

My point is: The best players in Montana — Holden Ryan, Jesse Sims, Josh Hill — are still out there. What Montana State needs is guys on defense. I think Ferriter is a diamond in the rough, a guy who should've gotten a scholarship. The other defensive linemen who have committed are good players, but the guys who are on the top of MSU's board committed to other schools — Nick Connelly committed to Minnesota, Cody Baker committed to Montana — or are still uncommitted like Amadeo West, Chris Robinson and Steven Latu.

The kids who have committed are good enough to play in the FCS. Like you said, MSU offered them scholarships and they should be proud of having their hard work rewarded. But when you are trying to sign a class o 20-25 and you have 60 offers out there, you aren't going to get all your top guy and you will have to settle for guys you didn't want quite as much.

Of those 60 offers, 14 have committed to Montana State. Two have committed to Utah State. The other schools MSU lost out to: Central Florida, Fordham, Colorado, Eastern Washington, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon State, San Jose State, Syracuse and Yale. Not a whole lot of FCS guys there, so they are shooting high.

The recruiting class this year is by no means better than last year at this point just because they have more commits. The current list of verbals, in my opinion, contains seven lunch-pail/walk-on type kids, two kids with a ton of potential who are big-time projects, two receivers who could play early if not right away, a stud who got hurt and a diamond in the rough.

Of those 60 offers, the six best DBs on MSU's board, 3 of the 5 best defensive linemen, 7 of the 8 best linebackers, the top QB and 4 of the top 6 wide receiver remain uncommitted. As you said, this staff's main strategy is to bring in big groups in January and hope they gel and commit together. A slew of early commits when using that strategy might not be a good thing. You don't want to run out of spots before you bring your big recruits to town.

I know you well enough to understand that this wasn't a slight against those kids or their potential at all. Just wanted to point out that some of our best players to ever put on a Bobcat jersey started as some kind of walk on's or partial guys.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying, and so far I only see 3 guys that will contribute within 2 years. Here's hoping for a big January!

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

Perhaps we should be taking a look at this kid - very impressive video from what I can tell.

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/12/ ... ting-video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A guy who has a good feel for story and humor, as well as the technical aspects of video, would be an asset to our film school.

[Colter_Nuanez]

Iowa Western JC safety Bryson McCabe, a 6-1, 200-pounder who also had offers from North Dakota and South Dakota, will sign with Montana State during the mid-year transfer period that began today. He will graduate this month and come to MSU for winter conditioning. He will have three years to play two. Montana State returns just sophomore Khari Garcia and redshirt freshman DeMonte King as scholarship players at safety, so McCabe will play right away barring any set back.

I have a message into Bryson now. I'll likely not have a story until he officially signs which could take until later this week or early next week. Stay tuned. Here's his film: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3786187/bryson-mccabe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[wbtfg]

Iowa Western JC safety Bryson McCabe, a 6-1, 200-pounder who also had offers from North Dakota and South Dakota, will sign with Montana State during the mid-year transfer period that began today. He will graduate this month and come to MSU for winter conditioning. He will have three years to play two. Montana State returns just sophomore Khari Garcia and redshirt freshman DeMonte King as scholarship players at safety, so McCabe will play right away barring any set back.

I have a message into Bryson now. I'll likely not have a story until he officially signs which could take until later this week or early next week. Stay tuned. Here's his film: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3786187/bryson-mccabe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Awesome. Love his film.

[Bozcat003]

Before his JC years, Bryson McCabe played at South Dakota State...just a random fun fact.

[mslacatfan]

looks like a hard hitter

[4thecats]

Recruiting question:
As Colter mentioned, we have 60ish offers out, and a lot of our top choices are undecided. . lets say this trend Continues for the sake of my question. What happens if the top recruits all want to pile on late in the process. . Does MSU pull offers from a lesser player to accept the late offer from their top choices wanting to join?

[wbtfg]

I'm sure it's different from year to year, but I imagine the coaches have a pretty good idea how likely each recruit is to commit. There are likely offers out there where the coaches know there's no shot this kid will commit. I think there's always some scrambling at the end, but in the War Room, I'd imagine it's much more organized that what we see from the outside.

[mslacatfan]

Recruiting question:
As Colter mentioned, we have 60ish offers out, and a lot of our top choices are undecided. . lets say this trend Continues for the sake of my question. What happens if the top recruits all want to pile on late in the process. . Does MSU pull offers from a lesser player to accept the late offer from their top choices wanting to join?

I always wondered this same thing? So say you have 60 full ride offers out there (or however many it is), with around 20 actually available... in a "what if" scenario, every single one of them says they want to accept.... is it first come first serve?

[bobcat99]

Recruiting question:
As Colter mentioned, we have 60ish offers out, and a lot of our top choices are undecided. . lets say this trend Continues for the sake of my question. What happens if the top recruits all want to pile on late in the process. . Does MSU pull offers from a lesser player to accept the late offer from their top choices wanting to join?

Pretty common practice at bigger schools. If the player doesn't develop like expected, or they just like somebody better, then coaches will sometimes just cease communication and the recruit takes the hint. Or they just tell him he won't play here, and try to find a different school for them.

It's risky, because it generally pisses the kids, their parents, teammates, and coaches off. If we did it to Daum for example, Arie Grey would probsbly never want to send a kid to Ash again.

Just one example of how difficult it can be to recruit HS kids and keep good relationships. Recruiting is hard...really hard.

[Colter_Nuanez]

Recruiting question:
As Colter mentioned, we have 60ish offers out, and a lot of our top choices are undecided. . lets say this trend Continues for the sake of my question. What happens if the top recruits all want to pile on late in the process. . Does MSU pull offers from a lesser player to accept the late offer from their top choices wanting to join?

Pretty common practice at bigger schools. If the player doesn't develop like expected, or they just like somebody better, then coaches will sometimes just cease communication and the recruit takes the hint. Or they just tell him he won't play here, and try to find a different school for them.

It's risky, because it generally pisses the kids, their parents, teammates, and coaches off. If we did it to Daum for example, Arie Grey would probsbly never want to send a kid to Ash again.

Just one example of how difficult it can be to recruit HS kids and keep good relationships. Recruiting is hard...really hard.

At least four kids came on official visits during the big weekends last January who committed and were turned away.

It's the downside of technology and all the exposure. In years' past, people didn't know 90 % of the offers out there like you do now. Many times, teams offer the same scholarship to two players and when one commits, the other is out of luck. MSU did this with Shawn Johnson and EWU's Jordan Talley - recruited both hard and when Shawn committed, they pulled off Talley.

[Cat Grad]

Was it Minter that had his offer pulled by Baylor and fell into MSU signing day?

[Colter_Nuanez]

Was it Minter that had his offer pulled by Baylor and fell into MSU signing day?

I think you're thinking of Zach Logan.

The truth is, an offer isn't official until the prospect receives his National Letter of Intent and a commitment isn't real until that letter is faxed to the school. A whole hell of a lot can change in the next 7 weeks.

[Bozcat003]

Was it Minter that had his offer pulled by Baylor and fell into MSU signing day?

That was Christian Keli'i....think that's his name

[FTG247365]

Iowa Western JC safety Bryson McCabe, a 6-1, 200-pounder who also had offers from North Dakota and South Dakota, will sign with Montana State during the mid-year transfer period that began today. He will graduate this month and come to MSU for winter conditioning. He will have three years to play two. Montana State returns just sophomore Khari Garcia and redshirt freshman DeMonte King as scholarship players at safety, so McCabe will play right away barring any set back.

I have a message into Bryson now. I'll likely not have a story until he officially signs which could take until later this week or early next week. Stay tuned. Here's his film: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3786187/bryson-mccabe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He looks like a stud, hits hard and is aggressive. This is a big addition, glad he is coming here.