On Tuesday night’s coaches show, Dana Holgorsen was asked a question by “John,” who attends the show regularly. John asked about Houston being in the bottom quartile of the recruiting rankings, the outlook on recruiting, and the game plan for it.
Dana Holgorsen responded this way:
For Dana’s quote below, “25s” means class of 2025 players (signed as early as December 2024). 24s are 2024 kids that can sign this December.
It’s a valid question. You know, there’s so many things that go into recruiting and recruiting has changed so much. There’s the high school guys that you recruit. Which right now, you know, the majority of the recruiting that we’re doing right now is more 25s, from a high school perspective.
If you are still trying to recruit 24s right now from a HS perspective, you’re late. So you can say why isn’t the 24 HS recruiting better? It’s a good question, it’s not great right now. I’ve said this a lot when it comes to recruiting. For Big 12 recruiting, 24s need to see a Big 12 schedule, they need to see fans in the stands and exciting atmospheres like we witnessed two weeks ago, they need to see dirt being moved on a new building.
Ok well, they didn’t see any of that as juniors, ok? They just didn’t. They didn’t see any of that as juniors. And so, you know ‘coach those are just pictures’ or ‘coach yeah I hear you are going to do that, I hear it’s gonna (unintelligible).’
The 25s are seein’ it, ok? So our 25 high school recruiting I think is what everybody is after, ok?
Then there’s the portal guys. How many portal guys you take is based on how many kids you lose, you know, quite frankly. So, I think we are in flux right now because we’re in transition. Whether you like it or not, we’re in transition. Those kids need to see it. The 25s and 26s are seeing it. So we are going to have a chance at 25s and 26s. The 24s, that ship has sailed pretty much. So we are gonna have to get out in December and dig some people up and get into Junior Colleges and then get portal kids.
This is another excuse in a long line of excuses. There’s always a reason why it should be better.
Holgorsen’s 2024 recruiting is at #96 nationally, according to 247. On3.com has UH at #101.
UCF is #29 on 247 nationally, Cincinnati is #43, and BYU is #64. UCF has nine four-star players committed; UH has eight players committed in total.
Memphis and SMU, both AAC left-behinds, are at 75 and 82. AAC bottomfeeders USF and ECU are in the top 60. Former head coach Tom Herman’s FAU program is at #76 with 14 players
A #96 ranking means UH is a middling G5 program. UH would be #27 among G5 programs. The Cougars are dead last among P5 schools. Houston is on the verge of blowing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For two years, Dana and staff have known they are going into the Big 12. Promoted to the promised land. He’s bragged about winning 20 games in two years.
And now, he says he’s still a year away from being able to recruit at this level. It’s unacceptable.
You can listen to the interaction at the 14:00 mark here:
