Friday, July 24, 2015

Mission Accomplished




The Modesto Bee has a nice piece today on new Columbia commit Hunter Petlansky

A number of fans have asked me today about the perils of recruiting and committing to so many QB’s so early.

I have three reasons why it’s right to do this:

1)      QB is a Crucial Position

If we can all agree that having a good QB is so important, then we should agree that you need as many options as possible at the position.


2)      Bagnoli’s Been Caught Short

Head Coach Al Bagnoli’s last two years at Penn were marked by a lack of healthy, talented QB’s. I have a feeling he’s not going to let that happen here.


3)      Recruiting QB’s Early Promotes the Program Best

QB’s get all the attention. It’s not fair, but it’s true. The local paper is much more likely to publish a piece about a QB who has committed going into his senior year than a player at another position. It’s priceless to have an article like this talking about the turnaround at Columbia under Bagnoli in a newspaper published 3,000 miles from campus. I’m not saying our staff is doing this for the publicity alone, but it makes a lot of sense to make sure news of your commitments gets out there.


Another big reason is that QB’s tend to be great overall athletes and so many great wide receivers and tight ends were QB’s in high school. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way too early to make an assessment. Though this kid is somewhat local to me (within 100 miles) and I do not follow HS football regardless, I am happpy for him. There is no greater joy than leaving Modesto. Trust me, you never want to go there. It is hot as an oven with no air flow.

Chen1982 said...

Bagnolis coaching team ability to attract depth at QB brings home two points to me:

A players attract A players, B players attract C players. If Bags and staff (A level mgt) and show early momentum attracting A talent at marquis position then this core is more likely to attract more A level talent in the OLine or Reveiver roles.

Second. Seems he is reflecting relative confidence in the defence and relative need on the offense and is skewing recruiting accordingly.

oldlion said...

A key guy here is defensive backfield coach Jonathan Poppe. Our DBs have lacked basic cover skills and need to be coached up. They have not mastered when to turn on the deep ball and start playing the ball rather than the receiver. They have face guarded. And they have been out of position.

Anonymous said...

I could not agree more oldlion. The secondary has been a very weak area. I am sure they already know this and have begun solving the problem. Such a refreshing change in confidence to know that it is good hands.

Chen1982 said...

So is this more a personnel raw talent issue (the secondary) or can a lot of progress be made directly via better coaching of existing kids. If the latter, good thing. But raises the question of WTF was prior defensive back coach doing? I mean this sounds like pretty basic stuff. Coaching 101.