Quote from: IC798891 on March 07, 2024, 11:25:41 AMQuote from: stlawus on March 06, 2024, 11:23:43 PMI'm hoping sometime in the near future SLU will be relevant to these conversations again. It's been a tough stretch the past few years. The team has played some tough teams really close on occasion during this time, but hasn't had the depth. With the millions being poured into facility upgrades the last year I think there will be some improvements on the recruiting side. I've seen with my own eyes the recruiting process this winter and while I'm about as biased and conflicted as possible, they looked like pretty good recruiting pitches. They obviously included the aforementioned facilities investments, which combined with the looming enrollment cliff seems to be a two birds one stone thing for attracting talent and retaining a healthy campus enrollment.
In the context of SLU football history (at least relative to my age) anything near a .500 record would normally be seen as a success. We were quite spoiled in the Raymond years. I'm a big fan of Coach Puck, especially after all the personal adversity him and his family have endured the last few years. The staff have seen the standards for success in the Liberty League with the usual perennial powers of Ithaca, Union, Hobart etc so I'm optimistic SLU football is on track to rebuild into a competitive program again.
I have to be honest, I was stunned by SLU's dropoff. They weren't just a one year wonder. They had a really strong four year run and then it just went away. Was it just an especially strong group of players who all graduated after 2016?
SLU's rapid rise and fall seems to perfectly coincide with Raymond's recruiting prowess, so I've always assumed that was the main driver. Per stlawus, you also can't overstate the impact of just a few major difference makers. (For example, the 2022 and 2023 Union teams were actually very similar in terms of talent, even though records were 6-4 v. 9-2. The main difference in 2023 was the return of Jimaar Edwards at nose, who was a transformational player on defense.)
I think SLU has a tough road ahead. Puck's a good coach, and last year's team struck me as 4 or 5 better O and D linemen from being a .500 squad. But it's very hard to get today's 18-year olds to move up to the middle of nowhere on the Canadian border. Watching the admissions trends these days, it's amazing how much student preferences have shifted towards "cool" locations. Just look at the Boston schools - their acceptance rates have absolutely plummeted as demand for a college experience in Boston has rocketed. This trend also does Union, RPI, and UofR no favors, though is doesn't seem to have been much of an obstacle in athletics so far.