Alright… I remember Fields being the apex of metroplex recruiting for ole Gary and he was doing great then the assault and etc. they kicked him off the team. I’ll always be curious what if Fields isn’t kicked off and goes into the probation counseling route. look at how long OU held onto Mixon.
Seems like we recruited like bleep in the metroplex since then.
granted, successfully recruiting the metroplex doesn't guarantee success but when you are the only p5 program in an area as fertile as the dfw area you should be able to pick up a solid number of kids each year without throwing a huge amount of resources at their recruitment (which is important for tcu) as well as have a fairly accurate judge on their potential due to knowing the kids, their programs, etc
in gary's last 3 classes (2019-2021) the frogs signed 6 kids out of the metroplex out of their total 62 kids signed overall or roughly 1/10 kids which seems a bit low.
compare that to the 2016-2018 classes where the frogs signed 5 kids each year and 15 of their total 70 kids signed or roughly 1/ ~4.5
the high water class was the 2015 class when tcu signed 12 of their 23 recruits from the metroplex
what is interesting is that in sonny's first class the frogs signed their first prospect out of arlington since that 2015 class or 7 years. arlington might not be loaded each year, but there are way too many schools and too many athletes for tcu not to sign someone out of there for 7 years
additionally, the 4 kids signed from the dallas area specifically in 2022 is again the most since that 2015 class or 7 years.
what changed? first, staff as the frogs in 2014 had kenny perry coaching cornerbacks and zarnell fitch as the director of high school coaches
when perry left for kansas and fitch went to being a postion coach gary hired brett lemoine who had been a head coach in a small town in nw louisiana . the same program where turpin was from and lemoine might be a great guy, but you go from a long time arlington coach in perry and a guy who coached in disd in fitch to a guy who was from a very small school several hundred miles away from ft worth
simply didn't make much sense and it did impact the frogs in the area, especially when a certain coach was hired at smu and they changed how they recruited there