Clint Hurtt Talks Recruiting, Louisville's Class of 2012

by Mike Rutherford on Feb 2, 2012 2:51 PM EST in Football

Andrea Adelson has a nice Q&A with ESPN's reigning Recruiter of the Year, U of L's Clint Hurtt.

The whole thing is worthy of your time, but here's a portion:

What was a bigger sell on the recruiting trail -- Coach Strong getting a contract extension or saying you were co-Big East champs?

CH: It was a combination of both. Obviously everyone wants to know security, are Coach Strong and our staff going to stay in place? We have great people on our staff. Coach Strong did an unbelievable job putting together the right group of people. Kids want to make sure we're in place. That's a lot of the negative recruiting part. Everybody expects Coach Strong to follow suit with what past coaches have done here, but we have to help them understand this is a place we enjoy. This is not a quick stopping place for us as a coaching staff. Obviously it's a lot easier to go into homes and say we have a part of the Big East championship, but we have nowhere to go but up. We want to represent the conference in a BCS game. We feel like the cup is half full. The Belk Bowl is great but we have a bigger plan.

...

Which of these players is the best of the group?

CH: We are excited about them all. It’s hard to put a finger on who we say we like the best. We're excited and fired up about all of them. The kids who have a head start -- Keith Brown, James Burgess, Gerod Holliman – they’re showing early signs of being heavy contributors and special players in the program.

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Now that this thing is sealed up,... I'm wondering two things.

1) Is there going to be another pleasant surprise like Bushell was last year? I mean, most of us were sure that our secondary was going to struggle a lot last year but Bushell making it onto campus made a huge difference for that defense. I’m just wondering if there really is a surprise out there.

2) What’s going to happen with Darius Ashley? Is going to find his way back onto the field this year? He was showing signs of being a big contributor towards the end of his Soph year.

3) Hate to say it,… but which one of these guys won’t get eligible. It’s happens every year and I really hope that this is the year it doesn’t.

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by Chick-Stratino'sUrDaddy on Feb 2, 2012 3:14 PM EST reply actions

Darius Ashley is not going to be a part of UofL football.

He’s gone…forever. Will never play another down. Won’t hear another whistle at practice. He is done. Holliman has already been assigned #8 this year and Ashley isn’t even on the team. The word I heard is that he had another alcohol related incident after the two DUI’s and Coach Strong said that’s it. I hope and would guess that Strong didn’t abandon him as a person, but I’m 99% confident that UofL has abandoned him as a football player.

For your other points, I’m hoping the big surprise is Appleby. We need a solid kicker and that position is wide-open this season. If he’s the big surprise, it’ll be big for our season.

Finally, Strong said that they have “one or two” spots. We only formally have one spot. I’m betting that statement means that there is some doubt on one person qualifying. Don’t have any clue as to who that is, but that’s what Strong’s statement says to me.

by Remote Cardinal on Feb 2, 2012 3:40 PM EST up reply actions