When looking at a recruiting class there are a number of things to consider. One of those things is the number of recruits.
Consider Northeastern. I looked at the CAA press guides over the last couple of years. The Huskies signed 9 players in 2007 and 11 in 2008. Do the math yourself and figure how many scholarships Northeastern was giving.
Rhode Island had half a stadium and was offering about 58 scholarships for a number of years.
The plain fact is fans come to see you win, not compete. If you want to win and compete with the big-buck outfits like Delaware and JMU, you have to give the coaches the resources needed to do the job.
The Huskies are gone forever and the Rams are headed for the NEC. One of reasons that happened was decisions made years ago on scholarships.
The CAA recruiting classes for 2011 are here. Note that Delaware, JMU and William & Mary signed 15. Richmond signed 17 and Villanova 18. Rhode Island, on its way to the NEC, signed 12.
UMass recruiting over the last four years (note that I am basing this on the signing day press releases. UMass has added some late recruits each year, but I'm not going to try to figure out late additions for each year).
- 2008 16 recruits
- 2009 19 recruits
- 2010 17 recruits
- 2011 25 recruits.
One of the reasons for the big 2011 class could be the losses in the 2008 class. That class brought in Tyler Holmes, Staphane Milhim, Quinton Sales, Charles Thompson and D.J. Adeoba among others. However, Korry Davis, Corey Eason, Terrance Farris, Kurt Filler (Farris and Fuller were JUCO Juniors), Raymond Jones, Gilbert Parson and Warren Wilson are no longer with the program.
To me, with this class, it looks like UMass will continue to compete and win.
