The Bobcat Nation

I echoed this sentiment in an earlier post: I think Lex Hilliard will be/is the best RB in the Big Sky. Despite the win, I still have nightmares of him running rough shod (sp?) over our D in last year's Brawl. This begs the question, How did Kramer let this guy slip his hands? Can you imagine this team if we had a back like Lex??? Let me know what you all think.....

Bigtime75 wrote:I echoed this sentiment in an earlier post: I think Lex Hilliard will be/is the best RB in the Big Sky. Despite the win, I still have nightmares of him running rough shod (sp?) over our D in last year's Brawl. This begs the question, How did Kramer let this guy slip his hands? Can you imagine this team if we had a back like Lex??? Let me know what you all think.....

He's good, but we'll let him run between the 30's all day again this year and not give up the big play, then shut Griz down and hold them to FG's. Griz live and die on the Big Play ..... Kramer knows that.

Bigtime75 wrote:I echoed this sentiment in an earlier post: I think Lex Hilliard will be/is the best RB in the Big Sky. Despite the win, I still have nightmares of him running rough shod (sp?) over our D in last year's Brawl. This begs the question, How did Kramer let this guy slip his hands? Can you imagine this team if we had a back like Lex??? Let me know what you all think.....

Grades!

I witnessed first-hand Lex's high school career and I can say it was a mixed bag, at best.

As a soph, he ran back kicks & carried the ball with abandon. He was & is a physical specimen, and he used his size & strength to simply run through would-be tacklers. He also had the speed to pull away once he hit the open field.

As a junior & senior, however, he became tentative and was far less explosive. Part of this, FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, was that it became obvious to everyone that Lex would be playing college football, maybe even in the Pac 10 or better. I got the feeling from watching & hearing comments in the community that once Lex (and his Dad) were convinced he had a college career looming, there was NO WAY they were going to risk him blowing that career with an injury. He definitely would not play with pain; I don't think he's a wuss, I just think he & his Dad decided to NEVER take a chance with an injury so as to ensure his health for college. Lex definitely played like Randy Moss; when he WANTED to, he could dominate a game. When he didn't care, you didn't even know he was on the field.

I don't know directly but have heard his scholastics left a lot to be desired, and then there was the incident last summer with him allegedly roughing up his girlfriend...

All in all, I guess I don't think at this point we really missed the boat on this kid. If he continues to improve with the Griz, good for him. Do I wish he was a Cat? I really can't say yes or no to that; I think the jury is still out on how good he'll be. But if he & his Dad ever think he has a shot at the pros? That will be the end of his effectiveness at UM. With that in mind, I think we should all go on egriz & start talking about the pro scouts drooling over him...

Recalling from memory:

The Griz offered Lex at summer camp prior to his Senior year, and he verbally committed. Joe Glenn was still HC.

Krames said he offered Lex sometime thereafter.

The rest is history.

I went high school w/Lex and it was never really a question after his junior year where he was going to college. He was so effective in soph. year of high school because he was running scared and not over thinking were he was running and that is what he is doing right now, running scared.
As for Kramer's recruiting he almost let a to be all BSC linbacker get away in Mac Mollohan, who had to recruite himself to MSU because he was not supposedly on the list of potential prospects that Applegate, the Flathead coach, sent over. But, thank goodness once Kramer got wind of the fact that the Griz had offered Mac a full ride he followed suit. So I doubt how sincere Kramer's pitch was to Lex.


GO CATS!!!

For some reason Kramer doesn't spend a lot of time on courting in-state recruits. I really don't know why. Just the savings in out of state tuition could be helpful! He either feels they are 80% bound for UM and doesn't want to waste time, or he feels if they Bleed Blue and Gold they will walk on. There are a few cases where he offers full rides to players he feels can come in and compete right away like Goodman and Beniger etc. He also doesn't give partials so that really cuts down on picking up the second tier kids that have potential because the friz i believe do grant partials in these cases or somehow "sweeten the pot" to help them make their decision.

Helcat72 wrote:He also doesn't give partials so that really cuts down on picking up the second tier kids that have potential because the GRIZ I believe do grant partials in these cases or somehow "sweeten the pot" to help them make their decision.

Help me out here. How can we sweeten the pot is a way bobcats can't?

Eastcoastgriz wrote:

Helcat72 wrote:He also doesn't give partials so that really cuts down on picking up the second tier kids that have potential because the GRIZ I believe do grant partials in these cases or somehow "sweeten the pot" to help them make their decision.

Help me out here. How can we sweeten the pot is a way bobcats can't?

Run the kids out in front of 23000 fans, and give partials which the Cats don't for reasons I'm not quite clear on, but it must have something to do with funding.

MSU waives out-of-state fees for a certain number of athletes coming in on scholarship. Assume the griz do the same. So operating costs in this regard are not a major issue.

raincat wrote:MSU waives out-of-state fees for a certain number of athletes coming in on scholarship. Assume the griz do the same. So operating costs in this regard are not a major issue.

It has always been my understanding that the college doesn't waive fees and that the athletic department actually pays the school for the tuition of the students (thus making discussions about athletic department deficits something of a convoluted interdepartmental expense accounting discussion as opposed to one of real economic realities).

Have I been wrong about this the whole time?

Oh -- I think I misread your post. Are you saying that MSU only charges in-state tuition for some of the out-of-state guys/gals? If so, I didn't realize that, but it makes perfect sense that they would do that.

Simple answer that I've gotten from both Cat & Griz coaches:

Due to the Griz success over the years, they have the ability to offer partials because some kids (particularly in-state recruits) would rather take a partial to play for the Griz (and the 23,000 fans mentioned above) than a full-ride to play for the Cats. Plus the Griz have had limited success in using partials to "take a chance" on a kid who may be worth a look but doesn't warrant a full-ride right out of high school. Kramer doesn't like partials; not sure why, haven't quizzed him on it but he has told me he doesn't use them.

BAC correct...out of staters are charged in-state fees. Total numbers I do not know. I think it is safe to say all schollie football players are charged in-state fees. Don't know about out-of-state walk ons. It seems they would pay full freight.

raincat wrote:BAC correct...out of staters are charged in-state fees. Total numbers I do not know. I think it is safe to say all schollie football players are charged in-state fees. Don't know about out-of-state walk ons. It seems they would pay full freight.

I don't know where yall are getting your info. Being a fromer out of state scholly FB player I know for a fact that they charge out of state fees. We recieved a statement at the end of every semester, and when compared to an in state guy there is about a 10K difference.