USF fans, patience will pay off next year in the recruiting game

TAMPA — At this point, the list of USF commitments likely could fit on a dinner napkin. Bulls fans have flipped, from anxiety to panic.

They gaze out their window at night and wish upon the fourth star, to complement the two- and three-stars. They'd give up their game-day parking space for one Parade All-American. They hold out hope that new coach Charlie Strong will make a late kick in these last furlongs of the recruiting derby.

A few signs indicate he just might. But until then, the worry lingers like mid-morning fog, and some struggle to see their way through it. If they could, experts say, they'd like what looms down the road.

"I think when it's all said and done, people that follow USF closely are gonna be really pleased with the way that they recruit," said Steve Wiltfong, director of recruiting for 247Sports. "And I think that Charlie's gonna give 'em an opportunity to win one or two recruiting battles a year that they wouldn't have typically won in the past.

"I think you've just got to wait until the 2018 cycle."

Barely six weeks have passed since Strong formally was introduced as USF's fourth coach. While many peers were nurturing the relationships they had spent a year or more forging with prospects, Strong was introducing himself to the kids who had committed to USF under Willie Taggart, and cold-calling other recruits.

The same players who knew Jim McElwain's cell number or Jimbo Fisher's music downloads didn't even know Strong's voice.

"The parents may know Charlie Strong, and the coaches, but the kids don't," veteran south Florida recruiting analyst Larry Blustein said. "The kids are the ones that have to play."

So instead of cementing a signing class, Strong found himself salvaging one. Currently, his class features 13 non-binding commitments including Miami Central receiver Jernard Phillips, who already has enrolled. It's ranked 10th in the American Athletic Conference, and 91st nationally, by 247Sports.

Rivals.com ranks it 12th in the AAC.

"I would say Charlie Strong deserves a pass on anything that happens in 2017, coming in late in the game," Wiltfong said.

Mike Farrell, national recruiting director for Rivals.com, suggests Strong purposely might be downsizing this year's class, simply because he hasn't had a full recruiting cycle.

As evidence, Farrell points to Strong's first signing class at Texas, cobbled together in a similarly short time frame in the winter of 2014. Eight members of that 23-player class started the final game of '16, but fewer blossomed into impact guys. Five no longer are on the roster.

"When Charlie got hired at Texas, he reached on some kids and got the (No. 20) recruiting class in the country," Farrell said.

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"But those of us who do this could see right through it. It was an overrated class; there were too many risks. ... I think he's trying to guard against that. So I think he's gonna go slow, take a small class and then gear up for 2018."

Which isn't to say Strong and his new staff — still two assistants shy of being formally completed — have stopped working.

The Bulls are making a late push for three-star cornerback Latavious Brini of Hialeah Mater Academy, and got a visit this weekend from three-star receiver Kevaughn Dingle of Miami Carol City.

"(Strong) is not gonna get a marquee class, not with five or six says left," Blustein said. "But if he salvages it … look at what happened with Mark Richt. He came in at the last minute (in 2016) with Miami (and landed a top-25 class)."

Regardless of how these final days transpire, observers say Strong truly can't begin wielding his state-centric recruiting chops — which served him so effectively as head coach at Louisville and in four assistant-coaching stints at Florida — until after Wednesday.

The NCAA restricts head coaches to one home visit per prospect this time of year, but the guidelines become relaxed during the spring evaluation period (April 15-May 31). Toss in summer camps, and Strong can truly start building relationships and earning parents' trust.

Which is to say, a potentially historic fall for USF could be followed by a ground-breaking February.

"He's always been a great recruiter," Wiltfong said. "So to sit there and act like he forgot how to cook dinner is just asinine. It is what it is right now. And given time, Charlie's gonna do what Charlie does, which is recruit well."

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.