A Defense of Helfrich’s Recruiting Legacy

[FishDuck Article]

Mark Helfrich is generally considered the worst recruiter in modern Oregon football history. He is a coach who oversaw some of Oregon’s highest and lowest moments in the past twenty years. He was fired with a 37-16 overall record, a winning record. Most fans would say it was Helfrich’s inability to recruit that led to his demise and the demise ...

 

Read the full article here...

[ICamel]

Thanks for the article! Helfrich is thankfully gone due to poor management and in Oregon's football past. Let's move on and enjoy the successive legacy.

[30Duck]

My thought on Helfrich and recruiting was that he was the most responsible for bringing Marcus Mariota to Oregon. You bring up a great point about Helfrich being caught right at the time when recruiting took a huge turn that he and his staff weren't acclimated to. 

[Charles Fischer]

Excellent research and comparisons that dispels notions that even I carried.  If you do your homework and find high upside on enough players--you can succeed, but it is hard to continue that over the years.  And great point David, as I recall old Oregon coaches admitting that they did not even have social media accounts.

 

But I loved their coaching!

 

Great information and THANKS.

[WiseKwacker]

Interesting article, David. Thanks for doing the research on that. You left out one name, though: Tua Tagovailoa.  As much as anything, I think the way the Tua recruitment was bungled signaled the beginning of the end for Coach Helfrich.

[Just Ducky]

On 2/15/2022 at 1:50 PM, WiseKwacker said:

Interesting article, David. Thanks for doing the research on that. You left out one name, though: Tua Tagovailoa.  As much as anything, I think the way the Tua recruitment was bungled signaled the beginning of the end for Coach Helfrich.

I might be wrong which happens frequently but wasn’t Tua’s problem more of an academic issue? Alabama doesn’t give a rip about GPA. Anyone know the answer?

[David Marsh]

On 2/15/2022 at 1:50 PM, WiseKwacker said:

You left out one name, though: Tua Tagovailoa.

I thought about Tua and it was a recruiting miss... However, (and it's a big however) he wouldn't have stayed on the same roster as Herbert. 

 

This would have created the same what if as Mariota and Mazel being on the same Oregon team. There is only one QB on the field so they could not cohabitate... At least not for long. 

[David Marsh]

Also.... What I think really did Helfrich in wasn't so much the recruiting as his poor defensive hires. I've said it multiple times but he gets a bye on Pellum because promoting from within was the Oregon way... But the Hoke hire needed to be a home run and it was anything but that. 

 

Hiring is what did Helfrich in and his failure to hire I think trickled down into him losing the locker room. 

 

There is lots more to disect and I may write more on it in the future. The Helfrich era and how it ended is fascinating as it really is the turning point from the Brooks Dynasty (Brooks, Bellotti, Kelly and Helfrich) to the new era... There really isn't a catchy thing to call the era we are in for Oregon right now..  Taggart and Cristobal have a link but Lanning will be his own thing with a completely new staff. 

[Charles Fischer]

On 2/15/2022 at 1:57 PM, Just Ducky said:

wasn’t Tua’s problem more of an academic issue?

Yes.  I've explained this a few times here...his grades were NOT good his sophomore year, and Oregon was not having great luck recruiting QBs after Mariota, so Helfrich had to know for-certain that he would actually be able to get into Oregon later.  He told Tua that the Ducks were holding off offering until we saw good evidence of grades improving.  (Oregon could NOT get left with no QB in a recruiting year, and typically--the high profile QB recruits do not want to see another taken in that class)

 

This torqued Tua off, and sure enough...he got his grades up enough and told Oregon to "stick-it."  Helfrich made mistakes, but this was not one of them.

[kirklandduck]

David brings up a great point about the old Oregon regime, they literally aged out due to the rise of technology (social media).  That put younger and/or more adaptable coaches who were more hip to the new communication game at a huge advantage.  This also contributed to Oregon having better recruiting classes later on as that tech makes the world feel much smaller, allowing recruits feel more comfortable about flying across the country to a place like Eugene.

Edited February 15, 2022 by kirklandduck

[David Marsh]

On 2/15/2022 at 2:30 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Yes.  I've explained this a few times here...his grades were NOT good his sophomore year, and Oregon was not having great luck recruiting QBs after Mariota, so Helfrich had to know for-certain that he would actually be able to get into Oregon later.  He told Tua that the Ducks were holding off offering until we saw good evidence of grades improving.  (Oregon could NOT get left with no QB in a recruiting year, and typically--the high profile QB recruits do not want to see another taken in that class)

 

This torqued Tua off, and sure enough...he got his grades up enough and told Oregon to "stick-it."  Helfrich made mistakes, but this was not one of them.

And this is pretty interesting as under the Cristobal era Oregon really did see a drop in their football player graduate rates. This doesn't really effect the overall recruiting because a lot of those top players see themselves leaving in 3 years regardless of whether they have earned a degree or not. This is also something that will probably spark more conversation as to whether or not student athletes are even really students anymore... oh there is a lot to be had in that... 

 

but it is still interesting to see how the football culture at Oregon changed under Cristobal. 

[David Marsh]

Additionally... I didn't even really mention the sanctions put on Helfrich from the Kelly era! Oregon lost a few scholarships, this didn't really hurt too bad back then but today it would be absolutely killer. 

 

But what really did hurt the program was going from 56 Official Visits down to 37 Official visits. That doesn't seem like much but even today's brand new Oregon coaches know that they need to get students on campus to have the best chance to reel them in. Cristobal was able to work some miracles in the 2021 recruiting class without having any campus visits available but no one else did either. 

 

Helfrich managed to recruit at a respectable level, by then Oregon's standards, without being able to bring as many students onto campus. This did lead to taking fewer risks because they didn't have the visits to spare for those 4 or 5 star players who may be interested in Oregon but weren't seeing Oregon as their end game destination. This was a big reason why Oregon was in a lot of top players top X but never their final location. 

 

For the 2016 class Helfrich was freed of this regulation but the culture had already started to plummet fast from that Alamo Bowl disaster among other things.