I've re-evaluated my view of Tim Skipper. I try to be restrained with criticism, so I supposed buried here in a thread about a de-committed TE is a good place to only speak to serious UNLVfb fans...
First, (and I see now others here have made the same point...) how ugly would last season's defense have looked without Rayshad Jackson showing up during the summer. That Florida pipeline would be 3 years removed now and had likely dried up.
Second, notice that none of the five Skipper commits for the '20 class made the final cut? Looking at that group now and the other "targets" that were in the picture, it's looking like the '20 defensive class would have been another weak one. They were:
Pinkney is the only one in that group that would have been in the top 10 of signed players (247Sports would have had him at #6).
- DB Justin Pinkney - sounded impressive because of the Auburn "offer", but he was one of 66 DB/ATH '20 players that announced Auburn offers, and only five of them signed; all five were 4-star recruits.
- OLB Iopu Tauiliili - no offers other than UNLV
- CB Kobe Jenkins - no offers other than UNLV; I believe Jenkins is the son of one of Skipper's friends and former teammates.
- OLB Jabaz Myles - signed with FCS Ark-Pine Bluff; only other offer Northwestern State
- DT Tai Tuinei - no offers other than UNLV
Agree...
There were injuries on defense. Would be unfair not to mention it. But there were bad losses before the attrition kicked in.
Best defensive performances of the year were against Vandy and SDSU, both of whom were in the 100s in total offense. Hawaii was a solid showing but the defense bled a ton of yards in that game. To their credit they kept UH out of the endzone.
I'm not sure another year would have changed what we were seeing.