Yeah, I don’t think you can accuse Fran of not trying to land top talent. That was the perception around Dr. Tom in his latter years, but I have yet to see credible evidence that is the case with Fran.
If anything, there might be a case to be made that Fran tries too hard to land blue chip, 5 and high 4 star players, which may or may not result in him losing out on a lot of top 150 caliber players he would have had a more realistic shot at.
Fran tries too hard to land 5 and 4 stars where he loses out on players? Actually, no one knows how much time Fran and his staff spend on any prospect.
What we do know? Fran invested a TON of time in the 2022 PG he wanted, Dasonte Bowen,
a 3 STAR, and landed him.
Fran made 27 offers for the 2022 Class. He landed two 3 stars, Dasonte Bowen and Josh Dix. Contrary to what you wrote,
I don't think Frank "lost out" by landing Josh and Dasonte because we was trying too hard to land 5 and 4 star prospects.
And there was only 1 Five Star (Kyle Filipowski) who Fran offered in the 2022 Class and Fran got Kyle to officially visit. So, again, contrary to what you wrote, I would not call this "trying too hard where he lost out on other prospects."
The breakdown of the 27 offers for the 2022 Class:
1 Five Star
(Kyle Filipowski, who visited Iowa)
20 Four Stars
6 Three Stars
(Dix and Bowen committed)
Fran has made 23 offers for the 2023 Class. He has already landed one 3 star, Owen Freeman and likely will land a 4 star, Pryce Sandfort. Again, contrary to what you wrote, I don't think Fran has "lost out" so far with the 2023 class.
And of the 4 Five Stars Fran has offered for 2023, how can you say he has tried "too hard?" Omaha Bilew was instate, so offering him made sense but there is no longer any buzz with him. 2 other 5 stars have already committed to other schools (so obviously Fran has moved on). And the other 5 Star, Matas Buzelis? He is from Brewster Academy, the same HS as Dasonte Bowen, so it makes sense to invest some time in him. How much time? Fans can only speculate.
The breakdown of the 23 offers for the 2023 Class:
4 Five Star
(Omaha Bilew, an Iowa kid, is one of them)
13 Four Stars
(Pryce Sandfort)
1 Three Star
(Owen Freeman has committed)
5 UNRATED