BullGator7
Gator Fan
looks like we might be getting the number 2 and 3 Five Star WR's
and now a good look at the #12 committed to LSU
and now a good look at the #12 committed to LSU
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Recruiting class
- Thread starter BullGator7
- Start date
BullGator7
Gator Fan
"Recruiting" it should read
Yeah, man--things are gathering steam, Coach Boom & Co. doing SO well out there on "the Trail" it seems that I am now proceeding to "Superstitious Mode--Stage II", crossing all fingers and toes AND beginning to guard my optimism a bit heading into the Home Stretch: still a few weeks to go, which is both a long time for a lot of back-room wheeling and dealing by our nefarious rivals, AND in the meantime exciting in what may be accomplished still by "the good guys" on OUR side.
We're already looking great on defense and BOTH lines, and if we can get even just HALF of the 5-star playmakers we're in the running for, this COULD be every bit the monumental reload that we needed but dared not count on.
We don't need to be like Mack Brown and Urban Meyer and snatch 5 stars willy nilly. Pick the right 3, 4, and 5 star players.
Right on...as a matter of fact, I get the impression that for the most part, THIS regime's recruiting approach squares with that thinking right down the line: they appear to evaluate prospects based on need, talent and fit--in equal degree.
The sort of flashy, PR-driven "drive-for-five"-approach is I think a kind of laziness, lacking in research, discretion and legwork--and, by our own experience with Meyer and (for example) that "Best Class in History" from '09 (what a joke!), an illusion of "excellence", fraught with all kinds of pitfalls (we're only now recovering from that one).
GainesvillebornNraised
VIP Member
we need nelson agholor would like to have stefon diggs too
oh yea and tracey howard
oh yea and tracey howard
Man, I'm WITH you...if we could at LEAST get both those WRs, our whole offense opens up the next few seasons!
I just posted a summary of the 2012 recruits in the recruiting forum. Everyone, take a look. Also, I plan on moving this thread to the recruiting forum later on. Just a heads up.
(Y'all oughta check this thread out to get up-to-date if you 're interested in where we are at recruiting-wise. It's the one, "2012 Recruits (2 more weeks)". Thanks, E-.)
(BTW--Anyone else having trouble with the Server acting up here? Seems especially finicky when I go to "Save Changes" after an "Edit"--ie. it requires several tries; HERE, it simply wouldn't let me post my "response" at first, giving an "Error" at several tries, then when it finally DID "take" it, it posted ALL of those tries in a row, it seems...if you are having any such issues today (Wed. Jan.18, 2:45 pm approx.) let us know--otherwise I'll assume it's somehow MY computer)
No recruit is safe until they sign on the dotted line. They are kids, so they can change their minds on a whim.
Davis, Agholor, and Diggs are wavering because mom, dad, or older brother like a different school. It happens. Heck, Tim Tebow almost defied his family to go to Alabama.
Yes, I am having problems posting to the forum.
Davis, Agholor, and Diggs are wavering because mom, dad, or older brother like a different school. It happens. Heck, Tim Tebow almost defied his family to go to Alabama.
Yes, I am having problems posting to the forum.
(Looks like we've got that fixed, for the moment...)
I'm pretty jazzed about the portion that we ARE relatively solid with so far--and as I've said, if we can just get "our share" of the good ones left wavering--especially one or BOTH of those WRs--this will have been a superb recruiting effort.
There IS one respect in which we have been disappointed once again, where we continue to somehow whiff REPEATEDLY, year after year now, coach after COACH--and that of course is at Running Back. Look, we MAY have a decent set of backs right now, kids with upside-potential that has yet to be tapped or properly used before now, for whatever reason, and who may very well THRIVE behind what looks to be the makings of a solid, even dominant O-line, as time goes on and experience and cohesion builds among them--but the fact still remains: Once again, we targeted the two or three stand-out talents realistically within our (not insignificant) reach, and MISSED.
We DID get Jones, who is a "bigger body back" who has speed, quick-moves AND power, but as a main "featured back", with Gillisley and Joyer mixed and matched back there to provide the solid, relentless ball control required in the kind of balanced attack we seek, we just don't know: the jury is still out, and an injury to just ONE of them, especially if one emerges, THEN goes down, could leave us with a real hole in our offense.
We were after at LEAST one of two others, Davis and Marshall. I won't bother to recount THAT whole goose-chase, but we appeared to lose each because we continued to go after the OTHER, at least that was what each claimed, in different ways, at the time. It turns out that the truth is something very different, also each in different ways: Marshall was always under pressure from within his family and the community around him to "stay home" in Georgia, and finally DID; meanwhile, as it turns out, Davis' story is a sordid one behind-the-scenes, a kind of Auburn-&-Newton-family one (this time involving not the father but the older brother, it seems, allegedly recorded naming a "bid"-price already out there that a prospective recruiting-team would have to match to get him--that's the tale being told, anyway, and there's enough momentum gathering to it to be glad we somehow got out or pulled out or otherwise MISSED out on that prospect, after all). The fact remains, though, that we once again didn't even come CLOSE to going out and getting that stand-out, can't-miss big and fast star-running-back-of-the-future; since Fred Taylor graduated and moved on to the pros, NOT getting "that guy" has become an unfortunate "tradition" of its own at UF.
bchampy
Gator Fan
It's disheartening to keep missing out on premier running backs year after year. Last one that was close was Ciatrick Fason.
Sure is--and you're right: we SHOULD have gotten Fason, too. That's been the all-too-familiar, all-too-REGULAR pattern for years here...looks like we'll have to "make-do" again in 2012, and we can only hope that turns out OK: we're due for a little good fortune in that regard by now, I figure (but I HATE relying on good luck for ANYTHING, not when it comes to our Gators, or SEC football!). With the makings of what looks to be a good O-line, big, talented, and deep, courtesy of the current recruiting class, once they get with our coaches and the talented and experienced young players coming back, and begin to build some cohesion, the running game could hold its own--provided the REST of a likewise promising but yet still-unfinished recruiting effort, AND the existing elements of a still-unproven passing game, allows our new OC some latitude and flexibility in presenting opponents with a balanced but unpredictable attack from game-to-game.
Btw: our NEXT "shot" at a "highly-rated by all experts", "much coveted", big, fast "can't-miss-kid"--and one we SHOULD have the "inside track" with due to his father's glory-years here (the kid played on our sidelines as a little guy, for crying out loud), but whose commitment we DON'T necessarily have nailed down, is the Taylor kid. I THINK he comes out next year, part of the 2013 class, and Georgia (who has lately been able to COLLECT highly-rated RBs, it seems) I believe is our main rival at this point...He is, by all the stats, films and accounts, a bigger, faster, stronger version of his dad--with quick-shift moves and an extra break-away gear; we have all assumed he's been "raised right", too, although ya gotta wonder, if he could even CONSIDER bolting cross-border to UGA (...Just kidding--all sons consider doing things that step away from their father's shadow in their late-teens, and anyway the kids today don't always take the old rivalries as seriously as their parents do--not before they actually GET there and find out for themselves, at any rate...Our coaches' job is to get it RIGHT this time, go straight at him and make that Gator-connection WORK for us...Moreover, he WILL get on the field his freshman year, if healthy--something I doubt UGA can promise).
PS--News just in (details reported here in link on another thread): We just got RB Adam Lane, a "highly coveted" RB from the 2013 class that I didn't think we were even in the running for after Weis left (that was the impression given--though apparently NOT intentionally by Lane himself, according to various reports now coming in). Check out the link, and look for some other notes coming out now about this (for us) nice surprise. One other thing worth noting here: it is apparent that Pease's hard working, quick-reacting approach since he was hired as OC and hit the ground running has played a role in shoring up, sealing, and now even adding a number of promising, "good-fit" talent that may really continue to carry on the steadily building excitement already promised by the 2012 class. If he is as good a complementing counterpoint to Coach Muschamp ON-the-field as he is turning out to be OFF, this could well turn out to be the hire Coach Boom needed (and all of Gator Nation hoped for) in the first place--and the way things have played out here have worked out well after ALL!
Muschamp and crew have been regaining ground with running backs. In 2013 we will have some big names lining up for running back. One of the nationally projected top five RB has just given an early commitment. Not sure where the Fred Taylor kid stacks up, but we should welcome all competition.
bchampy
Gator Fan
From what I've heard the Taylor kid has an ego. Could be baseless rumors, but usually this stuff is based in some truth. I really like the RB we picked up this year; Matt Jones- 6'3", 225lbs. But regardless of what backs we use, it all rests on the O-line. A good line could make lanes for one of us to run through. Our current line was forced backwards on nearly every play.
A lot of these kids do have ego. It is the nature of the beast. Part of this is the fault of The System. These high school kids are treated like rock stars during recruitment and some like that pampering. Some were punks beforehand. As long as they win football games, we let it slide.
You could be right about Taylor, bch: I've heard the same whispers from folks close to the program. Me, I try to be realistic about the nature of coddled young "stars-in-the-making", all the worse for the son of a former All-Pro who played at the same position--and at the same school, no less: on top of everything else, it is a natural thing for the teenaged son to step away from his father's shadow. Even so, I personally still find it difficult to understand how that father's great success here might actually work AGAINST us, in the end. If it does, so be it: if there's one thing that we should have learned from the way some of Meyer's last "Top Rated Recruiting Classes" have subsequently turned out for us (last time I mention this, E-, I promise...well, I promise to TRY), it is that character, motivation and the willingness to give to the greater whole, to be part of a team, count for as much as talent and athleticism--which everyone has to some degree at this level.
Meanwhile, you're dead right about the importance of the O-line--and in fact it is the hard work now bearing fruit in our impending "haul" there that has me cautiously hopeful. The question is whether we can field a balanced attack with only that one addition at RB (Jones) adding some strong inside power-and-speed to the as yet (by Weis' conscious choice) relatively underutilized backs we already had. As I've noted elsewhere, that "balance" will also depend on us upgrading the WR position somewhat (I figure we have to get at least ONE of the two 5-stars we're after for that, no matter what else happens), and one of the young QBs stepping forward as well, of course, but with a talented, strong and deep O-line learning to play together and rounding into form by mid-season, we ought to be able to move the ball pushing the OTHER guys backwards. That's the idea, anyway, and a very satisfying one, no?
With what should be a first-rate defense already in place, and only going to get better as time goes on, you can see what Champ & Co. are building towards. With so many "ifs" and unknowns, even after NSD, it will be some time before we know where we are in that process, what still needs to be done and how long before we are likely to be able to DO it--but what I do see, I like, and have growing confidence finally in the plan, Coach Will Muschamp's plan, and the people who are in charge of implementing it. It's strange, but only now, with the last few changes and seeing how things are getting smoother, calmer amid great effort and clear goals, do I feel that way. For the first time in YEARS, I'm not worried or frustrated when I think about the Gators, their present OR their future.
Block O
URBAN OHIO ERA BEGINS
Not anymoreUrban Meyer is amazing!!! I heard we also have a great shot at Diggs!!!
All three schools were 3, 4, and 5 so there. Also You guys better not get Diggs.
Don't worry about this, Lf--this is one of those situations where yes, he's got real talent, but he is at a crossroads that in his choice will reveal his true nature, and whether he IS Gator-material...watching this whole attention-grabbing, "grandstand play" has already more than hinted at that kind of "It's all about me!"-personality that just ruins a lockeroom. Meyer has come to specialize in these sorts of bozos: blowing smoke up their a$$es is one of his main ploys (as opposed to the truth, which is NOT), and we're only shedding the last of his chosen "experts' favorite"-losers now...anyway, this choice is Diggs' test, from that POV, and though we could use his playmaking skills at WR and in the slot, there is a clear contrast here that really does separate the good young men who believe in themselves and want to be part of something special, and the gloating fools who go searching for opportunities to mouth off. (Sound familiar? Real Buckeye material? We'll see.)
Block O
URBAN OHIO ERA BEGINS
Can you guys tell me about Friday Night Lights? I guess Urban is bringing that to Ohio State and it started at Florida. He mentioned it on a couple call in shows on the radio today.
FNL is a summer camp that draws a lot of high profile prospects. It occurs in mid to late July, after most of the other invitational summer camps. Urban started it at UF in '05 or '06. That is where Urban caught sight of a young Tim Tebow. The rest is history.
