My assumption has been (and continues to be, until shown evidence to the contrary--we've sure seen plenty of evidence SUPPORTING this view) that we had a LOT of "less-than-motivated" and "lacking-self-discipline"-types on this squad, courtesy of Meyer-and-the-Nameless-One and their last two recruiting classes, and it has been with Head Coach Will Muschamp's full knowledge and intent that so many of these have been given the word: smarten up or ship out--and one-by-one most have elected to do so. Since these are defensive players, I am inclined to assume this is just more of the same.
However, I AM concerned that we have by now fallen below the recruit-limit, the number of open "spaces" fillable in the next recruiting class, according to NCAA rules. I'm told there are ways around this problem, even future advantages bestowed by having extra openings on a team looking to revamp and rebuild its whole squad--certainly a description that applies to us. I hope this is so, because as it is, we can bring in but 25 recruits MAXIMUM this time regardless, and as things stand, we appear to be in danger of coming up against the same across-the-board depth-concerns in 2012 as we had coming into this PAST season.
I understand and agree with the idea that it is better to have a small, tightly-knit team of "the right kind of young men", who can trust and depend on each other, work hard and move together in one direction, than it is to have a large group that includes talented-but-selfish show-offs, out for themselves--but after a season like this one, where injuries effectively decimated a team already short on depth starting OUT, I guess I'd hope to see an effort made to redeem some of these "talented head cases" somehow...perhaps that HAS gone on behind-the-scenes already, and end-of-season transfers such as these represent failure in just such efforts. In which case, good riddance once again, I suppose.
All the MORE reason, then that this NEXT recruiting-class means EVERYTHING, will essentially "make or break" this regime's chances of succeeding here--which would be scary even WITHOUT Urban Meyer, Mickey Marotti and D.J. Durkin working insidiously behind their backs to steal as much of that class as they can, at the very least disrupting their efforts and bleeding time and energy that could have better been spent closing distance in the cases of fence-sitters and rivals' softer commits, rather than DEFENDING what we already thought we HAD!
