Question for some more seasoned Recruitniks' offseason histories

[FLAVOLS]

The Forrest Davis Football Recruiting Guide was as awesome as one could ask for back in the 80's then the NRA with Bobby Burton...

Bobby Burton
National Analyst and Publisher
Nationally recognized as one of the foremost authorities on college football recruiting. Burton was ranked the 88th most powerful person in sports by The Sporting News in 2000 for his influence on college recruiting. Burton was the long-time editor-in-chief of the National Recruiting Advisor, a ground-breaking newsletter and magazine that focused on college football recruiting, before selling the publication to Rival Networks in April of 1999. He has written for ESPN.com, The Sporting News, FansOnly, FoxSports.com and the Dallas Morning News and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows nationwide. He serves as a consultant for the Parade All-America teams. Burton is also in charge of putting together the Rivals.com team of analysts and reporters, a group generally considered the best in the business.

[StoVol]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

In the 80's the local newspapers would run weekly recruiting articles with fairly in depth info about recruits we were after. Much better than anything they do today.

I really got hooked on recruiting by Jeff Whittaker's Deep South Recruiting Guide in the 90's. It was a seasonal mag that focused primarily on the south east, and had full bio's of every blue chip recruit with color photos and a 10.0 rating system. I would start looking for them at local convenience stores early every summer and sift through all the info. Fortunately we were recruiting like gang busters at the time, and it made for an exciting signing day when very few people really followed it.

I remember the commitments of players like Andy Kelly (as a punter), Carl Pickens, Heath Shuler, Little Man and Hayden, Garner, Dale Carter, etc. Brandon Stewart and Peyton Manning and the debate about which would turn out to be the better QB. The fiasco surrounding Randy Moss's recruitment, when he was dropped by Florida State and courted by UT for a while, only to be turned away to Marshall because of off the field issues. Those were exciting times to be a Vols fan.

Anyone remember "Black Monday"? When we had like 10 blue chips leaning to us the monday before signing day, and only one of them ended up signing with us. That one guy was Billy Ratliff, maybe the most important part of the national championship team that followed a few years later.

I remember this one, it was a better pub than Davis' , who seemed like a Alabama homer.

[VolsDoc81TX]

Originally Posted by tenmanjonez

I'm a fairly young guy of 19, so when I started getting hardcore into football, info was on the internet readily available easily. My question is for fans back in the early-mid 90's, even 80's.

How did you keep up with off-season recruiting. I realize it wasn't AS big of a thing, but it was still a huge part of it. Was it more of an in-state process, or was it as national as it is today?

Were the recruiting hotbeds the same back then, or did other states put out more talent a while back than they do now or vice versa?

Last question, and the root of this thread, how did you get your information during the off-season. How did you follow recruits and what was going on with the team? I realize the media was more involved with practices and a lot of the news probably came from the evening news and ESPN, but how did you keep up with the local team Tennessee's recruiting progress?

Thanks for the help, very interested to hear the answers.

I had the Knoxville News Sentinel delivered to TX. Even up to a week old, that was the best source of news about the Vols then. Did that from 92-97 when we moved to knoxville. Never was really able to follow recruiting. But lived for the annual "football Time in Tennessee" to come out. Would just about memorize stats on every player. Would tell my friends after big plays the stats ht, wt, age, 40 time, and hometown. After med school volume of knowledge, remembering players stats for 85-100 players was no big deal.

Feels like Caveman days compared to now

[ionaVOL]

Big fan of this thread. Thank you OP and thank you guys for sharing. This is a good read!

[StoVol]

Does anyone remember what happened to Leroy Thompson ( penn state) I think. Also the Collins brothers? They were highly coveted that year and were my first recruiting heartbreak. One of the Collins brothers transferred here if I remember correctly, but never produced due to injury I believe.

[tenmanjonez]

Originally Posted by ionaVOL

Big fan of this thread. Thank you OP and thank you guys for sharing. This is a good read!

Awesome!

And I share your sentiments towards the posters, this is awesome information. Really interesting to think about how people would act today if sites like Rivals/Scout/247/ESPN all decided to shut down at the same time and recruiting info wasn't available. Shoot, it sounds like we were doing a lot better when recruiting wasn't a big deal... Maybe the negateers weren't driving away recruits?

Anyway, if you've posted in here, thanks for the info and if you have any more insight or stories, please feel free and encouraged to share!