Never said it was. Although "proximity don't mean diggity son" according to some, a kid who grows up in the shadow of your stadium is a kid you should get, regardless of who is coaching. Further, common sense would suggest that a university located in Knox County, would have a better likelihood of landing your average kid from Knox County than Palo Alto, CA. Now, am I saying we give every kid from Knox County with the slightest aptitude for playing football a scholarship? Of course not. What I am saying is that the kids with the size and athleticism to play big time college ball on the lines of scrimmage, particularly in the SEC, are sufficiently rare enough that in the future, to build the sort of depth we need at those positions, we want to keep the ones we do grow here in Tennessee, who are good enough for Alabama, Clemson, or Georgia here in Tennessee and wearing the Power T. Absolutely, we should look for these players in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and wherever else they may be found, but our odds of keeping a Cade Mays at home, on average, should always be better than getting an Ohio kid that Ohio State wants, a Pennsylvania kid that Penn State wants, etc., regardless of who is coaching. This is such a basic principle, that it was incorporated into basically every NCAA football game ever made. It's not that hard to understand. And no, I don't believe we didn't want Tymon Mitchell, you guys are free to believe that if you wish of course but you can look at the history of this very thread, that "we don't want him" spin started when it started looking like we weren't going to get him. Regardless, it is not a crisis that we didn't get him or Cade Mays, it's just that to get this program humming optimally, and build that depth we need, we'll want it to be as tough to get Tennessee kids out of Tennessee as it is to get Louisiana kids away from LSU historically, this year not withstanding. Flame away.
