Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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#204
#204
ChattaTNVol said:
I probably shouldn't post this but I've been smoking marlboro cigarettes for 43 years so obviously I don't always do what is most often advised.

I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with me and they should. I read their comments in many threads and very very rarely get into arguments. I think its okay to share where you stand. I'm not normally the type to slam someone I disagree with and rarely if ever take the bait to engage in anything other than good natured back and forth.

I think it going to take a bit of patience on the part of our fanbase to see if in fact we get more for our money with this new staff than we did with the last two. I think the football fanbase spent north of $300 million on Dooley’s tenure and over $500 million on Jones and his guys. How much we spend with these guys over the long run is yet to be determined. We’re in a kind of a helpless situation, sort of. It’s a seller’s market.

I don’t think I made any comment at all when Jeremy shared his seemingly disappointment regarding fan attendance at the spring game and my inner voice is screaming at me to stay cool right now but for all the hype about recruiting prowess with this staff color me not exactly impressed at this point. That could change and this time could be different but when our guys at volquest and rivals have to sell us on our latest commit it makes me uneasy. I know I’m not the only one that no longer blindly believes much of the hype.

I like Jeremy. I like his personality and I like his resume. His resume was built on top tier talent and almost exclusively on elite highly coveted well known athletes. In his comments regarding the fans he explained his remarks by saying we want to be the better than everyone else at everything we do. Right now I think most people would tend to think Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn have built and are maintaining better rosters than we are. The recruiting services for all their imperfections tend to generally align with those perceptions. On field performance on an individual and team basis also over time seems to bear that out across the league.

I guess a lot of us are still holding on to pie-in-the-sky expectations and I’m not interested in endlessly arguing the point and I definitely won't be harping on it but I’m actually disappointed in our overall recruiting with this new staff – so far. I want to be patient and I think I’m sort of trying – sometimes. I guess we’ll just have to pay our money and see how things work out. We’ve still got the promise that there are a lot of really good teachers on this staff.

For the record, I want seventy blue chip players on my roster. I want ten 5-stars, ten high 4-stars, twenty mid 4-stars, and thirty low 4-stars. This translates to about 17.5 blue chip recruits per year over four years. You can use the other fifteen scholarships however you like; I don’t care. As a fanbase our spending ranks at the top of the league. Its not like we’re not doing our part.

I like cornbread. My whole life I’ve liked cornbread. I like cornbread and butter and I like cornbread crumbled up in a glass of milk. Somewhere over the years it stuck with me that someone said cornbread in a glass of milk was nasty. I don’t remember who said that. I think they ceased to be a part of my world. Looking back over the years I think that was an inevitable outcome.
Click to expand...

You make some really good points here. If we’re going to win at a high level we need to recruit closer to Ga’s level than south Carolina’s. That’s just a fact
 
#205
#205
ChattaTNVol said:
I probably shouldn't post this but I've been smoking marlboro cigarettes for 43 years so obviously I don't always do what is most often advised.

I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with me and they should. I read their comments in many threads and very very rarely get into arguments. I think its okay to share where you stand. I'm not normally the type to slam someone I disagree with and rarely if ever take the bait to engage in anything other than good natured back and forth.

I think it going to take a bit of patience on the part of our fanbase to see if in fact we get more for our money with this new staff than we did with the last two. I think the football fanbase spent north of $300 million on Dooley’s tenure and over $500 million on Jones and his guys. How much we spend with these guys over the long run is yet to be determined. We’re in a kind of a helpless situation, sort of. It’s a seller’s market.

I don’t think I made any comment at all when Jeremy shared his seemingly disappointment regarding fan attendance at the spring game and my inner voice is screaming at me to stay cool right now but for all the hype about recruiting prowess with this staff color me not exactly impressed at this point. That could change and this time could be different but when our guys at volquest and rivals have to sell us on our latest commit it makes me uneasy. I know I’m not the only one that no longer blindly believes much of the hype.

I like Jeremy. I like his personality and I like his resume. His resume was built on top tier talent and almost exclusively on elite highly coveted well known athletes. In his comments regarding the fans he explained his remarks by saying we want to be the better than everyone else at everything we do. Right now I think most people would tend to think Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn have built and are maintaining better rosters than we are. The recruiting services for all their imperfections tend to generally align with those perceptions. On field performance on an individual and team basis also over time seems to bear that out across the league.

I guess a lot of us are still holding on to pie-in-the-sky expectations and I’m not interested in endlessly arguing the point and I definitely won't be harping on it but I’m actually disappointed in our overall recruiting with this new staff – so far. I want to be patient and I think I’m sort of trying – sometimes. I guess we’ll just have to pay our money and see how things work out. We’ve still got the promise that there are a lot of really good teachers on this staff.

For the record, I want seventy blue chip players on my roster. I want ten 5-stars, ten high 4-stars, twenty mid 4-stars, and thirty low 4-stars. This translates to about 17.5 blue chip recruits per year over four years. You can use the other fifteen scholarships however you like; I don’t care. As a fanbase our spending ranks at the top of the league. Its not like we’re not doing our part.

I like cornbread. My whole life I’ve liked cornbread. I like cornbread and butter and I like cornbread crumbled up in a glass of milk. Somewhere over the years it stuck with me that someone said cornbread in a glass of milk was nasty. I don’t remember who said that. I think they ceased to be a part of my world. Looking back over the years I think that was an inevitable outcome.
Click to expand...

You’re one of the top 5 posters on this board imo, but you need to be more patient than you think you’re being. Even great recruiters are going to have trouble selling our product right now. Recruits want to see the product on the field. If we don’t sign a top 10 class this cycle and things still look the same this time next year then you might have cause for concern. It just isn’t time to start questioning yet.
 
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#206
#206
I couldn’t imagine recruiting in today’s environment. How do you keep the fan base happy while filling out needs with lower ranked guys you’ve seen at camp? It’s a tricky situation because the seat gets a lot hotter if you aren’t winning and recruiting is lagging behind the SEC according to national services.
 
#207
#207
Bassmaster_Vol said:
You make some really good points here. If we’re going to win at a high level we need to recruit closer to Ga’s level than south Carolina’s. That’s just a fact
Click to expand...

I agree that this is all very reasonable.

We will need to maintain at the minimum, top-10 classes over time in order to compete in and out every Saturday to keep up with Alabama and now Georgia (plus whoever else we're unlucky enough to draw from the West).

Recruiting has been underwhelming up to this point, but I think we're still in good shape. We have 10 spots left in the class assuming we don't issue a couple git-shirts. The last few commitments have been unheralded guys with a lot of upside that to Chatt's point, we kind of need to be sold on. Also to Chatt's point, Pruitt's resume has been built on truckloads of talent.

Counterpoint: It's still July. We have a 5* tackle committed, who's peer-recruiting a couple other high caliber players. We swung for the fences in January before Pruitt's first orange-clad NSD and we whiffed on every single cornerback. We didn't whiff on every single recruit-- DWA, JJ Peterson, Carvin/Banks combo from Cordova.

It may not seem like it to us, but the dust is still settling from our explosive (implosive?) off-season of firings. CJP hasn't head-coached a single game yet. Helton hasn't called a single play on his own yet.

It's okay to feel a little underwhelmed. But I think most of it is that we're in the dog days of summer, and our summer was more dogged than most this year.

Once recruits see a winning brand of football being played in Neyland again, we'll be fine.
 
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#208
#208
ChattaTNVol said:
I probably shouldn't post this but I've been smoking marlboro cigarettes for 43 years so obviously I don't always do what is most often advised.

I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with me and they should. I read their comments in many threads and very very rarely get into arguments. I think its okay to share where you stand. I'm not normally the type to slam someone I disagree with and rarely if ever take the bait to engage in anything other than good natured back and forth.

I think it going to take a bit of patience on the part of our fanbase to see if in fact we get more for our money with this new staff than we did with the last two. I think the football fanbase spent north of $300 million on Dooley’s tenure and over $500 million on Jones and his guys. How much we spend with these guys over the long run is yet to be determined. We’re in a kind of a helpless situation, sort of. It’s a seller’s market.

I don’t think I made any comment at all when Jeremy shared his seemingly disappointment regarding fan attendance at the spring game and my inner voice is screaming at me to stay cool right now but for all the hype about recruiting prowess with this staff color me not exactly impressed at this point. That could change and this time could be different but when our guys at volquest and rivals have to sell us on our latest commit it makes me uneasy. I know I’m not the only one that no longer blindly believes much of the hype.

I like Jeremy. I like his personality and I like his resume. His resume was built on top tier talent and almost exclusively on elite highly coveted well known athletes. In his comments regarding the fans he explained his remarks by saying we want to be the better than everyone else at everything we do. Right now I think most people would tend to think Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn have built and are maintaining better rosters than we are. The recruiting services for all their imperfections tend to generally align with those perceptions. On field performance on an individual and team basis also over time seems to bear that out across the league.

I guess a lot of us are still holding on to pie-in-the-sky expectations and I’m not interested in endlessly arguing the point and I definitely won't be harping on it but I’m actually disappointed in our overall recruiting with this new staff – so far. I want to be patient and I think I’m sort of trying – sometimes. I guess we’ll just have to pay our money and see how things work out. We’ve still got the promise that there are a lot of really good teachers on this staff.

For the record, I want seventy blue chip players on my roster. I want ten 5-stars, ten high 4-stars, twenty mid 4-stars, and thirty low 4-stars. This translates to about 17.5 blue chip recruits per year over four years. You can use the other fifteen scholarships however you like; I don’t care. As a fanbase our spending ranks at the top of the league. Its not like we’re not doing our part.

I like cornbread. My whole life I’ve liked cornbread. I like cornbread and butter and I like cornbread crumbled up in a glass of milk. Somewhere over the years it stuck with me that someone said cornbread in a glass of milk was nasty. I don’t remember who said that. I think they ceased to be a part of my world. Looking back over the years I think that was an inevitable outcome.
Click to expand...

I get to feeling this exact way at times. I just keep reminding myself that they haven't seen him coach yet. If he shows real promise there, then I think the doors really open.

Until then, we're asking recruits and their parents for a big decision based on nothing more than unproven faith.
 
#209
#209
ChismsHeadband said:
I agree that this is all very reasonable.

We will need to maintain at the minimum, top-10 classes over time in order to compete in and out every Saturday to keep up with Alabama and now Georgia (plus whoever else we're unlucky enough to draw from the West).

Recruiting has been underwhelming up to this point, but I think we're still in good shape. We have 10 spots left in the class assuming we don't issue a couple git-shirts. The last few commitments have been unheralded guys with a lot of upside that to Chatt's point, we kind of need to be sold on. Also to Chatt's point, Pruitt's resume has been built on truckloads of talent.

Counterpoint: It's still July. We have a 5* tackle committed, who's peer-recruiting a couple other high caliber players. We swung for the fences in January before Pruitt's first orange-clad NSD and we whiffed on every single cornerback. We didn't whiff on every single recruit-- DWA, JJ Peterson, Carvin/Banks combo from Cordova.

It may not seem like it to us, but the dust is still settling from our explosive (implosive?) off-season of firings. CJP hasn't head-coached a single game yet. Helton hasn't called a single play on his own yet.

It's okay to feel a little underwhelmed. But I think most of it is that we're in the dog days of summer, and our summer was more dogged than most this year.

Once recruits see a winning brand of football being played in Neyland again, we'll be fine.
Click to expand...

Is Pruitt really struggling to recruit, or does he truly believe he’s getting the best players available no matter the rankings? That’s the million dollar question
 
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#210
#210
millst987 said:
I couldn’t imagine recruiting in today’s environment. How do you keep the fan base happy while filling out needs with lower ranked guys you’ve seen at camp? It’s a tricky situation because the seat gets a lot hotter if you aren’t winning and recruiting is lagging behind the SEC according to national services.
Click to expand...

80% of the fan base couldn’t even name one recruit we have committed. Most just care about what happens on Saturdays in the fall.
 
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#213
#213
ChismsHeadband said:
I agree that this is all very reasonable.

We will need to maintain at the minimum, top-10 classes over time in order to compete in and out every Saturday to keep up with Alabama and now Georgia (plus whoever else we're unlucky enough to draw from the West).

Recruiting has been underwhelming up to this point, but I think we're still in good shape. We have 10 spots left in the class assuming we don't issue a couple git-shirts. The last few commitments have been unheralded guys with a lot of upside that to Chatt's point, we kind of need to be sold on. Also to Chatt's point, Pruitt's resume has been built on truckloads of talent.

Counterpoint: It's still July. We have a 5* tackle committed, who's peer-recruiting a couple other high caliber players. We swung for the fences in January before Pruitt's first orange-clad NSD and we whiffed on every single cornerback. We didn't whiff on every single recruit-- DWA, JJ Peterson, Carvin/Banks combo from Cordova.

It may not seem like it to us, but the dust is still settling from our explosive (implosive?) off-season of firings. CJP hasn't head-coached a single game yet. Helton hasn't called a single play on his own yet.

It's okay to feel a little underwhelmed. But I think most of it is that we're in the dog days of summer, and our summer was more dogged than most this year.

Once recruits see a winning brand of football being played in Neyland again, we'll be fine.
Click to expand...

I’m not throwing my hands up or anything. But we need to land bigger fish to close out the class. If we land Wright, Bogle, and Crouch we’ll have an elite class.
 
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#214
#214
ChattaTNVol said:
I probably shouldn't post this but I've been smoking marlboro cigarettes for 43 years so obviously I don't always do what is most often advised.

I know there are a lot of people who will disagree with me and they should. I read their comments in many threads and very very rarely get into arguments. I think its okay to share where you stand. I'm not normally the type to slam someone I disagree with and rarely if ever take the bait to engage in anything other than good natured back and forth.

I think it going to take a bit of patience on the part of our fanbase to see if in fact we get more for our money with this new staff than we did with the last two. I think the football fanbase spent north of $300 million on Dooley’s tenure and over $500 million on Jones and his guys. How much we spend with these guys over the long run is yet to be determined. We’re in a kind of a helpless situation, sort of. It’s a seller’s market.

I don’t think I made any comment at all when Jeremy shared his seemingly disappointment regarding fan attendance at the spring game and my inner voice is screaming at me to stay cool right now but for all the hype about recruiting prowess with this staff color me not exactly impressed at this point. That could change and this time could be different but when our guys at volquest and rivals have to sell us on our latest commit it makes me uneasy. I know I’m not the only one that no longer blindly believes much of the hype.

I like Jeremy. I like his personality and I like his resume. His resume was built on top tier talent and almost exclusively on elite highly coveted well known athletes. In his comments regarding the fans he explained his remarks by saying we want to be the better than everyone else at everything we do. Right now I think most people would tend to think Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn have built and are maintaining better rosters than we are. The recruiting services for all their imperfections tend to generally align with those perceptions. On field performance on an individual and team basis also over time seems to bear that out across the league.

I guess a lot of us are still holding on to pie-in-the-sky expectations and I’m not interested in endlessly arguing the point and I definitely won't be harping on it but I’m actually disappointed in our overall recruiting with this new staff – so far. I want to be patient and I think I’m sort of trying – sometimes. I guess we’ll just have to pay our money and see how things work out. We’ve still got the promise that there are a lot of really good teachers on this staff.

For the record, I want seventy blue chip players on my roster. I want ten 5-stars, ten high 4-stars, twenty mid 4-stars, and thirty low 4-stars. This translates to about 17.5 blue chip recruits per year over four years. You can use the other fifteen scholarships however you like; I don’t care. As a fanbase our spending ranks at the top of the league. Its not like we’re not doing our part.

I like cornbread. My whole life I’ve liked cornbread. I like cornbread and butter and I like cornbread crumbled up in a glass of milk. Somewhere over the years it stuck with me that someone said cornbread in a glass of milk was nasty. I don’t remember who said that. I think they ceased to be a part of my world. Looking back over the years I think that was an inevitable outcome.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I have been disappointed thus far on the recruiting front.

Butch recruited REALLY WELL and we still didn’t sniff an SEC championship. So far we haven’t even gotten to Butch level.

It can turn around for sure and, as you said, no point to dwell on it at this point - but I don’t need to hear VolQuest guys and guys on this board tell me this new coaching staff “gets” it and can identify diamonds in the rough unlike previous staffs or other staffs in the conference. That line has been repeated for 10 years and it’s not a coincidence we’ve been comically bad for that run.

We need to have top 5 classes to compete. Top 3 classes to beat the top of our conference. Anything else is plainly not good enough.
 
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#215
#215
millst987 said:
Is Pruitt really struggling to recruit, or does he truly believe he’s getting the best players available no matter the rankings? That’s the million dollar question
Click to expand...

I thought about this. But when he evaluated guys at Bama and Ga, they were 4 and 5 stars. Very few were low ranked guys like Harrison and Clemons. But if Pruitt thinks they can help us win them I hope he’s onto something.
 
#216
#216
Kingston Vol said:
Agreed. I have been disappointed thus far on the recruiting front.

Butch recruited REALLY WELL and we still didn’t sniff an SEC championship. So far we haven’t even gotten to Butch level.
Click to expand...

Is this a blue font post? It's July, Pruitt is 7 months into the gig, the Vols went 4-8 last fall, 4th new head coach in a decade and we're sitting 2nd in the east in star rating on Rivals behind UGA with a ton of momentum with multiple 5 stars and a bunch of 4's. And we're disappointed? Give me a break.
 
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#217
#217
butchna said:
Why not to the AJ Johnson update thread?
Click to expand...

Could have moved it there, but people in the recruiting forum seem to like to have discussions with other people in the recruiting forum, hence the reason this thread exists in the first place.
 
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#218
#218
Ron Swanson said:
Is this a blue font post? It's July, Pruitt is 7 months into the gig, the Vols went 4-8 last fall, 4th new head coach in a decade and we're sitting 2nd in the east in star rating on Rivals behind UGA with a ton of momentum with multiple 5 stars and a bunch of 4's. And we're disappointed? Give me a break.
Click to expand...

I agree, we need to let it play out for sure. I understand the skepticism though considering where we are coming from the last decade.
 
#219
#219
millst987 said:
Is Pruitt really struggling to recruit, or does he truly believe he’s getting the best players available no matter the rankings? That’s the million dollar question
Click to expand...

Very good question.

Pruitt strikes me as the guy to not give one single **** about what Rivals, ESPN, 247, your momma, or you or I think about the star-rating of a commit or our class as a whole. He's gonna trust his eyes and evals over everything else.

That said, it's still way too early to tell. He's got good returns so far. But it's still only July and things always heat up come Fall/Nov/Dec.
 
#220
#220
Freak said:
Could have moved it there, but people in the recruiting forum seem to like to have discussions with other people in the recruiting forum, hence the reason this thread exists in the first place.
Click to expand...

:good!:
 
#221
#221
Kingston Vol said:
Agreed. I have been disappointed thus far on the recruiting front.

Butch recruited REALLY WELL and we still didn’t sniff an SEC championship. So far we haven’t even gotten to Butch level.

It can turn around for sure and, as you said, no point to dwell on it at this point - but I don’t need to hear VolQuest guys and guys on this board tell me this new coaching staff “gets” it and can identify diamonds in the rough unlike previous staffs or other staffs in the conference. That line has been repeated for 10 years and it’s not a coincidence we’ve been comically bad for that run.

We need to have top 5 classes to compete. Top 3 classes to beat the top of our conference. Anything else is plainly not good enough.
Click to expand...

Nah. Auburn’s last 5 classes are #6, #8, #9, #9, and #12. Top 10-12 would be great given the garbage we put on the field last year.
 
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#222
#222
ChismsHeadband said:
Very good question.

Pruitt strikes me as the guy to not give one single **** about what Rivals, ESPN, 247, your momma, or you or I think about the star-rating of a commit or our class as a whole. He's gonna trust his eyes and evals over everything else.

That said, it's still way too early to tell. He's got good returns so far. But it's still only July and things always heat up come Fall/Nov/Dec.
Click to expand...

Knowing Pruitt’s reputation, I have to agree it’s most likely he DGAF and is taking who he wants
 
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#223
#223
Ron Swanson said:
Is this a blue font post? It's July, Pruitt is 7 months into the gig, the Vols went 4-8 last fall, 4th new head coach in a decade and we're sitting 2nd in the east in star rating on Rivals behind UGA with a ton of momentum with multiple 5 stars and a bunch of 4's. And we're disappointed? Give me a break.
Click to expand...

I can't wait until this and similar stats are put to bed.

I remember every single game of 2010-- "Dooley is Tennessee's third coach in three years" and every time it made me want to bang my head against the wall.
 
#224
#224
Another thing-- while there may be a minor freak-out over the class filling up with "too many" 3*'s.. we were caught with our pants down with the early signing period this past NSD. Maybe the coaching staff is trying to be sure we've at least got serviceable bodies committed before we really start battling other schools on the recruiting trail for top talent?
 
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