Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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Are merit badges awarded for being rainbows and butterflies all the time?

Recruiting sucks right now and we have zero momentum, but anytime anyone complains about it... it's like a bat signal to a handful of posters to don their capes and leotards and show what better fans they are.
Have said recruits signed LOI? Are their recruitments officially over? Are any recruitments officially over until they LOI's are signed? Have any recruits flipped on NSD? These are important questions to ask, so that things are put into perspective.
 
Have said recruits signed LOI? Are their recruitments officially over? Are any recruitments officially over until they LOI's are signed? Have any recruits flipped on NSD? These are important questions to ask, so that things are put into perspective.

What said recruits? I didn’t name specific recruits.

But some we held in high regard committed elsewhere. I know I know- that means nothing. So I’m sure if I looked in any of our commitment threads I wouldn’t find any “boom” or otherwise celebritory posts right? Because it means nothing.

Everything’s perfect. Go big orange! Roman Harrison!
 
The Tennessee brand carries any recruiting momentum you need. It’s up to the coach to utilize and promote it. The “all ball” approach is fine when you’re established but you have to be more creative and quite honestly (and i know we hate the term *thanks butch* but more of a salesman) to get kids to come here when everyone is ragging on you in recruiting and giving them a million reasons to go elsewhere. But as long as we stay around 15 or better like last year, Pruitt will have enough talent to be very successful.

A halfway decent season this year and that trip to Oklahoma will be the premier matchup and have playoff implications.

Hell when we’re just pretty good under butch those two years every other game of ours was on game day. Tennessee create its on buzz with or without merit.
that's not what you are hearing from prospects. there's a lot of wait and see with this. "the brand" has taken a HUGE hit the past 3 years.

siap, the brand hasn't earned any trust from fans, and certainly not recruits.

TN has everything any prospect would want. TN has a coaching staff that most prospects will respect based on past accomplishments elsewhere.

there's a large faction...fans on this board, and prospects DOWN THE STREET, that are most certainly taking a wait and see approach. that faction of prospects...and fans....have not been impressed with a 5-7 start.

they see upsets over Auburn and KY and think this is worth consideration.........then they see blow outs against MO and Vandy.....and they want........................more.

so yeah, on the one hand, we have everything you need to be successful here. except................results.

and for some reason (that 5* TX RB said the same thing about TX when he excluded them from his top 5 last week) we're basically being asked to put the cart before the horse, and get the results first.

what result will sway a kid that is on the fence? just go to a bowl? 7, 8 wins? 10? TX wqn 10 games, beat OU, and GA in the Sugar bowl, and that Houston RB, said "not impressed"...and still had OU and GA in his top 5, not TX.

but this attitude that just because we open the doors at the Athletic complex every day should be reason enough for kids to want to come here, so long as we don't have coaches that can screw that up is laughable.

that salesman you speak so highly of, is a PRIME REASON PEOPLE DON'T TRUST THIS BRAND ANYMORE.

lotta good it did that guy to land b2b top 7 classes.....

problem around here is the only thing we care about doing is assigning blame. because that's just easier than admitting that this thing was a freaking mess, and it's just going to take longer than a whole lot of you think it is.
 
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What said recruits? I didn’t name specific recruits.

But some we held in high regard committed elsewhere. I know I know- that means nothing. So I’m sure if I looked in any of our commitment threads I wouldn’t find any “boom” or otherwise celebritory posts right? Because it means nothing.

Everything’s perfect. Go big orange! Roman Harrison!
None of the recruits that we held in High Regard have signed a LOI, they will still be recruited. If they had committed here, would you instead worry about holding on to those same recruits? It seems to me, correct me if I am wrong, that you will worry one way or the other.
Best case scenario, the highly regarded recruits will see the improved product that we put on the field and will want in. Worst case scenario, we end up with a sub par season and low rated class. Then the LOM will start to do that thing that they do every year, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Well Hank, I'm stealing this from the VQ guys but I'll add this about Butch.
"There was a lot less angst when he was filling the class with paper 4 stars".
Now that we're going after players that teams actually want, we are going to lose on a lot of them.

I just have to decide which I prefer, listening to posters whine when they realize many of BJ's guys weren't SEC caliber.. or listening to the same posters fret about the reality of going after true talent.

Think I prefer getting some real players but it does suck that some are going to act surprised after every.. single.. miss.

The majority of 4-5* that CBJ were legit players with offers from major programs. Plenty didn’t pan for a variety of reasons, many of which are CBJs fault, but this idea that his classes were full of marginal players (see Dooley’s classes) just isn’t true.
 
It seems to me, correct me if I am wrong, that you will worry one way or the other.
¯

You’re wrong. I’m a natural homer. Search my history prior to say 2-3 months ago. But I can recognize when things aren’t going well. And things aren’t going well for us right now.

I know I know it’s only June nothing matters everything is great.
 
More to come.

This is the reason we’re not taking commitments yet.
I find it continually amusing how people believe or disbelieve certain posts based upon how it fits their agenda. As a sunshine pumper, orange glasses-wearing, buried head in the sand Goldilocks, I like this post. Then you have the negavols who automatically say it's crap based upon nothing other than how it fits their own agenda. Thank you for posting, regardless.
 
You’re wrong. I’m a natural homer. Search my history prior to say 2-3 months ago. But I can recognize when things aren’t going well. And things aren’t going well for us right now.

I know I know it’s only June nothing matters everything is great.
it's not "not great" either. it is june.

now is not the time for fear. that comes later.
 
Real talk, with how the last two seasons of early signing day and regular signing day I don't pay any attention to recruits until like mid-season.

Numerous times we've seen big time recruits flip last minute and it's become obvious they are more about the "now" production, so if UT is having a good season I think more will come. Just how it'll go at most places, unless we reach Alabama/Georgia/Clemson type of success where you HAVE to get in the boat or there will be no spots I don't expect us to load up early in any recruiting cycles moving forward.
 
The majority of 4-5* that CBJ were legit players with offers from major programs. Plenty didn’t pan for a variety of reasons, many of which are CBJs fault, but this idea that his classes were full of marginal players (see Dooley’s classes) just isn’t true.

There was indeed a majority of our signees that didn't have offers from top SEC schools. People can pull up the exceptions but they were the exceptions!

Several didn't even have offers from their home state schools. No one can rewrite reality, it can be twisted but not changed.
 
No disrespect @Kingston Vol but imma call BS on the “were not accepting commitments” because we can be picky and we want to see kids in camp.

Our last three commitments don’t exactly scream we’re being overly selective. There are a ton of guys our staff would loooove to have jump in the boat - but they’re either waiting or have picked other schools.
Yeah, I gotcha. But like I said, we’re being extra selective and waiting to readjust our board after camp season. Then we’ll have a better understanding of who to take and who to slowplay.

I’m not saying we *could* have a top three class right now and we’re just refusing to do so. But there are plenty of guys who would jump on board if we’d let them.

Most of that has to do with allowing our new coordinators to evaluate the “middle third” of prospects currently on our board in camp.

Some of it has to do with the top guys waiting to see how we compete this season.

And another x% has to do with our coaching staff believing we’re going to have a pretty good year and, as such, we do not want to fill up with commitments right now assuming we will be in on “bigger fish” to close the recruiting calendar.

Tl;dr.... we’re fine. It’s all going to work out.
 
Another thing is, we’re still working out total numbers for the upcoming class at each position. And a lot of that determination has to do with how many guys are yet to transfer out and how many of the freshmen/new signings are ready to compete right away. And, of course, if our incoming transfers are immediately eligible.
 
Yes, we don’t have any momentum right now but I’m more inclined to really worry about recruiting if we start accepting commitments from marginal recruits. That’s not happening yet. Right now most are rated above .90, yes it’s only a handful, but still better than having a few more slaw commits just taking up space.

If we start taking Dooleyesque Jose Jose recruits then I will be concerned.
 
There was indeed a majority of our signees that didn't have offers from top SEC schools. People can pull up the exceptions but they were the exceptions!

Several didn't even have offers from their home state schools. No one can rewrite reality, it can be twisted but not changed.

The team Tennessee fielded in 2016 that shouldn't have ended anything worse than 10-2 and a Sugar Bowl appearance. The 6-0 start and preseason optimism had everything to do with the way Butch recruited in those previous cycles. And I can't stand the guy. Although, people try to discredit him in order to justify Pruitt and his staff shortcomings.
 
I find it continually amusing how people believe or disbelieve certain posts based upon how it fits their agenda. As a sunshine pumper, orange glasses-wearing, buried head in the sand Goldilocks, I like this post. Then you have the negavols who automatically say it's crap based upon nothing other than how it fits their own agenda. Thank you for posting, regardless.
Also, the idea that I’m some sunshine pumper is pretty damn funny.
 
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