Recruiting Football Talk VIII

Why has Pearce fallen though? I keep hearing maturity and character but other than a forgettable run in with law enforcement, I haven’t seen or heard anything that shows that.
I'm no scout, but he looked like a one trick pony last year. Timing the snap and speed rushing was about it.
 
Chris Low mentioned it as a possibility on 104.5, but Merk’s agent is asking for more $ now as well apparently
Basillio mentioned this last week too. He said Merk was making 40k and TN gave him a good faith raise, 100-200k. But he's since hired Becks agent and would be asking for more money. Definitely gonna get worse before it gets better
 
Chris Low wouldn't put that out if he didn't trust it
For the line about Nic encouraging Nico to meet with Heupel (and Nico refusing), there are only two possible sources for that information... Nico and (much more likely) Nic. So the question really is how much you trust that source.
 
Buddy we will have one of the best offensive lines in CFB this season. I think a lot of people are at least six months behind reality. Past performance is not an indicator of future results. The entire line has been revamped and upgraded. By November many will realize that.
Best one since 2022. Don’t love our depth, but if we stay healthy, they will be very good.
 
Surely Jake isn't going to cause a ripple now? Talk about burying yourself before even getting a shot...

If he pressures UT now for more $$$ and it goes south he'll be lucky to land on a G5 team and spend at least 2 or 3 seasons trying to do enough to get back to a P4 school.

Now if he's willing to take the existing bump....and then write in a "if I become the starting QB" sort of bonus then that wouldn't be terrible...
 
There were signs at the very least, and they look to have been ignored. That's really the only fault I have with our coaches and administrators.
Nope. You can add the handling of Nico as another situation handled exactly correct by UT coaches and admin. We beat the NCAA and now we beat NIL. Every college needs to put up a statue of Josh Heupel. We are the pioneers forging the new frontier.
 
Nope. You can add the handling of Nico as another situation handled exactly correct by UT coaches and admin. We beat the NCAA and now we beat NIL. Every college needs to put up a statue of Josh Heupel. We are the pioneers forging the new frontier.
No, we didn't handle it as well as we could have. If you know last year he's sketchy you create a better situation toward a backup plan. The way this played out was like it was completely unexpected. We now know that isn't true.

I like the way we handled this as well, just pointing out that we were aware there was an issue brewing and had to scramble to get the best replacement we could last minute.
 
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Surely Jake isn't going to cause a ripple now? Talk about burying yourself before even getting a shot...

If he pressures UT now for more $$$ and it goes south he'll be lucky to land on a G5 team and spend at least 2 or 3 seasons trying to do enough to get back to a P4 school.

Now if he's willing to take the existing bump....and then write in a "if I become the starting QB" sort of bonus then that wouldn't be terrible...
I would hold open tryouts for QB on campus before I would let Jake Merklinger of all people hold me over a barrel if I'm Tennessee.

Doesn't make any sense. A corollary to the definition of insanity is watching someone else do something and expecting different results for yourself. At least Nico believed rightfully or wrongfully he had the talent to back him up if his extortion move backfired. Merklinger has played his last P5 snap if he goes through with the same plan.
 
I recently heard Jope Pate say that Congress is ready to get involved.
I hate to see government sink their slimy meat hooks into anything, but it is apparent that the governing bodies of college athletics won't take the initiative to get a handle on this situation.
The government involvement is just the last dying gasp of the NCAA trying to hold on to releavancy.
 
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