LittleVol
Of course I can help you, Coach Heupel.
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I’ve lived in 7 different towns in Texas including West Texas and the Valley below San Antonio. You can basically narrow UTexas’ recruiting area to exclude south of San Antonio and about 50-100 miles west of Austin and Ft Worth. There are more cattle, cactus, and oil rigs than people (much less football players) below San Antonio and in West Texas. There are exceptions, but this is the rule. So, half the square miles in Texas is almost excluded from football recruiting.
My earlier post specified Houston and DFW as rich high school recruiting grounds, deeper than anything around Knoxville. Both areas are 3 hours or less drive from Austin. These facts remain.
The real difference is that recruits in Houston and DFW will always consider UTexas as the first or second “local” option along with aTm more recently. Recruits in Atlanta and Charlotte don’t look at the Vols as first local option, even when our program is humming.
I lived in Houston. I'm very familiar with the demographics of the state. Thats also where I began my 3 year stint in the world of football scouting.
However, I am from the deep south. I coached high school ball for a time in North Carolina and played college ball in the south.
With that said You are correct in that Houston and Dallas Fort Worth Area are the main talent hubs of talent in the state. But places like Midland, Odessa and many many other small Texas town eat sleep and breathe football. Talent comes from these places as well. Cedric Benson from Midland. Tony Brown from Beaumont. Both 5 stars, that weren't from the metro areas.
As you also know, Houston and Dallas in themselves are spread out cities. Public trans is kind of an afterthought. Get in your big truck and go where you need to go down there haha. Geography plays a part.
If you could draw a line encircling from Harris County up to Irvine and west to Austin south West San Antonio including suburbs of each area. That would still be a significant amount of square miles. Those cities are not next to each other. Mid-State TN is closer to Knoxville in relation than DFW to Houston.
My point is there is more talent in a 5 hour radius from Knoxville ( Mid-State TN, West Carolina Charlotte, Rockhill-South Carolina, Louisiville-Cincinnati, Atlanta-Metro, and Alabama) Than the entire state of Texas which EXCEEDS 5 hour radius because the state is so big. I didnt include Memphis.
As far as the popularity. Tennessee has the SEC affiliation like Texas AM that is quite frankly dominating Talent in Texas as result for the Aggies. I only used NC, TN, GA to illustrate a point. The truth is that 5 hour radius covers multiple states all with a similar demographic in their pie section. The talent is more dense where UTK footprint is than UTA. And Atlanta-Metro alone exceeds Houston Area in shear talent. I know this for certain. Atlanta exceeds Dade County in South FLA as well.
There's a lot to consider in my argument that I'm leaving out as well.
MAIN POINT- More football talent in the 5 hour radius of Knoxville than All of Texas.