'24 GA QB Jake Merklinger (Tennessee)

#51
#51
jasonvol18 said:
He's a FR who made 2 career starts. Way too early to judge him by that. Very rarely do FR QB's ball out in their first year. In his 2 starts he had 600 passing yards, 65% passing,81 Rushing yards. Hell he led Clemson up and down the field on our D the entire game. They just struggled in the Redzone and missed FG's. He will be a very good QB for Clemson. He looke very good passing.
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In DJ Uiagalelei’s first 2 starts of his career:

69% completion %
781 yards passing
4 TD / 0 INT
2 rushing TDs

I agree it’s too early to say one way or the other, but the Klubnik love feels forced.
 
#53
#53
jasonvol18 said:
Nico has no bearing on our '24 QB decision.
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You don't think a 2024 kid is concerned about the best QB in the 2023 class already being on campus and only 1 less year of eligibility than him? Not many 5* QBs want to be backups for 2 or 3 years before getting a shot to start.

Yes, Nico has plenty of bearing on the 2024 QB class.
 
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#54
#54
jasonvol18 said:
Nico won't be a backup JR. He will be starting by his So year at the very latest.
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He's talented but that's all we know at this point.

Milton is more talented than Hooker. Hooker beat him out. The good thing is that it will probably take an amazing QB to beat Nico out.

But we don't "know" that he will ever start much less by when.
 
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#55
#55
GregAmsler said:
You don't think a 2024 kid is concerned about the best QB in the 2023 class already being on campus and only 1 less year of eligibility than him? Not many 5* QBs want to be backups for 2 or 3 years before getting a shot to start.

Yes, Nico has plenty of bearing on the 2024 QB class.
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Maybe. But most QB's don't start as Fr and the portal makes it possible to make one choice then go somewhere else later.

There are a lot of ways that things could work out differently than Nico being a 2 or 3 years starter. He could have more difficulty than expected transitioning to the college game. He could be injury prone. There are just a lot of ways that it could go different than expected.
 
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#56
#56
I wouldn't be surprised to land a top QB, recruit him the same way you did Nico, tell him he has every chance to start regardless of Nico. Let em battle it out next year. Now if Milton gets hurt and Nico is forced into action and looks good, well that's another thing.
 
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#57
#57
sjt18 said:
Maybe. But most QB's don't start as Fr and the portal makes it possible to make one choice then go somewhere else later.

There are a lot of ways that things could work out differently than Nico being a 2 or 3 years starter. He could have more difficulty than expected transitioning to the college game. He could be injury prone. There are just a lot of ways that it could go different than expected.
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All of that is true. It could go different than what is expected. But the kid will be making his decision based on what is expected. You don't choose a school with the expectation of going into the portal.
 
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#58
#58
GregAmsler said:
All of that is true. It could go different than what is expected. But the kid will be making his decision based on what is expected. You don't choose a school with the expectation of going into the portal.
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Not being antagonistic but want your honest opinion. How do Bama, tOSU, OU, et al get multiple top shelf QBs to sign? Bama signed 4* Milroe and 5* Simpson in the same class. They then added a 3* and 4* in the most recent class. OU has another year with Gabriel plus a 4* from last year and a 5* in this class.

Obviously until someone actually claims the job you can sell opportunity... so why wouldn't that work for UT when it seems to work for everyone else?
 
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#59
#59
TrippieRedd said:
I wouldn't be surprised to land a top QB, recruit him the same way you did Nico, tell him he has every chance to start regardless of Nico. Let em battle it out next year. Now if Milton gets hurt and Nico is forced into action and looks good, well that's another thing.
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Then you sell the RS year and starting as a RS Soph after Nico leaves for the NFL.
 
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#61
#61
sjt18 said:
Not being antagonistic but want your honest opinion. How do Bama, tOSU, OU, et al get multiple top shelf QBs to sign? Bama signed 4* Milroe and 5* Simpson in the same class. They then added a 3* and 4* in the most recent class. OU has another year with Gabriel plus a 4* from last year and a 5* in this class.

Obviously until someone actually claims the job you can sell opportunity... so why wouldn't that work for UT when it seems to work for everyone else?
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The promise of college playoffs and the chance to play for a national title and an NFL future. Those programs have all been dominant for these kid's entire lives and have multiple first round QBs drafted over the last decade.

We are still selling a dream to recruits who most have never even seen us win our division in their lifetime.
 
#62
#62
Vols8086 said:
The promise of college playoffs and the chance to play for a national title and an NFL future. Those programs have all been dominant for these kid's entire lives and have multiple first round QBs drafted over the last decade.

We are still selling a dream to recruits who most have never even seen us win our division in their lifetime.
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Same situation though and OU hasn't been dominating on the national scene. Texas is loaded at QB and hasn't been relevant in a long time.

As far as selling a QB on something... why wouldn't they want to play in the O UT has put on the field in the last two years?
 
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#69
#69
I think the portal Will make it hard to stack QBs, but the NIL possibilities on a top 10 team may even things out a little bit. If I was getting playing time in 6-8 games and driving an 80K car and living in a 2K a month apartment,I might not mind waiting 2 years for my turn. Especially at the rate of attrition at the position. Someone will correct me if my math is wrong but in the last 18 years I believe that we’ve had 3 where we didn’t start multiple QBs in a season. (2007,2015 and 2016)???
 
#70
#70
AresTheVol said:
a super dumb comment ngl, nico would be our starter through at least the 25 season, kids aren't gonna wait till their junior year to start
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Good thing that Fromm didn’t go to UGA since Eason was a generational QB. Or that Tua didn’t go to Bama since Hurts was coming off a NC game appearance. The best QB we’ve had in the last 20 years lost the starting job at a bottom feeder ACC school. I hope Nico is the best we’ve ever had. But it’s a crap shoot as to how kids will adjust at this level. You have no idea. And acting like you do ,and calling someone else’s post super dumb makes you look really insecure.
 
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#71
#71
sjt18 said:
Not being antagonistic but want your honest opinion. How do Bama, tOSU, OU, et al get multiple top shelf QBs to sign? Bama signed 4* Milroe and 5* Simpson in the same class. They then added a 3* and 4* in the most recent class. OU has another year with Gabriel plus a 4* from last year and a 5* in this class.

Obviously until someone actually claims the job you can sell opportunity... so why wouldn't that work for UT when it seems to work for everyone else?
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Doesn’t really matter to your overall point but Milroe was ‘21 class and Simpson ‘22 class.
 
#72
#72
sjt18 said:
Not being antagonistic but want your honest opinion. How do Bama, tOSU, OU, et al get multiple top shelf QBs to sign? Bama signed 4* Milroe and 5* Simpson in the same class. They then added a 3* and 4* in the most recent class. OU has another year with Gabriel plus a 4* from last year and a 5* in this class.

Obviously until someone actually claims the job you can sell opportunity... so why wouldn't that work for UT when it seems to work for everyone else?
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No worries. I'm not taking your posts as antagonistic. Honest answer, in multiple parts:

A) Milroe is a year ahead of Simpson. Just a point of clarification.
B) I think Bama's is a different situation. Nico is an otherworldly talent. None of those guys...Simpson, Milroe, Holstein, or the Georgia kid...are in Nico's league as a prospect. Holstein has a decent chance to beat those guys out. I just don't think that's true of any kid following Nico. While Simpson is the slight favorite, Bama will have a fairly open QB race this fall.
C) Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, etc. have been winning and producing QBs for the last decade plus, while Tennessee has not. That gives them an advantage in these situations that Tennessee doesn't currently have. If a kid is gonna wait his turn, he'd rather do it at a winning/talent-producing school and know when it's his time, it'll be worth it.
D) I'm not saying Tennessee CAN'T land a top QB in the 2024 class. I'm saying that the presence of Nico is a huge dissuasive factor. It makes things more difficult. But I hope Heupel can pull it off. He very well may.
E) I think there are "in-between" QB classes in which you may have to settle for a solid 4* or high 3* QB because he's coming in behind an elite talent. Todd Helton the year after Shuler and Tee Martin two years after Manning come to mind. That's kinda what Bama got this year to follow Simpson. Holstein is a solid 4*, but he's not up there in the elite group with Nico, Arch, Nelson, Arnold, Moore, or even Vizzna (who I think is a bit underrated).

Brent Hubbs told a story on the VQ podcast recently. It was told to him by Phillip Fulmer. Fulmer told him that, years after his playing days at UT, Jamal Lewis laughingly told him, "you know, I didn't know who Travis Henry was until I met him on the elevator at Gibbs Hall." Hubbs told the story to make a point about how different it is now. Recruits around the nation all know each other. They know who the really good ones are and they know who's great in the classes above and below them too. QBs in that 2024 class know all about Nico, how good he is, and that he's expected to be a star in 2024, if not 2023. That'll be tough to overcome on the recruiting trail. Hope we do it, though.
 
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#73
#73
Joe got hurt his 1st season.
Holds the ball too long sometimes.

Would love to see Joe be the man in his final year. Get drafted.
Nico will play this year.
 
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#75
#75
sjt18 said:
Same situation though and OU hasn't been dominating on the national scene. Texas is loaded at QB and hasn't been relevant in a long time.

As far as selling a QB on something... why wouldn't they want to play in the O UT has put on the field in the last two years?
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OU has produced two number 1 overall picks at QB in Baker and Kyler as well as Jalen Hurts who just played in the Super Bowl. Give Lincoln Riley credit if you want, but that’s a whole lot of QB firepower from OU the last 6 years right there. Also over the last 20 years they have won at least 10 games 15 times and their only season they didn’t win at least 8 was this season. Yeah I’d say that’s pretty much dominant on the national scene when it comes to a HS recruit’s point of view. We are touting we are back after one double digit win total, but that’s pretty much all OU has done the last 20 years.

The bulk of Texas’ QBs over the years have come from their own state. You have to go all the way back to 2018 to find where they had two 4 star QB recruits from out of state come in together. Sure they landed Arch this year, but Murphy the previous year was outside the top 100. Also they have alternated between 3 stars and a higher ranked QB every other year. We don’t have instate talent like that.

The O will sell itself, but Heup has to prove last year wasn’t a flash in the pan record wise. You don’t wash away 20 years of futility in 12 games.
 
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