Question for some more seasoned Recruitniks' offseason histories

#1
tenmanjonez

tenmanjonez

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#1
I'm a fairly young guy of 19, so when I started getting hardcore into football, info was on the internet readily available easily. My question is for fans back in the early-mid 90's, even 80's.

How did you keep up with off-season recruiting. I realize it wasn't AS big of a thing, but it was still a huge part of it. Was it more of an in-state process, or was it as national as it is today?

Were the recruiting hotbeds the same back then, or did other states put out more talent a while back than they do now or vice versa?

Last question, and the root of this thread, how did you get your information during the off-season. How did you follow recruits and what was going on with the team? I realize the media was more involved with practices and a lot of the news probably came from the evening news and ESPN, but how did you keep up with the local team Tennessee's recruiting progress?

Thanks for the help, very interested to hear the answers.
 
#2
#2
tenmanjonez said:
I'm a fairly young guy of 19, so when I started getting hardcore into football, info was on the internet readily available easily. My question is for fans back in the early-mid 90's, even 80's.

How did you keep up with off-season recruiting. I realize it wasn't AS big of a thing, but it was still a huge part of it. Was it more of an in-state process, or was it as national as it is today?

Were the recruiting hotbeds the same back then, or did other states put out more talent a while back than they do now or vice versa?

Last question, and the root of this thread, how did you get your information during the off-season. How did you follow recruits and what was going on with the team? I realize the media was more involved with practices and a lot of the news probably came from the evening news and ESPN, but how did you keep up with the local team Tennessee's recruiting progress?

Thanks for the help, very interested to hear the answers.
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#3
#3
We were kept in the dark for the most part. Now on gamedays much like today, you knew where the coaches were bringing the recruits to sit so you could amp it up when they arrived. As for the recruiting hotbeds we owned North and South Carolina split Georgia and roster peppered all the way to Cali. When other teams in those states started to ascend is when Fulmer even had to work harder to recruit. And since he didnt turn it up a notch our hotbeds shrunk.
 
#4
#4
ESPN was maybe just a twinkle in someone's eye. Recruiting was not closely followed as it is now with the internet. Got it from the newspaper or word of mouth, if at all. I was too busy chasing ______ (fill in the blank), working and changing diapers to get too interested in recruiting. Just watched the games and let the recruiting chips fall where they may. I got mad when we lost on the field and couldn't care less about the star rankings (if they even existed then).
 
#8
#8
Hey golfballs that van looks like Uncle Ricos from Napoleon Dynamite. If only coach would have put him in the 4th quarter they would have won state and Majors would have given him a scolarship to Tennessee.
 
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#10
#10
DeepSpringsVol said:
We were kept in the dark for the most part. Now on gamedays much like today, you knew where the coaches were bringing the recruits to sit so you could amp it up when they arrived. As for the recruiting hotbeds we owned North and South Carolina split Georgia and roster peppered all the way to Cali. When other teams in those states started to ascend is when Fulmer even had to work harder to recruit. And since he didnt turn it up a notch our hotbeds shrunk.
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He worked like heck.:)
 
#11
#11
VolInsider was a great site for recruiting back in the late 90's. Then Border wars began coming on Sports South a little later. Coverage has since exploded, growing yearly.
 
#12
#12
DeepSpringsVol said:
We were kept in the dark for the most part. Now on gamedays much like today, you knew where the coaches were bringing the recruits to sit so you could amp it up when they arrived. As for the recruiting hotbeds we owned North and South Carolina split Georgia and roster peppered all the way to Cali. When other teams in those states started to ascend is when Fulmer even had to work harder to recruit. And since he didnt turn it up a notch our hotbeds shrunk.
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Yeah. That's it. We should have turned it up a notch. Quite funny. Fulmer turned it up a notch in starting in 94. You make it seem like it was some sort of easy thing to dominate another states recruits forever. Internet football geniuses. They are the best.
 
#13
#13
I remember the main source was people like Tom Lemming, Emfinger(sp?), Parade AA Team and a few others back in the 80s and 90s. Recruiting would mainly consist of these "experts" revealing their rankings after national signing day and being quoted in several newspaper articles. It was hardly mentioned prior to that each year.
It all changed when these guys discovered they could start websites and charge a fee based service for "inside information and access". A lot of people now think/realize that these services are kind of a sham and more based on creating hype to drive subscriptions. The most popular schools get the highest rankings because the rankings are driven by which schools offer a recruit. However, there is some value to that system because it's good to know that other respected coaching staffs have evaluated a player and offered him. But many suspect that these sites today are a lot less about evaluating tape and a lot more based on some sort of a formula consisting of which schools offer. That's the majority of who is buying their subscriptions after all!

Tennessee has always recruited nationally. The same problems with lack of in state talent is nothing new. We have always gotten our fair share from the west coast, Carolinas, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and I even remember a nice little pipeline we had with some schools around Chicago at one time. Of course, at the time, we fans just knew this because of their hometowns being listed on the rosters.
Lastly, this JUCO thing is not a recent phenomenon either. In 1990 for example, we signed Dale Carter, Bernard Dafney(RIP), Chris Mims(RIP) as JUCOs. They all became stars and went on to successful NFL careers. We also signed Dave Thomas as a JUCO that year and he really struggled for playing time at Tennessee because we were so deep but he went on to have a long NFL career. Our DC at he time went to the cowboys and drafted him in the late rounds because he had recruited him, even though I think he never even started a game here. Those early 90s teams were some of my favorites!
 
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#14
#14
Forest davis is one of the first I remember in stores. My first season following was Leroy Thompson and either Todd or Shane Collins were the best prospects in tn. Usually you had to get the kns every day from dec to feb. they would have a small recruiting tidbit every three days or so. Davis mag came out around dec and was offered around 5 bucks in 1985, a lot of money for a mag at the time. Phil Steele came out around 93, the business of recruiting was really picking up steam by then.
 
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#15
#15
StoVol said:
Forest davis is one of the first I remember in stores. My first season following was Leroy Thompson and either Todd or Shane Collins were the best prospects in tn. Usually you had to get the kns every day from dec to feb. they would have a small recruiting tidbit every three days or so. Davis mag came out around dec and was offered around 5 bucks in 1985, a lot of money for a mag at the time. Phil Steele came out around 93, the business of recruiting was really picking up steam by then.
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Now that you mention it, I do remember those recruiting magazines getting really popular before the internet took over.
 
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#16
#16
PimpVol said:
Yeah. That's it. We should have turned it up a notch. Quite funny. Fulmer turned it up a notch in starting in 94. You make it seem like it was some sort of easy thing to dominate another states recruits forever. Internet football geniuses. They are the best.
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Just because he improved recruiting from his hire date to mid 90s did not mean he couldnt still work harder. Biggest room in the world is room for improvement. But I guess us internet geniuses are the only ones who can figure that out. Nobody was bashing Fulmer.
 
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#17
#17
When did Bill King have his 1-900-# for recruiting. I bet he made a fortune.
 
#19
#19
I didn't follow recruiting a lot, but TBS used to have a good recruiting show once a week I would watch in the 90's.
 
#20
#20
volroadwarrior said:
ESPN was maybe just a twinkle in someone's eye. Recruiting was not closely followed as it is now with the internet. Got it from the newspaper or word of mouth, if at all. I was too busy chasing ______ (fill in the blank), working and changing diapers to get too interested in recruiting. Just watched the games and let the recruiting chips fall where they may. I got mad when we lost on the field and couldn't care less about the star rankings (if they even existed then).
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Sounds like you caught some _______ if you were that busy changing diapers.
 
#21
#21
A lot less drama in the earlier decades. No stupid hats on the table. Drama queens didn't have the big stage. The few people who got excited were usually either ones associated with the recruit's HS or hometown. There was a lot less excitement and publicity at the colleges and university about who signed with them.
 
#24
#24
I also remembering when Mike Keith had the afternoon drive show in Knoxville. He always had the scoop.
 
#25
#25
DeepSpringsVol said:
Just because he improved revruiting from his hire date to mid 90s did not mean he couldnt still work harder. Biggest room in the world is room for improvement. But I guess us internet geniuses are the only ones who can figure that out. Nobody was bashing Fulmer.
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Guess you are right there. Everybody could always get better at everything all the time.
 
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