Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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#137,026
#137,026
Ron Swanson said:
Reading a 247 article on Clemsons visitor list for their spring game this weekend is pissing me off. It really sucks that UT fell so hard and CU took our spot in the last decade in the CFB world. They might sign the #1 class in 2020 with at least 3 or 4 5stars, maybe more. They're going to get some big time commitments this weekend. QB DJU, DT Breese, CB Fred Davis, RB Demarkcus Bowman, DE Jordan Burch, DE Myles Murphy, are all 5 stars visiting there this weekend and most are leans to Clemson and a few could commit this weekend, DJU and Davis commitments are expected.
Click to expand...
Yup based on crystal balls they are pulling in serious talent this cycle.
 
#137,028
#137,028
I think it was my sophomore year in high school, 1972. I was sitting at breakfast early one Spring Saturday morning and Dad came down from upstairs. Apparently, he and Mom had had breakfast earlier. He told me I needed to get a move on if we were going to get to the game on time. I told him that I had plans to meet our freshman basketball coach and a group of friends at my former school because we were planning to play basketball this morning. Dad asked me who did I check with before I made those plans. I said I figured it was a good thing because this is a Christian school, a Christian coach, and these guys are all great guys. He repeated, who did you check with before you made plans? I mumbled out nobody.

Dad went on to tell me that he had press box seats for the Orange and White game in Knoxville and we had to get there a couple hours early in order to take advantage of the access. I informed him again that I would prefer to meetup with my friends and play basketball. He told me I could go with him to the game in Knoxville or I could stay at home and mow the grass. I still can’t remember why I didn’t just choose to stay home and mow the grass; I was going to have to mow it eventually anyways, but he had won so I got ready and we headed to Knoxville.

We headed up Hwy 27 and I still don’t have a clue why we didn’t take I-75 but just as we were coming into Dayton I saw a VW Bug a few hundred yards in front of us coming our way in the other lane. The bugs left blinker was on and in a flash, I had this premonition that we were about to wreck. Sure enough the bug turned across our lane toward I think a car wash on our side of the highway. Dad swerved to the right but not far enough and the left front of our car (1972 Ford Capri) slammed into the right front of the bug. The force of the impact bounced the cars around so that the back ends of the two cars crash into each other and then we just sat there.

My head had left a bubble in the windshield but i didn’t feel any pain. (This was in the days before air bags and seat belt laws). Dad asked me if I was okay. I was pretty stoic in my response but I said I was fine. He repeated the question and I repeated the answer. I think stoic is the right word because I was expressionless. I was caught up in my mind thinking about the premonition. I’ve since learned that there are no such things as premonitions, just that sometimes things of a traumatic nature can cause your brain to reorder a sequence of events, or so I am told. But in that moment as a 16 year old boy I was on the edge of the twilight zone.

We got the cars off the road; both were totaled. The police filled out the accident reports and Dad called one of my college-age brothers to come get us. When we got home, Mom spent some time picking the glass flakes out of my forehead and had me drink a glass of orange juice. Meanwhile Dad had gone upstairs because in the crash his knee had rammed into the ignition key and gotten bloodied. He wanted to clean up and change his pants. I’m thinking as soon as Mom is done here I’m headed to the gym to meetup with my friends.

Pretty soon Dad came back downstairs and asked me if I was ready to go. I looked at him with a stunned expression and exclaimed, “What?!?”

He said we would get there too late to use the press passes but we still had time to make the game. We would just take Mom’s car. This is that moment where a 16-year old boy lets out the most exaggerated shrug and sigh of frustration that he’ll ever be able to muster in his entire life. Trust me, it was genuine. I don’t think I could ever pull that one off again.

Mom’s car was a Lincoln Continental. It was a tank. I was very much the disgruntled teenager. This time I had my seatbelt on and I had moved the seat forward so I could prop my knees on the dash. I wanted it known that I was taking no more chances. Later than night when we were on our way back home I swear he had that tank rolling. I promise he didn’t even slow down for the red lights in the small towns we had to pass through. I just kept my eyes on the road. I never once pointed out that he was not only driving dangerously but he was also breaking the freaking law. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was paying attention.

I don’t remember really anything about the game. The stadium was sparsely populated. It was sunny out and no one was really sitting all that close to us and we had great seats, around mid-field in the lower level about half-way up I think. I’ve been to a lot of spring games over the years. I was there for Peyton’s first spring game but of all the spring games I’ve ever attended, if I could relive just one, it would be that 1972 spring game with Dad. So guys if you have a reluctant teenager that you’re planning to bring to the game this year, trust me when I say, there may come a day, even possibly after you are long gone, that they’ll be thanking you for it.

 
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#137,029
#137,029
Ron Swanson said:
Well, he’s the number one player in the country on 247 and number six player overall on rivals. And he has an offer sheet loaded with the best college football programs in America so he’s definitely impressing some folks.
Click to expand...
Just from looking at his tape, it is unimpressive to me, especially for the "#1" rated player in the country. No one blocked him....not like he was blowing up blocks or no one could block him. Literally, no one was blocking him. The services had Matt Elam as a 5 Star too.
 
#137,030
#137,030
ChattaTNVol said:
I think it was my sophomore year in high school, 1972. I was sitting at breakfast early one Spring Saturday morning and Dad came down from upstairs. Apparently, he and Mom had had breakfast earlier. He told me I needed to get a move on if we were going to get to the game on time. I told him that I had plans to meet our freshman basketball coach and a group of friends at my former school because we were planning to play basketball this morning. Dad asked me who did I check with before I made those plans. I said I figured it was a good thing because this is a Christian school, a Christian coach, and these guys are all great guys. He repeated, who did you check with before you made plans? I mumbled out nobody.

Dad went on to tell me that he had press box seats for the Orange and White game in Knoxville and we had to get there a couple hours early in order to take advantage of the access. I informed him again that I would prefer to meetup with my friends and play basketball. He told me I could go with him to the game in Knoxville or I could stay at home and mow the grass. I still can’t remember why I didn’t just choose to stay home and mow the grass; I was going to have to mow it eventually anyways, but he had won so I got ready and we headed to Knoxville.

We headed up Hwy 27 and I still don’t have a clue why we didn’t take I-75 but just as we were coming into Dayton I saw a VW Bug a few hundred yards in front of us coming our way in the other lane. The bugs left blinker was on and in a flash, I had this premonition that we were about to wreck. Sure enough the bug turned across our lane toward I think a car wash on our side of the highway. Dad swerved to the right but not far enough and the left front of our car (1972 Ford Capri) slammed into the right front of the bug. The force of the impact bounced the cars around so that the back ends of the two cars crash into each other and then we just sat there.

My head had left a bubble in the windshield but i didn’t feel any pain. (This was in the days before air bags and seat belt laws). Dad asked me if I was okay. I was pretty stoic in my response but I said I was fine. He repeated the question and I repeated the answer. I think stoic is the right word because I was expressionless. I was caught up in my mind thinking about the premonition. I’ve since learned that there are no such things as premonitions, just that sometimes things of a traumatic nature can cause your brain to reorder a sequence of events, or so I am told. But in that moment as a 16 year old boy I was on the edge of the twilight zone.

We got the cars off the road; both were totaled. The police filled out the accident reports and Dad called one of my college-age brothers to come get us. When we got home, Mom spent some time picking the glass flakes out of my forehead and had me drink a glass of orange juice. Meanwhile Dad had gone upstairs because in the crash his knee had rammed into the ignition key and gotten bloodied. He wanted to clean up and change his pants. I’m thinking as soon as Mom is done here I’m headed to the gym to meetup with my friends.

Pretty soon Dad came back downstairs and asked me if I was ready to go. I looked at him with a stunned expression and exclaimed, “What?!?”

He said we would get there too late to use the press passes but we still had time to make the game. We would just take Mom’s car. This is that moment where a 16-year old boy lets out the most exaggerated shrug and sigh of frustration that he’ll ever be able to muster in his entire life. Trust me, it was genuine. I don’t think I could ever pull that one off again.

Mom’s car was a Lincoln Continental. It was a tank. I was very much the disgruntled teenager. This time I had my seatbelt on and I had moved the seat forward so I could prop my knees on the dash. I wanted it known that I was taking no more chances. Later than night when we were on our way back home I swear he had that tank rolling. I promise he didn’t even slow down for the red lights in the small towns we had to pass through. I just kept my eyes on the road. I never once pointed out that he was not only driving dangerously but he was also breaking the freaking law. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was paying attention.

I don’t remember really anything about the game. The stadium was sparsely populated. It was sunny out and no one was really sitting all that close to us and we had great seats, around mid-field in the lower level about half-way up I think. I’ve been to a lot of spring games over the years. I was there for Peyton’s first spring game but of all the spring games I’ve ever attended, if I could relive just one, it would be that 1972 spring game with Dad. So guys if you have a reluctant teenager that you’re planning to bring to the game this year, trust me when I say, there may come a day, even possibly after you are long gone, that they’ll be thanking you for it.

Click to expand...

Terrific story. Thank you.
 
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#137,031
#137,031
ChattaTNVol said:
I think it was my sophomore year in high school, 1972. I was sitting at breakfast early one Spring Saturday morning and Dad came down from upstairs. Apparently, he and Mom had had breakfast earlier. He told me I needed to get a move on if we were going to get to the game on time. I told him that I had plans to meet our freshman basketball coach and a group of friends at my former school because we were planning to play basketball this morning. Dad asked me who did I check with before I made those plans. I said I figured it was a good thing because this is a Christian school, a Christian coach, and these guys are all great guys. He repeated, who did you check with before you made plans? I mumbled out nobody.

Dad went on to tell me that he had press box seats for the Orange and White game in Knoxville and we had to get there a couple hours early in order to take advantage of the access. I informed him again that I would prefer to meetup with my friends and play basketball. He told me I could go with him to the game in Knoxville or I could stay at home and mow the grass. I still can’t remember why I didn’t just choose to stay home and mow the grass; I was going to have to mow it eventually anyways, but he had won so I got ready and we headed to Knoxville.

We headed up Hwy 27 and I still don’t have a clue why we didn’t take I-75 but just as we were coming into Dayton I saw a VW Bug a few hundred yards in front of us coming our way in the other lane. The bugs left blinker was on and in a flash, I had this premonition that we were about to wreck. Sure enough the bug turned across our lane toward I think a car wash on our side of the highway. Dad swerved to the right but not far enough and the left front of our car (1972 Ford Capri) slammed into the right front of the bug. The force of the impact bounced the cars around so that the back ends of the two cars crash into each other and then we just sat there.

My head had left a bubble in the windshield but i didn’t feel any pain. (This was in the days before air bags and seat belt laws). Dad asked me if I was okay. I was pretty stoic in my response but I said I was fine. He repeated the question and I repeated the answer. I think stoic is the right word because I was expressionless. I was caught up in my mind thinking about the premonition. I’ve since learned that there are no such things as premonitions, just that sometimes things of a traumatic nature can cause your brain to reorder a sequence of events, or so I am told. But in that moment as a 16 year old boy I was on the edge of the twilight zone.

We got the cars off the road; both were totaled. The police filled out the accident reports and Dad called one of my college-age brothers to come get us. When we got home, Mom spent some time picking the glass flakes out of my forehead and had me drink a glass of orange juice. Meanwhile Dad had gone upstairs because in the crash his knee had rammed into the ignition key and gotten bloodied. He wanted to clean up and change his pants. I’m thinking as soon as Mom is done here I’m headed to the gym to meetup with my friends.

Pretty soon Dad came back downstairs and asked me if I was ready to go. I looked at him with a stunned expression and exclaimed, “What?!?”

He said we would get there too late to use the press passes but we still had time to make the game. We would just take Mom’s car. This is that moment where a 16-year old boy lets out the most exaggerated shrug and sigh of frustration that he’ll ever be able to muster in his entire life. Trust me, it was genuine. I don’t think I could ever pull that one off again.

Mom’s car was a Lincoln Continental. It was a tank. I was very much the disgruntled teenager. This time I had my seatbelt on and I had moved the seat forward so I could prop my knees on the dash. I wanted it known that I was taking no more chances. Later than night when we were on our way back home I swear he had that tank rolling. I promise he didn’t even slow down for the red lights in the small towns we had to pass through. I just kept my eyes on the road. I never once pointed out that he was not only driving dangerously but he was also breaking the freaking law. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was paying attention.

I don’t remember really anything about the game. The stadium was sparsely populated. It was sunny out and no one was really sitting all that close to us and we had great seats, around mid-field in the lower level about half-way up I think. I’ve been to a lot of spring games over the years. I was there for Peyton’s first spring game but of all the spring games I’ve ever attended, if I could relive just one, it would be that 1972 spring game with Dad. So guys if you have a reluctant teenager that you’re planning to bring to the game this year, trust me when I say, there may come a day, even possibly after you are long gone, that they’ll be thanking you for it.

Click to expand...

Wow brother, brought a tear to my eye. Thanks for this wonderful story. Sounds like your dad was a special man. We were planning to take my 8 and 6 yo to the spring game (been to the last two and wanting to make it a tradition) but my wife has to work. Maybe just us boys will make it this year.
 
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#137,032
#137,032
Ron Swanson said:
I don't follow womens bb but his bio looks to be pretty good. And from comments Ive seen on VQ, folks would like the hire. He's 61 so not too old.

https://gopack.com/staff.aspx?staff=17
Click to expand...

Yeah I haven't followed it since Pat so it has been a while. Would like to see them get back to their winning ways and being a dominant force again. May be better to go for more younger blood, but I'm clueless as to who would take this job right now. You'd think UT would still be a highly sought-after position.
 
#137,033
#137,033
titansvolsfaninga said:
Just from looking at his tape, it is unimpressive to me, especially for the "#1" rated player in the country. No one blocked him....not like he was blowing up blocks or no one could block him. Literally, no one was blocking him. The services had Matt Elam as a 5 Star too.
Click to expand...

And Elam was first team all American and a first round draft pick so they were right
 
#137,034
#137,034
Ron Swanson said:
Reading a 247 article on Clemsons visitor list for their spring game this weekend is pissing me off. It really sucks that UT fell so hard and CU took our spot in the last decade in the CFB world. They might sign the #1 class in 2020 with at least 3 or 4 5stars, maybe more. They're going to get some big time commitments this weekend. QB DJU, DT Breese, CB Fred Davis, RB Demarkcus Bowman, DE Jordan Burch, DE Myles Murphy, are all 5 stars visiting there this weekend and most are leans to Clemson and a few could commit this weekend, DJU and Davis commitments are expected.
Click to expand...

We will be right there with them as soon as we breakthrough. It took Dabo a few years to get them to contender status and a couple more to get to elite level.

Their success actually makes me hopeful because they managed it when they were second fiddle in their conference and even their own state for a while.
 
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#137,037
#137,037
zhangliao04 said:
Yeah I haven't followed it since Pat so it has been a while. Would like to see them get back to their winning ways and being a dominant force again. May be better to go for more younger blood, but I'm clueless as to who would take this job right now. You'd think UT would still be a highly sought-after position.
Click to expand...

A bit on the older side, for sure. Much better win-loss record than Jolly Harper though. Hopefully there are more candidates out there, like you, I would think people would be lined up for this gig.
 
#137,041
#137,041
I still don’t think we need to put a win total on Pruitt this year. Just keep grinding and building with what he’s got. Clemson was patient with Dabo.

Tennessee is a place that does well when there is stability. You can’t waltz in here and win big early otherwise we would have seen it happen already. Florida, Michigan, Texas, Texas A&M etc have all had false positives with coaches coming in, recruiting big and winning early only to fizzle out later. Seems Tennessee is a place you have to slowly build. Perhaps it’s part of who we are or maybe we just fell so far that’s what it takes. But I’m convinced we need to take the 6 to 7 year view with coaches...
 
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#137,043
#137,043
vol2002 said:
I still don’t think we need to put a win total on Pruitt this year. Just keep grinding and building with what he’s got. Clemson was patient with Dabo.

Tennessee is a place that does well when there is stability. You can’t waltz in here and win big early otherwise we would have seen it happen already. Florida, Michigan, Texas, Texas A&M etc have all had false positives with coaches coming in, recruiting big and winning early only to fizzle out later. Seems Tennessee is a place you have to slowly build. Perhaps it’s part of who we are or maybe we just fell so far that’s what it takes. But I’m convinced we need to take the 6 to 7 year view with coaches...
Click to expand...

I agree with this on an academic, mindful kind of plane.

But if we go 6-6, 6-7, or 5-7, I'm not going to be able to contain my disappointment. I'll still stand by CJP, but I'll be salty af.
 
#137,044
#137,044
Aesius said:
We will be right there with them as soon as we breakthrough. It took Dabo a few years to get them to contender status and a couple more to get to elite level.

Their success actually makes me hopeful because they managed it when they were second fiddle in their conference and even their own state for a while.
Click to expand...
i think the biggest difference between us right now and Clemson 10 years ago (and this is what makes them more comparable to what we were 25 years ago...) is that the conference just wasn't that strong. FSU was perennial contender in the ACC, and Clemson becaome the challenger and eventually overtaker. with us, right now, we're really deep at the top with Bama and GA more than nationally relevant and Auburn, FL, LSU all right there as well.

25 years ago, it was TN and FL in the SEC.....and those two schools ruled it, with FL taking top dog most of the time. had there been a play off back then, we'd of probably made it in 95, 98, 99, 01 for sure. maybe 96? anyway, you get the idea.

Clemson definitely replaced us nationally....

i'm not so sure our path to that is all that clean cut......lot harder now than it was back then in the conference, much less nationally....we're not the 2nd fiddle program in the SEC like Clemson was 10 years ago.
 
#137,046
#137,046
vol2002 said:
I still don’t think we need to put a win total on Pruitt this year. Just keep grinding and building with what he’s got. Clemson was patient with Dabo.

Tennessee is a place that does well when there is stability. You can’t waltz in here and win big early otherwise we would have seen it happen already. Florida, Michigan, Texas, Texas A&M etc have all had false positives with coaches coming in, recruiting big and winning early only to fizzle out later. Seems Tennessee is a place you have to slowly build. Perhaps it’s part of who we are or maybe we just fell so far that’s what it takes. But I’m convinced we need to take the 6 to 7 year view with coaches...
Click to expand...
Really were itching to post this after a few months, weren’t you?
 
#137,047
#137,047
UT isn't a place programs have to build slowly; it's a place where coaches have built slowly. UT can recruit the right players and develop them as quickly as any other school with comparable resources. UT fans have invested a lot of time and effort insisting that it's harder to recruit to UT and people should give coaches all the time they need to learn OTJ.
 
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#137,048
#137,048
LA Vol said:
UT isn't a place programs have to build slowly; it's a place where coaches have built slowly. UT can recruit the right players and develop them as quickly as any other school with comparable resources. UT fans have invested a lot of time and effort insisting that it's harder to recruit to UT and people should give coaches all the time they need to learn OTJ.
Click to expand...
BUT CLEMSON...DABO!!!!!!!!1
 
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#137,050
#137,050
ChattaTNVol said:
I think it was my sophomore year in high school, 1972. I was sitting at breakfast early one Spring Saturday morning and Dad came down from upstairs. Apparently, he and Mom had had breakfast earlier. He told me I needed to get a move on if we were going to get to the game on time. I told him that I had plans to meet our freshman basketball coach and a group of friends at my former school because we were planning to play basketball this morning. Dad asked me who did I check with before I made those plans. I said I figured it was a good thing because this is a Christian school, a Christian coach, and these guys are all great guys. He repeated, who did you check with before you made plans? I mumbled out nobody.

Dad went on to tell me that he had press box seats for the Orange and White game in Knoxville and we had to get there a couple hours early in order to take advantage of the access. I informed him again that I would prefer to meetup with my friends and play basketball. He told me I could go with him to the game in Knoxville or I could stay at home and mow the grass. I still can’t remember why I didn’t just choose to stay home and mow the grass; I was going to have to mow it eventually anyways, but he had won so I got ready and we headed to Knoxville.

We headed up Hwy 27 and I still don’t have a clue why we didn’t take I-75 but just as we were coming into Dayton I saw a VW Bug a few hundred yards in front of us coming our way in the other lane. The bugs left blinker was on and in a flash, I had this premonition that we were about to wreck. Sure enough the bug turned across our lane toward I think a car wash on our side of the highway. Dad swerved to the right but not far enough and the left front of our car (1972 Ford Capri) slammed into the right front of the bug. The force of the impact bounced the cars around so that the back ends of the two cars crash into each other and then we just sat there.

My head had left a bubble in the windshield but i didn’t feel any pain. (This was in the days before air bags and seat belt laws). Dad asked me if I was okay. I was pretty stoic in my response but I said I was fine. He repeated the question and I repeated the answer. I think stoic is the right word because I was expressionless. I was caught up in my mind thinking about the premonition. I’ve since learned that there are no such things as premonitions, just that sometimes things of a traumatic nature can cause your brain to reorder a sequence of events, or so I am told. But in that moment as a 16 year old boy I was on the edge of the twilight zone.

We got the cars off the road; both were totaled. The police filled out the accident reports and Dad called one of my college-age brothers to come get us. When we got home, Mom spent some time picking the glass flakes out of my forehead and had me drink a glass of orange juice. Meanwhile Dad had gone upstairs because in the crash his knee had rammed into the ignition key and gotten bloodied. He wanted to clean up and change his pants. I’m thinking as soon as Mom is done here I’m headed to the gym to meetup with my friends.

Pretty soon Dad came back downstairs and asked me if I was ready to go. I looked at him with a stunned expression and exclaimed, “What?!?”

He said we would get there too late to use the press passes but we still had time to make the game. We would just take Mom’s car. This is that moment where a 16-year old boy lets out the most exaggerated shrug and sigh of frustration that he’ll ever be able to muster in his entire life. Trust me, it was genuine. I don’t think I could ever pull that one off again.

Mom’s car was a Lincoln Continental. It was a tank. I was very much the disgruntled teenager. This time I had my seatbelt on and I had moved the seat forward so I could prop my knees on the dash. I wanted it known that I was taking no more chances. Later than night when we were on our way back home I swear he had that tank rolling. I promise he didn’t even slow down for the red lights in the small towns we had to pass through. I just kept my eyes on the road. I never once pointed out that he was not only driving dangerously but he was also breaking the freaking law. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was paying attention.

I don’t remember really anything about the game. The stadium was sparsely populated. It was sunny out and no one was really sitting all that close to us and we had great seats, around mid-field in the lower level about half-way up I think. I’ve been to a lot of spring games over the years. I was there for Peyton’s first spring game but of all the spring games I’ve ever attended, if I could relive just one, it would be that 1972 spring game with Dad. So guys if you have a reluctant teenager that you’re planning to bring to the game this year, trust me when I say, there may come a day, even possibly after you are long gone, that they’ll be thanking you for it.

Click to expand...

I almost passed up this post because of the length but then I saw who wrote it. So glad I read it. I was raised by my dad and we had a special relationship, and the Big Orange (or should I say attending and watching games) was a large part of it. Thanks for bringing back great memories of him.
 
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