'20 TN DE Jay Hardy (Auburn commit)

That whole article doesn’t make any sense. Kid been on campus how many times? Yet he claims not much of a relationship with coaches outside of Pruitt? This staff group recruits everyone. Doesn’t add up. Sounds like just making **** up outside of Rocker stuff
I thought the same. Also, him saying the part about not being close or really knowing the upper classmen seemed odd. If he visited here so many times and Auburn one time how did he get a great relationship with the upper classmen in that one visit? (Considering he didn't really have a chance to build a relationship with them in a weekend).
 
Props to the job Rocker has done with the DL this season, but it seems like he wants to spend more time with his son and be more involved with the kid's baseball career.

That's fine. Is it too much to ask that we replace him with an excellent player developer who is also hungry on the recruiting trail?

This is an arms race...the SEC. I agree with you about hiring recruiters. Personally, outside of the coordinators, I think every candidate we consider for a position should be an excellent recruiter. If they don't recruit, I'd not even interview them.
 
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Props to the job Rocker has done with the DL this season, but it seems like he wants to spend more time with his son and be more involved with the kid's baseball career.

That's fine. Is it too much to ask that we replace him with an excellent player developer who is also hungry on the recruiting trail?
Just for posterity, I was curious so I looked it up. According to 247 Rocker this year has been:

Lead on
Dom Bailey

Secondary on
Tyler Baron
Jimmy Callaway
Omari Thomas
Reginald Perry

Last year

Lead on
Savion
Darel Middleton

Secondary on
Elijah Simmons

I definitely think there's room for improvement there, but it's not like he's doing nothing. And I think his ability to develop players offsets some of this. But that's 8 really good players he's helped recruit here the last 2 years. He does seem to do better as the support recruiter and not the lead though. I also think he is going to retire anyway so we will probably try to get a better recruiter in there. But man I hate losing a guy who is that good at developing players.
 
Just for posterity, I was curious so I looked it up. According to 247 Rocker this year has been:

Lead on
Dom Bailey

Secondary on
Tyler Baron
Jimmy Callaway
Omari Thomas
Reginald Perry

Last year

Lead on
Savion
Darel Middleton

Secondary on
Elijah Simmons

I definitely think there's room for improvement there, but it's not like he's doing nothing. And I think his ability to develop players offsets some of this. But that's 8 really good players he's helped recruit here the last 2 years. He does seem to do better as the support recruiter and not the lead though. I also think he is going to retire anyway so we will probably try to get a better recruiter in there. But man I hate losing a guy who is that good at developing players.
If Pruitt thinks there's room for improvement, I'll roll with that.
 
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If Pruitt thinks there's room for improvement, I'll roll with that.
I agree. I wasn't trying to defend him. I was really just curious so I looked it up. I also don't know if it will be Pruitt pushing him out. It seems to me like he's just ready to retire. So Pruitt may have to replace him. And I'm sure we can upgrade there. Just may not get as good of a developer.
 
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AP on swain talking about JH this morning....basically, broke it down like this.....JH has been to TN 15 times, and Auburn 3. if there's relationship issues, at some point, isn't this a two way street? said JH isn't a big phone person, so if he doesn't talk to the coaches when they call, is that necessarily a TN issue?

he said if it was him, at least 1 day a week for the remainder of the open period, every defensive coach as a group would make the trip down to see Hardy. there's only 2-3 guys we're really targeting with DB and JH being the top two. and Hardy #1. and there would be no doubt that he was a priority....

said we'll know if there's really traction here by the 25th. how many visits down do we make, pruitt's in home and whether or not JH makes it back up....says he wants better relationships with current players and more staff members, well, to do that, he's likely gonna have to come back up.....maybe more than once, or stay for a whole weekend, not just up and back for a game.

anyway....he said either this is a heckuva troll job by Hardy or he's really looking for a reason to come to TN.....i think AP believes he wants to come to TN, just needs reasons to pull the trigger. our job is to make sure we give him reason at this point. otherwise, he would have signed w/Auburn already.
 
AP on swain talking about JH this morning....basically, broke it down like this.....JH has been to TN 15 times, and Auburn 3. if there's relationship issues, at some point, isn't this a two way street? said JH isn't a big phone person, so if he doesn't talk to the coaches when they call, is that necessarily a TN issue?

he said if it was him, at least 1 day a week for the remainder of the open period, every defensive coach as a group would make the trip down to see Hardy. there's only 2-3 guys we're really targeting with DB and JH being the top two. and Hardy #1. and there would be no doubt that he was a priority....

said we'll know if there's really traction here by the 25th. how many visits down do we make, pruitt's in home and whether or not JH makes it back up....says he wants better relationships with current players and more staff members, well, to do that, he's likely gonna have to come back up.....maybe more than once, or stay for a whole weekend, not just up and back for a game.

anyway....he said either this is a heckuva troll job by Hardy or he's really looking for a reason to come to TN.....i think AP believes he wants to come to TN, just needs reasons to pull the trigger. our job is to make sure we give him reason at this point. otherwise, he would have signed w/Auburn already.
aw lawd.
 
AP on swain talking about JH this morning....basically, broke it down like this.....JH has been to TN 15 times, and Auburn 3. if there's relationship issues, at some point, isn't this a two way street? said JH isn't a big phone person, so if he doesn't talk to the coaches when they call, is that necessarily a TN issue?

he said if it was him, at least 1 day a week for the remainder of the open period, every defensive coach as a group would make the trip down to see Hardy. there's only 2-3 guys we're really targeting with DB and JH being the top two. and Hardy #1. and there would be no doubt that he was a priority....

said we'll know if there's really traction here by the 25th. how many visits down do we make, pruitt's in home and whether or not JH makes it back up....says he wants better relationships with current players and more staff members, well, to do that, he's likely gonna have to come back up.....maybe more than once, or stay for a whole weekend, not just up and back for a game.

anyway....he said either this is a heckuva troll job by Hardy or he's really looking for a reason to come to TN.....i think AP believes he wants to come to TN, just needs reasons to pull the trigger. our job is to make sure we give him reason at this point. otherwise, he would have signed w/Auburn already.

I will be happy when we sign him, but he is an exhausting person.
 
AP on swain talking about JH this morning....basically, broke it down like this.....JH has been to TN 15 times, and Auburn 3. if there's relationship issues, at some point, isn't this a two way street? said JH isn't a big phone person, so if he doesn't talk to the coaches when they call, is that necessarily a TN issue?

he said if it was him, at least 1 day a week for the remainder of the open period, every defensive coach as a group would make the trip down to see Hardy. there's only 2-3 guys we're really targeting with DB and JH being the top two. and Hardy #1. and there would be no doubt that he was a priority....

said we'll know if there's really traction here by the 25th. how many visits down do we make, pruitt's in home and whether or not JH makes it back up....says he wants better relationships with current players and more staff members, well, to do that, he's likely gonna have to come back up.....maybe more than once, or stay for a whole weekend, not just up and back for a game.

anyway....he said either this is a heckuva troll job by Hardy or he's really looking for a reason to come to TN.....i think AP believes he wants to come to TN, just needs reasons to pull the trigger. our job is to make sure we give him reason at this point. otherwise, he would have signed w/Auburn already.
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.he said either this is a heckuva troll job by Hardy or he's really looking for a reason to come to TN
The way things are going right now, him being committed to auburn seems like the troll job. Like he's been trolling auburn the whole time and always planned to commit to Tennessee. I mean 15 visits to 3 is a bit one sided.
 
The way things are going right now, him being committed to auburn seems like the troll job. Like he's been trolling auburn the whole time and always planned to commit to Tennessee. I mean 15 visits to 3 is a bit one sided.
yeah, that's what stood out to me. and you could tell by AP's tone....he was like "really?"....lol. (his tone doesn't really get reflected in my post, so i can see why some might take that on face value as not great news...but anyone that heard it knows what i'm talking about)

that, and if Hardy wasn't going to give TN a real shot, and was really "all in", he would have signed. AP asked him why he didn't and Hardy said he had basketball.....lol

AP was like, dude.....you can do that from anywhere in the world.........................

the door is definitely open.
 
Props to the job Rocker has done with the DL this season, but it seems like he wants to spend more time with his son and be more involved with the kid's baseball career.

That's fine. Is it too much to ask that we replace him with an excellent player developer who is also hungry on the recruiting trail?

Rocker should watch his son and nothing else. All he can do getting more involved at this point is screw things up.
 
I would be hesitant to criticize Rocker based solely off Hardy’s comments.

Don’t believe anyone is. Rocker recruiting criticism comes from history of this things and underachieving in recruiting. Zero doubt he is big time coach. Just doesn’t want to do the recruiting. Was his problem at UGA too. Once on campus though kids love him. It’s a fine line but I think him likely not being on staff next yr is legit but more for personal reasons than performance. I don’t blame him one bit for wanting to watch his son be a special athlete because you only get this once. I think it hurt him to miss that no-no. Now he doesn’t want to miss the next steps
 
Just for posterity, I was curious so I looked it up. According to 247 Rocker this year has been:

Lead on
Dom Bailey

Secondary on
Tyler Baron
Jimmy Callaway
Omari Thomas
Reginald Perry

Last year

Lead on
Savion
Darel Middleton

Secondary on
Elijah Simmons

I definitely think there's room for improvement there, but it's not like he's doing nothing. And I think his ability to develop players offsets some of this. But that's 8 really good players he's helped recruit here the last 2 years. He does seem to do better as the support recruiter and not the lead though. I also think he is going to retire anyway so we will probably try to get a better recruiter in there. But man I hate losing a guy who is that good at developing players.

I think Pruitt was perfectly aware of who Rocker was when he hired him. Not an ace on the trail, not as bad as being made out here. His score is in the respectable category.

Thinking back to all the talk of our new DL this season and with Gooden out, we probably wouldn't make a bowl..

Eh, if he retires, I trust Pruitt to make a good hire. Even tho I don't think it works like people here type it out. "Get rid of him and just go get one of the best in the country from one of the biggest programs, just like that"

If he doesn't retire, then DL will continue to be one of my least concerns and I'm good with that.
 
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