True Freshmen

#27
#27
Why even look at high school kids anymore? Id just buy upperclassmen that have film in college. Isn't that what Miami and Indiania did?
No; Miami took 3 more recruits than TN, and Indiana took 5 less.

What both did more of was portal out/in transfers. Those programs may be urging more guys to consider other opportunities, and therefore have larger wash cycles each portal period. There are notable programs who crashed/burned doing what you suggest.

As much as fans would like to drum up an easy rationale so they can think themselves smarter than coaches running the programs, there is no singular way to do this.
 
#30
#30
Faizon, Joel Wyatt, Luka wolf the tight end, Blair and Osenda at OT. All the backup db spots can likely be overtaken by a freshmen. Farooq, Walton, Poteet, Merritt and a nickel back. And some freshmen on the d line can break into the rotation
Possibly, no, absolutely not, no, and no.

Rouse would be most likely, but Carter returning would throw a wrench in that. Keys will play, though Jackson probably takes the 3rd starting WR spot. Combay could play as a backup, IMO. Maybe Theodore.
 
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#34
#34
No; Miami took 3 more recruits than TN, and Indiana took 5 less.

What both did more of was portal out/in transfers. Those programs may be urging more guys to consider other opportunities, and therefore have larger wash cycles each portal period. There are notable programs who crashed/burned doing what you suggest.

As much as fans would like to drum up an easy rationale so they can think themselves smarter than coaches running the programs, there is no singular way to do this.
16 of the 22 starters for Indiana were bought by Mark Cuban. Recruits aside, the ones making the plays this year for both Miami and Indiania were bought from the portal.

I didn't think anyone is trying to outsmart coaches, it's just opinions imo, sounds like something you like to say to fit your narrative.
 
#36
#36
16 of the 22 starters for Indiana were bought by Mark Cuban. Recruits aside, the ones making the plays this year for both Miami and Indiania were bought from the portal.

I didn't think anyone is trying to outsmart coaches, it's just opinions imo, sounds like something you like to say to fit your narrative.
I replied specifically to the suggestion that we not recruit HS at all and that some programs have done it that way; to date no one has, including playoff teams. I consider the guys Cignetti brought from JMU as his recruits, not unassociated portal transfers he had to make acquaintance with as coach of Indiana. Of course he gets enormous credit for recruiting and developing them in the first place, and what he's done is singular among playoff teams.

Whether he can keep lightning in the bottle remains to be seen. I'm not saying he can or can't. But TN doesn't recruit a statistically greater number of players than playoff teams generally. We recruit similarly to Bama and GA - and other playoff teams - but have not had the recruiting class talent level they get; this year we did. I think it's prudent to question Heupel's consistency, across the board, of evaluating and developing talent or putting the right guys in place to do it. Alluding to that, I stated other playoff programs have more turnover in the portal, aside from recruiting at similar levels to TN.

That's my narrative. And replying to the umpteenth assertion that we abandon recruiting or that it's a proven recipe for success, by stating actual numbers. As the guys on Sport Source stated, we don't have a Mark Cuban. Louisiana, for example, is one of the poorest states in the nation and yet their boosters kick our ass $618M to $500M in 2023, for example.
 
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