We Have Got To Improve Recruiting

#26
#26
Yoyoma said:
Recruiting is the obvious answer. The problem is the damn stupid rule the NCAA is going to pass that will allow teams to take up to an additional 7 players due to players leaving via the transfer portal. All that means is Smart, Saban, Dabo, et. al. will sign 32 from now on and continue to stockpile talent. Rich get richer.
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That rule is Heupel's best chance of rebuilding UT's roster fast enough to save his job. The obvious part is that he can use the good vibes coming out of the program to attract talented transfers.

The less obvious aspect is this- If those guys take transfers then a program in the state of UT can go after the HS players they leave behind offering immediate playing time and development.

Then... you have NIL. NIL will change things for a lot of programs. Some will get worse like the MS schools, Arkansas, UK, MU... Some will benefit... like UT. UT has a large, loyal, and rabid fan base. More so than even some schools that are winning. Eventually, kids are going to be influenced by how much fanbases support their NIL income.
 
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#27
#27
sjt18 said:
That rule is Heupel's best chance of rebuilding UT's roster fast enough to save his job. The obvious part is that he can use the good vibes coming out of the program to attract talented transfers.

The less obvious aspect is this- If those guys take transfers then a program in the state of UT can go after the HS players they leave behind offering immediate playing time and development.

Then... you have NIL. NIL will change things for a lot of programs. Some will get worse like the MS schools, Arkansas, UK, MU... Some will benefit... like UT. UT has a large, loyal, and rabid fan base. More so than even some schools that are winning. Eventually, kids are going to be influenced by how much fanbases support their NIL income.
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I made a point in another forum that portal players are potentially a safer bet than recruits. Every year there are recruits who don't pan out. It is simply part of the risk. But it seems to me that being able to watch the performance of the player in a live college game would be advantageous. It eliminates the inherent risk involved when a player moves from HS to college.

What's your take?
 
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#28
#28
Beat Mizzou beat Mizzou beat Mizzou

Get bowl eligible this year

Recruiting will be fine

Guys will want to play for these coaches with the style of play we have.
 
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#30
#30
1) Start winning the "winnable" games....missed a good opportunity vs Pitt. Got another one this week.
2) Start making some big plays when the opportunity presents itself. Heupel has drawn up enough highlight reel plays already this year only to have the players not do their part. Kids see big plays and want to do that. Big plays are here to be made.
3) Keep playing with purpose. Improvement comes when attitude is positive. Negatively does nothing good.
 
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#31
#31
For the past twenty years U.T. has gotten more than its share of really good athletes whose talents have been wasted. These 4 and 5 star players disappear into the black hole of Knoxville. Prospects have noticed that phenomena and the Vol's cupboard is damned near bare. The really good players, even those from Tennessee, are going to places like Bama and Clemson and even Kentucky.
 
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#32
#32
Unfortunately, Tennessee like all of the lower level schools will be looked at as a farm team for the apex schools to poach talent from. That’s where the transfer portal and NIL is taking college football.
 
#33
#33
McDad said:
I made a point in another forum that portal players are potentially a safer bet than recruits. Every year there are recruits who don't pan out. It is simply part of the risk. But it seems to me that being able to watch the performance of the player in a live college game would be advantageous. It eliminates the inherent risk involved when a player moves from HS to college.

What's your take?
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Absolutely agree. And that's true even if you end up with players with supposed lower ceilings than a 5* HS player. Give me 4 border line NFL guys over a 1 for 4 hit in HS blue chips every time.

The key will be learning to balance the players you recruit and coach up yourself and those you bring in.
 
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#34
#34
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
I watched the game with Florida two times.

I agree with others that we sorta beat ourselves with mistakes. I would like to add though we had no turnovers on that hostile environment. Rather commendable I think.

But to me the biggest reason the Vols lost was, simply and directly, Florida had better players, across the board, than we do. At almost all positions they had "Mo Better" athletes than us. We have some good players, but not as many than them.

Recruiting HAS to improve.
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Don't go to the recruiting forum...you will be very depressed.
 
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#35
#35
JBVolunteer said:
Unfortunately, Tennessee like all of the lower level schools will be looked at as a farm team for the apex schools to poach talent from. That’s where the transfer portal and NIL is taking college football.
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That is true except UT isn't a lower level school. Not even close. You are equating recent performance with the real power of a program's brand. UT has top facilities. It has a very large and loyal fan base. It has nationwide brand appeal... and White talked about this when he was introduced as if he knew it was coming.... He talked a lot about "brand".

Players who want to make money on NIL are going to go to schools with stadiums that hold 100K and brand appeal. UT is a winner in this unless they completely botch it.

The losers in the SEC will be states with small populations or fan appeal. Ole Miss and MSU split the population of a small state and do not have national appeal. Arkansas has the whole population of a small, poor state. MU is alone in MO but the Chiefs suck the air out of that space. UK and L'ville split a state without a large population or a ton of consistent football interest. Clemson and USCe split a state with low population. If you center that marketing area on Charlotte then you have UNC, NCSU, App St, and Duke to contend with in addition. Auburn could easily suffer more from being the little brother in Alabama while Bama benefits from national appeal.

UF is difficult to predict. Large state with lots of marketing opportunities but also lots of competition for those NIL dollars.

TAM, UTx, LSU, and especially UGA should benefit. But UT is in there too. The opportunity on this is huge.
 
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#40
#40
molsen81 said:
Back in the Fulmer days, we used to get some of the California guys out here. I miss those days.
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Fulmer was able to get players out of Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas…Now schools cherry pick the instate talent. We need to have some exciting games and win to get kids interested in coming to Knoxville Again.
 
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#42
#42
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
I watched the game with Florida two times.

I agree with others that we sorta beat ourselves with mistakes. I would like to add though we had no turnovers on that hostile environment. Rather commendable I think.

But to me the biggest reason the Vols lost was, simply and directly, Florida had better players, across the board, than we do. At almost all positions they had "Mo Better" athletes than us. We have some good players, but not as many than them.

Recruiting HAS to improve.
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This staff should focus on recruiting from the transfer portal and a limited number of freshmen signees. Transfers are making an impact all over the country. It’s TN’s fastest way to being competitive.
 
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#44
#44
Everyone is running some RPO-based offenses these days. Ole Miss and Arkansas both run the veer and shoot, same as Hoople, and both are ranked and winning meaningful games. Auburn is winning with a tempo downhill spread offense. It's not like Hoople is doing something super innovative that is going to reel 'em in. other programs are doing the same dam thing, or some close variant, and are ahead of us. Kids don't have to come to UTK for a rebuild to pad stats putting up yards and points in the SEC. Vols have to win games they are not favored in to turn prospects' heads. That's the bottom line. if recruiting doesn't pick up this cycle, Hoople is toast only we'll all have to suffer through three more seasons of him and his staff knowing they're dead men walking because they'll never get a roster they can challenge for the the East with. Just win.
 
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#45
#45
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
I watched the game with Florida two times.

I agree with others that we sorta beat ourselves with mistakes. I would like to add though we had no turnovers on that hostile environment. Rather commendable I think.

But to me the biggest reason the Vols lost was, simply and directly, Florida had better players, across the board, than we do. At almost all positions they had "Mo Better" athletes than us. We have some good players, but not as many than them.

Recruiting HAS to improve.
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If we hadn't had 30 players transfer out (including several starters and most of our best players from this year's recruiting class) the talent gap wouldn't be very noticeable at all. HT, Gray, Morris, Crouch, Brandon Johnson, Lawrence, etc would be pretty big upgrades for us right now.
 
#46
#46
Heupel needs to Money Ball the sh** out of things the next couple of seasons with getting some reclamation projects and potential high end guys through the portal and JUCO.

UT has a history of using JUCO guys with success.

Charlie Garner, Gibril Wilson, Anthony Miller, Leonard Little, Cordarelle Patterson, Kamara would have been if Jones wasn't a moron etc Kelly Washington wasn't JUCO but started in baseball.

I just don't see them breaking the stranglehold AL, GA, FL, LSU, Clemson, Ohio ST etc has on recruiting the truly elite guys any time soon through conventional means.

Get some skill guys in to put up big numbers and prove he has something to actually sell with his scheme would be nice.

Use the rest of the recruiting classes to build depth and develop the lines and defense for now.

JMO
 
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#47
#47
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
I watched the game with Florida two times.

I agree with others that we sorta beat ourselves with mistakes. I would like to add though we had no turnovers on that hostile environment. Rather commendable I think.

But to me the biggest reason the Vols lost was, simply and directly, Florida had better players, across the board, than we do. At almost all positions they had "Mo Better" athletes than us. We have some good players, but not as many than them.

Recruiting HAS to improve.
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Good Points. I truly like our Team. Heupel also alluded to the fact that we have one of thinest rosters in Division 1. I believe that our roster is 9-11 men shy of a full roster. That makes it brutal on players and coaches. But they’re hanging tough!
 
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#49
#49
Not necessarily. We have to recruit to our system and develop the players without this astonishing level of attrition. We keep recruiting in the top 20, yet lose consistently to teams that recruit worse than that because they aren’t trying to implement a new 5 year plan every 3 years.
 
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