Why do we rarely see kids from Maryville/Alcoa come to/get offered by UT?

#77
#77
QB Dylan Hopkins, Maryville HS, just entered the portal from UAB
 
#81
#81
"They can't beat Brentwood Academy, MBA, or Ensworth in any given year. "

I realize that it was only preseason and the "Imaginary Football League (IFL)," BUT MHS did curbstomp Enswoth several years back - I think in Cookeville.
 
#82
#82
GregAmsler said:
A) East Tennessee doesn’t produce the talent of Middle and West Tennessee and b) when SEC level talent does come out of East Tennessee, they go elsewhere. For both of those reasons, Middle Tennessee has been much better to UT than East Tennessee.
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not just to UT... a lot of the highly touted kids from east TN end up at smaller colleges. There are always exceptions but for the most part what other posters say is true. Raw talent tends to be lacking in east TN they have good TEAMS and skilled kids but the players are a step slow and undersized.
 
#83
#83
TartanTurff said:
The same year Fulmer missed on Patrick Willis he also whiffed on Michael Oher and that was the beginning of the end of Fulmer, the inability to land the best in the state of Tennessee is never good.
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To be fair, Patrick was a low rated 3 star at best with an anemic offer list. You wouldn't find anybody back then calling him one of "the best in the state". Fulmer took the Daniel Brooks out of Jackson that year. He was a 5* LB and the top recruit in the state.
 
#84
#84
Lot of recruits in Middle Tennessee being recruited by major college programs. One reason is the emergence of the NFL in Nashville and the X-NFL players involved in coaching in the area. Growth is crazy and the MSA for theNashville area is now 2,150,000 and Murfreesboro is the third fastest growing cities in the USA.
 
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#86
#86
bigorangepoppa said:
Seems like there was a running back from one of the Knoxville area schools that Tennessee wanted, seems like his last name was Thompson. Played at Penn State, was a very good rb.
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Leroy Thompson. Played at Austin East, then Penn State, then for the Steelers. Ran football camps in AE community for years... May still do it. Seemed like a high quality guy by all indications.

I was trying to remember a RB from Loudon who committed and maybe signed with UT, then was arrested for drugs when his two-year old found and ingested cocaine. He was thought to be a no-miss but never got to campus. During the later Fulmer years IIRC.
 
#90
#90
MHS Rebel said:
"They can't beat Brentwood Academy, MBA, or Ensworth in any given year. "

I realize that it was only preseason and the "Imaginary Football League (IFL)," BUT MHS did curbstomp Enswoth several years back - I think in Cookeville.
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It's rare when it happens. Nobody in the private school situation in Middle Tennessee has a lot of fear of any school in East Tennessee private, recruiting or not and it's been that way for the last 30 or 40 years. Christian Brothers, MUS, out of Memphis, the one private school in Jackson, and Bartlett produces teams that can dominate at times. Maryville had a nice little run but historically they haven't been all that. BA 40 years ago had to go out of state to find games for all the ducking and dodging and crying taking place as a single A school when there were only 3 classifications. so they moved up to AA and still dominated the state championship scene. Just stroll through UTs rosters and it's full of BA players, Wells, Miller, Barnett, etc etc etc.
 
#91
#91
Remy said:
It's rare when it happens. Nobody in the private school situation in Middle Tennessee has a lot of fear of any school in East Tennessee private, recruiting or not and it's been that way for the last 30 or 40 years.
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I don’t know if this is currently true. Chattanooga area private has won the last two state titles in AAA. For most of the 2000s, that wasn’t the case though for sure. Baylor and McCallie have really gotten better and Catholic has been good for years though they have struggled the last few. With the coaching changes in the Chatt area the power in D2 looks to be in the SE.
 
#92
#92
Maryville and Alcoa have really good development programs. Most of the kids playing in HS and been prepped for the system since they were in grade school. Both programs are really consistent, these kids are ready to play when they hit HS. The end result is programs that can win with average players for the most part. Every once in a while they land a monster, but the key is just being brought up in that framework they have developed over decades and following the plan.

They take average kids and make really good teams with them. They are not going to have the raw talent that larger metro areas produce, but they make some noise in HS football.
 
#94
#94
BondJamesBond said:
Leroy Thompson. Played at Austin East, then Penn State, then for the Steelers. Ran football camps in AE community for years... May still do it. Seemed like a high quality guy by all indications.

I was trying to remember a RB from Loudon who committed and maybe signed with UT, then was arrested for drugs when his two-year old found and ingested cocaine. He was thought to be a no-miss but never got to campus. During the later Fulmer years IIRC.
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Travis Cozart....he has turned his life around and is very involved with youth sports development
 
#97
#97
loosecannon said:
This has been addressed a billion times. Fulmer wanted him just as a WR and not a QB. Kentucky promised him he could play QB. He went to Kentucky, wasn’t great at QB and was used as a Wildcat before being moved to WR. It wasn’t because he wasn’t wanted. Fuller was right too.
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This. Fulmer was absolutely correct.
 
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#98
#98
Remy said:
It's rare when it happens. Nobody in the private school situation in Middle Tennessee has a lot of fear of any school in East Tennessee private, recruiting or not and it's been that way for the last 30 or 40 years. Christian Brothers, MUS, out of Memphis, the one private school in Jackson, and Bartlett produces teams that can dominate at times. Maryville had a nice little run but historically they haven't been all that. BA 40 years ago had to go out of state to find games for all the ducking and dodging and crying taking place as a single A school when there were only 3 classifications. so they moved up to AA and still dominated the state championship scene. Just stroll through UTs rosters and it's full of BA players, Wells, Miller, Barnett, etc etc etc.
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Nice little run??? 17 titles is what it is.... I more closely follow Alcoa which is the only school with more. Now they both have done it with fewer bigtime p5 guys than the high powered mid-state private schools, but with rosters with few if any real holes and with plenty of depth due to the aforementioned folks doing whatever is necessary to get into the two city systems over the two generally lower rated academically and athletically as well as geographically inconvenient county schools. Then the most overlooked element is how they take their charges and have excellent and coordinated youth level coaching on these concentrated assests. Have also had recognized coaching talent at the top during their heydays. One a more offensive minded guy, the other a consistency on both sides of the ball baron.

It is not uncommon for school systems to be openly discussed as the prime driver in locals' real estate decisions. Go check out the interesting gerrymandered maps of each city. I imagine the completions of the Smith and Wesson plant in the Maryville area and the huge Amazon facility in the Alcoa area will spur housing growth in both for newbies and giving locals migration options. 4 miles is all that separates these two schools with more than 30 FB state titles between them. To be fair, Knox county averages 30k population per HS (13 County and 3 private) and Blount County 34K (2 city and 2 county). Current population for 6a Maryville is 31K and 3A Alcoa 11K.

Bottom line, according to the best data I can find for comparison, HS enrollments are as follows vs the Murfreesboro HS.

Alcoa 656 for reference

Maryville 1150 9-12 (reporting 1600 annotated to include JR High)

Blackmon, Oakland, Riverdale and Seigel all between 1600 and 2000,

Current enrollment class breakdown TSSAA

3A 50 542-733
4A 49 734-1121
5A 49 1122-154
6A 49 1550 and greater


Fundamentally Maryville up-reported to get to 6A when in reality they are really on the low end of 5A and they jumped straight from 4A to 6A years ago. Neither HS has to recruit, just sit back and let the talented fight their way in to be part of the dynasties. MY perspective anyway.

Not a Maryville lover, have pulled for Alcoa every year since my return to the area, but got to give them their due by the numbers. MHS has humbled my Alma Mater Bearden way more than I care to recount. Rankin was tough on my old stomping ground's Lincoln County before he left Riverdale to come here.

Having Gary Rankin at Alcoa and George Quarles at Maryville as HC will be tough to match anywhere. Championship wise it can't be done. They maximized the hands that they were dealt, even though they were good hands.
 
#99
#99
It was a long time ago (1993-1994) but Tennessee had a good WR from Alcoa named Billy Williams. As I recall, he had a hard time getting academically eligible. They don't produce many SEC caliber prospects. That's why long ago names like Randall Cobb, Shannon Mitchell (TE Georgia from 1991-1994) and Brandon Warren (Florida State and then dismissed by Kiffin), are always mentioned in threads like this. There aren't many recent prospects from Alcoa.

There was an RB from Maryville in early 2000's named Carl Stewart who picked Auburn over Tennessee. He said he was concerned about Tennessee's depth at the position (Cedric Houston, Jabari Davis and Gerald Riggs Jr), but Auburn had Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown and Brandon Jacobs? That was weird.

There was also a pretty good DE from Maryville named Dylan Jackson from 6 or 7 years ago, who was recruited by Butch Jones, but he went to Stanford. I think he wound up playing on the offensive line.

Neither school produces much in the way of numbers.
 
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