Recruiting 2023 Recruiting Thread: 4* OT Caden Jones completes the class

[jdh5484]

Can we make up our ever loving minds?
When Napier was thought to be losing recruits this board lit up with how critical elite players are and we'll never catch OSU, Bama, UGA, or even TAMU.
Then we land a top 15 class and then Top 10.
We beat Utah and EVERYTHING is rainbows and ice cream until UK and USF...meltdown EVEN though most sane people predicted 6-8 wins.
Now we lose one 5***** to Useless and here we are again.
We suck...Napier is another Butters.

Itraz...this is what I meant when I said it's never Good Enough for the Gator Nation.

Can we at least get through one season?

 

[Sec14Gator]

Gator Collective is getting very little mention in here, but it is a large part of our problem, along with the UAA's implicitly sanctioning that group as the semi-official NIL outlet for UF. UF let the first duo to come up with an idea (along with Heitner - opinion on him for a different post/thread) become the anointed group.

While UF has a historically large/vast group of boosters in the Bull Gator gang that know each other, have supported Florida for years, are extremely wealthy, and would invest in NIL, GC structure doesn't really embrace them as a group.

GC has three long-term, competitive, flaws: (1) They missed their real market and aimed low. The $5/month made no sense from the outset as a marketing campaign. Market $100-250 a month to actually support the program and offer the $5/month to children. Let parents contribute in their kids name at that amount. It's silly, does not move the needle, and is disconnected to the level of wealth available. It also suggests to those with some discretionary funds that this isn't a real impact.

(2) Perhaps most importantly, it is private and for profit. Even at $5 a month, it is a mystery of how much makes it to athletes, which programs, which athletes, etc. They advertise between 80-90% goes to athletes. Who knows. I've seen direct questions on TOS about audits or open financials, but when GC reps respond it is always an explanation why they will not be transparent.

For profit also impacts contribution levels. We all realize this, but if I want to give $15,000/year to a non-profit collective, I can give over $20,000 and get the tax break to be back at $15,000 (or less). GC is an LLC and likely collects 30-45% less money as a result.

(3) Lack of "collective" booster input on GC management means there can be no trust in who makes these decisions for the entirety of Gator Nation. We complain about how much is offered to one recruit vs another. We sometimes blame Napier, Strickland, or the Gator Guard gang of a few people. But, who is making these dollar investment decisions for the most public NIL organization we have (remember how much GC bragged about Trey Dean $'s)? Who is in charge? Who is accountable at GC? What remedy exists if it is GC management just doing a poor job?

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Can we make up our ever loving minds?
When Napier was thought to be losing recruits this board lit up with how critical elite players are and we'll never catch OSU, Bama, UGA, or even TAMU.
Then we land a top 15 class and then Top 10.
We beat Utah and EVERYTHING is rainbows and ice cream until UK and USF...meltdown EVEN though most sane people predicted 6-8 wins.
Now we lose one 5***** to Useless and here we are again.
We suck...Napier is another Butters.

Itraz...this is what I meant when I said it's never Good Enough for the Gator Nation.

Can we at least get through one season?

Cormani McClain spurns the Gators - Read & Reaction

Cormani McClain spurns the Gators. In a shocking move, Billy Napier missed on the most prized recruit of his era so far.

www.readandreaction.com

"This is important because recruiting these days is really about tiers. Tier 1 consists of Georgia (average player rating of 93.28), Alabama (94.10) and Ohio State (93.33). Tier 2 consists of Notre Dame (92.89), Oklahoma (92.23), Texas (92.26), LSU (92.27) and now Miami (92.49). Florida (91.72) is in a third tier with Clemson (91.73), Oregon (90.85), Tennessee (90.62), Penn State (91.18) and USC (91.06)."

It was never about "ranking". Top10, top 5 whatever. It has always been about getting in that top tier of player average. Will's last article was about how important getting Mclain was. Not that it puts us in the top tier but it shows we can compete in that top tier. The depressing thing about all this is that it is very unusual for a coach to improve the average in subsequent classes. What you get in the bump class is what you get for the rest of his tenure.

Good enough for Gator Nation is what's good enough for Georgia nation, Bama nation and OSU nation.

 

[NOLAGATOR]

Cormani McClain spurns the Gators - Read & Reaction

Cormani McClain spurns the Gators. In a shocking move, Billy Napier missed on the most prized recruit of his era so far.

www.readandreaction.com

"This is important because recruiting these days is really about tiers. Tier 1 consists of Georgia (average player rating of 93.28), Alabama (94.10) and Ohio State (93.33). Tier 2 consists of Notre Dame (92.89), Oklahoma (92.23), Texas (92.26), LSU (92.27) and now Miami (92.49). Florida (91.72) is in a third tier with Clemson (91.73), Oregon (90.85), Tennessee (90.62), Penn State (91.18) and USC (91.06)."

It was never about "ranking". Top10, top 5 whatever. It has always been about getting in that top tier of player average. Will's last article was about how important getting Mclain was. Not that it puts us in the top tier but it shows we can compete in that top tier. The depressing thing about all this is that it is very unusual for a coach to improve the average in subsequent classes. What you get in the bump class is what you get for the rest of his tenure.

Good enough for Gator Nation is what's good enough for Georgia nation, Bama nation and OSU nation.

I heard this kid was pretty arrogant. "It's all about me"
You want that in your locker room?
It doesn’t fit Saban. It doesn't fit Napier. But where does it fit?
The U...since Jimmy Johnson.

And I'm not being sour grapes...legit complaint.

 

[t-gator]

I’m saying we had way more red flags, far fewer actual excuses, and still gave WM a fighting chance.

The biggest difference between now and then is we now know when it's not gonna work out.

Can we make up our ever loving minds?
When Napier was thought to be losing recruits this board lit up with how critical elite players are and we'll never catch OSU, Bama, UGA, or even TAMU.
Then we land a top 15 class and then Top 10.
We beat Utah and EVERYTHING is rainbows and ice cream until UK and USF...meltdown EVEN though most sane people predicted 6-8 wins.
Now we lose one 5***** to Useless and here we are again.
We suck...Napier is another Butters.

Itraz...this is what I meant when I said it's never Good Enough for the Gator Nation.

Can we at least get through one season?

Have you read any of my posts? I don't think losing a corner is a huge deal. We didn't win any championships because we signed Hargraves.

 

[Sec14Gator]

I heard this kid was pretty arrogant. "It's all about me"
You want that in your locker room?
It doesn’t fit Saban. It doesn't fit Napier. But where does it fit?
The U...since Jimmy Johnson.

And I'm not being sour grapes...legit complaint.

This seems like such sour grapes BS. Every prior report was that he is shy and humble. Even his recruiting was completely close to the vest. He has virtually no, quotes , said nothing bad about any school, and did not even do an interview after. As to his announcement, there was no video, no hat game or other drama at all. He picked up a hat and announced.

Now your bashing an 17-18 year old, who has every reason to make a bigger show and be cocky about being the #2 prospect, based on nothing other than transferring HS.

You’re not alone. I’ve seen others saying he trolled us. He did not such thing. The last two videos of himself he had on Twitter (prior to the commitment) were from September and highlighted him wearing UM WR gloves.

Looks at Webb’s Twitter response to a fan as to what happened:

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Re: NIL
It appears that UF is playing the NIL game conservatively. They are not "offereing" incentive deals. If you sign with us then, likely Gator Collective, will set you up with a stipend that may or may not depend on your status. Once you're in you can get any deal you want. But we are absolutely not setting up any per-committment deals.
I can't prove it but I think must schools are taking this approach. The exceptions have obviously been AtoM and UM who seem to be consistently working per-commitment deals. Others seems to have taken the approach that for one special lady they'll drop a sack.
We can only hope what is happening at AtoM with suspensions and defections will be common and sanity will return. In the mean time I don't expect UF to get involved in the NIL sweepstakes.

 

[soflagator]

This seems like such sour grapes BS. Every prior report was that he is shy and humble. Even his recruiting was completely close to the vest. He has virtually no, quotes , said nothing bad about any school, and did not even do an interview after. As to his announcement, there was no video, no hat game or other drama at all. He picked up a hat and announced.

Now your bashing an 17-18 year old, who has every reason to make a bigger show and be cocky about being the #2 prospect, based on nothing other than transferring HS.

You’re not alone. I’ve seen others saying he trolled us. He did not such thing. The last two videos of himself he had on Twitter (prior to the commitment) were from September and highlighted him wearing UM WR gloves.

Looks at Webb’s Twitter response to a fan as to what happened:



View attachment 50391

People like TexasGator15(below) are an embarrassment.

 

[NOLAGATOR]

This seems like such sour grapes BS. Every prior report was that he is shy and humble. Even his recruiting was completely close to the vest. He has virtually no, quotes , said nothing bad about any school, and did not even do an interview after. As to his announcement, there was no video, no hat game or other drama at all. He picked up a hat and announced.

Now your bashing an 17-18 year old, who has every reason to make a bigger show and be cocky about being the #2 prospect, based on nothing other than transferring HS.

You’re not alone. I’ve seen others saying he trolled us. He did not such thing. The last two videos of himself he had on Twitter (prior to the commitment) were from September and highlighted him wearing UM WR gloves.

Looks at Webb’s Twitter response to a fan as to what happened:



View attachment 50391

Look at some of his clips.
It does a lot of trash talk and taunting.

 

[NOLAGATOR]

I was referring to whether the kid thought he'd fit in.

 

[Bernardo de la Paz]

Gator Collective is getting very little mention in here, but it is a large part of our problem, along with the UAA's implicitly sanctioning that group as the semi-official NIL outlet for UF. UF let the first duo to come up with an idea (along with Heitner - opinion on him for a different post/thread) become the anointed group.

While UF has a historically large/vast group of boosters in the Bull Gator gang that know each other, have supported Florida for years, are extremely wealthy, and would invest in NIL, GC structure doesn't really embrace them as a group.

GC has three long-term, competitive, flaws: (1) They missed their real market and aimed low. The $5/month made no sense from the outset as a marketing campaign. Market $100-250 a month to actually support the program and offer the $5/month to children. Let parents contribute in their kids name at that amount. It's silly, does not move the needle, and is disconnected to the level of wealth available. It also suggests to those with some discretionary funds that this isn't a real impact.

(2) Perhaps most importantly, it is private and for profit. Even at $5 a month, it is a mystery of how much makes it to athletes, which programs, which athletes, etc. They advertise between 80-90% goes to athletes. Who knows. I've seen direct questions on TOS about audits or open financials, but when GC reps respond it is always an explanation why they will not be transparent.

For profit also impacts contribution levels. We all realize this, but if I want to give $15,000/year to a non-profit collective, I can give over $20,000 and get the tax break to be back at $15,000 (or less). GC is an LLC and likely collects 30-45% less money as a result.

(3) Lack of "collective" booster input on GC management means there can be no trust in who makes these decisions for the entirety of Gator Nation. We complain about how much is offered to one recruit vs another. We sometimes blame Napier, Strickland, or the Gator Guard gang of a few people. But, who is making these dollar investment decisions for the most public NIL organization we have (remember how much GC bragged about Trey Dean $'s)? Who is in charge? Who is accountable at GC? What remedy exists if it is GC management just doing a poor job?

We aren't missing the big money donors. Hugh Hatchcock started the Gator Guard for the big money donors and they are plugged into the program.

What Miami is supposedly doing is against the rules, and more importantly against Florida law. We'll see if anything happens from an enforcement standpoint.

 

[NOLAGATOR]

Dean doesn't fit Napier and you know it.

 

[Sec14Gator]

We aren't missing the big money donors. Hugh Hatchcock started the Gator Guard for the big money donors and they are plugged into the program.

I don't really disagree with this. I think we are missing the thousands of donors in the $5k-30k per year range that could be funding a great deal more than we currently are through the GC. My point is our large donors (not necessarily the outlier mega-donors) vastly outnumber our nearest rivals and we have not adequately tapped in. This is potentially $3-6 million per year in renewable contributions in addition to what GG is doing.

 

[gatormandan]

What Miami is supposedly doing is against the rules, and more importantly against Florida law. We'll see if anything happens from an enforcement standpoint.

 

[NOLAGATOR]

I'm the guy who was saying move on. It's not the end of the world. I have a comfort level that Napier recruits strong; with a class much stronger then we have had in a decade.

I feel we're going to be a top program again very soon.

And some here will ALWAYS be unsatisfied.

 

[NOLAGATOR]

Brother,
Don't hold your breath. They nailed Pell and Hall but what about Jimmy Johnson?

Cam got kicked out of UF and does what at AUB?

We all know Jimbo at FSU and TAMU ain't Kosher but here we are.