Mac and Company on the Trail

[Yankeetown]

We have been TROLLED once again plain and simple.

But don't forget, he did actually go to the Gator's bowl game. That's a lot of time and effort to put into the act, if he had been just a troll.

Most likely case is that he was genuinely wavering. There was real smoke on this.

When Saban found out, Alabama did a full court press and unloaded a major guilt trip on him. Saban knows how to hit all the emotional buttons. And then they send the GA to basically kidnap him ... er, protect their interests.

Due to the lack of any signed paperwork with us, we could not mount an equivalent amount of effort. And clearly we did not properly prepare him for the amount of psychological pressure that Alabama would bring.

But ... he was just wavering. He never crossed the line in his mind to wanting to be a Gator more than he wanted to be at Bama. That's evident from the (reported) fact that he never signed the FA paperwork with Florida. It would not have been binding on him, but it would have been a step closer in his mind to abandoning his commitment to Alabama. He never could quite cross that divide.

We didn't lose him, because we never had him.

This hurts, he would have been huge for us. And of course, we'll likely be facing him on the field in the future.

And we're left wondering if better skills at recruiting could have nudged him our way.

 

[gatormandan]

Bama has 5 stars as backups. I wish they could just allow a kid to follow his heart if he was honestly considering flipping.

 

[alcoholica]

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/lsu/article_40336ac8-9966-50c8-97dd-1cfeaa93d285.html

This is the article I was referring to about the financial aid agreement forms

 

[Durty South Swamp]

We didn't want him anyways. I doubt he even plays much at Bama

Probably will get owned and destroyed there, amiright? ;)

 

[alcoholica]

Tedarrell Slaton is now working at DT some in the Army AA Bowl practices. He is trending bigly to UF.

Levi Jones is also gaining some ground to UF.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

He is trending bigly

 

[rogdochar]

Just something to always remember:
1) Muschamp started recruiting while UF still was riding on the Meyer-Tebow seasons. Seasons of dominating
FSU and so many others.
2) Mac (or whoever) had to come after Muschamp's ruining UF's sparkle with FSU surging upward.
I'm not specifically defending for Mac, just whoever had to follow Muschamp-Weis-Roper etc.
Seems to me that, no matter how difficult or uphill this assignment, Mac has to give us an offense/defense
that beats FSU (& UGa) solidly and with players jumping for joy on the sidelines. That's the first piece of the puzzle towards getting on top in recruiting.

I certainly do not mind Mac being replaced by a sure-fire sure-hire better CEO-HC. Still, I'm being a fan of these
Gators now, so I got to root for those presently in place to create a winning program now. If we solidly beat
Michigan next year, that will favor the direction Mac has us moving. Should he flop vs Michigan, his trash-chute
is wide open.

 

[BMF]

For the "stars don't matter" crowd (i.e. those who think all our 3-stars will get us to the next level):

35 of the 44 starters in the NC game were at least 4-stars:

http://gridironnow.com/alabama-clemson-title-game-recruits/

Powerhouse teams are made up of talented players, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows recruiting that Alabama and Clemson — who will play for the national title for the second season in a row Monday night — are filled with athletes who were prime recruiting targets.

To wit: 35 of the 44 expected starters in Monday night’s Alabama-Clemson national title game were four- or five-star recruits coming out of high school. For the math challenged among us, that’s 80 percent.


Seven starters were three-star recruits, one was a two-star prospect and one was an unranked recruit who began his career as a walk-on.

Not surprisingly for a team that has finished atop the consensus recruiting rankings for six years in a row, Alabama has the vast majority of the former five-star recruits: 12 of the 15 in the game. Clemson has the most four-stars by a slim margin, 11 to 9. Clemson has six three-star recruits, the lone two-star guy and the former walk-on. Of Alabama’s 22 starters, only one was a three-star prospect.

We also looked at 12 “key reserves” for each team. Nine of the 12 were at least four-star recruits for the Tide, while eight of the 12 were at least four-star recruits for the Tigers. The other seven were three-star prospects.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Just something to always remember:
1) Muschamp started recruiting while UF still was riding on the Meyer-Tebow seasons. Seasons of dominating
FSU and so many others.
2) Mac (or whoever) had to come after Muschamp's ruining UF's sparkle with FSU surging upward.
I'm not specifically defending for Mac, just whoever had to follow Muschamp-Weis-Roper etc.

Relevent, slightly, but not our problem. When kids are interviewed they don't mention that they can't remember the last time UF was relevant, though undoubtedly recent championships would have helped. Michigan has won 1/2 championsip in the last 70 years, and Ugly last won almost 40 years ago.

Instead the almost universal complaint is that UF didn't bother trying to recruit them until December, a year after Auburn, Bammer or Ugly had been playing footsie with him or had actually received the commitment from the recruits.

As they said on Animal House, fat, stupid and lazy is no way to go thru life. Our recruiting efforts are at least VERY, VERY lazy.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

For the "stars don't matter" crowd (i.e. those who think all our 3-stars will get us to the next level):

35 of the 44 starters in the NC game were at least 4-stars:

http://gridironnow.com/alabama-clemson-title-game-recruits/

Powerhouse teams are made up of talented players, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows recruiting that Alabama and Clemson — who will play for the national title for the second season in a row Monday night — are filled with athletes who were prime recruiting targets.

To wit: 35 of the 44 expected starters in Monday night’s Alabama-Clemson national title game were four- or five-star recruits coming out of high school. For the math challenged among us, that’s 80 percent.


Seven starters were three-star recruits, one was a two-star prospect and one was an unranked recruit who began his career as a walk-on.

Not surprisingly for a team that has finished atop the consensus recruiting rankings for six years in a row, Alabama has the vast majority of the former five-star recruits: 12 of the 15 in the game. Clemson has the most four-stars by a slim margin, 11 to 9. Clemson has six three-star recruits, the lone two-star guy and the former walk-on. Of Alabama’s 22 starters, only one was a three-star prospect.

We also looked at 12 “key reserves” for each team. Nine of the 12 were at least four-star recruits for the Tide, while eight of the 12 were at least four-star recruits for the Tigers. The other seven were three-star prospects.

Yeah, but stars dont matter if you have the three star Whisperer, except when we are getting blown out once a month or so.... Then stars do matter and it's not the coaches' fault bc you can recruit til youve been at a school for four years.

 

[alcoholica]

Stars don't matter on an individual basis, but if you say I'll give you 5 5*s or 5 3*s, percentages start to play out.

So if someone evaluated Zuniga a 3* and Cowart a 5* and said I like Zuniga better, then fine. But if someone said we'll be fine with a 3* instead of a 5* that's different and wrong

 

[TLB]

As they said on Animal House, fat, stupid and lazy is no way to go thru life. Our recruiting efforts are at least VERY, VERY lazy.

So, you're saying we aren't fat and lazy? I can only speak for myself, but you are definitively WRONG!

 

[TLB]

Powerhouse teams are made up of talented players, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows recruiting that Alabama and Clemson — who will play for the national title for the second season in a row Monday night — are filled with athletes who were prime recruiting targets.

To wit: 35 of the 44 expected starters in Monday night’s Alabama-Clemson national title game were four- or five-star recruits coming out of high school. For the math challenged among us, that’s 80 percent.


Seven starters were three-star recruits, one was a two-star prospect and one was an unranked recruit who began his career as a walk-on.

Not surprisingly for a team that has finished atop the consensus recruiting rankings for six years in a row, Alabama has the vast majority of the former five-star recruits: 12 of the 15 in the game. Clemson has the most four-stars by a slim margin, 11 to 9. Clemson has six three-star recruits, the lone two-star guy and the former walk-on. Of Alabama’s 22 starters, only one was a three-star prospect.

We also looked at 12 “key reserves” for each team. Nine of the 12 were at least four-star recruits for the Tide, while eight of the 12 were at least four-star recruits for the Tigers. The other seven were three-star prospects.

To play devil's advocate here, this says Clemson is in the NC game (again) with:
5* - 3 players
4* - 9 players
3* - 6 players
2* - 1 player
Walk on - 1 Player
Plus of their 12 key reserves, 4 were 3* or less.

I can't keep track of which of our starters were how many stars, so I won't attempt to compare. Neither can I comment on how many tOSU or WASH starters were what stars.

 

[rogdochar]

I guess those called "downers" are trying to head off the logical inevitable = UF cannot keep winning the
SEC East by beating teams that all have much better (ranked) offenses than we have developed.
That sure makes sense to me. That stuff has to change whatever way is the quickest. Still, dumping
everybody in such short time is disruptive and creates doubts among prospective HCs and prospective
recruits.??

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Stars don't matter on an individual basis, but if you say I'll give you 5 5*s or 5 3*s, percentages start to play out.

So if someone evaluated Zuniga a 3* and Cowart a 5* and said I like Zuniga better, then fine. But if someone said we'll be fine with a 3* instead of a 5* that's different and wrong

I was never a fan of Coward or Holland. Bkth were always just slow LBs or very undersized DEs.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

I guess those called "downers" are trying to head off the logical inevitable = UF cannot keep winning the
SEC East by beating teams that all have much better (ranked) offenses than we have developed.
That sure makes sense to me. That stuff has to change whatever way is the quickest. Still, dumping
everybody in such short time is disruptive and creates doubts among prospective HCs and prospective
recruits.??

If eason takes a big step next year, we're in trouble. They're defense is going to be decent to good and they are loaded with talent and depth.

 

[Mr2Bits]

If eason takes a big step next year, we're in trouble. They're defense is going to be decent to good and they are loaded with talent and depth.

They are loaded every year and always lose 2-5 games, nothing will change there!

 

[Durty South Swamp]

They are loaded every year and always lose 2-5 games, nothing will change there!

But everything has changed there. Entirely new staff and while richt brought in talent, he wasn't signing top 3 classes, not even close. But guess who is. I'll say it again, if eason takes a good step forward we're in trouble.

 

[EyeDocGator]

I'll say it again, if eason takes a good step forward we're in trouble.

Looking through my O & B glasses I predict both Franks and Trask will be better than Eason.

 

[MJMGator]

Looking through my O & B glasses I predict both Franks and Trask will be better than Eason.

Might be time for a thicker pair.