Recruiting update - Currently 19th

[Gator Fever]

Apparently, just to torture myself, I went through the 247 top 100 because their site is easy to see each kid's top 5 with predictions. What I found what shockingly bad. We are 3% for Peoples, 69% for Jarez Parks, 73% for James Robinson. That's it. My god this staff is bad at recruiting. By far the worst since I became a fan in the 80's. Indefensible. But but but they recruit for need and it's really not that bad. We find gems and diamonds and bull freaking ****. Mac is winning with a defense he hasn't replenished. No Pumper can pump this mess into anything but what it truly is...bad.

Scary isn't it and the excuses many are using for Mac would apply to Georgia's new coach also but he seems to be having no problem bringing in top recruits and Mac came from that Bama coaching tree also. We are going to have a large talent gap to Georgia pretty soon in addition to those West teams.

 

[LighthouseGator]

How could anyone not have a better scheme than WM? That's what we're basing our optimism on?

It's not only the scheme from an X's and O's perspective, but he also knows the exact type of player he needs to successfully run the scheme and, more importantly, it appears he has gotten those players. I have raised this a number of times and none of the Dementors on the board have challenged the promise in the skill positions and O line for next year.

The obvious X factor is the performance of Franks/Trask next year. If he missed on both, then he's finished. But until we know, considering the otherwise unquestioned potential, it's too early to cut bait now. And, FWIW, taking 3 years to rebuild after our O had been wandering the Siberian wilderness the prior 4 years is not unreasonable.

 

[T REX]

It's not only the scheme from an X's and O's perspective, but he also knows the exact type of player he needs to successfully run the scheme and, more importantly, it appears he has gotten those players. I have raised this a number of times and none of the Dementors on the board have challenged the promise in the skill positions and O line for next year.

The obvious X factor is the performance of Franks/Trask next year. If he missed on both, then he's finished. But until we know, considering the otherwise unquestioned potential, it's too early to cut bait now. And, FWIW, taking 3 years to rebuild after our O had been wandering the Siberian wilderness the prior 4 years is not unreasonable.

How's he doing on defense?

 

[Marianna-FL_Gator]

Couldn't agree more. I don't get everything thinking were going to flip a few 5* players. Mac will get excuses till he's fired it's a simple as that. But he's the worse recruiter we've had in 20 years. I go as far as to say he's the 2nd worse coach. Zook at least won a few games against top 25 teams. Mac has only 1 win against top 25 teams

I agree...the stage here is to big for Mac

 

[LighthouseGator]

How's he doing on defense?

I'll take that as a concession that the offense is in the right direction.

As for defense, jury's out. Young LB's (admittedly against a chump O) showed some promise last week. Gardner will be a stud and it appears he's reloading the secondary in this class (DB DB DB waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah - every champ-level defense has studs littering the secondary, so I have no problem with this). Young DE's look strong, especially CeCe and Zuniga. Obvious need is numbers at DT, which will spell trouble if they don't come up.

Next year is shaping up to look like 2007. I'm not saying to expect a Heisman, but I think next year is when the Ocean Liner is finally steered in the direction of Offense as opposed to Defense, which is the only way for us to become ascendant again. This gets to the true error in the Chump hiring IMO: he remade the Gator identity into defense, when we have only enjoyed real success using offense as our primary identity.

If the offense shows life, blue chippers on the other side of the ball will chomp at the bit to become gators. We saw this briefly last year when it looked like the offense turned the corner after Ole Miss....

 

[TheDouglas78]

Scary isn't it and the excuses many are using for Mac would apply to Georgia's new coach also but he seems to be having no problem bringing in top recruits and Mac came from that Bama coaching tree also. We are going to have a large talent gap to Georgia pretty soon in addition to those West teams.

McElwain has dropped the ball on recruiting, but to compare the situations of Kirby Smart and McElwain is apples to oranges. McElwain spent the three previous seasons before being hired recruiting for CSU different class and region of athletes. Kirby spent the last decade recruiting for Alabama/Georgia so the same class and region of athlete. To say the situations are the same is just bias. McElwain has not done himself any favors, but to say that the situations between him and Smart just isn't accurate.

 

[rogdochar]

Am I missing something? Has any UF reporter asked him, why is your staff so bad at recruiting, do you realize it is the lifeblood of the program and it will determine if you have any longevity in your chosen career path at a big program?

Amen Floridagator. As he has no answer (except : "I'm firing X,Y, & Z right away.")
Each & every press conference, I wish reporters would ask your question Fg - via a different
reporter each time. By various reporters, it would show that no one has an ax to grind except for
the HC's sharpening his own edge. In fact, someone backstage should hammer a big gong each
time to mark the question that never, never should go away until 2nd-class recruiting goes away.
I get that. It just seems to me that by concentrating on so much gloom & doom, it's like we are
filing for divorce from being cheering Gator fans. ?? How about, letting enough cheering get
posted unmolested ?

For instance, I'd love to see more rah-rah cheering posts on us stomping Baton Rogue. ??
Look how angry we get at our guys coming out flat, unenthused for the 2nd half -- well hell,
here we are as fans coming out defeated before we even come out for the game's kickoff.

 

[ATXGator]

While I understand and certainly share the frustration with Mac... the reality is that he will be here next year and honesty... probably get a 4th year. I hope he turns it around from a recruiting and coaching standpoint.

Hopefully the facilities plan with new stand alone football facility will help. Maybe we will get lucky and Jimbo will go to LSU which will open the door for us to get some guys.

The reality is there is absolutely no reason a coach at UF should have a class not in the Top 10 (unless it is a transition year and previous admin had been crappy). So I give Mac the first year as transition, but last year was not good and even worse... this year has not been good. He better pull off some surprises. The worst thing is that the quality of player sets us back 3 or 4 years with every bad recruiting class.

Even a bad coach (Muschamp) can win with top players - see 2012 with Urbans #1 recruiting class.

 

[Marianna-FL_Gator]

I wasn't surprised, but ESPN power index isn't the best scale, they tend to show favoritism to certain teams and coaches. Right now they love them some FSU even though FSU is incredibly inconsistent.

ESPN has boosted them up every since Jimbo took over and it will continue until he leaves.

 

[TheDouglas78]

ESPN has boosted them up every since Jimbo took over and it will continue until he leaves.

He has the IQ of their average watcher.

 

[Marianna-FL_Gator]

He has the IQ of their average watcher.

I believe it!

 

[rogdochar]

He has the IQ of their average watcher.

It's hard to beat an HC with a skrong, skrong IQ.

 

[T REX]

I'll take that as a concession that the offense is in the right direction.

BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! His offense edit: is not very good. That's a fact. Right direction? GTFO

 

[LighthouseGator]

BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! His offense edit: is not very good. That's a fact. Right direction? GTFO

Production/Stats-wise, no, it's not a good offense right now. But the potential is there for a good offense with a good qb by next year so, yes, right direction. If you want to ignore that we have the strongest set of skill position weapons since '08 - all Mac players by the way and all young - that's your choice.

 

[T REX]

Production/Stats-wise, no, it's not a good offense right now. But the potential is there for a good offense with a good qb by next year so, yes, right direction. If you want to ignore that we have the strongest set of skill position weapons since '08 - all Mac players by the way and all young - that's your choice.

Until he does it consistently against better competition - it stinks and so does Nussmeier. More hopes and dreams. Stop talking about it and do it.

Excuse me for not believing.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

If you want to ignore that we have the strongest set of skill position weapons since '08 - all Mac players by the way and all young - that's your choice.

Not really trying to jump into this pecker measuring contest so I'll just say one thing and leave yall to it.

The argument that we have better offensive skill players now than the last few years, first, really isn't saying much bc we had basically none the last few years. While I agree that we do have some talent on that side of the ball the comparison isn't a real good one b/c anything compared to is good. Second, zook had more talent by miles on offense and didn't ever do much with it; the argument that because we have some players, we'll be good isn't a strong one.

Personally I think Mac is another zook, without the recruiting chops. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[GatorJ]

Parks is an FSU legacy and Cory Durden is his cousin. It's very difficult to get a legacy to play for a hated rival.

The Pouncys and Ahmad Black were huge FSU fans and came here. Patchan was a Miami legacy. I'm sure I can find a lot more. The reason that we are struggling is because Mac can't recruit. If Meyer was here, those kids would be Gators.

 

[B52G8rAC]

Memory may fail me, but I think SOS only had one top 10 recruiting class-the one with Brock Berlin and his wall. The HBC really didn't like to recruit, but, he could coach up any player that came to Florida. As was once said of Mr. Bryant, "He could take his'n and beat your'n and he could take your'n and beat his'n."

 

[ATXGator]

I don't care how many skill positions guys he has if he doesn't have a working OL and a good QB this offense will continue to be bad.

That.. plus our D has been weak against strong running teams for years. We need to be better up front on both sides and the lack of recruits in those areas will hurt us for years.

 

[t-gator]

There is no doubt scheme is better than champs, way better. Problem is with Jimmys and Joes.

The scheme is what bama was doing 10 years ago and decided it wasnt good enough anymore