Recruiting 2022 Recruiting Thread: Evers and CJ Smith Decommit

[TheDouglas78]

Agreed. Interesting analysis here. Myles is all about getting the elite players, but he notes a transition class can at least find helpful players.

Worried about Florida's recruiting? Here's why you shouldn't be. - Read and Reaction

I heard Jimmy Johnson quote Al Davis Sunday as telling him there are a lot of players who can help you win ganes but just a few who will make the big plays that win championships. (Paraphrasing) That’s true at every level, every sport. Pareto principle at work.

The transition class is your least likely to find game changers... but it is the class you get the early buy in and those solid players that you do end for moving forward in years 2 and 3. We can't say this class is DOA until NSD.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Its not just Mullen. Its Chump, Mac and Mullen back to back to back. Love that Billy is cleaning house

The problem is, they were symptoms to a bigger problem... and that schit didn't get cleaned out.

 

[alcoholica]

So no Carpetbaggers.... got it... Now we know how you truly feel about Deet....

Well hold on, let's look at the former city of Detroit. Is it really in the "North", or some mythically realm of shyt. I mean hunting coons, rabbits, and squirrel is something you'd expect out of Deliverance. So is Detroit really in the North or the South.

CARPE DIEM: Markets in Everything: Raccoon Meat in Detroit

 

[RocketCityGator]

It’s not just Donk, or myself, or a handful of others that highly value the recruiting services and their equally proven evaluations. It’s literally every team that has won a NC over the past few decades. Napier said as much in his opener, referencing the recruiting rankings of Alabama and uga and the fact that they played for the SEC the night before.
So to shift now into this “stars don’t matter” conversation is ridiculous.

I’ll repeat what I said prior to BN’s hiring, and again voiced last week. My concern is that we might be once again having to stomach an approach that is contrary to conventional wisdom out of “trust”. I say maybe, because it’s obviously way too early to say anything definitive. But we’ve gone from a complete identity change in ‘11, to a trust that somehow a coach is so good he can win with 2-3*’s in ‘15, to we don’t need to recruit because we can outscheme everyone in 2018, to now this. I don’t know why we have to complicate things. We know what works. So it’s frustrating to see and hear an approach that by his own admission may not make much sense at times and may take some patience. I don’t get why we can’t just be normal and do what UF does best.

Spurrier showed it can be done, as did Meyer. Yes they inherited better situations, but they also held on to guys like Baker, Haupt and Murphy who were marginal players that committed to the previous staff and were open to suitors after the change. It would’ve been easy to dismiss them. He didn’t. And much of the rest of that class were players that we’d targeted all year with Zook. He simply landed them and built off of it. Saban’s 2007 class was similar. Those guys know how to evaluate too, and both of them would’ve taken Gibson, Lightsey and probably Evers in their transition class, just from a perception standpoint.

I’m hopeful for Wednesday and beyond, and will again say that I want to see Napier kill it here for a long time. Really like a lot of what he brings to the table. But if we fumble things the rest of the way, I’m also not blindly falling into line and saying everything is fine because “we have a better idea” as former commits are snatched up by teams that either have are in the playoff this year or have been recently.

If CBN looked at Mullen's recruits and saw problematic personalities non-contributors, it's his call. Yes, that's trust the coaches. But that's how it is with any hire, sports or otherwise.

And I for one think we dodged a bullet with Evers. The comments from his parents convinced me.

Regarding Copeland and Diabante (sp), I'm not concerned .Copeland never lived upto his potential. And I remember the play against Samford that he was referring to.

 

[RocketCityGator]

But it’s still a risky strategy that I don’t feel is necessary.

Safe money don't make money!

 

[gatorfan81]

Here's a secret, but don't tell anyone. There's no such thing as a 3 star whisperer. It's a joke. He's going to get top 5 or so classes or he won't last past the 4th year, just like the last 3 failures. That's just the way this game works.

No but there is such a thing as a good coaching that develops players. Something our coach has proven he can do. All I'm saying is any player 3 star or 5 star he can make into a better player. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[TaterGator]

I am getting pretty sick on this "he's humble" stuff. Just because he says he is humble does not mean he is. In fact his actions say just the opposite.

That said, UF had a nice run with Spurrier who nobody called humble. So that is one glimmer of hope I have with this guy. Then again Muschamp-McElwain-Mullen were not that humble either.

I don't believe I've heard him say that about himself bud. That's what other people say, pretty much every person who meets him. I wonder if I should pay attention to them or some angry message board warrior? Decisions decisions...

 

[gatormandan]

Bingo. I even want the janitor who cleaned Mullen's office out on his ass, too. It's not personal; they have a disease and have to be excised. Mullen was the ultimate "super spreader".

This guy?

 

[MJMGator]

Heard on the radio we got a commit last night?

 

[Back Alley Gator]

Heard on the radio we got a commit last night?

 

[URGatorBait]

Heard on the radio we got a commit last night?

yup. StrickFuchs finally committed upgrading the old carpet tiles to new carpet tiles

 

[williston_gator]

Maybe MOM, but Florida is after a "fast rising" aka low ranked QB named Robbie Roper. His offer list is weak but growing rapidly. Went from schools like UMass and Morehead State, to UF, Bama, Ole Miss, and Vandy now interested.

 

[soflagator]

I'm really bummed we're not signing a bunch of 4 and 5 star guys from California, the Bahama's, Boy's town, etc. that won't make it to fall camp. Those were the days.

I don’t disagree with you that that approach was idiotic in its own right. But that’s akin to those that viewed 2020 and parts of 2019 as completely acceptable because at least we weren’t scoring 14 points a game like the last two regimes. Incomplete football is incomplete football. And a questionable recruiting strategy is a questionable recruiting strategy. Yes, we’ll have to trust him and hope it makes sense on the end. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t things along the way that can, and maybe even should, be questioned.

 

[soflagator]

Maybe MOM, but Florida is after a "fast rising" aka low ranked QB named Robbie Roper. His offer list is weak but growing rapidly. Went from schools like UMass and Morehead State, to UF, Bama, Ole Miss, and Vandy now interested.

You had Ox at Umass. If there’s anyone on the planet that knows successful QBs, it’s Walt Bell.

 

[gatormandan]

yup. StrickFuchs finally committed upgrading the old carpet tiles to new carpet tiles

Thats not what I heard. I heard he bought a brand new Bissle carpet cleaner with the heat feature.

 

[Ancient Reptile]

@soflagator, you make a strong argument and may well be correct. However, from personal experience I know just how corrosive even one bad apple can be. A team can, perhaps, carry one person who doesn't contribute. What it can't carry is someone who doesn't contribute and saps the will and enthusiasm of others, preventing them from contributing. Perhaps, it comes down to who and why commitments weren't freely accepted.

 

[URGatorBait]

Thats not what I heard. I heard he bought a brand new Bissle carpet cleaner with the heat feature.

even better. Looks like new, hardly spent a dime

 

[soflagator]

If CBN looked at Mullen's recruits and saw problematic personalities non-contributors, it's his call. Yes, that's trust the coaches. But that's how it is with any hire, sports or otherwise.

And I for one think we dodged a bullet with Evers. The comments from his parents convinced me.

Regarding Copeland and Diabante (sp), I'm not concerned .Copeland never lived upto his potential. And I remember the play against Samford that he was referring to.

Diabate is at practice, not participating, but being supportive. He’s obviously just checking his options. And I totally agree on Copeland. I was ok with him and didn’t share the ill will that others here have, until I saw an interview he apparently did, in which he had literally nothing positive to say about UF or Napier. He can go.

I’ll add that Evers isn’t my biggest concern, though I do think we are rolling the dice that he doesn’t do really well elsewhere while we strike out this class, or sign a lesser player, which is looking likely.

On the trust, of course. That’s all we can do. But as I repeated last week several times, these defections aren’t going to Marshall like the kid in 2017 who bailed after JM was dismissed. Of the 5 bigger names, two have gone to uga, one to Alabama and now one to Oklahoma, with Gibson looking like an Ou/fsu battle tomorrow. Can’t pretend they’re terrible just because they were associated with Mullen. Pitts, Toney, Pierce, Perine, Swain, VJ, Trask, etc. were all associated with McElwain AND Mullen, maybe the worst combo ever. But I’m really glad we had all of those guys over the past few years.

 

[Gatormac2112]

I’m not worried about the defections or the probability of a weak class, but even if I was there isn’t much that can be done about it now, all the hand wringing and clutching of pearls won’t change a thing, so I choose not to do that. It’s way too freaking early for that. It’s literally been one week. There will be plenty of opportunities for bytching and moaning down the road if warranted.

Not telling anyone not to voice their concerns, I just don’t see the point of ramping it up to 11 at this stage of the game.

 

[soflagator]

@soflagator, you make a strong argument and may well be correct. However, from personal experience I know just how corrosive even one bad apple can be. A team can, perhaps, carry one person who doesn't contribute. What it can't carry is someone doesn't contribute and saps the will and enthusiasm of others, preventing them from contributing. Perhaps, it comes down to who and why commitments weren't freely accepted.

Guys like Demps, Portis, Atkins and Boateng(all in the 2005 class) were all bad apples who left or were shipped out within a year. And Wilson was the infamous “AK” in the parking lot kid. They posed little risk to initially be accepted and I don’t see these kids as any different.

The other thing that hasn’t been discussed much is the bump class of ‘23, which is universally viewed as critical and a major sign of how successful a coach will be. We all knew that this class would be ok at best. But losing this many commits, or worse, pushing them out, means that we’ll be scrambling well into late January and early Feb to sign kids to salvage things, or searching the portal in Spring/Summer. When in reality, given how much of recruiting is relationships and how much of a head start several programs have, we should be already working on 2023. For comparison, Meyer only had 3 NSD decision in 2005, and that was when there was only one signing day. The rest of the class was mostly wrapped up by mid January, which enabled him to get working on 2006. Logistically we are making our jobs more difficult for the next class.

But again, we’ll see. I’m hoping for good news soon.