It’s not any big secret that the big gap in Junior’s master plan to conquer the great unwashed of the SEC is the situation at quarterback. You’d have to assume that whatever he had in mind in the course of running off Fulmer’s two recruits at the position as well as B. J. Coleman hasn’t played out. Right now, he’s left with Crompton, Stephens, a washed up former minor league baseball player and whatever kid playing intramural football at UT he can talk into suiting up in an emergency.
What is a little surprising, given the black hole at QB and the greatest bunch of recruiters EVAH, is the complete lack of success UT has had so far signing a quarterback in the 2010 class.
Which is why the reported verbal from an obscure 6’2″, 200-pound juco kid named Nick Lamaison was greeted with, if not outright rejoicing, at least sighs of relief in Urnge Country. Except it turns out there’s a catch. Lamaison hasn’t exactly committed.
Now you can think this is a bit of a setback, if you’re a dispassionate observer of the UT program. Or you can presume a scenario that plugs right back into that master plan mindset, if you’re something more than a dispassionate observer. Even if hooper’s right about what’s going on, that’s an awful lot of effort the Laner’s expending on talking a B-lister and C-lister (and I’m not even sure a kid who wasn’t recruited by a D-1 program out of high school deserves that high a grade) into playing in Knoxville.
Of course, that’s due to the hand Junior’s dealt himself. Which, sadly, pokes a hole in the Junior-knows-what-he’s-doing, he’s-a-great-recruiter balloon.
Even sadder, what does it say about where the program is right now? If all that’s true, isn’t the message we’re getting about Scroggins is that duking it out with all that talent at Southern Cal may be a more attractive option for him than having to compete with a juco transfer at Tennessee? Otherwise, why even bother to hide the Lamaison commitment in the first place?