You know, I’m old enough to remember a time when Steve Spurrier said, “Why is it that during recruiting season they sign all the great players, but when it comes time to play the game, we have all the great players? I don’t understand that. What happens to them?”
My, how the recruiting turntables have turned.
Filed under Gators, Gators..., Georgia Football, Recruiting
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With all due respect to Bud, I guarantee you that Smart would do the same thing at any major program. Muschamp didn’t have trouble recruiting to Florida, and Smart’s better at it than Muschamp. He’s arguably the best recruiter going right now.
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Yeah like the fact that we don’t have to compete with Georgia Tech for recruits has anything to do with Darnell Washington, Milton, Truss et al from signing here. What Kirby is doing is keeping Auburn from signing Derrick Brown. He’d do the same at Florida or Florida State or Miami.
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Kirby has strangled Auburn the same way Richt did Tennessee back in the day.
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You mean with recruiting? Because Richt certainly strangled Auburn on the field. But Kirby has closed the door on recruiting while continuing the ass-kickings.
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Richt did indeed do that. I hope to go to the Mizzou game and yell like hell for him when he is honored. I became a fan in 1991 so the Richt years especially the first 6-7 were such a departure from what had happened the previous era(s).
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I will be there to do the same. I have a feeling there will be a lot of people (including Kirby Smart) who want to say thank you to CMR and the Water Girl.
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Ummm, kicking Auburn’s ass… that never gets old.
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Smart is a master at recruiting. He could recruit anywhere I believe.
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But could he ‘cruit Montana?
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Bear Alexander isa DAWG!!
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And with those two defensive linemen, they’re first for now. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if this season goes as well as it could.
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Don’t know that I believe the chart. Ive always heard that more of the good players coe from Florida (and then Texas and California – THEN Georgia. Maybe the Gators don’t recognize one when they see ’em.
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There probably are more BC players in Florida, but the ditch lizards have to compete with several other state schools for them, not to mention UGA , Bama, et al.
What I don’t like about the chart is that they have us ‘fertile grounds’ category and not in the ‘blue bloods that recruit nationally’ category. Come to think of it we should be in both.
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I think the key factor is “blue chip recruits within 250 miles of campus” Gainesville is 332 miles from Atlanta, and 337 from Miami. The state of Florida overall might produce more blue chip talent than the state of Georgia, but Athens is 50 miles from the hottest of hot metro areas for blue chips. Athens is also less than 200 miles from Charlotte, another emerging base for talent, and 219 from Birmingham, which holds its own. Gainesville is close to Jacksonville, but not many other big metros.
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If you count the IMG players as Florida recruits (I think most of them come from other states), then I would think Florida has more 5 *s than Georgia in a average year.
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“Would Kirby do just as well at Florida?” is only half the question. Instead, how about this:
“If they swapped jobs, would Kirby still recruit better than Mullen?”
shrug * I say yes.
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This I agree with.
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If Mullen was at Bama and Kirby at Vandy, Kirby would still do a better job.
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Yes, because he’d recruit Atlanta just as well from Mullen’s Lake Oconee home as he does from Athens!
Helicopter for the win.
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I’d they swapped, Mullen would kick the shit out of Smart for two years. He’d go crazy with our talent on offense. But then Smart’s recruiting would catch up and, in a way, so would Mullen’s. Then it’d be the 90’s all over again.
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If…
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I shudder to think about our talent situation if McGarity had hired Dopey/Goofy.
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No.
Hell no.
FUCK NO!!!
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What is the old ball sack now, head hogtown cheer leader…#FTMF
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He has a restaurant that has a billboard every 3 miles on I-75. It’s not to the level of Pedro’s on I-95 but it’s close.
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Does it say “we’re butt naked in here” ? Fuck Steve Spurrier!
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I wonder if he knows that the majority of his coaching career at FU he was coaching against Dumb & Dumber?
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Saw them on a drive to Canaveral recently, Gridiron Grill by SOS or something like that. At a new development on the interstate in Gainesville.
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Urban Meyer never seemed to have problems out recruiting everyone at UF. A chart that says Clemson, South Carolina, and Tennessee are prime locations for recruiting just looks suspect. I’m not sure that drawing a 250 mile radius around the school is a sufficient measure of access to talent.
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The problem with the 250 mile radius is that it doesn’t take into account, in my opinion, the built in advantage that UGA has over someone like South Carolina or Tennessee in recruiting a kid from the Atlanta area (or south Georgia).
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Recruiting is about working. Corch for all his faults was willing to put in the work.
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That and being a good salesman. Being a good salesman (i.e. recruiter) is a very different skill than being a tactical expert (x and o). Ideally all coaches have both, but if that’s not the case, you need to have both capabilities on your staff even if every individual isn’t amazing at both. Mullen is an example of what happens to a good tactician who can’t recruit. Coley and Butch Jones are what happen when you can sell but you have no idea about tactics.
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Gainesville is 150 miles away from Tallahassee and yet has 200 fewer blue chips in its radius? That seems . . . suspect.
Isn’t the real story that UGA is well above the talent-availabe-average and UF just below it. That seems to suggest that UGA, in Florida’s neighborhood, would be around Ohio State which is a far cry from where UF is.
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Tallahassee is much closer to the Georgia line so it has more south Georgia recruits within that 250 mile radius than Gainesville does in south Georgia.
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Valdosta is 100 miles from Gainesville. Macon is 250 miles. Tallahassee is 260 miles from Atlanta. So, this map presumes that a south Atlanta recruit is in FSU territory but not in UF. The reality is that neither school has that much of a geographic advantage over the other for any Atlanta recruits. Hell, it’s faster to get to Gainesville than Tallahassee from Atlanta. So, the methodology is a bit too crude to come to these conclusions.
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Lines must be drawn somewhere, regardless of how arbitrary or capricious they may appear….
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Tampa and Orlando are just barely inside the radius for Tallahassee. Miami isn’t within 250 of either school.
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but look at BYU on that chart, lol.
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He would 100% recruit better than Mullen has.
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All the more reason to keep Mullen and Grantham on staff. They’re doin the best they can you know?
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Stick to playing with penguins Bud.
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More Mulllet excuses, keep’em coming Gators.
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Um, Mullen’s recruiting base is Lake Oconee, not Gainesville. So both coaches share essentially the same geographic territory.
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No Kirby wouldn’t do as well at Florida. Self loathing takes its toll on the soul.
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Aaaaaand Kirby just flipped Bear back to UGA
Dude is unbelieveable ‘crootin. Just wild.
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Kirby is the best at it. Bar none. And the thing is, a coach can’t learn how to be a great recruiter. I think that’s just something a person has in their personality or they don’t. Kirby obviously enjoys it too and that is a major part of it. He’s evidently a very good communicator who relates well to young people. I mean even if you weren’t a football fan, who would you rather sit and talk to over a beer, Kirby or Dan
Mullen? It’s obvious.
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I’d buy Kirby a beer. I’d make MuLLLet take his ass and appletini to the other end of the bar.
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I would tell Mullen he smelled weird too while I was at it.
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True. Last Friday with UK on tap, all those 5 stars in town, Kirby was off to a HS game in between dinner and late night meetings. He was at Hunter’s game Thursday as well.
When asked about this weekend, he talked about getting out to the HS games, with genuine enthusiasm.
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The high school coach’s son comes out.
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He really is. He is unreal. And this is an off week!!
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The off weeks are when Kirby is the most dangerous. He has a little bit more time. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he get Burden to flip.
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Excuse me, but Bullshit Bud, Bullshit. If pricks like Corch and Spurrier could recruit to Florida, it isn’t location.
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And then…..BOOM….Big Bear Alexander commits to the “G”
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Spurrier may be and ass, but he could coach. Mullen is an ass and can’t coach.
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That’s a bunch of garbage. Last I checked JT Daniels wasn’t from Georgia, and Jordan Davis wasn’t from Georgia nor was he a blue chip.
Does proximity help? Yes. Is it the be-all, end-all of recruiting success? No way.
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But, diagram, pretty colors, graphs and shit!!! Stop crapping on his narrative.
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I recall those Atlanta kids fleeing to the far corners of the nation in droves just a few short years ago. Back then Atlanta was a “transient city… these kids don’t feel a connection to Georgia… it’s not really a ‘Georgia’ town”. Where’d that logic go?
It went to Miami, that’s where. No offense to Richt, but the point is that geography is absolutely not that much of a factor. Your head coach’s abilities and reputation are far more important.
Making chicken salad out of chicken shit is a hugely difficult thing for a coach to do, and Mullen deserves credit for his abilities in that regard, especially at Mississippi State.
But that ain’t necessary at Florida, and it isn’t why Florida hired Mullen. There are plenty of chickens in the area, and in the rest of the country.
Say what you want about Florida fans but they don’t like the taste of shit salad sandwiches.
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Reminds me of when a body shop in town tried to justify to me why they did such a crappy job on repairing my vehicle:
“No one else would’ve done any better!”
I kid you not.
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Well… that and they whined about how hard it was to find parts for a 1994 BMW 740iL (the “L”, or long version”, meant it had a longer back door and they couldn’t find the chrome trim to replace the damaged one under the rear driver side window….. so it appeared they just beat it with a hammer….. BEAUTIFUL!)
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NICE!! I have an e30, e39, and e46. I drive them all, just pick the mood.
Not nice about the door though. That is a rare car.
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It was a blast to drive! I got tired of high repair bills, problems finding parts, and systemic electrical issues though. Sold it to a tech at a BMW dealership who couldn’t believe what great shape the engine was in. He was gonna drop it in some other model – don’t remember which. Now some number of years and four children later my vehicle is a 1998 Ford E-150 conversion van. Ha.
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I am 51 years old and I had a ‘91 325i back from ‘94-‘04 that was a pristine car. In 2015 I bought my son an ‘87 325, fixed it up myself with his help when he was 15. The next year I found myself a ‘89 325i manual sedan which I drive today. Then, I found a solid ‘03 325i in Augusta, 5 speed and in need of help (3400$). Then, I found a ‘98 528i manual in Raleigh a couple years ago, I’m the second owner, car is sexy. Every time I get one of these cars I refresh the suspension, engine, and fix faded light fixtures. That’s about all it takes.
My “work” truck is a ‘17 F350 long bed diesel, which is faster than all of the 6 BMW’s we have. But all of our BMW’s are manual and inline 6’s, they are pure heaven to drive since I fix all of the suspension stuff first and then tune up the motor. Driving my 528i (98 model) Monday for 400 miles and can’t wait, it’s an interstate warrior.
You on Forum’s? I bet I could find you a door, can’t promise color though.
BTW, my son is in a program at the BMW plant in Greer, he gets a megatronics degree and works in the plant two days/week.
Keeping an old BMW means diving in, research, and doing the work yourself. My bye week will be consumed with trans and diff oil changes on the ‘89, ‘98 cars, then watching football.
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My friend Cathleen has a ’94 530i. She’s married to an Auburn educated mechanic who has a rebuilt 5L engine ready to drop in it. However he’s too busy working on paying customer’s vehicles. I sold her my ’01 F-150 Southern Package so she has something reliable to drive. She could pay cash for a new car.
She loves that old Beemer.
SMFH.
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That graph…. Just a touch misleading.
I don’t recall Spurrier or Meyer suffering the same plight.
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Senator, if you’re quoting The Office, it’s “how the turntables.”
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Spurrier was right. He’s a jerk, but he spits the truth. Those pledge classes were paper tigers.
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