I know I’ve said this before, but when I read crap like this, it continues to amaze me that people shell out good money for it.
The tea leaves suggest the Longhorns are well-positioned in the Manning sweepstakes. On3.com lists Texas as the frontrunner for Manning’s commitment ahead of Georgia and Alabama, although the rising senior at Isidore Newman in New Orleans has said little publicly to distinguish Texas from those SEC powers.
Get it? The family is famously closemouthed, yet the tea leaves suggest. Where, on the astral plane?
Seriously, I don’t understand, but those of you who pay for this, enlighten me. Do you feel like you get your money’s worth? More specifically, if you follow recruiting, Jeff Sentell at Dawgnation does a pretty good job of tracking Georgia’s without charge, so is it worth whatever it’s worth to pay for a recruiting service?
Get The Picture 
On my commute, I listen to some podcasts, youtube stuff from different recruiting services covering Georgia and nationally. I don’t pay for any of their services, but have in the past. But here is what I can tell you, every show they mention Arch simply because a lot of fans always ask about him or talk about him. You can tell the guys on the show think the hysteria is ridiculous. While they all will acknowledge Arch is a great QB and would likely assist in bringing in other recruits, they think worrying about Arch daily is a fool’s errand for most fans.
But services like the one you mentioned have to put out click bait like that because it drives people to their sites, creates threads and posts in their forums and drives traffic, which increases subs and ads.
There are times I am tempted to get a subscription when they are on sale (like $12/year sale now), but then I remember, I have no control over where these kids sign and me subscribing isn’t going to change that. So I’ll just wait for decisions to be made and read the usually public posts about the commitments, signees, etc.
The Arch camp is one of the most quiet groups out their for a top recruit, so people have to resort to creating tea leaves to read, in order to have stories.
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The Athletic does a pretty good job of covering recruiting, so I get my “fill” there with Ari Wasserman and others. Can’t imagine paying for a site solely devoted to recruiting, though.
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I pay for rivals site. It’s not just recruiting. It’s probably 50/50 recruiting and discussions about other stuff. Most football related others not. I’ve honed my grilling/smoking skills, rented a condo for vacation. It’s just a large collection of Dawgs talking Dawg stuff and helping each other out. There are definitely people in Butts on there that know more than me. Some of the commentary from other posters make me laugh out loud at least once a day. Hell that laugh alone is worth the .30 cents a day. It also has a zero political commentary policy which helps. Just my 2 cents.
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I’m just tired of hearing about all the friggin drama over this kid. Nothing against him at all, but it is ad nausea. I’m over it.
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It’s always nice to have a real good QB1, first pick type, one each. The kind who inspires other recruits to want to come to UGA.
But I’m pretty sure the Dawgs can get it done without the circus that follows the “Manning legend”. To their credit the Mannings handle the clown show with class.Maybe those guys have enough SA to understand they never won a gotdam thing in college that makes me envious. If he comes to Georgia I’ll damn sure root for him.
I get enough recruiting news right here. Don’t even read Sentell regularly.
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Nailed it Russ. The media has fucked this up like everything else and made it a clown show.
I’d love to have the kid if this is where he belongs, and I’m sure he will do well. But damn, Payton won a lot of games at HillBilly U but he don’t have any rings. IF it were a choice between having a just few good seasons with Arch or couple of rings with Beck/Vandagriff/Stockton I’ll take Gunner & Carson/Vandagriff with the jewelry. I don’t want any more of that “just three more yards” bullshit.
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When crootin’ news is required reading, I follow what CKS is saying, where that Kirby Copter is landing and what ever part of the world the UGA football staff is crootin’…#ALLHAILCKS!
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I would consider myself a voracious consumer of college football content. I pay for a subscription to The Athletic and am a Patreon subscriber to Split Zone Duo. I listen to every podcast on the Andy Staples feed as well as Solid Verbal. WSLS is the only Georgia specific podcast I listen to.
I’ve never paid for a recruiting service subscription. The reason is similar to Gotthepicture. It seems like you’re paying for a lot of conjecture about the whims of teenagers which seems like is freely available if you’re willing to look for it elsewhere. I’ll read the occasional article from 247 but getting the paid content seems mostly just methadone for the offseason and I feel like there’s better options available.
That said, we’re in the depth of the offseason right now and there’s little else to talk about, news wise, other than what is Arch Manning thinking. I’d rather fill my time with Richard Johnson talking about scheme, Andy Staples interviews with beat reporters about specific schools, and Steven Godfrey dishing out back room gossip. But, if you only care to listen about Georgia then you have few options and I understand we all need our fix.
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I hope Godfrey does a long show about the Favre lawsuit in Mississippi as it involves wrestlers, graft and Brett Favre.
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Dafuq?
Toss in muskrats, PVC pipe and cayenne peppers and it’s a party.
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And a cab ride from a Philadelphia, MS casino.
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You boys had me at Muskrat love…I’ve starred in my own personal hillbilly soap opera for years…I’ve got got a bottle of Hai Karate from Uncle Got that will straighten out your stigmatism…took a few swigs before I realized it ain’t potable
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Hai Karate? Is that what he’s calling it? Just because it ain’t potable doesn’t mean Uncle Got won’t drink it. He drinks some of the finest scotch whisky known to man as well as porcupine piss. He has, shall we say, eclectic taste.
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That hand sanitizer is smoooooth.
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That’s where the hand sanitizer went?
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That reminds me about reading that some of those Bolshevik roosky bastards would strain tank brake fluid and drink it during WWII…talk about shitting like a crippled coon…
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Reminds me of a song: “I’m drinkin’ till I see double … Then I’m taking one of you home …”
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LMFAO!
BTDT.
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The day I pay for a recruiting news site is the day I know I will need to quit college football for my own good. As you said, Jeff Sentell does a great job covering recruiting so why do I need the pay sites?
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Seems to me paying for recruiting content is a waste of money. I pay for the Athletic, but other than that I can’t justify it for me. Other than maybe having access to mostly rumors and conjecture earlier I don’t see the value of paying for a recruiting service website. I could be wrong, but all the same stuff comes out in the free sites eventually from what I can tell.
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Fwiw:
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For some folks, the recruiting game is almost more important than the actual games on the field. You see that reflected in some of the discussions about Stetson Bennett versus Brock Vandagriff/Carson Beck/Gunnar Stockton — “but he’s a former walk-on! What 5-star wants to come to Georgia to sit behind a former walk-on???”
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Those same people still can’t accept that Georgia won a national championship with Stetson Bennett as qb. They cannot enjoy the national championship because Georgia did not have a generational talent, NFL prototype, highly recruited qb leading the way. I feel sorry for them.
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I’m personally a member of our 247 site, and I feel the staff there does a great job of reporting while staying away from the pom pom waving. With that said, the same cannot be said for other teams’ websites, where objective reporting is thrown completely out the window in favor of unabashed cheerleading.
This, IMO, is done purposely to not only attract fan eyeballs/subscriptions but also retain them via the prospects of triumphant glory ahead. For example, one particular rival website has predicted the Kirby is about to be dethroned by their new coach in the recruiting arena…just because. Another example that comes to mind was back in ’17 when we had a RB room that consisted of Chubb, Michel, and others. Yet the SCU site ranked their RBs higher with names nobody had heard off, with I believe only Bama topping them in the SEC.
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Yep, it looks like the Texas folks are going to be just as obnoxious as the UT folks. What is it about the color orange anyway?
Like the Senator said…
The supposed experts all pretty much agree that it is down to these two schools. And they all pretty much agree that nobody knows which school he is going to pick.
I think we are getting a preview of what A&M Cousins are going to be like. No wonder they didn’t want to let them in the pool.
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The Texas people are more obnoxious than Tennessee could ever hope to be. Truly.
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Recruiting is a soap opera. I hate soap operas. I am content to see where the chips fall when all things are said and done.
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Stetson Bennett IV has more national championship rings than all the Mannings combined.
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There it is.
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Manning is interesting only for the reason that I expect some not yet named school, but big bank acct., to offer $10 million to come to their great university and I hope it ain’t UGA. I don’t think it will be, but you know someone or group will make an offer that can’t be turned down. And surprise, surprise he is gone.
I do not pay any service. Recruiting was fun when coaches were calling me in the mid 1960’s. It does not seem to be fun for kids now. And I hate that for them.
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I doubt a kid like Manning has “most NIL dollars” as his top priority. Clear path to starting would be my advice to him. Georgia may not have a great tract record in that department (Fair or unfair) with stud QB recruits. Ohio State and Bama have had a much more consistent record of getting huge QB recruits on the field – even if they jumped over the previous one (Tua/Hurts etc).
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Not sure why anyone would pay for info that is coming from a kid…I don’t think it matters who is relaying the info to the site, it’s still coming from a kid who is capable and likely to change their mind on a moment’s notice.
I don’t even like looking at Field Street’s predictions for that same reason.
Just let me know who actually shows up and that’s who we’ll run with.
Trust in the Smart One to bring the best Dawgs into the fold…until they transfer out at least.
Go Dawgs!
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I don’t have the energy to follow recruiting closely, but if I did I would most certainly pay for one of the recruiting sites – Jeff Sentell may know what he’s talking about but his writing is so awful it’s nearly impossible for ME to know what he’s talking about.
As far as the Arch Manning recruitment is going, I love the way the young man is going about it. He isn’t on social media every ten seconds, he isn’t talking to reporters about who is leading and who needs to kiss his ass harder, he’s just learning about the programs and building relationships and trying to figure out where he needs to be. That’s awesome, and I wish him well. From the beginning I’ve had my doubts about whether he’d end up at Georgia, but the way he’s handled the process really makes me hope he does. If this is who he is as a recruit, I can’t help but think he’ll approach being a football player with the same focus.
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This is exactly where I am. Arch and his family seem to be focused on football first and everything else is a distant second. Bama seems to have gotten the message that he isn’t coming to Tuscaloosa (may be the canary in the coal mine re: Saban) because they have moved on to another QB. Texas has a lot of chaos, so who knows how long Sark survives.
If he comes to UGA, great. If he doesn’t, there’s plenty of QB talent in the cupboard right now.
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Sentell writes in circles. Tells same story three times within same article like he’s trying to hit his word quota. I appreciate some of the personal insight, but damn he drives me nuts!
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I don’t really follow recruiting except for UGA through Dawgnation. I get it through Dawgbone which is how I’m linked to this site.
As for Manning, I really question whether his family would encourage him to go to Texas. Just seems a little too volatile a place with little recent success or, more importantly, stability. I’m not sure I’m crazy about him coming to Georgia. Seems like he’ll have a lot of pressure on him and it would be hard to deal with if he didn’t do great. I predict Ole Miss if Junior convinces them he’s staying put (I know this seems contradictory to comments about stability) for three reasons: (1) Manning connection to school; (2) Less pressure to win natty or be considered a failure, and; (3) Junior is good offensive/quarterback coach.
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I don’t pay..
I read the Good Senator and you
fine folks!
What else do I need to know??
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I don’t pay for recruiting news and I don’t really follow it until we get right on top of signing day. I am intrigued by Arch, though. If only because we have a shot to get him and it appears to play out more like a rational decision than any other college choice made by an 18 year old in the history of mankind.
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Following the whims and desires of HS seniors on the internet can only lead to confusion, disappointment, and possibly indictment…
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LMFAO !
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I quit following recruiting closely when The Grapevine shut down several years ago, if tells my age. If someone commits I look at their 247 page and read free articles on them then hit the highlights on signing day.
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I’m on Rivals and enjoy the extra video content to watch players’ highlight reels and see them go against one another in camps. Good inside info on there as well I haven’t found anywhere else. Probably not worth the cost to get information days or weeks ahead of others, but I do enjoy it.
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I like the junkyard at the 247 site. I don’t really care about recruiting as long as CKS is doing his thing, I like the steady action of the message boards. I am an active member on a couple of car forums, which is dying out slowly, mostly +40 crowd that recognizes that if you own “x” vehicle, the forum already has 100 DIY threads that cover what you just posted about. Keep in mind that back in the ‘90’s we did not have access to read or watch other people describe/show you in detail how to rebuild your valve timing system and use your laptop to reset adaptations.
Still, I like the interaction more than I care about recruiting buzz. I don’t really GAS if Arch commits to us or not, but I also see that if he does there might be a 2-3 year boon that would be fun on the O side of the ball AND if he is as good as “experts” say he is it might keep Monken around. Given the choice? I’d rather keep Monken than get Arch.
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