I don’t see the NCAA having much authority to do much aside from banning participation in NCAA sanctioned events.
I 100% agree. I can understand the initial WTF feeling or response but the sky is not falling at all. These recruits are placed high on some pedestal and the fans are guilty of pumping the sunshine. McClain is one heck of an athlete and I wanted him in this class like everyone else but he is hype until he's competing on this level. You can't just carelessly throw money at hyped recruits while real Gators are on the roster. The only message throwing money at recruits sends is "we only care about recruiting rankings".
Probably not. But when we land a nice high 4* recruit or two in an area of pressing need, we should finally get past it.
Yes, we cannot win with a pedestrian NIL game and moderate talent regardless of Napier's systems. But this class shows we will get good>great talent. After that, schemes and systems really matter. He will not have markedly better talent at another school so coaching, schemes, systems, program will be the difference there as well. He has every advantage at UF he would have at another school. That's all I'm saying- his only limitations might be his on-field product. Albeit, lets say he keeps his DC at UF and we see marginal performance, and the same for his offensive system. Then, lets say he moves on, for whatever reasons, and goes to a school where he brings in a proven DC and a gunslinging, exciting OC. Well, that's different.
He better be able to control a locker room. These things come with ego and all. Jumbo is seeing what happens when kids get paid before they show anything in college
Miami is THE worst place to go as an 18 year old with a really nice bank account. These kids are going to have the hardest time making it to the NFL. This is going to make college 10x harder for these kids when they already see themselves as rich. They have to go to class to make the grades to play, and they have to go to the gym to make gains for their future NFL career that they believe they will have. Some of these kids have a very tough road ahead. Miami might make it worse honestly
This obviously stings, but we need to be careful with engaging in bidding wars for top 50 or top 25 players. Don't want to throw the kitchen sink just to land someone on signing day without any assurances that the player will amount to anything. Top 25 to top 50 guys turn out to not live up to quite that level of hype for all sorts of reasons. Doesn't mean we shouldn't recruit them, but if we had to choose between a team of 3 stars with maybe a total of 7 or 8 random top 50 players sprinkled around the team... and a team of 4 stars with maybe 1 or 2 top 50 players, I'd take the latter every time. Players are human, and financial incentives matter. If the team sucks, and a 5 star recruit is paid millions just to sign some place, how quickly do you think a guy like that quits on the team? I'd say that's far more likely with a guy like that than a guy who signs with a school because he loves a school, or a guy with a competitive team, or a guy whose incentives are spread throughout his years with the team, or any combination of the three.
Thug U. They've earned their rep. I sure hope Gators behind the scenes are working to get some payback. The high profile trolling is going to make them pretty vulnerable to having another shit season. I wish them the worst along with schools like dumbo's aggies.
Meltdown? We've discussed this incident and our feelings about the human excrement in Coral Gables in the most erudite terms.
It seems like that - maybe they give him a big check up front and he knows that's illegal so he plays this troll game? I don't know but if you've got billionaire moneybags and an administration that doesn't give a rats ass about the rules, maybe the kid has to make it about being a troll. There's a good chance this doesn't work out for all those involved. That would be sad. I wonder how they get them to do it - "here's $1M up front but you have to lie to everyone important in your life about loving UF. Keep lying until your official commit and there's another $500K in it for you." I can only speculate but I hope the kid didn't just screw himself over.
and when he hot dogs like he's "money" and turns out not to be the best player available but still the coveted starter...
Either start paying for elite recruits or don’t expect to contend for championships anytime soon. End of story.