Mullen vs Napier Recruiting

But they didn’t have UGA or Bama talent. We aren’t there yet. Obviously we want to get there.

 

Tua and Bryce Young are elite. Of course, Bryce didn’t win one.

 

I’m just saying an elite QB that’s masks other deficiencies isn’t a recipe for success in the SEC. The one common denominator in the last decade of SEC champs is Elite talent and depth especially at the LOS. If UF wants to get to Atlanta and win it, it has to get through UGA and likely Bama/LSU. That doesn’t happen with scheme or one elite player…… consistently.

 

And we had that demonstrated to us perfectly in 2020 when we had and elite QB and 1 defensive stop might have been all that was needed for an SEC title.

 

I get your point. I disagree to a point. Championships are hard in the SEC, I get that. But all you have to do is look at Hendon Hooker. He easily added 3-4 wins to their totals.

 

Yep. I’d much rather have a talented and deep LOS than an elite QB.

 

Sure then you can win with a game manager. Elite QB's don't grow on trees.

 

Yes and then what happened. It isn’t sustainable. Tennessee will likely regress to their mean. Scheme only gets you so far. Talent and depth get you to the top. UGA and Bama can get by with a game manager at QB because of all the other talent and depth that they have. They don’t need elite at QB. That allows them to reload, instead of swings up and down.

 

Of course the goal is to recruit at a Bama/UGA level. We’re not there yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t compete. I’m hopeful we can be an “outlier” until we get there.

 

I don’t disagree.

 

Unfortunately, to recruit at the level of Alabama or Georgia will require a willingness to skirt the rules that our administration and boosters will probably never have. The NCAA has seemed to always give bama a free pass here. It’s unbelievable the tua situation was never investigated. Georgia just began shenanigans at the right time when the free for all was getting started.

 

One

One key factor that seems to be missing is:
The wear and tear that happens when an SEC team faces another SEC team each week...verses an ACC team each week.
It's one thing to go to war with a team of equal talent (especially on the LOS)...
but DON'T forget where a team winds up in late November with players trying to play through injuries.

 

I get the argument you're trying to make, but Clemson was #1 or #2 recruiting every year in their conference which meant they were realistically only playing 1 or 2 equally talented teams in a season.

UF has to play around 4-5 teams every year that are recruiting higher levels of talent than us in the same conference.

 

I'm not sure if they signed the best classes in the ACC or not, but on average those rankings do NOT look like the top ranked recruiting classes even in the ACC, but it would be nice to see that actual info.

Clemson also had low ranking scores because they had low number of players in their classes, which is an important point with respect and comparison to our 2023 high school signees so far. They had really good high scoring recruits with several top 5* star players which is what is missing from our current class, so we still have much work to do on that front. And, as someone else pointed out, they recruited GREAT QBs which put them in the top of their league and in the nation for that matter in short order.

This is Napier's first full recruiting class, so I'm NOT worried about where we are right now. It will get better and we will start to land 5* star composite recruits in the near future. 2024 will be a great year in recruiting, IMHO.

Another point of comparison is that Clemson took a while to get top the top. Remember that term/s "Clemsoned" or "Clemsoning?" That was the term used to describe same coach (Dabo Swinney) getting his butt kicked on the football field by another team/s. He got smart and stole Oklahoma's DC (Brent Venables) to fix that mess. Then they started to win... Now I do NOT expect us to get to that level of ineptitude on defense, just because Swinney got to that low. I also don't expect Napier and the Gators to experience constant losing during his ascension to the top.

Nothing is going to happen over night. Napier is in the beginning of a full on rebuild, and he's just getting started, so relax and enjoy the ride.

I believe that Napier knows that he's in the SEC now, and that the NIL and the Transfer Portal has changed the game completely. But he will adapt and get the ship right.

 

We shall see. It’s all legal now and we just need to navigate it all above board and within the NIL state laws that we help to write.

 

I think we will take the Clemson approach of hitting big on certain positions then filling the rest with high 4 stars. Add a 5 star QB, DL, WR to a class stacked full of 4 stars (like our current class this year….and you get Clemson

 

For the record, Mullen sucked as a head coach! That's why he is about to spend his second year out of coaching.

If you want to follow him, please turn on ESPN.

For the rest of us, CNB is our coach. Let's have some faith. We have complained for years that Mullen / Grantham's players were lazy and under performing. Billy is cracking the pretty eggs and he's about to make his omelet. Let him buy the groceries.

Parcells was coaching the New England Patriots and he wasn't getting along with the new owner Robert Kraft because Parcells no longer had a say in player personnel issues.
The quote was: “If I'm going to be asked to cook the meal, I'd like to be able to pick the groceries.”

 

I think it’ll be quite different. They don’t have visa problems, previous serious injuries, grade problems, probably are less likely to cause trouble…. I just think they aren’t the leftovers that have built in problems that gat make them low hanging fruit.

 

and the only reason why peeps are using the Clemson model is because of how the class is currently. Had we not whiffed on flipping John Walker and been able to land Ricks or/and Cormani and/or Samson, we would be singing a diff tune

 

It’s been a long time since we actually are competitive in recruiting these top dudes…so it’s progress as far as I can see.