2021 Recruiting and Targets

Not at all, Billy D was the Mac Brown of Basketball and apparently he didn't use the $$$ that Ky uses.

I'm speaking of a very typical phenomenon in High End College Athletics. As Wanna15 noted, I doubt the Gators are squeaky clean, but at least not as blatently obvious as so many others are since the Charlie Pell disastor. That was, by the way, what moved Top Recruits from UF to FSU and Bowden capitalized by having very strong teams until he became senile.

I no longer think such things have a similar effect due to the rampant corruption that permeates today's society.

 

I have heard this sentiment before; that our probation lead to FSU becoming a powerhouse. I don't really buy it myself.

The probation wasn't really the problem. The probation was simply an outward manifestation of the problem. The problem has always been our own conference. The SEC is neck-and-neck with the Big 10 for the most corrupt collegiate organization. If Charley Pell had coached for Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee or Auburn, he would have won a national title in the '80s and his reputation would still be intact. He was just a great coach on a team the SEC has always treated like dog s***.

It's why I never became an SEC-nationalist like so many other Gator fans. I hate the SEC. Our conference is a viper's nest for anyone not in the good 'ol boys clique.

Bobby Bowden is a less-talented version of Charley Pell, but I never once doubted that he was a great coach. He is one of the top-25 coaches of ALL-TIME; a great CEO. That's just recognizing what he built. Without Bowden, FSU would have been like Southern Mississippi. He grew that place from scratch by taking on anyone, anywhere and at any time.

To suggest that Bowden just took advantage of all the talent not going to Florida misunderstands the situation, IMO. Florida is an extremely talented state. It is one of the top headwaters for raw talent in the US. It's been that way for 50 years. It was only a matter of time before a local team, besides UF, reaped the rewards of that kind of proximity. Hell, it's supported FSU, Miami and Florida. There have been timed where all three teams finished in the top-15. There's way to much talent to suggest that Florida was going to be able to monopolize that forever.

Naw, what killed Florida is that we were getting good and the conference didn't like that. They went out of their way to strip our titles. FSU didn't have that problem. It's also why FSU didn't join the SEC in '92. Some people said they were scared of the competition. That is, yet another line, used by our fans to gloss over the real issue. The reality is, they were scared of the front office in Birmingham, as would any rational AD. Why go to a conference so you can get picked on like the new kid for decades. How many of the expansion teams have sniffed a conference title? Do you think that's because they all suck?

 

Hmmm makes sense

 

“The thing I see from Georgia’s program right now is consistency,” Thompson said. “You walk through the Georgia hallways and you go through their facility and it is just different. It is professional. You go through everywhere else – and I’m not even talking about Florida – there is music everywhere, right? And there is playing around. Which is fine.”

Except maybe for what Thompson saw when he joined Beck on an unofficial visit to UGA.

“Not at Georgia,” Thompson said. “Not at Georgia. It is very refined. It is very ‘this is what we are here to do.’ It is a business-like approach. It is more of an NFL approach. It is more like walking through the hallways of the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Atlanta Falcons.

“That’s the thing that just immediately hit me when I was up in Athens.”

 

Hmmm not a good look.

 

So Bobby Bowden is one of our fans?

Then, Bowden told the story of how Florida State joined the ACC in the early 1990s instead of the SEC. Bowden’s reasoning was that Florida State would have had a tough time winning a national championship if it had to go through the SEC.

"I felt that it was too difficult to win through the SEC to win a national championship," Bowden told Finebaum. "I felt like our best route would be to go through the ACC and that did prove out to be correct. I don’t know if we could have made it through the SEC."
https://www.foxsports.com/college-f...by-bowden-fsu-wouldnt-win-title-in-sec-051315

 

I mean that's just Denny Thompson's, who's an adult, take on the OV. Kids may not find that appealing, or maybe they do looking at the caliber of recruits they are getting lol.

 

Not a good look for who? There was no UF specific mention there.
And quite honestly I'm not sure I necessarily want UF to be run totally like a business, because it's not a business. I'm glad there is music playing, I'm glad they let them be kids, and have lives beyond football. There is a time to be serious, be focused, and take care of the football side of things. But I don't want it to be 24/7, and I doubt the majority of recruits do either.
All that said, I seriously doubt UGA is all that different than anywhere else.

 

I don’t like to read that.

Thought there was mention of UF.

Nonetheless I believe that’s the Bama model and it carried over. If we can have fun and beat georgia that works but until we beat georgia I’ll believe anything. I’m impressionable.

 

Clemson doesn't do it that way, and they have more 5 stars in this recruiting class than Georgia. That is just one guys take.

 

The new chic in attracting athletes is to make your 'headquarters' look like a law firm in downtown Jacksonville, with corporate artwork hanging from the walls, cubicles for the interns and shiny, ceramic tiling on the floors that click when you walk on them?

A young kid with jet black hair, pasty pale skin and wire-rimmed glasses wanders out of a room labled '11899A' with a juice box and intercepts a 6'7" 280 mountain: "Accounting says you haven't had your 10 O'Clock. Take this here and sign the clip board down the hall. Thank you." He stops and turns around a few seconds later. "Happy hour has been moved to Wednesday this week, same place, but we're hosting a couple clients on Thursday; a safety from Pahokee and, uh," he trails off. "...it'll most likely be a working lunch too." "Sign the clipboard at the end of the hall," he finishes.

Maybe that works with kids who want to cosplay as a professional corporate suit. I say keep the music and glowing logos.

 

Different strokes for different folks. That turns some recruits off. Of course the Benjamins can change their minds.

 

Well, Mizzou, USCjr, and Arky all sniffed it, but apparently didn't like what they smelled and rolled over each time.

 

The quote directly mentioned Florida.

 

Oh I thought that was a player saying that, lol.

 

Yea he's Beck, Gatewood, Richardson, and Sims personally QB coach

 

I know, specifically mentioned that it wasn't about Florida. And my response addressed why I think it is not a bad look for UF, and in some ways could be viewed as the opposite.

 

I wonder if he was impressed when Georgia walked him by their National Championship trophy case which has been radioactive carbon dated to 3.5 million years ago. Had to be impressed with that.

 

From the first page article....

Now that he’s committed, Borders says he plans to start recruiting several others to join him in Gainesville.

“Of course, I tell them it’s a great day to be a Florida Gator,” Borders said on his recruiting message to other guys. “I’m going after Barrett Carter, Ese Dubre, Deajoan Reynolds and especially Micah Morris, David Daniel and Cane Berrong. That’s the 2021 hot boys.”