College football is now Semi-Professional football.

[GoldZ]

We would risk spreading our already very thin resources even thinner, with no guarantee of better results. I believe there are plenty of athletes within driving distance of ATL with high academic aspirations who would want to come to GT. There are also plenty who probably don’t care at all about the academic prestige but just want the opportunity to play.

All of that to say there is plenty of available talent for GT to take without having to go on a nationwide search for a few athletes who fit into a “mold.” It’s possible to get talent here, Collins has done it, but his miserable on field results have made it impossible to sustain.

We could absolutely reach into different parts of the country and grab kids who want the GT degree. A lot of GT’s best athletes have been from New York, California, Texas, New Jersey, and all over the place. But if your sole recruiting focus is on a nationwide search and you strike out on your top prospects, then you put yourself in a much worse position. And as I said before, there are a lot of schools with much better football status who can compete with, and in some cases have higher status degrees than what GT can offer.

Who has higher status degrees than those GT offers........ that the players actually take ? In reasonably high numbers that is. Outliers don't a program make.

 

[bobongo]

We would risk spreading our already very thin resources even thinner, with no guarantee of better results. I believe there are plenty of athletes within driving distance of ATL with high academic aspirations who would want to come to GT. There are also plenty who probably don’t care at all about the academic prestige but just want the opportunity to play.

All of that to say there is plenty of available talent for GT to take without having to go on a nationwide search for a few athletes who fit into a “mold.” It’s possible to get talent here, Collins has done it, but his miserable on field results have made it impossible to sustain.

We could absolutely reach into different parts of the country and grab kids who want the GT degree. A lot of GT’s best athletes have been from New York, California, Texas, New Jersey, and all over the place. But if your sole recruiting focus is on a nationwide search and you strike out on your top prospects, then you put yourself in a much worse position. And as I said before, there are a lot of schools with much better football status who can compete with, and in some cases have higher status degrees than what GT can offer.

Well, I don't think it should be their sole recruiting focus. And I was surprised at how well Collins was doing locally before the bad record (and the NIL) took its toll. Still think we should at least do some research and make some offers nationwide to select student athletes who "fit the mold". Doesn't seem we do this at all.

 

[bobongo]

Tennessee doesn’t have a strong high school program. It’s nowhere close to what GA, FLA, TX or CA has.

I do agree that scheme matters a lot. I would far rather recruit heavily in GA than try to do so nationally. It is super expensive to do so.

That's another problem - allocating sufficient resources to areas where they would do us the most good, i.e., recruiting.
How expensive would it be to just make some offers and follow up with one visit to each one of them? I don't see us very often doing even that. We're just here in our back yard competing with the factories that surround us. And it's one way to counteract the NIL, IMO. Emphasize the value of the degree down the road as opposed to the short-term glitz. Everybody's saying the short-term glitz is all that matters. We need to find some prospects who think differently. If we reeled in two or three a year out there, it would help augment our recruiting. Good for the brand, too. Or so it seems to me.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Here's my limited take.

There are two type of players who want to play. Those that want to play against friends (that's a lot of them) and those that want a path to the NFL (which is not as many as you think).

This area (Alabama, West Georgia, North Florida) .. these kids have been playing in high school games against each other for 10+ years. They all know each other. Some go to Auburn, some to Alabama (although that's changing as most kids who play for Bama today come from Texas) or some go to Florida. They enjoy the competition against lifelong peers.

Kids here cannot relate to playing Boston College. Or North Carolina. Or Wake Forest. They just don't give a ****.

Are the SA's stupid? No. I have a number of starting athletes who are at the top of the class. So dispel the notion that they are idiots.

Better quality athletes want to compete against other quality athletes.

I'm not sure I answered your question, but feel free to ask.

Thank you. It is pretty much what I would have thought. As for BC, UNC, or Wake Forest...well, as a fan those teams don't exactly move the needle like FSU, Miami, Clemson, UGA or from a long time fan's perspective Auburn and Tennessee. Back in Dodd's day he coached against Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, UGA, Florida, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt almost every year. It was a rough row to hoe but Dodd was a masterful recruiter and could turn that to his advantage pointing to the excitement of big time college football to starry eyed high school players.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I’m not so sure that’s true… in fact the 1998 Tennessee team had exactly zero players from California.

1998 Football Roster - University of Tennessee Athletics

The official 1998 Football Roster for the University of Tennessee Volunteers

utsports.com

At a glance it looks like about 50% were from Tennessee, and about 90% were from Tennessee or the bordering states (GA, NC, SC, AL, MS, KY, AR, VA). And the remaining 10% were mostly from southern states: FL, MS, TX, OK.

Tennessee’s current roster has way more players who aren’t originally from Tennessee (most of them are from Georgia.) They have kids from California, Jersey, Arizona, etc. now, and they didn’t back then. I’d be willing to wager they were able to keep way more of the best in state talent at home in 1998 than they do now. In 2022 ZERO of the top 10 recruits from Tennessee went to Tennessee. Vandy and Tennessee both only had 1 each of the top 20 players from the state. Compare that to 2007 when they had 4 of the top 10 in-state players and 10 of the top 20.

I don’t think having a national recruiting base is all that important. I think it’s way more important to land the best players from your own state, and the surrounding areas. Plus, doing it that way makes it easier to grow fan support and inroads with local communities who are more likely to get involved with the program.

That is interesting. I don't know where they come from but the bastards manage to get plenty of talent just about every year. Now what they do with it can be debated but getting players is the least of their worries. Now they finally have a coach who seems to be the real deal, some SEC teams may find themselves in for a rougher time playing Tennessee than has been the case.

 

[Vespidae]

Thank you. It is pretty much what I would have thought. As for BC, UNC, or Wake Forest...well, as a fan those teams don't exactly move the needle like FSU, Miami, Clemson, UGA or from a long time fan's perspective Auburn and Tennessee. Back in Dodd's day he coached against Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, UGA, Florida, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt almost every year. It was a rough row to hoe but Dodd was a masterful recruiter and could turn that to his advantage pointing to the excitement of big time college football to starry eyed high school players.

Dodd's philosophy was to keep the game close and win it in the 4th quarter. Not a bad strategy.