Well now that their WR/QB is leaving early they may pass more than twice a game. Sounds like a receiver’s dream. I remember when they put that one receiver in the NFL for a season back in 2002. Has there been anyone other than that white dude and Randall Cobb?
Thought this interview with Spraggins was pretty good (normally these are 100% cringe). Sounds like he's one of the first in his family to go to college, and he seems genuinely thrilled about the chance to play at UT. Really rooting for this guy to turn into something for us.
Ernie Grunfeld told me a story about Rick Robey from KY. Told me that Rick, at that time, would rather stay at KY because of the money he was making at his “summer job” working for a horse breeder than go to the NBA.
Now they're getting serious about football, except they're still going after mostly Kentucky level guys
Welp, today sounds bleak. Tomorrow everything will be positive. Cycle works out for a great Wednesday.
again im happy at qb and even rb as neither should need to play next year and have a year to get stronger and faster, but a transfer or juco wouldn't hurt. I don't know anything about elite HS rb's this year. We may have one of the fastest wr recruits in the country. Like the OL attitudes and size mix we have. Kid from Illinois wants to maul people. DL we need a couple more. Have enough lbs, or do we need another one? Need to finish with some playmakers at DL/DE, db and wr. Keep in mind Gibbs will probably start next year, so he and Hyatt are good additions.
Nah, he will recruit well in Florida. I thought he was making a lot of mistakes early on at Memphis, but I was wrong. He was able to convince several local kids to walk on... some of them has decent to good offers elsewhere ... and he hit big on a few of them. Made good in roads with HS coaches. Media protected him.
Ubben with an article today about UT having its best in state recruiting of talent in a decade. So again, is recruiting really that bad?
We’ve taken a lot more instate recruits than usual. We missed on several big targets that are going to other SEC schools. Mays, Lawrence, and Thomas are all quality guys we landed. I’m a little skeptical of the others. Really suspicious that we’d get three quality guys out of the same Memphis are high school, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
TOOS mandatory comment: I'd rather have an in state guy that bleeds orange than a 5 star from (insert location of missed recruit).
Be interesting to see what happens with our last really big fish, Darnell Washington. Down to pretty much us and Georgia. Kind of sucks that Arik Gilbert went with LSU, because it looked for a good while like he'd pick us or Georgia and the other would get Darnell. Georgia has a really long track record of putting tight ends in the NFL. This guy already has a kid, so that may mean a lot to him.
I wasn't directing at you btw. I had just read the article. Memphis is such a different area and closer to many other sec schools, with whom there is no attitude as there is with many in the city vs UT. It was evident on twitter again after the basketball game. Add in we haven't recruited Memphis very hard in the past, along with not winning shit since these kids were born, and its been a mess. Former Memphis coach is our wr coach now and his relationships with some of these kids from their freshmen and soph years has helped. I was also skeptical about the Whitehaven kids and chances are they all 3 don't pan out, but they are all 6'3-6'4 220-240 and can run. You don't see that same size and speed together often outside of a football factory school. Imagine these kids in a college workout program. I expect a couple will look like Bituli as far as size, speed and hitting. Grimes is rated #1 and can't play a lick of defensive football compared to the 3, and is just a tad bigger. We have taken shots and missed, but its not as if we have a lack of talent coming in. Can it compete with bama and ga? Depends on the qb. Defense will be fine with the DL, lbs and dbs we have on the roster and coming in. We will be able to block as OL play and protection improved greatly, especially when Locklear is out. If Bailey is a true college baller, we will have enough to go toe toe, as we were with Bama this year until the Taylor penalty and the worst qb sneak in football history.
thing is football talent in the state has dramatically increased from end to end. Memphis is getting some better HS coaching and development in some areas. Mid tn including Murf with several schools with multiple D1 signees. But the kids didn't grow up UT fans and we have sucked so there has been no bleeding. We need to win, have some kids as fans again and have them want to represent instead of begging kids to leave home and try to turn around a program they have only seen get blown out by their biggest competition.
