When did you know Dooley was not and could not be the guy?

LOL Diamond in the Rough is the translation for recruiting at a Kentucky / Vanderbilt level.

 

Exactly, especially when 1/4 of the class is considered "diamonds in the rough".

I don't mind taking a chance on 1 or 2 guys, but Dooley's reached a few too many times.

 

Dan Williams and Arian Foster were diamonds in the rough. We have some guys that are just rough, minus the diamond part.

 

So was Inky.

It's okay to reach on few guys, especially if you're a strong program. Look when Foster was taken, Tennessee had Riggs and Houston and signed Hardesty and Coker during his redshirt year. You can afford to miss on one RB if you have talent like that at a position.

Right now, there isn't and every miss is magnified.

 

Very true. Given the numbers situation I think he's willing to sacrifice the 2-3 years they have remaining if they can contribute from the beginning - which is the only reason you take them in the first place (unless they're that good). I don't blame him for that strategy.

BTW- are you Montrell from toos?

 

Inky, Arian, and Big Dan were educated guesses...calculated reaches.

Dooley isn't rolling the dice. He's just reaching out of desperation and necessity because he can't attract better prospects.

 

It's definitely what it feels and looks like.

Look at Bourque and then look at Imani Cross.

There's a tackle at UF, Trip Thurman, that was here for a camp and no coaches knew who he was. That's pathetic.

Then there's Josh Holsey, who had Eric Berry recruiting him to Tennessee, and Dooley and crew said he was too small.

Franklin straight up kicked Dooley's ass in the recruitment of Andrew Jelks.

 

Could not have said that better. An individual diamond in the rough here and there is no big deal, especially when you already have talent at their positions on the roster. The difference now is they are taking way too many diamond in the roughs (like you said at least 1/4 of the class is made up of them at this point. That is way too many), and they dont have much talent on the current roster at many of these positions where they are taking all these guys.

Also, as for Dan Williams... I know he was a 3-star coming out of high school but he also had a fairly good offer list. I would not consider him a "diamond in the rough." He had offers from schools like Miami, Oklahoma, etc... when he committed to Tennessee. He's more comparable to a guy like Vereen in this class than he is to all the diamond in the rough type guys that have really bad offer lists.

 

Exactly.

 

I checked out the ESPN page the other day for our recruiting classes under Dooley.

Here it is from 2010 to presents broken out as Total Commits/ESPN 150/ESPN 300 (ESPN 300 wasn't around until 2012) -

2010 - 30/6/0
2011 - 27/6/0
2012 - 22/2/3
2013 - 17/0/3

For comparison's sake, Alabama over the same time period

2010 - 28/8/0
2011 - 26/11/0
2012 - 26/13/14
2012 - 21/9/15

So, explain to me how we're closing that talent gap again?

 

Yes I am. And I agree. I cant blame him for going the JUCO route. But you also as a fan cant look back on a recruiting class 2-3 years later when trying to argue that he's building up the program and that class is setting a foundation for the future when half of the highly rated guys from it are already out of eligiblity. I see a lot of fans doing that.

 

People are naive if they think he's closing the gap. He's not and hasn't been. He's recruiting at a middle of the pack SEC level. Nothing more. My worry is this current class is going to actually widen the gap even more. With 17 commitments already, this class quite honestly is really bad.

 

he is dead in the water. I almost just assume that we lose to Mississippi State so all of this can be assuredly done. I am tired of the name [ddiapos] in the same sentence as Tennessee football.

 

Good deal. Glad to see you over here...and again, welcome.

 

Snapshot of this year's class. Seems very "meh"

 

This is true.

Bill Snyder is the only coach I know of that has consistently won and consistently recruited JUCOs.

Dooley had to get a few guys here, especially on the DL, that could play immediately. However, Couch and Sentimore are merely average. McCullers has been great in limited snaps though.

Taking a bunch of JUCOs is fine if they all pan out and it's used to win immediately. Lanier flunked out, Moore is just now playing (his effectiveness can be debated) and Patterson has been a huge hit. The wins aren't coming either.

 

scrubs honestly

 

According to Scout (for some reason I can't get the Rivals list to update by conference and year,) we have finished:

2012: 10th
2011: 5th
2010: 6th

in our conference recruiting. I'm not a star gazer, but that is a pretty good indication that we are getting our asses kicked.

The talent gap on the roster has closed, but only because it was so low due to busted classes in Fulmer's last years and numerous defections due to coaching changes. We will never win a championship as long as 6 teams a year in our conference are bringing in better players than we are.

 

Which is because Bill Snyder is a wizard.

 

Players who have actually gotten better: R. Neal, J. James (I'm not an OL guru, so I'm just going on reviews from elsewhere and general running game improvement on this one)

Players who might've gotten better but it's hard to tell because either they were on the bench before, they're in a hard position for me to evaluate (if so, others can chime in), or they're inconsistent enough to make me wonder if presumed improvement is actually a fluke: A. Richardson, Z. Fulton, Z. Rogers, B. Moore, C. Miller.

Players who have not gotten demonstrably better: everyone else.