FLORIDA RECRUITING: GOT GOLD STARS LIKE DOOGIE HOWSER.
File under taking cheese, making sandwich: Urban Meyer caps an eyelid-flipping recruiting season with the announcement of Belle Glade wideout Deonte Thompson’s LOI. Deonte commits in keeping with two Florida traditions:
1. Wideouts with curiously spelled first names. See Jacquez Green, Reidel Anthony, and especially wacky “Travis” McGriff.
2. He’s from Belle Glade, one of the most desperate corners of the Sunshine State and a former Gator stronghold during the Spurrier days. The old wisdom was that in Belle Glade, you had four vocations to choose from: cutting cane, going to jail, catching AIDS, or playing football. (For a while, Belle Glade had the highest HIV prevalence of any town in the U.S.)
We’re glad the 4.28-running Deonte opted for football. So’s Urban, who is frankly beginning to frighten us a little with all the competence and drive busting out all over the place. His ambition seems to be without horizon, and appeasement doesn’t seem to be working with him. Get Ban Ki-Moon on the phone! NOW!
Urban: so good only Microsoft Paint could do him justice. (HT: Reader David.)
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1
Lawya1 says:
Are the vocations all mutually exclusive?
February 7th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
2
Orson Swindle says:
A lawyerly question, sir.
February 7th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
3
juan miguel says:
If there’s ever a Freakonomics II I’m sure we can all look forward to another name-as-career-projectory-forecasting-tool chapter, and I’m double sure that Deonte equals point guard or wideout more than %70 of the time.
February 7th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
4
Romdawg88 says:
Thats one of the most accurate descriptions of my hometown that I’ve seen. I was hoping we could get Deonte at FSU but no such luck. Damn, y’all have a great recruiting class this year.
February 7th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
5
LD says:
Cutting cane or cutting ‘caine?
February 7th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
6
Mark says:
Don’t forget “Nafis” Karim.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
7
Hallux Valgus says:
At this point, Florida seems to be doing with wide recievers what USC is doing with running backs- namely, not recruiting them to ever play them or anything, but rather recruiting them simply so (insert team name here) can’t have them. What selfish bitches.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
8
Firedog says:
Hallux Valgus, don’t count on it. UM has said over and over again that he wants a pile of talented wide receivers so that he can run his system the way he wants. Expect most these guys to play, if their talent holds up.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
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Dave says:
Sweet, my EDSBS debut. Though maybe I shoulda spelled it “Recr00ts.”
February 7th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
10
Jeff from LA says:
Orson, congrats on an amazing class.
Its amazing how much difference one coach can make. (Even though [NAME REDACTED] is still claiming credit for all of Urban Meyer’s recent success.)
Also, I wonder how frustrated those Domers must feel right now. They lost Urban Meyer, got the Fat Man instead, hyped up Fat Man’s recruiting ability, proclaimed him an Offensive Genius(tm), just to find that UM’s a better coach on the field AND a better recruiter off it.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
11
thehakujin says:
Ban Ki-Moon. I like it.
February 7th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
12
Cruzer says:
Urbs is like and addict who can’t get enough speed.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
13
atepesm says:
The big question is . . . . “Will Urban be able to keep up Zook’s 50% retention/graduation rate?”
I doubt it. I don’ t think Meyer has that much ethical character. He’s right up their with Pete Carroll, who has players attending the local Tech school to pick up language credits. . . . .
Stay classy Urban.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
14
atepesm says:
What was Bobby Bowden’s quote on recruiting in Florida?
(essentially) “Anybody should be able to do it. Especially considering that there’s enough D1 talent in Florida to supply 20 college WRs.”
February 7th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
15
AUAlum says:
Just when you thought the Fayettenam clusterfuck couldn’t get any worse, read this. Its long (like Ulysses long) but worth a read if you have a day or two.
http://realhognews.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Hawg fans should start listening to Talib Kweli, cheer up, and just hope to get by.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=67rS57khbM0
February 7th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
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Cabbage says:
NCAA 2008 Preview
New recruiting features sure to thrill college football junkies.
by Levi Buchanan
<A HREF=”de.ign.com/event.ng/Type%…6I5%23dt%” target=”_blank”><IMG SRC=”ads.ign.com/advertisers/2007
/degree_300×200_video.jpg” WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></A>
February 6, 2007 – In an effort to assure that NCCA Football 2008 will be the most realistic gaming experience possible, Electronic Arts has announced changes and additions to the recruiting process.
In years past the recruiting process was accomplished by assigning recruiting “points” to prospects and selecting a “pitch” ranging from playing time to academics. The contact levels ranged from “phone call’ (2pts) to “send the house” (30pts). In the past players would take their official visit and then make a verbal commitment which would remain solid through signing day. This system will remain intact while removing some of the predictability, and offering a new level of contact.
NCAA 2008 will incorporate the new contact level “poach” (100pts). The feature will allow you as the coach to contact a player already committed to another school. By selecting “poach” the player will be caused to switch his committment to your school. This feature is available for use only once per recruiting season, unless you have chosen to be the virtual coach of Florida in which case you are entitled to unlimited “poaches” up to the limit of your available recruiting points.
Also new for 2008 is the “wait, what?” feature. Think you have your recruiting class all locked up in week 4 or 5? Check your signings list. Notice that one or two recruits may be missing. You may say “wait, what?” but it won’t bring back that 5-star recruit who changed his mind at the last minute. “Wait, what?” puts chance back into the game, and as you know, at EA Sports, “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game”.
Executive Vice President and General Manager Gerhard Florin said “At EA we strive to create the most realistic gaming experience possible. I am pleased with the progress the NCAA 2008 team is making towards this end”. Consumers owning the PS3 or XBox360 can expect the new release late summer 2007.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:50 am
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Cyrus8675 says:
UM has been dubbed “King of Text messages” on cnnsi.com….has it really come down to recruiting via text message? hell, UM should just let some 17 year old high school chick take care of his recruiting. I could just imagine bobby bowden just trying to get a text message to work haha.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:11 am
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Meg says:
I don’t know about his true “ethical character” outside being a college football coach, but I do know that this is the first time that I have ever heard of UF recruiting players that as of a couple weeks ago were not likely to qualify, including a couple of their topflight DL recruits. I have also heard that there are some guys already on the team in grade trouble.
February 8th, 2007 at 2:27 am
19
zzgator says:
Details Meg?
February 8th, 2007 at 9:09 am
20
Rob G says:
ZZ and Meg:
Well, we didn’t offer Noel Devine, knowing that he wasn’t going to qualify.
And as far as I’m aware, John Brown and Davis have legitimate chances of qualifying, and if not, it wouldn’t be the first time UF sign and placed a guy (or sent him to JC)….
So until I see something specific accusations, I’ll just assume it’s more “bash the winner” type attacks that USC is always subjected to. Frankly, I’d rather be bashed for winning than bashed for having a meathead (Zook) as coach.
February 8th, 2007 at 10:32 am
21
Crox says:
Not sure how it is possible for kids to be in grade trouble already, one month into class. I could try to sound that bitter, though I doubt I could ever come close.
I do know the entire group of 9 freshmen were up at 5:30am running sprints recently beacuse one missed a class. Could be where the confusion comes in.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
22
Meg says:
I wasn’t talking about this year’s class. And while, yes, both Davis and Brown are still working on grades and test scores as well, I was also referring to a Mr. Dunlap who supposedly needs to close to a 4.0 this term to qualify.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
23
Meg says:
Rob G, it really isn’t about “bashing the winner”. Hell, UGA has made an artform out of the sign and place. It is more about pointing out the hypocrisy of Meyer going after other school’s academics on the recruiting trail. You can refer to Terrance Tolliver’s comments on that if you would like a first hand account.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
24
matsut says:
“SIGNING UR RECRUITS”? whaa?
It’s rare to see you put a foot wrong, since the comedy is usually so spot-on. anybody familiar with the “I’M IN UR (BLANK) – (BLANKING) UR (BLANK)” familiar knows that the word would be “RECROOTZ”, or, at the very least, “RECRUITZ”.
My favorite one so far is some liberal blogger who posted a picture of their cat in the bathtub: “IM IN UR TUBZ WATCHIN UR PEEZ”
February 8th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
25
matsut says:
IM IN UR THREADZ MAKIN TYPOS IN UR COMMENTZ
the 2nd “familiar” should have been “format”.
February 8th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
26
sb says:
Ah meg, your resentment is showing…
February 9th, 2007 at 9:22 am
27
zzgator says:
What team affiliation does Meg espouse?
February 9th, 2007 at 9:49 am
28
Dave says:
matsut,
I already copped to that mistake. It’s my bad, not the proprietors of this fine blog.
February 12th, 2007 at 3:02 pm