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Title: Vols just got a commitment from a TE Post by: Volznut on January 02, 2013, 06:02:34 EST AJ Branisel
http://rivals.yahoo.com/tennessee/football/recruiting/player-A.J.-Branisel-133623;_ylt=ArA0gjl2HIqj0L6woy3USKOqt5B4 Title: Re: Vols just got a commitment from a TE Post by: Clockwork Orange on January 02, 2013, 07:10:44 EST AJ Branisel http://rivals.yahoo.com/tennessee/football/recruiting/player-A.J.-Branisel-133623;_ylt=ArA0gjl2HIqj0L6woy3USKOqt5B4 Offers from Nebraska and Missouri are comforting. The rest of his offers wouldn't suggest he is a BCS-caliber player. I really hope we get good news from a couple of the high-profile guys on our list, because right now we're still losing ground on our SEC foes rather than gaining it. Title: Re: Vols just got a commitment from a TE Post by: Volznut on January 02, 2013, 07:41:09 EST Offers from Nebraska and Missouri are comforting. The rest of his offers wouldn't suggest he is a BCS-caliber player. I really hope we get good news from a couple of the high-profile guys on our list, because right now we're still losing ground on our SEC foes rather than gaining it. He's a TE. That's not a position you're going to get a ton of stars. His film shows really good speed for a TE. Our last two TEs Stocker and Rivera weren't highly regarded but productive. Title: Re: Vols just got a commitment from a TE Post by: Clockwork Orange on January 02, 2013, 07:50:42 EST He's a TE. That's not a position you're going to get a ton of stars. His film shows really good speed for a TE. Our last two TEs Stocker and Rivera weren't highly regarded but productive. I try not to prejudge guys based on stars or other offers but we can't afford classes full of guys that aren't getting offers from the Alabamas, Floridas, Georgias, and LSUs of the world. I think only 5-6 of our 16 commits have offers from strong programs. Note that I'm not being impatient with Butch . . . it's tough to recruit in this position. We just have a big gap to make up and I hope we start that sooner rather than later. Title: Re: Vols just got a commitment from a TE Post by: Volznut on January 02, 2013, 07:55:38 EST I try not to prejudge guys based on stars or other offers but we can't afford classes full of guys that aren't getting offers from the Alabamas, Floridas, Georgias, and LSUs of the world. I think only 5-6 of our 16 commits have offers from strong programs. Note that I'm not being impatient with Butch . . . it's tough to recruit in this position. We just have a big gap to make up and I hope we start that sooner rather than later. I doubt we will be competing with those teams for players until we start winning again. If we go head to head with those guys, we will lose most of the recruiting battles right now, but you have to keep fighting. Honestly if we can steal Carl Lawson from Auburn and Marquez North, and get Koehler at OL, we will do well in this class. It would suck to lose Von Bell to Bama too. The 2014 class has a lot of high rated Vol legacy players. If we have at least a middle of the pack 8-4 type of year in 2013, we could get a lot of those I'd bet. Title: Re: Vols just got a commitment from a TE Post by: Clockwork Orange on January 02, 2013, 08:07:41 EST I doubt we will be competing with those teams for players until we start winning again. If we go head to head with those guys, we will lose most of the recruiting battles right now, but you have to keep fighting. Yes, but recruiting and winning are of course two sides of the same coin. You either have to (a) leverage great recruiting as an underdog into equal footing in talent and then wins, or (b) leverage great wins as an underdog into equal footing and then high level recruiting. Ideally, you do both of these things at once. Bruce Pearl did this . . . to be fair, his first class consisted only of Ryan Childress, but he locked up all of a great class except Ramar Smith well before he took his first team to the tourney. We are in a position right now such that (b) is the only option. If we can fill out the rest of the 25 with fairly competitive talent and not lose too much more ground, we can just hope that Butch does more with less in 2013 and that leads to a strong 2014 class. You just can't expect the same level of success out of guys recruited by the Indianas and Kentuckys and Toledos. They may win a game they aren't supposed to but they won't win SEC titles in football. Title: Re: Vols just got a commitment from a TE Post by: Volznut on January 02, 2013, 10:40:25 EST Yes, but recruiting and winning are of course two sides of the same coin. You either have to (a) leverage great recruiting as an underdog into equal footing in talent and then wins, or (b) leverage great wins as an underdog into equal footing and then high level recruiting. Ideally, you do both of these things at once. Bruce Pearl did this . . . to be fair, his first class consisted only of Ryan Childress, but he locked up all of a great class except Ramar Smith well before he took his first team to the tourney. We are in a position right now such that (b) is the only option. If we can fill out the rest of the 25 with fairly competitive talent and not lose too much more ground, we can just hope that Butch does more with less in 2013 and that leads to a strong 2014 class. You just can't expect the same level of success out of guys recruited by the Indianas and Kentuckys and Toledos. They may win a game they aren't supposed to but they won't win SEC titles in football. Oh yeah, I agree, long term you can't win championships without great recruiting classes...I mean top 5 type classes. |