If you win the mythical recruiting title, it shows you're focused, you've got momentum and that you're a very appealing program. It's a burden that every single coach in the United States would like to wear, whether they admit it or not. |
It doesn't even matter if a guy is highly ranked at the end. Even if a team gets a commitment from a two- or three-star guy, that's huge news (to fans). |
It was typical Bobby Bowden. They should change letter of intent day to Bobby Bowden day. He does this every year. |
It's all about coaching. The kids hear about a team's success, the parents hear about it. They start thinking this is where the leaders are and this is where the championship experiences are. |
It's always harder to stay at the top. Soon they're going to find out what it's like to try to recruit the best athletes when they're so loaded already. Sooner or later, kids are going to [get scared off]. But they're both so focused, you wonder what would possibly throw them off? |
It's irresistible. You look at Matt Simms and imagine hundreds of conversations he's had with his father and brother about what to do under pressure. |
It's like going to the courthouse and picking out 50 marriage certificates and spreading them out and saying who is going to be married 40 years from now. There are so many factors that come into play. How is a player going to mature? Is he going to have a drug problem in a couple of years? There are so many ways for a kid to go sideways, and sometimes it has nothing to do with anything negative. |
It's the best Georgia class I've seen in an awfully long time. It just looks like a typical hugely ranked class looks. You see a lot of people who are ranked in the elite ranks of their position groups. |
Michigan's the kind of program that recruits well regardless of its record. Because of the tradition, the great rivalries and because of the helmet, Michigan is a big deal. |
Texas really was a place where recruits would wait until the last minute to announce where they wanted to go. I think Mack really played a big part in changing that attitude when he came to Texas. Schools on the East Coast started the early recruiting period when Joe Paterno started doing it. Joe Pa started recruiting through his summer camps. And Mack brought it to the Southwest. |
The existence of biases hurts recruiting ... intentionally overlooking some things just because you want to promote certain kids. |
The great charm of recruiting as subject matter is that we don't know. We don't know what is going to happen. |
The thing you hope for is that he's working on the SAT or working hard on the GPA. He's got to qualify. |
There is a trust there that Callahan will bring Nebraska back to its stature of old. In the past 10 years, only two Nebraska recruiting classes have been in the top 10 in my book, but this is shaping up to be one of the better looking groups out there. |
There's enough talent there on defense, combined with what they have coming back on offense, to win the whole enchilada. |