SEC Recruiting. Do you agree?

quozzel

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Re: SEC Recruiting. Do you agree?

Nov 2, 2014, 9:33 AM

Another factor is that the SEC, frankly, is dirty as sin.

One example I'll throw your way is that class that Hugh Freeze landed at Ole Miss a couple years ago, that included the #1 OT in the country, Laremy Tunsil (from Florida), the #1 WR in the country, Laquon Treadwell (from Illinois), and the #1 DE and overall player in the country Robert Nkimdiche (from Georgia, who as everyone remembers was briefly committed to Clemson before his mother came back into the country and decided he was going to Ole Miss.)

Keep in mind, Ole Miss was coming off a 7-6 season under first-year coach Hugh Freeze, and had gone 2-10 the year before that. It's worth noting that Hugh Freeze was a high school coach until 2004...until he was hired as "assistant athletic director for football external affairs". Strangely, this hire came after one of his high school players, OT Michael Oher - the guy featured in The Blind Side, signed with Ole Miss in 2004; in 2005 Freeze was promoted to tight ends coach, a full-time staff position.

When 7-6 programs with no history of previous success and upjumped high school coaches with zero name recognition suddenly start recruiting national prospects and getting them, it's a glaring red flag. It was honestly hard for me to decide who to root against last night, watching Ole Miss and Auburn, though, because there were at least two guys on that Auburn squad, DT Mont Adams and DE Carl Lawson, who were headed to Clemson before Auburn - who was themselves coming off a disasterous 4-8 year under Gene Chizik - somehow managed to swoop in at the last second and grab both of them. You want to see still more examples, that Tennessee team that beat South Carolina last night had a long and sordid history under Phil Fulmer - who strip-mined South Carolina for years - and now appears to be right back to oversigning and pillaging under Butch Jones...they actually had the Tennessee state patrol drive one of their recruits to his signing-day presser last year, where he then "chose" between the Vols and Clemson. In much the same way voters in Russia now "choose" between Putin and two rounds to the head.

Honestly, the one program in the SEC that I suspect is largely clean in that regard is South Carolina. There might be some boosters operating behind the scenes (just as there are at any major university, including Clemson), but Steve Spurrier, to his credit, has never played that game and won't get into bed with them. Spurrier is not, and has never been, a dirty recruiter.

Truthfully, I admire the guy, and as tasty as it is to watch the Coots fail right now, I'd much rather deal with Spurrier - who is a clean recruiter who isn't poisoning the well in-state and who wins games the right way - than it would be to deal with some typical SEC bagman coach who goes and buys all the best in-state players out from under us.

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Of course; many recruits want to play in the SEC and yes

Re: SEC Recruiting. Do you agree?

I think that is actually a part of it now. They were

Lowest qualifying standards and over signing

Re: SEC Recruiting. Do you agree?

Re: SEC Recruiting. Do you agree?

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