Ask Coach Chris Vaughn - It's pretty interesting, I guess. He talks a bit about recruiting (which he hasn't gotten enough credit for) and our returning and incoming defensive backs. There was one part in response to a question about the differences between recruiting at Arkansas and Ole Miss which elicited an "oh snap" out of me:
Now we are in a true southern state, recruiting in southern states and that makes it easier.Gotta love that Coach Vaughn. He really is a good one and I'm pretty damn glad to have the guy.
Ole Miss Earns a Vote - For SEC Baseball champion, that is. The SEC coaches seem to think we're a good team but, after last year's fiasco of a season, I'm assuming that we're all reserving our judgment of this team until the postseason. Stay tuned for in depth Cup coverage of the Coca Cola Classic to kick off our 2009 baseball coverage.
Chris Low Gives Love, Etc. - For Valentines Day, ESPN.com's Chris Low gave every SEC team something about which to be hopeful. We Rebels were reminded that Jevan Snead and Kent Austin are badasses. We didn't need the help with that, Chris, but we appreciate your observation nonetheless. He also did some research and outlined the major OOC opponents for each team over the next few years. Some games which should be interesting are Ole Miss vs. Clemson, Ole Miss vs. Texas, Alabama vs. Penn State, Tennessee vs. Oklahoma, Tennessee vs. Ohio State, Georgia vs. Oregon, South Carolina vs. North Carolina, and many, many others. A lot of SEC h8urz like to say that we're afraid to play opponents outside of the Southeast. To that I say "malarkey," keep h8in.
19 comments:
looks like State owes a favor or four to Conference USA
Hogwash is what it is. Making exscuses for past recruiting failures figure to be the norm for a Nutt cronie.
When you're adjacent to the most talent-rich state in the union, but consistantly out-recruited by Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, and Les Miles on a yearly basis, what other exscuse could you possibly use?
More southern? Are you kidding me?
What does that mean, more in-state battles lost to Miss. St.?
How about Florida and California?
Petrino had his first full year recruiting on this go around, and had no problems what so ever in those two states, bringing in HS and JUCO athletes.
He also brought in 7 new recruits from the state of Texas, and brought in a highly sought after RB from the KC/St. Louis area.
He also had 2nd dibs to Nutt on Darius Winston, a 5-star CB recruit from Helena, AR Nutt would have killed for, but was able to land him anyway.
That's something your BS coach and his staff weren't able to do for several years running in this state with it's top recruits. (Ryan Mallett-Michigan, Broderick Green-USC, Kodi Burns and Lee Ziemba-Auburn, players who tried it, but said fuck it-Mitch Mustain and Damien Williams-Trans. to USC)
Nutt is a failure when it comes to developing top talent, and all of these kids knew it. Vaugn can say whatever BS he wants to about their inability to recruit in the past. I have my doubts he honestly believes that statement.
When you're growing up as a kid, you might root for the home team to win, but when it's your turn to take the field, your simply not going to play for someone who's incompetent in preparing you for the next level. In other words, they choose not to waste their talents.
Fresno St is an AWFUL pickup. They are probably slightly underrated every year and usually kind of a gritty team that would get up for an SEC squad. Especially one that had to travel to California to play them.
I ain't skeered, but the risk/reward of playing them just ain't where it needs to be for an SEC team. Also how many fans will be at that game compared to the others on that list? Not many...
If we are looking for cheap wins over midlevel teams then let's play Tulane in NOLA and enjoy ourselves a little closer to home.
On the other hand...
-Ga Tech and Clemson are cool matchups. Good teams and easy spots for Rebels to travel to.
-And needless to say Tx will be goodtimes here and there.
"When you're adjacent to the most talent-rich state in the union"
Arkansas borders Florida? Really? In which United States is this bizarre statement a reality?
Florida talent > Texas talent
Dear GonzoHog,
Please take your Mitch Mustain / Ryan Mallett / Bobby Petrino filled screeds somewhere else.
No one is even really shocked or offended by your posts, they are just a fucking nuisance.
Maybe a sight related to the the team that you cheer for? I'm sure that Mallett or that homeless looking guy that used to be on the bball team up there have facebook accounts. Try hitting them up now and again.
Your shtick can be fun during the week that we play y'all, but I don't think most of us are feeling it right now.
Thanks and Woo Pig Sooey,
Goldie
Ghost,
It is actually like this:
Florida talent> Cali talent> Tx talent.
Also, how many simlarities do you see between last years Rebs and the A Braves? (Injuries, underachieving players...)
Gonzo,
Darren McFadden, Matt Jones, Adam Jones (didn't have the same legal issues in college), Felix Jones, Luigs, and so on. How many coaches can boast that many BA's that good over the same span. The problem was depth.
We have lost more in-state battles to Miss. St. than y'all because we are actually in the same state.
"Ryan Mallett-Michigan, Broderick Green-USC, Kodi Burns and Lee Ziemba-Auburn, players who tried it, but said fuck it-Mitch Mustain and Damien Williams-Trans. to USC"
None of these players would have chosen a Petrino coached Ark team either.
And in any event none of the aforementioned players are "great" players anyway. In my opinion none of them have that much talent to waste.
Ghost,
Are we evaluating the quality of the talent or the quantity of the quality?
Also, if I had my choice of trying to recruit Texas from the state of Arkansas, compared to recruiting Florida from the state of Mississippi, the easiest and more logical path to follow, from a recruiting advantage standpoint, would easily be the first choice.
Arkansas taking on Texas, Tex. A&M, Texas Tech, OK,OK ST.,and Missouri for recruits, is much easier than Ole Miss tackling Florida, Florida ST., Miami, Georgia, 'Bama, and S. Carolina.
Florida ST. and Miami may play in weaker conferences, but the better talent in the state of Florida will always choose them over Ole Miss 10 to 1, not to mention the other out of state SEC programs like 'Bama and Georgia.
Most bigtime college prospects want to play in the SEC.
What's different about Texas? Yeah, that's right, their players stay at home and those players are playing in the Big 12 and WAC conferences. Get the picture?
More of a southern state, my ass!
Hunter,
Mallett transfered back last year, as a result of R. Rodriguez bringing in an option style offense, suited more for a dual-threat QB.
Green transfered this year because of wanting to be closer to his ill Grandmother, and because of his playing time behind other blue chip recruits, much like Moody did when he transfered to Florida.
Also, Nutt isn't there anymore.
Goldie,
Didn't you hear? I'm the dark force that makes this Blog so great. Get over it.
"Are we evaluating the quality of the talent or the quantity of the quality?"
I'm talking quality here, Gonzo.
Something like 1/3 of all SEC athletes are Floridians. Likewise, the same ratio applies to the Big XII and Texans.
Now, look at how well the SEC fared in bowl season vs. how terribly the Big XII fared. Florida beat OU, Ole Miss beat Tx Tech, Oklahoma State couldn't stop Oregon's offense, and Texas needed last minute heroics to beat the perpetually overrated Buckeyes.
Texas high school football talent IS very, very overrated.
All things considered though, I do understand why Arkansas recruits Texas. History and geography play an important role there. The same applies to Ole Miss recruiting Florida.
"Arkansas taking on Texas, Tex. A&M, Texas Tech, OK,OK ST.,and Missouri for recruits, is much easier than Ole Miss tackling Florida, Florida ST., Miami, Georgia, 'Bama, and S. Carolina."
Perhaps, but that's the gamble you take when trying to recruit the best state out there. Say all you want, but we recruited Florida quite well this offseason. Sure, we lost out on some guys to the aforementioned programs, but we also won a few of those battles.
"More of a southern state my ass."
Could somebody please buy this guy a fucking map?
"Florida ST. and Miami may play in weaker conferences, but the better talent in the state of Florida will always choose them over Ole Miss 10 to 1, not to mention the other out of state SEC programs like 'Bama and Georgia."
Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Mizzou all play in a weaker conference, and Texas players are going to attend those schools over Arkansas 10 to 1, so what's the big fucking problem there? There are 18.3 million people who live in Florida compared to Mississippi's 2.8 million. We can't recruit Mississippi alone. We just can't. USC, Texas, and Florida can cherry pick their own state. If Ole Miss were to try our strategy we'd have a thin, thin team. To think that there aren't a few we shouldn't try to pull away from the Sunsine State (or any other state for taht matter) is logically and factually incorrect.
Texas players grow up wanting to play in the Big XII.
Florida players grow up wanting to play in the SEC.
Really? I thought the SEC was supposed to be the best and most competitive conference in the country.
Ghost,
Wrong again. Petrino is making his presents felt more and more in the state of Texas.
The 2010 class already has 1 commit from that state, and several more who are considering the Hogs as one of their early favorites.
These kids wouldn't have even given Arkansas a sniff under the previous staff. Oh yeah, and a map isn't nessesary. I already know your school is stuck between rock and hard place. (Texas-Arkansas-NUTT-Alabama-Florida.
As for Nutt doing well in the state of Florida this year, well, you can believe that theory if you want, but considering how much of the top in-state talent decided to attend Miss. ST., I'd say your right about Nutt HAVING to go outside his borders.
By the way, how many did he bring in from Arkansas? Are they eligible to play?
Arkansas will be loaded with talent in the 2010 class. Let's see how that goes.
"Petrino is making his presents felt more and more in the state of Texas."
My favorite grammatical/spelling error yet.
I'm calling Mike Slive! Bobby Petrino is giving recruits PRESENTS!
Gonzohog said it! It MUST be true!
Ghost, they had to switch to presents, cash loans weren't working out so well:
http://arkansasnews.com/?p=26218
(special attention to fifth paragraph from the end).
Gonzo,
You said why you believe those players didn't go to/transferred away from Ark, but you didn't defend their talent - or lack thereof in my opinion. That was a lousy argument.
Every player you mentioned that decided not to "waste their talent" playing for Coach Nutt is either warming a bench or racking up miserable stats.
Hunter,
The only stats available on Mustain are from the one season (8 games)he started as a True Freshman.
As a Transfer at USC, Mustain has done no differently than any other QB has done in the previous years before him.
Carson waited his turn, Lienart waited his turn, and Booty waited for his.
Did you really think Mustain was was going to be any different behind Sanchez, who just happened to be as highly recruited as Mustain was a year earlier?
That would be like saying Jevan Snead doesn't have talent because he couldn't beat out Colt McCoy for the starting QB at Texas.
Mallett's stats are from his True Freshman season at Michigan, in which he played behind a SR., until he was injured. (not very much to go on there either)
Green joined the very talented USC backfield, knowing full well he'd have to red-shirt. In his red-shirt season, he played in 3 games behind a very deep and talented depth chart.
one of the reasons he didn't want to come to the UofA, was because Houston and Danny Nutt told him they wanted to switch him to FB.
Pete Carroll told him he would play TB, and he did.
That tells me a lot when a kid decides to leave his home state, where he possibly would have played behind only FB Peyton Hillis in an SEC offense, and travel all the way to S.California just to red-shirt.
You think Mustain was the only kid who thought Nutt was a dork?
Damien Williams is doing well at USC. 'nough said. (the result of what "talent" can do when graduation or being drafted opens up the opportunity)
You'll have to make a better argument on talent than that, Hunter.
You can go to almost any BCS school, and find the exact same stats on highly talented recruits just barely begining their carrers.
I'm just saying, let's not retire their numbers until they put up some impressive stats. Stop claiming they're talented if all you have to go on is HS stats.
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