Effect on Florida Schools
I'm surprised no one has talked about the effect that our recruiting the state of Florida will have on the local schools down the road. We have 6 commits this year from Florida, and look to have more next year as well.
I looked at Florida's recruiting, and this is what I found:
This year they have 7 out of 13 commits from Florida
2008 - 10 out of 22
2007 - 18 out of 27!!
There's no doubt that a lot of these kids are some of the best in Florida, and these are only the kids that chose Florida, not to mention Florida State, Miami, and UCF.
I'm interested to see how this changes their recruiting in the coming years, and what it does to their teams.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:49 PM ^
one urban meyer is none too happy that ricardo miller, and possibly kenny shaw, m-rob and demetrius hart might be leaving his state and all going to one school.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:54 PM ^
In the case of UF, they've reached a USC-level of amazingness in regards to recruiting and keep their offers pretty limited. They're a huge national player, and go after the kids they really want in-state. Heck, they've already got perhaps the nations #1 player in 2010 - FL S Elam.
FSU and Miami both still have huge nostalgic pull in-state. Their out-of-state recruiting is nothing too impressive. The rise of UCF and USF is definitely depriving the big 3 of some good talent.
As I've said before, Michigan's rise in Florida via RichRod will be the single-most important catalyst in our journey towards being a machine. Our 2010 haul looks fantastic already, with Ricardo, Marvin, and Lo Wood all looking like bluechip prospects. This, more than anything, might depress UF more than of the other state schools - as we'll often clash with them for the best of the best. Hell, they still wont leave Ricardo alone.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:46 PM ^
Lo Wood and Marvin Robinson haven't officially committed yet. Though I know M-Rob is a virtual lock (he's even told me as much), I have not heard how serious Lo Wood is. Does anyone know how serious Lo Wood and M are?
November 24th, 2008 at 4:20 PM ^
Don't forget that Blandin kid, too.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:18 PM ^
You get used to it yada yada, but Odoms seemed to definitely be adversely affected by the cold the last two games (especially with ability to catch/hold onto the ball). Anyone else a little worried about this in regard to michigan going forward?
As far as Florida - seems like the Michigan argument going on right now with State getting a bunch of good local kids. It seems Michigan's superstars have almost all been out of state kids.
Florida probably gets the 10-12 instate kids that are probably mostly ranked in the top 75 nationally and then picks off a few top five kids from major states around the country.
Ricardo is a huge get though if we can hang on (no reason to say we wouldn't at this point).
Equivalent to ROJO going to USC?
November 24th, 2008 at 5:28 PM ^
I don't think Odoms's problem was so much catching the ball as it was trying to field punts when he shouldn't have. He tried to make an insanely hard diving catch of a punt on Saturday when he could have just let it bounce out of bounds.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:57 PM ^
odoms wasnt trying to make a diving catch, he tripped running up to it
November 24th, 2008 at 5:33 PM ^
Perhaps Odoms's problems with the weather were partly due to the fact that he was a go-to guy as a true freshman. If kids come from Florida and don't have to start full-time as a true freshman and get a couple winters under their belts, perhaps they'll adjust better to the cold and the rain.
But yes, I did think he was adversely affected by the cold. He dropped several balls over the past couple weeks that he didn't drop earlier in the year.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:50 PM ^
The weather may have had some effect, but it's certainly not a reason against recruiting kids from there. Greg Mathews has solid hands and he's from Florida. Too young to watch him in person, but I seem to remember Anthony Carter was able to catch a ball or two as well.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:49 PM ^
Magnus... practice and warm-up experience would help youger kids get used to it.
Also - on the Florida and fewer Florida kids thing...
I was thinking about it and it would seem to me to affect the quality of kid that the second tier schools get - maybe why shithead at USF is so pissed - with the big 3 always going to get theirs, the 'leftovers' (which are still really good players - see Odoms - cuz Florida has so many to offer) getting poached would seem to hurt USF, UCF, etc as they don't get the national recognition and probably rely on local talent more...?