Terry, I know you asked me this question in the Super Bowl topic but since I don't want to rain on that parade, I thought I'd make a new topic. Recruiting is usually something Tennessee fans can hang their hat on. You can usually pencil in Tennessee in the top 10 recruiting nationally. The exception was following the 5-6 season when Tennessee still finished in the top 25. This recruiting class is ranked in the low 40s on Scout.com and in the high 30s I believe on Rivals last I looked. Yes, that is disappointing but it comes down to a couple of things in my view. 1) All of those great recruiting classes didn't get Tenn. very far. They've had some really nice seasons but no titles. I think that development is far more important than recruiting the most talent. Now, that's not to say recruiting is not important. One has to look only as far as LSU and USC to know that. They along with Ohio State and a handful of others are football factories. Tennessee is too and when Tenn. was making national noise in CFB they consistently had great recruiting classes and great development. While the recruiting has continued, the development seems to have fallen off. All of that to say this, I love great recruiting classes but they don't amount to anything if you don't develop them once you get them on campus. 2) Tennessee is absolutely loaded with young skill positioin players. The need for the guys that grab the headlines like QBs, WRs, and RBs really isn't there. Now, they could use some headline grabbing DTs, LBs, and OLs. Those guys aren't as glamorous. Tenn. is recruiting some very good LBs but leave a little to be desired at DT and OL. However, the OL needs aren't immediate although you would like for some freshmen to learn from the OL that Tenn. has now. 3) One more thing, I think the combination of the roller coaster season and the intense criticism Fulmer took is hurting Tenn. I don't think losing Cutcliffe would have mattered nearly as much if Fulmer hadn't had to undergo the incredible criticism. Now, some people on this board would argue that Fulmer deserved every bit of criticism he received. And maybe he did but whether he did or not the uncertainty that criticism created hurt Tennessee's recruiting class this season IMO. With those reasons being stated, I would like to note that I am very excited about the future of Tenn. football despite some recruiting struggles this season. I am anxious to see the offense under Clawson and to see all that talent continue to gel at the skill positions and along the offensive line. I am also anxious to see what Jonathan Crompton can do at QB. I wish spring practice would hurry up and start because all of the off the field stuff is getting old. It is really embarrassing I'm sure for Fulmer and Co. I do think it is important to note though that every football program in major CFB has problems like these. It doesn't justify anything but it is important to remember before the mud is slung. That's all I have for now and I'm curious to hear what Tom has to say about the guys that are coming in. There are some decent talents just not as many as usual. I do expect Tenn. to close strong as usual.
Terry and Aquila, I will be perfectly honest with my response. This has been the worst year of recruiting since the combined two years of 1975 and 1976. Bill Battle had driven the program into the ground like a F-16 nosing in at full throttle. We lost recruits because of no confidence in the coaching staff then, and we are losing them again for the same reason now. I have all of the RSS feeds for Tennessee recruiting but since we started losing verbals after the second huge loss of the season, I started paying little attention to them. My attention is on the problem, not the symptoms. It's like trying to put out a fire. You don't point the extinguisher at the flames, you point it at the source... the fuel. In 1977, our recruiting took a huge up swing. We were still not winning like were were in the early 70's but we were thin on players compared to earlier years. Majors was not the difference in recruiting... the removal of Bill Battle was. Phil Fulmer MUST show in the next season that he can wake up to the reality that he can no longer be a player's coach and must push this team to excel. If he does not, we will have more of the same and recruiting will continue to decline. The word out of Tennessee will be all smiles saying that we filled holes that we had. That is true. We did fill holes in both lines. However, we also lost some blue chippers for those positions as well. The sad part is that Cindy and I used to live and die by the success and failures of our team. The fire is gone. We still love Tennessee, don’t get me wrong. We’ll never change our colors. Mediocrity has just made it less fun than it used to be. Fulmer better pull it together this year or he will view 2007 as the year that most fans still supported him.
While I do agree with you, Tom, that lack of confidence in the coaching staff has led to the decline in recruiting, I tend to disagree on at least a couple of points. While this is the worst recruiting class in quite some time, I think it's funny how easily we forget that last year Tenn. had the no. 2 or 3 best class in America. It's not like this has been a downward slide for some time. Also, I would also argue that 10 wins isn't exactly mediocrity. I would say that 95% of football programs in the nation would like to have 10 wins on a regular basis. Having won no championship is certainly discouraging though and I agree that Fulmer needs to do something this upcoming season for the flame to be put out. I think a tremendous amount of the lack of confidence in the coaching staff can be attributed to the fans and writers following the team.
Aquila, If this was simply a 10 win season, I would agree. But it was not just a 10 win season. It was a two blow out loss season to our two biggest rivals. A point that is burnt into your mind your freshman year as a Tennessee player is that you do not lose to Florida and you do not lose to Alabama. It is a sin to lose to both. It is unforgivable to lose to both the way we did this year. I'm sorry if you think that fans like myself have brought this down on Tennessee. Fans like myself have watched the downturns in the late 70's and early 90's and recognize those trends again. Last year was an up surge simply because of Cutcliff taking the place of a very incompetent Sanders. Now that Cutcliff is gone and Fulmer is still there, the downward trend is revived. I have said this before: I would like nothing better than for Phil to turn it around to where he could be here another 10 years. I do not think that will be the case though.
Tom, I mean no offence when I make statements like those and I ask that you do not take it as such. I can see your side of the argument and while I think it's not the end of the world yet for Fulmer and Tenn. I am not naive enough to think that things don't need to improve. Yet that being said, I still think a lot of the lack of confidence in the coaching staff is a direct result of a fanbase that is so unsettled. Is that unsettlement justifiable? Sure I think some of it is. However, when you crucify your coach on public radio shows, on tv, and in print, a poor recruiting class is likely going to be part of the consequence. Now, how does that help in fixing the problem? It simply doesn't. Fulmer is going to be at Tenn. for a while yet. Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden have virtually run two fine programs into mediocrity and they're still there. I'm certainly not saying Fulmer is either of those guys and he probably is more in the neighborhood of Lloyd Carr but he's still had great success and has one of the best active records in America. The question is how do you voice displeasure with the coach without doing damage to the players and the program? I'm not positive how that is done but in my opinion Tenn. has started to take a stab at that process. They hired a young OC with HC experience. We'll have to see how the results play out on the field with the offense but I don't think it's out of the question for Clawson to develop into an heir apparent. The best transition would be Fulmer to Clawson in a few years and hopefully the program would reestablish itself during that time and go to a next level with a bright young coach. We'll just have to wait and see on that but I think that gives folks in both camps of the Fulmer debate some hope for the future.
To me there is no doubt that Talk Radio and the Internet have made the life of a coach much worse. I think that goes double for it's effect on recruiting. Mike Frank one of the ND recruiting gurus has said that he knows for sure that recruits and their parents read internet message boards and that what is said there has an effect on these recruits. So it's one of those negative feedback loops, the more negative the fans become the more it affects recruiting. I have seen guys try to post that "we" need to calm down that it does no good to pick the program to pieces. But they usually get shouted down by the majority of the members who feel it's their god given right to make negative statements about the coach, individual players, etc. I'm sure you see that on Tenn boards. I also think that sportswriters are more empowered than ever to criticise the coaches every move/decision/etc. Sometimes I wish they would be forced to coach a game, they always seem to have the right answers. Notre Dame is less effected by Talk Radio when it comes to recruiting because we don't really get many players out of Indiana and down here in Texas or in Fla or Calif (I assume) there isn't much talk on the air about ND either. But the Internet is another deal.
E.J. Abrams Ward, a 4 star LB from NC is added to the fold. This is shaping up to be a very strong class at LB with Ward, Walls, and Gerald Williams.
Overall, I would have to say this was quite a disappointing day for even the most optimistic Vols fans. As I stated in an earlier post, I didn't think Tennessee needed a lot of skill position guys but some OL and DL would have been nice. They did get a few of those guys but not a lot of the top shelf talent. They had a really nice class at LB though as I stated before.
I don't ever remember Tenn not being in the upper end of the Top 25, I see that Scout has you at 36. But fortuneately for you guys this is the only slim class in the last few years so you can withstand it without terrible damage to the team. The question will be can your coaching staff turns these guys from diamonds in the rough to diamonds.