The CheckerBoard

Both the DB kids are good players and good gets for the SEC and UT who both may be underrated with a few of the recruiting "gurus". DB has 3 NFL players right NOW who werent "good enough" to play at UT for some of these negative nellies back when they were recruited over. I sure am glad our current staff is not making the same mistakes. GBO!

Warrior who are the former DB players you mentioned? Just askin'...can't place the names right now. I am glad CBJ is targeting in state talent, too. But we will lose some to other teams simply because some years we may not have room for all of them. I mean, if we are loaded at running back, for example, some recruit might not want to come here. May choose to go where he can get more playing time. As far as being loaded at running back.....may God strike us with that one!!

Not any difference between a high 3 and a low 4, score of 89 vs 90....doesn't mean anything really....except of course to us fans. Dooley signed 10 4's a year.......15 or so 3's. Its hard to say how competive we would have been this past year with a Def. Coordinator and HC with enough football sense to realize we needed to play a bend but don't break style of D with our personnel. If that had been the case I think we would have competed for the East.....So as far as competing in the east I don't think we are that far off. Whether CBJ will be able to land more than 10 or more 4's a year remains to be seen. I can tell you this though, just because he signs a few 3's with one being instate doesn't mean he can't or won't recruit better.........He may have more sense than some of you are giving him credit for..........I would suspect that in the next few years he wants to build as many bridges as possible within the state.........The Tri-cities is not a bad place to be connected to. CBJ may have enough foresight to realize this project may be a few years in the making, wheras the average fan (me included sometimes) may feel that all is lost if the recruiting doesn't go by the numbers and stars. I can't say that i haven't worried a little myself, i wish we could have had a coach in place earlier.........2-weeks before the dead period is not much time..........but I have to remind myself that TN footbal is as much about the Bill Duffs stuffing Eddie George at the goal line as it is about the elite talent we have had at times over the years. If the rankings had been in place at that time Duff would probably have been a 2.....but he won the game for us anyway. So, simply put, I'm glad we got the kid.

Aubrayo Franklin from Science Hill is still in the NFL with the Chargers. So the Tri-Cities area has 5 current NFL players (6 if you count Heath Miller from Honaker, VA) and still gets overlooked. Hopefully Butch will change that.