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We could Build an amazing Class from TN,VA,NC,DC,MD

  • Enormous amounts of talent in these regions this year. I think we are making a big mistake by not having more of a presence in Virginia and DC...

    When you throw around the name Tennessee in those areas it is more meaningful among top recruits. When you throw around the name Tennessee in Georgia and Florida it gets laughed at and we are wayyyyy down the pecking order of schools.

    Really wish They would have Thigpen just focus on VA,DC, and MD, heck he's from Virginia. I wonder what others think. I'm sick of exhausting so much time in Florida and Georgia when at this moment in time other schools are so much higher on the totem pole than us.

    hdrizzle21

  • i agree also and with the new staff i think most them recruited up north ,i have a feeling that will be there playing field .could be wrong ,north c-south c puts out some very good players and this year at south c i think the most they can get is 15 recruites .right now they are at 11-15 so there will be some good talent left after steve cherry picks the carolinas

    vols4life1969

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    slimtonone10

  • hdrizzle21 said...

    Enormous amounts of talent in these regions this year. I think we are making a big mistake by not having more of a presence in Virginia and DC...

    When you throw around the name Tennessee in those areas it is more meaningful among top recruits. When you throw around the name Tennessee in Georgia and Florida it gets laughed at and we are wayyyyy down the pecking order of schools.

    Really wish They would have Thigpen just focus on VA,DC, and MD, heck he's from Virginia. I wonder what others think. I'm sick of exhausting so much time in Florida and Georgia when at this moment in time other schools are so much higher on the totem pole than us.

    Agreed! But we can't forgot about ga and fl cause were going to need the relationships there for the long term run. But your right piles of talent in Va (ESP nova) md and the Carolina's. hopefully we will "own our state" as we'll.

    Calivolhead

  • Agree, just not at the expense of losing even more ground in GA & FL. They're consistently hotbeds of talent, while places like TN/DC/MD/NC can get cool and hot in spurts.

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    moony337

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    Casvol31

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    #RiseToTheTop #RoadTo7 "Give him six"

    MiddleTNVol

  • The way I look at it we have 5 recruiters. Bajakian, Jancek, Mahoney and Stripling aren't pulling in elite talent, and are mainly on staff for there coaching abilities. That leaves us 5 guys with reputations of being recruiters. Graham, Azzani, Elder, Martinez, and Thigpen...

    Elder will recruit Memphis and the Mid State. He's young energetic and has previous experience doing so
    Martinez is the South Florida guy
    Thigpen IMO should be VA, MD, DC but for some reason we will probably have him waste his time in Alabama.
    Azzani I am actually not sure, probably FL and GA.
    Graham will recruit the Carolinas.

    All of these guys will have portions of the in-state, and Butch and some of the guys will probably pound Ohio/Illinois.

    hdrizzle21

  • I agree. There is a wealth of talent relatively close to us in this next recruiting class. I would love to see us recruit the DC/Virginia area harder. There are always really solid players that come out of that area.

    Lcbskballer15 ●

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    Dougs Rug Vol

  • hdrizzle21 said...

    The way I look at it we have 5 recruiters. Bajakian, Jancek, Mahoney and Stripling aren't pulling in elite talent, and are mainly on staff for there coaching abilities. That leaves us 5 guys with reputations of being recruiters. Graham, Azzani, Elder, Martinez, and Thigpen...

    Elder will recruit Memphis and the Mid State. He's young energetic and has previous experience doing so Martinez is the South Florida guy Thigpen IMO should be VA, MD, DC but for some reason we will probably have him waste his time in Alabama. Azzani I am actually not sure, probably FL and GA. Graham will recruit the Carolinas.

    All of these guys will have portions of the in-state, and Butch and some of the guys will probably pound Ohio/Illinois.

    Martinez is the DC guy. He has tried to start building a relationship with Jalon Tabor, Jon Haden, and some other FCA kids.

    mnty869 ●

  • mnty869 said...

    Martinez is the DC guy. He has tried to start building a relationship with Jalon Tabor, Jon Haden, and some other FCA kids.

    I did not know this. Thanks for the info. Shame we dropped down the pecking order w/ Tabor though.

    hdrizzle21

  • I dont think they are any lower. He gets interviewed so much that I wouldnt look into his comments. Many of the kids here at FCA have high opinions of UT and most of them visited campus last spring. I would expect him to visit again, but you never know. FCA has a ton of talent so the coaches just need to build relationships with the kids to try and get them in the picture.

    mnty869 ●

  • No doubt TN, NC, GA, FL, VA/DC/MD and SC need to be focused on IMO prior to states like AL, MS and LA.

    You cant stop going after top guys in FL and GA bc of the the huge #s of top players that are in those 2 states. Once we start going to bowl games we will win more of those battles but we cant abandon either of those states. Look at our roster and you will see its importance like Pig, Maggitt, AJ, Peterman Croom, M Jackson, Lane, and others

    That would be my order. Then of course you have to recruit nationally like in TX, OH, Calif etc.

    SamVolsam

  • Bottom line, we have to build a fence around the state and around Vandy's campus and make sure the top in state-talent we want comes to UT. Build within the State and the guys from the Deep South will start coming back like they used to. But as to your point about the Northern States, good point.

    NoSirRee

  • hdrizzle21 said...

    Enormous amounts of talent in these regions this year. I think we are making a big mistake by not having more of a presence in Virginia and DC...

    When you throw around the name Tennessee in those areas it is more meaningful among top recruits. When you throw around the name Tennessee in Georgia and Florida it gets laughed at and we are wayyyyy down the pecking order of schools.

    Really wish They would have Thigpen just focus on VA,DC, and MD, heck he's from Virginia. I wonder what others think. I'm sick of exhausting so much time in Florida and Georgia when at this moment in time other schools are so much higher on the totem pole than us.

    I'm gonna have to disagree with you to an extent drizzle. In no way should we recruit less in Fla.or Ga. I mean Ga.only signed like 1or 2 top talents in the state, if we have one solid year to build relationships and win a few more games we can get good talent from those states. NOW,we need to recruit the 3 states you mentioned harder now than ever before because of the talent they produce too. So I agree and disagree with you on this. +1 to ya.

    Vollogan33

  • hdrizzle21 said...

    The way I look at it we have 5 recruiters. Bajakian, Jancek, Mahoney and Stripling aren't pulling in elite talent, and are mainly on staff for there coaching abilities. That leaves us 5 guys with reputations of being recruiters. Graham, Azzani, Elder, Martinez, and Thigpen...

    Elder will recruit Memphis and the Mid State. He's young energetic and has previous experience doing so
    Martinez is the South Florida guy
    Thigpen IMO should be VA, MD, DC but for some reason we will probably have him waste his time in Alabama.
    Azzani I am actually not sure, probably FL and GA.
    Graham will recruit the Carolinas.

    All of these guys will have portions of the in-state, and Butch and some of the guys will probably pound Ohio/Illinois.

    Interesting breakdown of recruiters on staff. All except for Elder have coached in the SEC and he had the southern territory while at Cincinnati. Of the Cincinnati guys listed under the "coaching" column - what do you think of their potential as recruiters in the SEC? I simply don't know much about them but doubt they had the necessary contacts to flip any recruits in the 30 days to do so unlike Thigpen, Martinez, and Azzanni (and of course Jay).

    I think the combination of being an elite recruiter in addition to a great coach is underrated. There are plenty examples of great coaches who were less than enamored with the recruiting aspect (Chavis comes quickly to mind). That being said- would you say we are behind our SEC brethern in terms of the # of "recruiters" on our staff? May be a premature question given some of the unknowns of the "Midwest" guys....

    memphischic

  • You have to add SC, Fla., and GA. Those state are stacked and we have gotten great talent out of them when we were on top of the SEC.

    Myrtlevol

  • Good point hd that we don't have to recurit ga and fl. But there were more recruits out of fl alone than the places you listed. You could add a couple more states like Illinois with 87 recurits and not have to go to ga or fl.

    Link has the numbers from each state.

    Football Signing Day - MaxPreps

    National Football Signing Day with Tom Lemmings picks. Find out the college commitments of the future stars here.

    www.maxpreps.com

    Pastor Jax

  • Pastor Jax said...

    Good point hd that we don't have to recurit ga and fl. But there were more recruits out of fl alone than the places you listed. You could add a couple more states like Illinois with 87 recurits and not have to go to ga or fl.

    Link has the numbers from each state.

    I'm not saying not to recruit Florida, I just think we could spend our time more wisely in other areas. Like Samvolsam said I wouldn't even touch Louisiana or Alabama. No reason to.

    hdrizzle21

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    tlepage99 ●

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    moony337

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