This state is going to be crowded

[Leakfan12]

With Charlie taking the USF job, Kiffin at FAU, Butch Davis at FIU, and Scott Frost at UCF it's going to be tight recruiting this state and it's already hard with Jimbo at FSU and Mark Richt at Con U. Good for Florida high schools though.

 

[DRU2012]

With Charlie taking the USF job, Kiffin at FAU, Butch Davis at FIU, and Scott Frost at UCF it's going to be tight recruiting this state and it's already hard with Jimbo at FSU and Mark Richt at Con U. Good for Florida high schools though.

Boy, ya got that right. "Crowded". One way of putting it.
Kinda a "worst case scenario"/"WTF???" situation, for Coach Mac and the Gator recruiting prospects--and right at the crucial time of the crucial year in Mac's tenure here: As I have stressed of late, this is the turning point in the curve for he and our program. Either he hits it outta the park NOW (or damn close to it--in fact, the "two doubles", metaphorically "really good" classes back-to-back, is probably less likely than ever now--we have GOT to make a slew of top grabs amidst the confusion and hype THIS time, BEFORE Strong and Kiffen settle in among everyone else already entrenched in the state), or we soon plateau, stagnate--and this, right here/right now, turns out to be the wholly unacceptable "high-water mark" in Mac's time here when evaluated looking back less than 2 years from now, when he's inevitably sent packing. There is just no WAY this "Offense Guru" gets away with fielding such a barely-mediocre-on-a-GOOD-day offense longer than another season, or even "incremental improvement" much longer than that.
Sigh...Far as recruiting goes, I was already concerned about whether he and his staff were on track here--BEFORE this flood of high profile, big-fish-in-small-pond coaches hit the State and the "second tier" schools. Frankly, I just don't have any feel for it--and that was what ALREADY worried me: We just weren't hearing much "buzz", that the kind of momentum for the kind of haul we needed was growing.
Now everything's in flux.
It doesn't HAVE to be a disaster. In fact, the brighter spotlights on everything going on here, relatively "close to home" for the very guys "everyone everywhere" wants, COULD ultimately work FOR a canny recruiting effort. But Charlie Strong knows this territory, and all these kids have heard of Kiffy AND the programs he's been at already...I wouldn't count on it getting anything but harder in the seasons ahead.
Thing is, I don't wanna HEAR excuses after-the-fact. If they haven't quietly put together a pretty damn solid crop of "ready to sign"s by now, a solid core of firmly-committeds and now mostly after some "flips", some "crowning jewels" and a few "projects" to fill it all out, well, we can cross our fingers and hope the question marks all pan out--and of COURSE we'll watch, scream our lungs out and HOPE we're wrong, that EVERYONE with deep dark doubts turns out wrong...but it's likely the writing will be on the wall, and only a complete reversal, the blossoming of ALL the unheralded pieces, fall-back choices
and plug-in projects work out beautifully and THAT becomes the story, "The Underdog Ressurection of Gator Dominance". A great "feel good tale", no doubt about it. But don't bet the house.