• Welcome to Green Bay Packers NFL Football Forum & Community!
    Packer Forum is one of the largest online communities for the Green Bay Packers.

    You are currently viewing our community forums as a guest user.

    Sign Up or

    Having an account grants you additional privileges, such as creating and participating in discussions. Furthermore, we hide most of the ads once you register as a member! Furthermore, we hide most of the ads once you register as a member!

Recruiting class

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
FNL is a summer camp that draws a lot of high profile prospects. It occurs in mid to late July, after most of the other invitational summer camps. Urban started it at UF in '05 or '06. That is where Urban caught sight of a young Tim Tebow. The rest is history.
In other words, let's be clear: HE got it from US.
One more thing he is trying to steal from UF...like they're beginning to learn up there in the Big 10, "anything that isn't nailed down..."
But you know what? This sort of thing is bothering me less and less as time goes on--and I think it's not just time and distance, but the fact that it all strikes me as more and more sad and desperate, him trying to "reconstitute" success it turns out even HE didn't really fathom, and still doesn't have a real handle on. He's afraid it had something to do with a chemistry that evaporated when the group he managed broke apart, and now he's just grabbing anything from that past that might help to rekindle some portion of the "magic", hoping against hope that some combination of these "outside forces". and the much-vaunted "mojo" the media have invested him with (and that he of all people knows is exaggerated, at best, if not an outright complete fabrication), will at least attract enough real talent to allow him to satisfy exploding expectations. Of course, he better do a WHOLE lot better job at evaluating and choosing talent than he did on his own those last few years with us, or this will be one short and spectacular downhill slide. That would be entertaining, I admit--but probably both too hilarious, and JUST, to be what in fact occurs. Mostly, I expect him to manage to "break even", make and keep 'em competitive enough to hold his job until he comes up with another suitable excuse to leave them in the lurch before it all falls apart. Still, we live in hope...
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
It should not bother us. We suspected it back in 2005 that Urban Meyer was a mercenary hired to resurrect the Florida Gators after a period of darkness under Ron Zook. He did that. What half of us were wrong about was how long he was going to stay in Gainesville. Urban Meyer showed us that the plan he used to make Bowling Green and Utah successful was a good plan. I bear no ill will towards Meyer. At each school he picked up something new to add to his bag of tools. Before he came to Florida he used the "school out north/east/west/south" reference. Before Florida he learned his new school's traditions and looked for ways to enhance them, add to them, and resurrect lost ones. Think about it. Before 2005, we did not do the "We Are the Boys From Old Florida" at the end of the 3rd quarter...or if we used to do it before we stopped doing it (I honestly cannot remember). The Ring of Honor? The Gator head? Champion's Dinner? And of course, FNL.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
It should not bother us. We suspected it back in 2005 that Urban Meyer was a mercenary hired to resurrect the Florida Gators after a period of darkness under Ron Zook. He did that. What half of us were wrong about was how long he was going to stay in Gainesville. Urban Meyer showed us that the plan he used to make Bowling Green and Utah successful was a good plan. I bear no ill will towards Meyer. At each school he picked up something new to add to his bag of tools. Before he came to Florida he used the "school out north/east/west/south" reference. Before Florida he learned his new school's traditions and looked for ways to enhance them, add to them, and resurrect lost ones. Think about it. Before 2005, we did not do the "We Are the Boys From Old Florida" at the end of the 3rd quarter...or if we used to do it before we stopped doing it (I honestly cannot remember). The Ring of Honor? The Gator head? Champion's Dinner? And of course, FNL.
REALLY?!! They had actually stopped singing "We are the Boys" at the end of the 3rd quarter in the Swamp? I hadn't been to a Gator Home game in some years before Meyer arrived--so this comes as a real shock to me, if true. Honestly, E-, I know you have no reason to exaggerate, but this just completely boggles me: they were doing it when I was a little kid, and that and Two Bits (he was getting older, but still around and energetic as ever, popping up all over Florida Field--it wasn't "The Swamp", a la SS, yet--thoughout the game) was like part of "coming home", completely expected and assumed, when I attended all games in the mid-70s-into-the-80s--and they were still doing it right through the 90s (I wasn't AT as many home games, but it was done when I was, and they'd even do it in the Gator-sections at away-games I attended as late as the turn-of-the-millennium). I know Meyer "polished up" some of the other traditions you mention, not inventing them but bringing them back to a prominence and importance they may have NEVER quite had before (at least since their very beginnings), as a part of reconstituting a certain "Gator-Mystique" that HAD gotten somewhat lost, somewhere between the last years SS was here, and during Zook's reign--and that was both smart and appreciated...but it DOESN'T mean you take those exact same "touchstones" and try to transplant them elsewhere, then expect them to have a similar effect. In fact, it trivializes them, AND the original effort, in my view.
As for "We Are The Boys", I have nothing but friendly respect and admiration for your views and contributions, E-, and mean this not as any disrespect, but I'm dearly hoping that this is some sort of oversight on your part, that maybe the performance became scattered and haphazard enough to escape much in the way of note or comment for a few years there, but I STILL can't imagine the alumni stopping this tradition, even if it WAS always the Student-side who were expected to begin at 3rd-quarter's end, arms over each-others' shoulders and rocking back-and-forth in alternating directions, row-by-row: I HAVE to throw this open to our membership and readers at large for confirmation:

"Did our fans actually and in fact STOP SINGING "WE ARE THE BOYS" BETWEEN THE 3rd and 4th QUARTERS AT HOME GAMES in the last few years before Urban Meyer arrived at UF?"
 

bchampy

Gator Fan
Missed on Diggs, to Maryland no less. Probably a good thing considering his racially charged tweet regarding Jeremy Lin recently.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Missed on Diggs, to Maryland no less. Probably a good thing considering his racially charged tweet regarding Jeremy Lin recently.
You beat me to the punch-point on this one, bc--I didn't get wind of it 'til earlier this eve, and the first thing I thought of was, "Oh yeah--See? This is the kind of loud-mouthed crap we didn't need..." I wasn't sure HOW it would manifest itself, but as his grandstanding, "Look-at-me!", artificially-extended "recruitment" drew on, I cared less and less if we got him and more and more sure not only that we wouldn't, but that that wasn't necessarily such a bad thing, as we began to see some signs of his true nature. Can't say I knew THIS would happen, but I DID begin to suspect there'd be problems with Diggs. This is only the start, you watch--he hasn't even gotten there yet!
 

Matt Mandel

Gator Fan
Fred Taylor's son Kelvin is going to be an absolute beast. Could be the best between the tackle back since...Tebow. Bleacher Report is really high on this kid.
Can't wait!
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Matt Mandel
Welcome Matt! You make a good point, one we're all excited about.
We will have a good backfield in 2012, Gillisley finally getting a chance to show what he can do AND already a nice selection of different "looks" from the RBs we already have (here or on their way this fall), especially behind a healthy and revamped O-line--but next year's should be VERY good right from the start, with Lane having experience and Taylor fitting in quickly. We will likely be known more and more as a hard-hitting, ball-control team that gets stronger as the game (and season!) goes along. If we can develop and/or bring in a fleet and sure-handed WR or two (there's at least 1 that fits that bill among our 2013 commits) to provide a constant downfield threat, our offense should regularly put up more than enough points for our dominant, soon-to-be top-rated defense to make stand up at the final gun. Good times ahead for this Muschamp-led Gator team: by 2013 we'll be back in the Championship-mix again, just in time to begin annually challenging for our place in that "Final Four/Playoff System" they are planning to begin in 2014.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
Some comments on Diggs and Taylor... Florida has done well with recruiting blue collar kids who are reserved and mature, as far back as I can remember. Diggs did not fit the mold, at least not without Urban Meyer here. On the other hand, Taylor will be a good fit. He has orange and blue in his blood. He is a hard worker. He is humble. Good things will come for this kid.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
I am so glad to see Coach actually making good on his stated intentions regarding the kinds of young men he is focusing on bringing in. Instead of it being the usual "lip-service", he and his staff have continued to go after players who "fit", who "will do things the Florida Way", and who "WANT to be Gators". Believe me, that will pay off. It already is, likely in ways we won't really recognize until later, when we see the problems other programs are having with troublesome personalities that some in Gator Nation were bemoaning "we missed on" last NSD. Diggs is just one example--but an already developing one. We had far too many of these "prima donna loudmouth headcases" the last few years...it's good to be able to let it be someone else's problem, while our guys concentrate on coming together to be a better and stronger team.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
That would be sweet to snag some quality receivers. For a while we were just recruiting really fast guys that might not have good hands. Maybe we will land some sure hands guys who only run a 4.5, but still get open.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Pittman looks like a tough kid, an over-achiever-type who may well turn out to be one of those "go-to-guys" who catches everything anywhere near him...We've got a couple of highly-rated receivers among the 2013 commits, and one of 'em (forget his name right here and now) fits the quintessential 6'4", long-limbed and fleet-of-foot kid-that-no-one-can-catch, who gets behind secondaries and "just catches the damn ball": our QB presumably has to throw it over everyone else's heads and he'll run it down, that's the story (and there IS a dazzling "Reel" that appears to back it up). When you run a non-gimmicky offense, I'm remembering, you know what pieces you need; it's just a matter of actually finding the the "right" guy, with the skills and the character, who wants to be on your team--and doing that consistently at a number of positions. We're on the right track. There'll be setbacks: we just need to see it through.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
20,339
Messages
90,513
Members
1,226
Latest member
GeorgeDuema
Top