Really hope that I can present this post in such a way as to be level across the board. You folks will surely help me out or correct me when I slip.
Living in the State of Florida, one thing that I know for sure. There are many D1 football players in this state year after year. Florida is a huge state population wise and it has become a football state, that happened when Steve Spurrier returned to his Alma Mater and began to coach football in a way that had not been seen or done prior to him becoming head coach in Gainesville. He also turned the SEC upside down, whether we like it or not (I don’t) he began to kick our butts and others . . . . Regularly.
There was a time in this state that a young man would rather hang ten (surf) than get dirty or hurt playing football. That is not the case anymore, nor will it be in the future. Football is a big business and these young pups know that. Can’t expect them to act like or play the game the way it was played prior to Steve Spurrier’s regime. The young fellows in high school have folks from all over the country on top of them, continually. These are the young fellows that allow the colleges and their coaches to, pardon the expression, “make the big bucks”. You don’t win on the field, you don’t win at the box office. Plain and simply that. Not the 1950’s anymore.
What I typed above can be said in the same way for the most part about the State of Georgia and UGA football. Incredible amount of talent in the largest state East of the Mississippi River land wise. There was a time when many of the top football players in Georgia would go to UGA or Georgia Tech (GT under Dodd was all that, and they were in the SEC). That also has changed and changed drastically. There is no guarantee that the “top shelf players” will stay home and uphold the states honor. Does not have anything to do with ‘state pride” it has to do with coaching, being noticed and who can get me to the next level.
Anyone that reads and posts on this board knows the stance of many that post here on Coach Todd Grantham. It did not take long for many of us to realize that we had that missing link that had been a part of the Red and Black in the past. His first statements to anyone that wanted to hear what he had to say were . . . . We can win and will win. We don’t have to go all over the country to find football players for our system. That statement brings me to this . . . .
In my small mind, we have to move up, and I mean to another level in the SEC. We are not in the top echelon, not for four quarters anyway. Like now for example, we have some young men that passed up moving on to the NFL, these players want more than they have shown to this point, meaning championships, quoting our young men that are returning.
Brings me to this. I really hope that we are learning something about depth from our experiences of the past few years. If we are going to stick our chests out every year, there have to be changes in some of our methods. We are in a copy cat league, no different than the NFL. We would be wise to keep a keen eye on our offensive and defensive lines. I understand there are other positions on the field, but the war on Saturdays begins with the linemen. In my opinion the reason we see so many of our young high schoolers moving across state lines is because there are a few teams that have figured the process out, they want to play for championships and recently there have been two or three in the SEC that lay claim to that.
Back to Florida for this. The second year under Muschamp looks nothing like his first year. They are tearing this state apart, looking everywhere and having a huge amount of success moving players toward Gainesville. Scary.
Alabama, appears nothing changes there, they are on top and plan to stay there. Football basically is all that the folks over there care about. College football. They have too much success pulling players from Georgia, but it is for one or two reasons. Championships and the coaching to send them to the NFL. Hard combination to beat.
LSU, never feared them as much as Alabama or Florida. Reason for that in my mind is coaching. LSU kind of proved that point in the National Championship Game. They have been on a higher plane however than we have recently.
Another team that I feel has to be watched closely is South Carolina. Like it or not, there have been improvements made in Columbia under Spurrier. We have witnessed that the past couple of years, no doubt in my mind that they are waiting for us this year on their turf.
Really want to see us get off of the Merry-Go-Round. Stabilize the program on both sides of the ball. Want to start every season thinking that we have a chance at those championships, year after year. Whether we reach the final goal is one thing, just want to have the spirit to honestly think we are back in the race.
Go Dawgs, Coach’em up and build that depth.
