Signing Day
TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer had an excellent view on the slime-fest that is college football recruiting. Weeds was detailing the seediness and the underbelly of recruiting and how schools sell sex.
He's right, and it's part of the problem. But truth be told, as Weeds wrote, it's a growing part of the troubles we face across multiples swatches of our society. As for football recruiting, which hits its pinnacle today with national signing day, about the only thing positive we can say about this any more is at least it's not basketball recruiting. And we're serious.
Days of the hat dance - the ceremony with a few ball caps on the table and the player dramatically picks one - feel campy and dated. So too does the feeling that this day should be a celebration about the opportunity athletics afford these kids.
Yes, that may be the case for the families and kids like Robert Riddle, the former McCallie quarterback who joined Press Row on Tuesday and shared his recruiting stories. (Side note: This was a strange year locally for QBs. Cole Copeland at Bradley picked UTC and former Baylor School star Nick Tiano transferred to the Mocs from Mississippi State. Riddle, who had a great senior season, did not get as much traction early on the recruiting cycle, but here's believing he's going to do big things at Mercer over the next few years.) Those stories feel like the exception rather than the rule, though.
But the diamonds that fall through the cracks - think UTC line stars Keionta Davis and Corey Levin who are going to get more interest in the NFL scouting process than they did in the college scouting process - give hope to the process, at least in some ways. Remember that in the AFC and NFC title games, there were more two-star starters than five-star recruits. (There were four - Julio Jones, Ha-Ha Clinton Dix, Alan Branch and Marcellus Bennett - among the 88 starters for the Falcons, Packers, Patriots and Steelers. And yes, it is not surprising that half go them went to Alabama.)
And the real question should be are we surprised by the way the process has devolved and that some of us passionate college football fans feel like we need a shower after reading too many recruiting stories?
Considering the current embrace of the term 'decruitment' - a term used by coaches to rewire the brainwashed heads these high school football stars come to school with - it's fair to say the system is broken. The entire process in fact is filled with half-truths and grown millionaires who need the signatures of gifted teenagers to hold onto to their seven-figure salaries.
And amazingly it gets worse.
It's worse because the system is built on on the word commitment, even though there's less and less commitment than ever. Oh, fan bases get hot when a player flips, but the same collection of fans will adamantly say it's part of the process when reneges on an offer.
It's the system we have built - all of us, the NCAA, the coaches, the players, the players' family and entourages, the media and even the fans.
In truth, maybe we should have seen this coming long ago with the simple realization that really only two genres of websites have found a way to monetize their online existence: Porn and college football recruiting.
Here's believing that's not an accident.
Local recruiting story lines
OK, we feel better.
The preaching is over, and we'll go and ahead and admit that a few years ago, we were right there with the rest of the SEC crazies watching fax machines and wondering which player flipped at the 11th hour.
It's example No. 1,034 of the word fan coming from fanatic. The other side of the recruiting coin is that there's little way to overvalue its importance, to the program and to the coaching staff, all things considered.
Nick Saban is the best coach in the history of college football because he's the best recruiter since that Uncle Sam poster that read "I Want You" under it during WWII. How good is Saban? His recruiting ability actually allowed Derek Dooley to say something insightful about college football.
"The rest of us recruit," Dooley said of his former boss. "Saban drafts."
Alabama is poised for another top-ranked class, and unless there are some surprises on what figures to be one of the quietest signing days in recent years, the Tide will again be No. 1. THE Ohio State and Georgia have elite classes as well.
For the large number of folks around these parts, the recruiting classes for UT and UTC offer some interesting cases. Let's explore. For UTC, new coach Tom Arth, who is scheduled to join us on Press Row late in the 3 o'clock hour to discuss his first haul, seems to have made the most of a limited recruiting window. You can follow the up-to-the-minute news and notes here from TFP UTC beat ace Mean Gene Henley.
That success is especially impressive for a new staff assembled at the 11th hour, and considering Arth came from a Div. III program in mid-December, the recruiting questions were among the biggest regarding his transition.
For the Vols, though, a solid class - UT is ranked anywhere from 15th to 11th nationally by various services - seems like a let down a little bit.
Yes, that's a testament to the excellent classes Butch Jones and Co. assembled in previous cycles. It also is made more painful by some five-star in-state defections to places like Alabama and Clemson.
It also, in a year of great unknown for Jones and Co. as they look for their first meaningful title other than being champions of life, if it's a step sideways if not backward for what has been Jones' greatest attribute to this point.
Ask yourself what Butch has done the best in his four seasons of retooling and remaking the Vols, and at the top of the list has to be recruiting, right?
Well, if the recruiting arc flat lines, then there needs to be improvement and/or achievement in another area, no? Ah, recruiting. The ultimate danged if you do and danged if you don't.
If you can't recruit well, you can't keep a major gig for long. And if you can recruit but don't win - remember everyone else in the SEC is landing star power too (UT is 11th in the country according to Rivals, but that's only good for fifth in the SEC) - well then your coaching and player development is called into question.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) warms up before the first half of an NFL football game between the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Goldman)Super Bowl set up
We are looking at Sunday's Super Bowl with the glossed and glazed eyes of a Falcons fan, soaked in years and years of frustration.
We want to believe the Falcons can win it all, but for a lot of us, that thought never was a real possibility.
Teams such as the Steelers and the Cowboys and the Packers and the Patriots win Super Bowls.
The Falcons? We have embraced the good time and enjoyed the successes without too much pain. (The early 80s loss to the Cowboys still hurts, even more than the Super Bowl loss to tell you the truth.)
But now, with the NFL's No. 1 offense - an offense that is kind of historically good all things considered - these Falcons can generate points with anyone. Think a combination of the Greatest Show on Turf and a young Brad Pitt - this group can score with anyone. (Thank you, thank you.) So how does that translate Sunday. Here's how and it's two-fold:
First, you have to believe that the Patriots top goal will be to double- and triple-team Julio Jones. That's Bill Belichick's defensive M.O. - take out the opponent's top option. Well, that means a lot of speedy role guys are going to have to make plays. (And the scary part was the number of drops from those guys in the NFC title game 10 days ago.)
The other part of that has to be the running backs, both running it and catching it. (Side note: How in the world can Devonta Freeman's agent start calling for Freeman's contract to be reworked this week? Yes, Freeman is a beast - he's the only NFL player to rush for 1,000 or more yards in each of the last two seasons - but this week? This week - Super Bowl WEEK - we need some "Pay me" type of story lines? Such a typical Falcons scenario.)
The other thing that will be magnified with these two offenses in this game is which defense has the most red-zone stops. Field-goal tries in a game that many expect to be in the 30s is win for the defense. The Falcons offense must make the most of all its red-zone trips - something Atlanta was great during the regular season - and they must do it whether Julio Jones is open or not.
This and that
- Legendary announcer Brent Musburger called his final game for ESPN as Kentucky toppled Georgia in overtime. Here's his sign off. Here, from CBS, is a great look at some of his career highlights and calls.
- Speaking of an eventful SEC basketball night, Tennessee continued to look the part of potential NCAA team with an impressive double-digit road win over Bruce Pearl and Auburn on Tuesday.
- Talk about being in Depp trouble, according to this story Johnny Depp is in a financial quagmire. The guy that was on top of the world after the first Pirates of the Caribbean is facing some foreclosure and is suing his former management team for a variety of reasons. The former management team is countersuing, saying Depp]s lifestyle is why he's broke. (They alleged Depp spends $30,000 on wine a month. Read that again.)
- Man, this headline was rather jarring: Tiger Woods takes first commercial flight in 14 years.
- This may be the most Gronk thing ever. You know Gronk - Rob Gronkowski, the part polar bear, part cartoon character who endorses booze cruises and plays tight end at an all-time level for the New England Patriots - and his love for the party lifestyle. The story goes that he once missed a free throw on purpose to keep his high school team's score on 69. Wow.
Today's question
One word Wednesday, right?
One word to describe Brent Musburger.
One word to describe college football recruiting.
One word to describe UT's class. One word to describe UTC's class.
Feel free to answer and leave some one-word questions, too. As for a complete question, with Musburger's departure - along with Vin Scully and Uncle Verne in the last six months too - who makes the Rushmore of legendary broadcasters who are still working.
Go.