How quickly people forget that we almost completely whiffed on WRs last year before a late double of "let's flip a WVU verbal" and "let's take a chance on an East St. Louis kid with potential academic issues" turned into an amazing bit of good fortune.
Again, I'm not knocking EFFORT. I'm not saying that Dugans got on Harley and Thomas only in the last month or two. But we CLEARLY were targeting other guys, we had not nearly spent the same effort on Thomas, and that's a fact.
Having said that, I have no complaints with making efforts for Terrace (just as some think we should be trying for Justin Fields), but we have to have some sort of a "cut-off" that will not cost us with very talented (even if they are still less talented than certain out-of-staters) kids who are right in our own backyard.
Sure, I'd love to have some ungodly squad of 4 and 5 star kids from across the country. But, historically, our squads of 3-5 star kids from Florida have ended up beating the pants off of everyone else.
If out-of-staters aren't pretty clear on picking Miami very early, it's a LOT of effort to spend when the chances are low. Make the effort, don't bet the farm, though.
Even though we never came close to whiffing (unless I'm misunderstanding u) I'm curious if you realize the reason we were in that late wait & see more was because we were waiting on the local kid... again I'm not trying to attack. A lil off on the context of your message. Can't tell if youre supporting or not in going after marshall. (Its early in the am here so excuse the blondness) if jerry jeudy wouldve been the louisina kid last year & devonta was the local kid what then?
Let me see if I can add the right context.
By "whiffed", I meant that one month before National Signing Day, at an OBVIOUS position of need, we had one guy committed (whose brother was also on the roster).
I'm not saying we didn't make a great effort on guys, or that guys had us at
[URL=https://www.canesinsight.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2]#2 [/URL] on their list. Lots of baseball players make great swings at the ball and miss by a fraction of an inch. That's a "whiff". But I also understand and respect what you are saying.
My point was simple. If we also missed by a fraction of an inch with Harley and Thomas, we are staring at one of the worst outcomes EVER in our WR recruiting. But we connected with those two, and we salvaged a good class.
I do get what you are saying. I do believe there are times when you can "wait on the local kid" (one of whom was Harley). But when you are desperate at a particular position, and you are one month from NSD, I think you might have to abandon the "waiting on the local kid" scenario. Hey, maybe you and I won't agree on that one point, but I think we are both veterans of watching years and years of this recruiting game, and it's tough to have a hard-and-fast rule that covers all scenarios.
I'm fine with making an effort with Terrace Marshall, but that is NOW, with 3 verbals 8 months prior to NSD. And I'm fine with taking maybe 1 more WR than ordinary because we could have taken 4 last year.
Bottom line is this. If we are waiting on a 5-star kid, and he is looking at one or more schools to see what they do during the year, then I'm not sure how many chips to bet. Because we might have a pure freshman starting. We might play multiple QBs this year. If this was a situation where Kaaya was here, even though he will graduate, and even though some people think he is imperfect, at least the kid could see what our passing offense can look like in his hands.
That's all. I love that "chance" of getting Marshall, but will he see what he needs to see out of the UM offense? Because if that might be doubtful, maybe we just stick with the local kids who love us, and try to pull some out-of-staters next year.
I don't think there is any "one right answer" here, I'm just expressing my opinion. I just think, sometimes, some of our posters fall into the "momentum" argument and want us to get "everyone". I'm still a bit cautious, I don't know how long we should chase out-of-state blue chippers. Makes me nervous when we have a pretty good local kid who, reportedly, has tried to commit three times.
Love talking with you, dee.
