Stop it....I personally went on a "so called recruiting trip" with my cousin (who happened to be Sean's main recruiter too UM) to see Sean play twice....To say nobody knew about Sean is Horsesh*t....Kid had 44 TDs...but nobody knew about him??....Lol...I know for a Fact thats a Crock....
I love you man, but you are wrong about this. I respect what YOU knew and what your cousin knew, but ST was NOT that well-known outside of Dade County until late in his senior season.
First, the poster did not say that "nobody" knew about Sean Taylor, he said that he "doubted" that "most" of the CIS posters knew about him at the time of his commitment to UM, and I think that is true.
I lived in Miami at the time, I am a triple UM alum, I followed all the media at the time (including this new thing called the internet), so there's no way in **** that I'm biased on this, and even at the time, Taylor was considered a good signee, but he was not CONSIDERED the cornerstone of that class AT THAT TIME. Sean went to a private school, he did NOT get a ton of coverage in the Herald until very late in his HS career.
Even if everyone in Dade knew about ST, that does NOT equate to him being well-known outside the area.
SINCE THAT TIME, there has been an internet explosion. It is easy today for a coach in Los Angeles to be aware of a kid who has over 40 TDs in Dade County, but it was not easy at THAT TIME.
Here are some quotes from the UM press release for the 2001 signing class (which was the class that Coker had to hold together after Butch left for Cleveland):
"This is an exceptional class of recruits and is a group that we take particular pride in," said Coker. "In addition to being the first class of signees during my tenure as head coach, these kids stuck with us throughout the recruiting process. In light of the coaching change we went through, it is a tribute to the efforts of our coaches and the attitude of these student-athletes that we ended up with such a fine class. Our coaching staff is excited about the prospect of working with these players in the future."
The Hurricanes signed 10 players from the state of Florida in a geographically diverse class that included signees from seven U.S. states and Canada. Three players from Texas, two from New York and a player each from California, New Jersey, Delaware and South Carolina signed on to the Hurricanes football squad.
The group includes two Parade All-Americans and nine SuperPrep All-Americans.
[Antrel Rolle and Leon Williams were the Parade All-Americans.]
[Rashad Butler, Thomas Carroll, Frank Gore, Orien Harris, Quadtrine Hill, Roger McIntosh, Antrel Rolle, Sean Taylor, and Leon Williams were the SuperPrep All-Americans.]
Sean Taylor
DB, 6-3, 220
Miami, Florida/Gulliver Prep
One of the outstanding players in Florida during his senior season,
Taylor soared up recruiting lists during the 2000 season...
