And there's this which I find interesting...
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This guy's take is that uf is behind on NIL because Mullen didn't lay the groundwork. Essentially, the teams that are doing well right now had a head start. I'd love for one of you guys a little more connected than me to detail the many ways in which Manny got our NIL program off the ground. Also, I'll be sending Manny a thank you card, let me know if anybody would like to sign it.
OK. Couple of things.
First, if "FLTom" is correct, than this goes COMPLETELY against what NovaGaytor said about having "proven high-level track record in recruiting". So which is it? On-the-job training...OR..."proven high-level track record in recruiting". Given the list I provided earlier, my vote is "on-the-job training" for everyone besides Corey Raymond.
Second, "he underestimated the impact of NIL on recruiting"? ARE YOU ******* KIDDING ME? So, first of all, NIL became effective 10 months ago. As a FACTUAL matter, nobody had any idea of how it would work precisely. Some people had pretty good guesses, and some have adapted better than others. The bottom line is this - Gaypier did not walk into a world where other coaches had a 10-year headstart on him. Five months headstart? Sure, since I'm sure that Louisiana's NIL budget consisted of Popeye's coupons.
So, OK, Gaypier "underestimated" the impact of NIL on recruiting, in spite of the COUNTLESS articles that had been written about it...no, Gaypier trusts his own evaluations...but NOW (since FLTom tells us that Gaypier learned his lesson on National Signing Day)...NOW that it is nearly 3 months later (or 4+ if you count the December signing day), why is Gaypier still botching the Jackson recruitment by $175K (again, assuming that every Gaytor claim is true, cause I sure as **** can admit that I do not have certainty on the numbers)?
"Unless you have a billionaire in your hip pocket"? First, not all of the Miami NIL is coming from John Ruiz, he is just the loudest/proudest. Second, this runs counter to every claim the Gaytors have ever made. FOR DECADES, they have bragged about having a whole cadre of well-heeled boosters who can be wheeled out like Hannibal Lecter to dispense wisdom and money like they were candy. But...it doesn't seem to be true, now, does it? Because they are clearly envious that we have a "billionaire" who can do so, even though he is not a billionaire yet AND the LifeWallet money is currently coming from...wait for it, wait for it...LIFEWALLET. Not Ruiz's personal checkbook. A corporation.
So then FLTom says they have to BUILD the warchest, even though a few weeks ago they were telling us that Gaytor Guards was ready to go toe-to-toe with Alabama and Georgia, let alone that puny weakling Miami. Instead, we wake up to (internet) headlines that the Gaytors saved a lot of money on car insurance and NIL by not paying Harold Perkins and Trevonte Citizen and Darrell Jackson.
And they are still blaming Mullet. Mullet "did nothing" during the 4 months he was employed in the NIL Era. And maybe, just maybe, this is a reason to, you know, HIRE BETTER COACHES. Mullet got rejected TWICE by Miami. I may hate Beta Blake James for a lot of things, but I have to give him credit for not falling for Mullet's banana up our tailpipe. And maybe, just maybe, this is a reason to NOT hire a guy directly from G5 to pilot your Flagship Gaytor Brandz into the uncharted waters of the New NIL World. Maybe go out and hire a guy from Nike U who understands this stuff. Whoops, too late, we already did that.
So, yeah...more "blame Mullet/be patient with Gaypier" excuses. It was all just a big misunderstanding. All those "I'm rich, *****" Bull Gaytor alums were just sitting crooked atop their thicc wallets waiting on Dan Mullet to give them a call and tell them how many zeros he wanted in their checks. THAT'S IT. And even when Big D!ck Billy Gaypier finally picks up the phone, it's gonna take more than 4 months for the postal service to deliver those checks and the bank to credit the Gaytor account for all those deposits, checks take at least 10 business days to clear, ya know. Hogtown wasn't built in a day.
And let's not pretend that Darrell Jackson needed a Tennessee-sized McDonald's bag stuffed with money just to sign with the Gaytors. If NIL was so damned important to him, and the "claimed" numbers were so **** high, the Gaytors had a few months to search their couch cushions. But, no, they chose the fiscally-responsible route of frugality and left all that Perkins/Citizen/Jackson money in the bank.
Suuuure. And Naypier is learning on the job. And Mullet did nothing. And Gaytor Guard is patiently building that warchest.
Good lord, the crap you read on the Gaytor sites...
EDIT: To belatedly address your point on how Mario got this off the ground, here's his secret. He said words. And our alums and boosters wrote the checks. It's not complicated. Sure, it is nice to have a bell-cow booster who runs a company that is about to go public. But let's not pretend that all the deals that went to D'Eriq King and other UM players, IN 2021 ALONE, all came from John Ruiz.
