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Jackson flips to Miami

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Playing Devils advocate here..Its easy to beat your chest now. Its 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other. I have been following recruiting since 1988 and VERY RARELY does a guy who hasnt played a down of football since optimist league (espcially on the Dline where you have to be a man in those trenches) pan out this fast. You can call Al a genius all you want but this was hittin on 16 and gettin' 21.

I questioned it BUT in the back of my mind I knew something was up because Ice wouldnt have put his boy Randy on this guy that early if he didnt think he was the ****.

People who questioned Duke werent sure about his size. And the "hood rumor" reports that he didnt like lifting weights. Hes not the prototypical Dade Legend RB. (Busta Rhymes, McGahee, Sedrick Irvin, Najeh Davenport, Frank Gore, Bobby Washington, etc.) Those guys were builts like studs. Only Frank was under 6'0 feet. But he was a bull. Mind you, I didnt question Duke. He was a stud from the word go. But I can see people having doubts. They look stupid now.
 
Jassid82,

A friend sent a text to me last night after watching the Derrick Thomas story on the NFL Network, and asked me why Derrick Thomas didn't go to UM, Uif or F$U. I didn't have an answer for him and told him that I would ask someone who is more knowledgeable than me on recruiting. Do you know why Derrick Thomas went to Alabama?
 
When you see this kid play, you'd never know he just started playing football again. Raw, but he's athletic as ****. He's making a ton of plays.
 
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Ibis Wingz said:
Jassid82,

A friend sent a text to me last night after watching the Derrick Thomas story on the NFL Network, and asked me why Derrick Thomas didn't go to UM, Uif or F$U. I didn't have an answer for him and told him that I would ask someone who is more knowledgeable than me on recruiting. Do you know why Derrick Thomas went to Alabama?
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Would love to hear about this as well. I've asked this about a number of Dade guys who took off during those great times. The answer I received was along the lines of Tommy Streeter's dad: "oh, that guy wanted to be different." I wonder if it was the same for Derrick. What a ******* unbelievable football player.
 
To answer the question about Derrick Thomas, he just wasnt interested. Nothing we could have done. Just wanted out of Miami. We have run across many guys like this and no matter how hard you recruit them they just want to get away. And this was during the glory years too. He was a beast at South Miami though.
 
LuCane said:
Ibis Wingz said:
Jassid82,

A friend sent a text to me last night after watching the Derrick Thomas story on the NFL Network, and asked me why Derrick Thomas didn't go to UM, Uif or F$U. I didn't have an answer for him and told him that I would ask someone who is more knowledgeable than me on recruiting. Do you know why Derrick Thomas went to Alabama?
Click to expand...

Would love to hear about this as well. I've asked this about a number of Dade guys who took off during those great times. The answer I received was along the lines of Tommy Streeter's dad: "oh, that guy wanted to be different." I wonder if it was the same for Derrick. What a ****ing unbelievable football player.
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I know a guy that was extremely close to Thomas. They went to Bama together and even after the guy stopped playing football at Bama their friendship remained until the day that Thomas passed. I will see if Thomas ever mentioned why he didn't go to an instate school. Funny thing is, I never thought about asking that question.
 
Jassid82 said:
To answer the question about Derrick Thomas, he just wasnt interested. Nothing we could have done. Just wanted out of Miami. We have run across many guys like this and no matter how hard you recruit them they just want to get away. And this was during the glory years too. He was a beast at South Miami though.
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Thank you.
 
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Some people just want to go away for school. Have a new experience. I sure did.
 
Jassid82 said:
Playing Devils advocate here..Its easy to beat your chest now. Its 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other. I have been following recruiting since 1988 and VERY RARELY does a guy who hasnt played a down of football since optimist league (espcially on the Dline where you have to be a man in those trenches) pan out this fast. You can call Al a genius all you want but this was hittin on 16 and gettin' 21.

I questioned it BUT in the back of my mind I knew something was up because Ice wouldnt have put his boy Randy on this guy that early if he didnt think he was the ****.

People who questioned Duke werent sure about his size. And the "hood rumor" reports that he didnt like lifting weights. Hes not the prototypical Dade Legend RB. (Busta Rhymes, McGahee, Sedrick Irvin, Najeh Davenport, Frank Gore, Bobby Washington, etc.) Those guys were builts like studs. Only Frank was under 6'0 feet. But he was a bull. Mind you, I didnt question Duke. He was a stud from the word go. But I can see people having doubts. They look stupid now.
Click to expand...

Somewhat disagree. Al isn't in the position to throw **** against the wall to see if it sticks. Obviously he didn't have a ton to go on, but the kid did do well in his spring game. I believe he camped also, but I'm not sure on that one. It was definitely a risk, but it wasn't a blind one.
 
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bomb said:
Some people just want to go away for school. Have a new experience. I sure did.
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Yup, I personally felt that going to a local in state school was lame. This is very ironic now that I follow Cane recruiting..........
 
Artist Formerly Known As said:
Jassid82 said:
Playing Devils advocate here..Its easy to beat your chest now. Its 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other. I have been following recruiting since 1988 and VERY RARELY does a guy who hasnt played a down of football since optimist league (espcially on the Dline where you have to be a man in those trenches) pan out this fast. You can call Al a genius all you want but this was hittin on 16 and gettin' 21.

I questioned it BUT in the back of my mind I knew something was up because Ice wouldnt have put his boy Randy on this guy that early if he didnt think he was the ****.

People who questioned Duke werent sure about his size. And the "hood rumor" reports that he didnt like lifting weights. Hes not the prototypical Dade Legend RB. (Busta Rhymes, McGahee, Sedrick Irvin, Najeh Davenport, Frank Gore, Bobby Washington, etc.) Those guys were builts like studs. Only Frank was under 6'0 feet. But he was a bull. Mind you, I didnt question Duke. He was a stud from the word go. But I can see people having doubts. They look stupid now.
Click to expand...

Somewhat disagree. Al isn't in the position to throw **** against the wall to see if it sticks. Obviously he didn't have a ton to go on, but the kid did do well in his spring game. I believe he camped also, but I'm not sure on that one. It was definitely a risk, but it wasn't a blind one.
Click to expand...

How can anyone NOT give The Don credit for this? I don't get the fcked up rationale on here sometimes. When The Don makes a great move like this, he's guessing just because some dopey internet goofballs didn't like the move when it went down?
 
Jassid82 said:
To answer the question about Derrick Thomas, he just wasnt interested. Nothing we could have done. Just wanted out of Miami. We have run across many guys like this and no matter how hard you recruit them they just want to get away. And this was during the glory years too. He was a beast at South Miami though.
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It was a few years ago, but I also remember reading that there were problems with UM recruiting that class of soFla kids because that was Jimmy Johnson's first year, where he
was having turmoil within his staff, especially with the Schnellenberger leftovers.
In particular, his DC was Bill Trout, the guy infamously fired after the BC fiasco.
Trout was recruiting alot of the south Dade kids at the time.

Also, Derrick Thomas' coach at South Miami HS was Sam Miller. Every HS that Miller worked in soFla (South Dade, South Miami, Killian)
always resulted in his kids leaving the area - especially f$u, where Thomas' hs teammates Keith Carter and Pablo Lopez signed.
Interesting thing about Thomas was that his LB mate Carter got most of the publicity at that time.
 
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Jassid82 said:
Playing Devils advocate here..Its easy to beat your chest now. Its 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other. I have been following recruiting since 1988 and VERY RARELY does a guy who hasnt played a down of football since optimist league (espcially on the Dline where you have to be a man in those trenches) pan out this fast. You can call Al a genius all you want but this was hittin on 16 and gettin' 21.

I questioned it BUT in the back of my mind I knew something was up because Ice wouldnt have put his boy Randy on this guy that early if he didnt think he was the ****.
Click to expand...
Jassid82 said:
With the "6 in one hand, half dozen in the other" statement, it appears you're saying Golden got lucky that the kid has turned into a player. But, really you're point supports the opposite proposition. You correctly observed that there are tremendous odds against a guy who has never played a down of football turning out to be a stud prospect. Well, if Jackson is one of those very rare examples, then it further underscores Golden's exceptional eye for talent.
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Medley Cane, Great name drop. Keith Carter was the **** back then. I totally forgot about that guy.

Anyway, to clarifiy my statement, I give Al credit for the gamble he took on the kid. And the gamble paid off in spades. But what "eye" for talent did he have to have seen one game of the kid and a few practices? And while we are on the subject..Are we hailing Randy Shannon as the ULTIMATE eye because he actually was on him first? **** No. They both took the gamble.

We all know Al is not a good recruiter but a GREAT recruiter. Has an amazing eye for talent. He saw something in Eddie Johnson that nobody else did. Alex Figuaroa too. Olsen Pierre. And the list goes on and on of unknown recruits that turned into studs. But IMO Deme Jackson is a totally diff story. Al took a big risk and sometimes there is nothing wrong with that. He is Als version of Jimmie Jones. And ****, I will def take that.
 
Jassid82 said:
Playing Devils advocate here..Its easy to beat your chest now. Its 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other. I have been following recruiting since 1988 and VERY RARELY does a guy who hasnt played a down of football since optimist league (espcially on the Dline where you have to be a man in those trenches) pan out this fast. You can call Al a genius all you want but this was hittin on 16 and gettin' 21.

I questioned it BUT in the back of my mind I knew something was up because Ice wouldnt have put his boy Randy on this guy that early if he didnt think he was the ****.

People who questioned Duke werent sure about his size. And the "hood rumor" reports that he didnt like lifting weights. Hes not the prototypical Dade Legend RB. (Busta Rhymes, McGahee, Sedrick Irvin, Najeh Davenport, Frank Gore, Bobby Washington, etc.) Those guys were builts like studs. Only Frank was under 6'0 feet. But he was a bull. Mind you, I didnt question Duke. He was a stud from the word go. But I can see people having doubts. They look stupid now.
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The BOLDED was the giveaway for me.....when i saw kid had no offers and boom a commit to Arky...i said aww sh*t this is a steal Ice is pitching...kid just started practicing with BTW..Ice musta crapped his pants when he saw Jackson doin wiork in practice.


Second bolded part....my cousin played on the same team with DUKE..Was a starter @ Tackle and DTACKLE...personally told me Duke is a FREAK...and will be a beast cuz dude isnt even in the weight room foreal. When he told me that i said aww sh*t he will explode when he gets to um...because the stuff he was doing in high school was unreal...and he didnt even tap into his weightroom strength at all yet. Randy knew Duke was special he had that offer in hand from his soph year.
 
“The players that they’ve produced and they have the most players in the NFL with degrees.”

New line Al's using? Love the focus on the longer view beyond the league, and value of UM parchment.
 
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