I'm just not sure how we blame our coaches if he decides to go to Maryland or if we don't have a backup plan as good. Brown has been on him for years and has not backed off. He's made him his top priority and didn't stop recruiting just because we had his silent commitment. The reality is that no matter how hard you recruit someone, how much time you spend, how great the relationship is, the decision belongs to the recruit. Brown did everything he could other than sign the LOI to become a 'Cane. What else did you want Brown to do?
As for backup plans, let's not forget that we do have Burns committed, so it's not that we don't have another RB. If we only had space for 2 RBs, and we had both guys telling us that they were committed to us, what else should we have done? Told McFarland that if he didn't make his commitment public, we were going to move on? Really? Brown and Richt built a relationship with him and his family and he told our coaches he was coming. We had no indication he wasn't coming until 2 days ago. Do people think there are 4 and 5* running backs just lined up trying to get in our class in the event there is an opening? It wasn't realistic to have a backup plan on the same level as McFarland, ready to take his place, when we had no idea it was a risk he may not come.
There are obviously times where we didn't do enough, or times where we should have had a backup plan because of uncertainty, but the reality is, sometimes you just get screwed because you are counting on someone to keep his word and he changes his mind at the last minute, preventing a legit backup plan. If we lose McFarland, it's not because we didn't do enough, and if we don't have a great plan B, it's not because our coaches blew it. This would be an instance of getting unexpectedly screwed at the last minute on a decision that really doesn't make much sense.
