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On Bryce Fitzgerald...

grover said:
Mario is a recruiting Shogun. I don't worry about noise related to any given recruit. Mario will win most battles and, more importantly, he'll win the war.

This time last year we were probably in the 20s with Gator and Noles fans laughing at Mario. We saw how that ended.

Now that we're currently 9th in the composite rankings, imagine how this recruiting class ends with a playoff run (hopefully combined with a Gator implosion). I think it's fair to say we have a legit shot to have back-to-back Top 5 classes.
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We’ll have a great class regardless, but as far as the rankings go we’ll need to land a couple 5 star kids to get to top 5, we landed 3 last year with lightfoot getting a composite 5 star ranking late. But this class is top ten easy top 5 if we get a couple big time guys
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
I think that the problem is 100 and 200 times are "track and field events", but a 40 is not. A 40 is run at football camps, etc., which may not have the full set-ups and high standards that laser-timed track & field events do.

Regardless, I've always had a bit of an issue with using 100 and 200 times, because nobody ever has to run that far on a football field. The 40 is good, plus any measurement of short-distance burst speed.

I still remember the days (and you probably do too) when Skeets Nehemiah (world-class sprinter/hurdler) didn't translate into much of an NFL WR, or Michael Timpson from Dade County was a huge recruit that Pedo State landed.

All of your points are still valid. Even in 2024, we still have incomplete (public) data and the order of reactions is usually (1) mope-first due to lack of stars/stats, followed by (2) slurp-second because the moping was questionable.

And for the record, the prior paragraph relates to online armchair experts living in other states besides Florida, not for certain posters who actually coach and/or attend high school games for their own ocular impressions.
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The forty was laser-timed.

My guess is he has better acceleration than long speed. Jaire Alexander was an 11.5 runner in high school who ran 4.38 at the combine and is one of the best corners in the NFL.

The issue with Fitzgerald is that he's really limiting himself if he doesn't improve his tackling. That would take him out of the safety conversation and put a lot of pressure on his ability to play corner, which he's never done for extended time. And he still needs to tackle there. He can be a good receiver, but Miami is going to be recruiting premium guys at that spot.

If Fitzgerald improves his tackling, which is a big if, his upside is first round. He's a premium athlete at a young age (just turned 17) with a good frame and outstanding ball skills. There is a reason he's ranked so high and is so heavily recruited. But he's not a slam dunk because of the physicality.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
I think that the problem is 100 and 200 times are "track and field events", but a 40 is not. A 40 is run at football camps, etc., which may not have the full set-ups and high standards that laser-timed track & field events do.

Regardless, I've always had a bit of an issue with using 100 and 200 times, because nobody ever has to run that far on a football field. The 40 is good, plus any measurement of short-distance burst speed.

I still remember the days (and you probably do too) when Skeets Nehemiah (world-class sprinter/hurdler) didn't translate into much of an NFL WR, or Michael Timpson from Dade County was a huge recruit that Pedo State landed.

All of your points are still valid. Even in 2024, we still have incomplete (public) data and the order of reactions is usually (1) mope-first due to lack of stars/stats, followed by (2) slurp-second because the moping was questionable.

And for the record, the prior paragraph relates to online armchair experts living in other states besides Florida, not for certain posters who actually coach and/or attend high school games for their own ocular impressions.
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I here ya. I don’t disagree with you. Let me wind this back to what happened for perspective here, which is not directed at you, of course. I posted this:

“One question I have is his speed. People are talking about a 4.48 40 but I’m not sure who timed that and where. I think I saw someone here and/or on the gator board a while back talking about him running an 11.50+ 100. I’d like to see how he runs at a big event. I’m not certain as to where he best fits in right now.”

And the mob started coming out at me for it. There’s a problem when people feel like they can’t ask a question and/or have normal open dialogue on the board.

I’m more than ****ed off at what’s transpiring. It’s depriving good non-problematic posters of more information, more input, more viewpoints and a better overall experience.
 
Brooklyndee said:
I had said that way before he signed anywhere. Just shows how much he still has to learn when this dude beats him out. Boise State has always been a team that excells due to coaching. Recruiting takes a backseat to that at certain places. I guess this is an example of why.
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Kalen DeBoer was a great hire IMO, even without the SEC background. He can evaluate talent and coach. Now he’s at Bama.
 
I think the mystery around his UA time is because after the event there were multiple recap reports of the day by various outlets and none of them mentioned his “top 5 40 time finish”. At most some mentioned that he looked good moving through drills but that was it.

Then when communication started to pick up with us again and people started to question his speed due to the 100m time he posted just a day or two before the UA event is when we started to hear he had “a top 5 40 time at the UA event in Miami” without a specific time given. Then several weeks later is when we heard the “4.48 time”.

Now I’m not saying he didn’t run a 4.48 and as others have mentioned there can be several reasons why there’s such a huge discrepancies between his 40 and 100m just a day or two apart. Just as there can be several reasons why none of the recap reports highlighted his “Top 5 40 finish” at the time but the narrative didn’t come out of time air with posters just trying to downplay the commitment.

Here are some of the reports written about that day including one from now Miami’s own Frank Tucker.

miami.rivals.com

Miami Targets Have Top Performances at Miami Under Armour Camp

Sunday's Under Armour Camp in South Florida brought out some of the nation's best
miami.rivals.com miami.rivals.com


www.si.com

Vote: Who was the top performer from Under Armour NEXT Miami 2024 camp?

Last Sunday morning down in South Florida, hundreads of athletes gathered to take part in the Under Armour NEXT Miami camp. The origin of the athletes on hand
www.si.com www.si.com

LarryBlustein.com - South Florida Prospects Shine At Under Armour Miami

Covering & Promoting ALL Florida & National High School Football Prospects for 50 Years.It's all about exposure and showcasing athletes above and below the radar. Everybody deserves to be seen.
larryblustein.com larryblustein.com

Again not saying he didn’t run that time just trying to add some context to the discussion.
 
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TRick72 said:
I think the mystery around his UA time is because after the event there were multiple recap reports of the day by various outlets and none of them mentioned his “top 5 40 time finish”. At most some mentioned that he looked good moving through drills but that was it.

Then when communication started to pick up with us again and people started to question his speed due to the 100m time he posted just a day or two before the UA event is when we started to hear he had “a top 5 40 time at the UA event in Miami” without a specific time given. Then several weeks later is when we heard the “4.48 time”.

Now I’m not saying he didn’t run a 4.48 and as others have mentioned there can be several reasons why there’s such a huge discrepancies between his 40 and 100m just a day or two apart. Just as there can be several reasons why none of the recap reports highlighted his “Top 5 40 finish” at the time but the narrative didn’t come out of time air with posters just trying to downplay the commitment.

Here are some of the reports written about that day including one from now Miami’s own Frank Tucker.

miami.rivals.com

Miami Targets Have Top Performances at Miami Under Armour Camp

Sunday's Under Armour Camp in South Florida brought out some of the nation's best
miami.rivals.com miami.rivals.com


www.si.com

Vote: Who was the top performer from Under Armour NEXT Miami 2024 camp?

Last Sunday morning down in South Florida, hundreads of athletes gathered to take part in the Under Armour NEXT Miami camp. The origin of the athletes on hand
www.si.com www.si.com

LarryBlustein.com - South Florida Prospects Shine At Under Armour Miami

Covering & Promoting ALL Florida & National High School Football Prospects for 50 Years.It's all about exposure and showcasing athletes above and below the radar. Everybody deserves to be seen.
larryblustein.com larryblustein.com

Again not saying he didn’t run that time just trying to add some context to the discussion.
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This was posted on March 5th. Again, the narrative around this kid is unusual.

It's fair to question his tackling. It's fair to question whether he can transition to CB, because he's never done it. To me, he's a boom or bust player.

But his athleticism is not a question to anyone outside this board. He's a great athlete. That's why he had so many offers.
 
DMoney said:


This was posted on March 5th. Again, the narrative around this kid is unusual.

It's fair to question his tackling. It's fair to question whether he can transition to CB, because he's never done it. To me, he's a boom or bust player.

But his athleticism is not a question to anyone outside this board. He's a great athlete. That's why he had so many offers.
Click to expand...

Right or wrong I’ve seen questions about Bryce Fitzgerald’s speed on the gator board, while they thought they were in it. This isn’t the only place where questions arose.
 
RVACane said:
Kalen DeBoer was a great hire IMO, even without the SEC background. He can evaluate talent and coach. Now he’s at Bama.
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To me as stupid as it sounds to say, I'm more worried about bama moving forward than I was the last few years with Satan. They were living off their last ten years or so before and it was sec hype. Now I think they'll be back on the track to dominate. A dude like that with his pedigree at a place with unlimited resources should be scary for football.
 
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