Going to be a long few weeks gents. This is recruiting. Fact is I think we have been a bit overly optimistic here for a while. Golden and his recruiting have taken on a ridiculous mythical stature that is simply unrealistic. I mean the fact that Golden has pulled in the guys he has is already amazing, considering that we are ten years from a BCS game, we have sucked b@lls for almost a decade, are on our third coach in 6 years, just came off another mediocre season, and are facing an NCAA @ss whooping.
The fact that we are in contention for some of these top kids is impressive in and of itself, but I tend to look at these things pessmistically. That's why I dont care about following Juniors, or early commitments, and all that cr@p. After decades of following recruiting, the highs and lows will crush you if you dont keep things in perspective, and try to be realistic. Its so easy to get carried away with the blind homerism, but the fact is, even in the best of years we still lost out on some top prospects. I honestly dont think we are going to land all the guys we want. **** I would be doing backflips if we can close with Kirkland, Collins, Grace, Thomas and maybe Bostwick. I can even live with Bostwick going to prep for a year, since realistically very few Frosh DTs are going to be making a significant impact in year one.
The two guys Im the most worried about are Thomas, Collins and DT. The USC thing really bothers me about Thomas. I dont like the vibe it gives, not for a hometown kid who is supposedly so enamoured with the U. The Collins situation has also bothered me for a while too. When a kid decommits like that, it almost never works out for us in the end. The fact that this kid has been searching high and low for other programs, despite the fact that this is the perfect place for him, just leads me to believe there is something pushing him elsewhere.
So as of now, Im going to approach things as I always do. Expect the worse, and hope for the best, Im going to expect Thomas and Collins are going to ***** us, and mentally prepare myself for that now. I would recommend most of you do that too. Thus, if it does happen, the board doesnt go into meltdown mode, where people are trashing Golden and the staff, and disparaging the kids we DID get, and the commitments THEY made to our program, because we lost out on some guys we wanted. And if we manage to pull them, well then it will be a pleasant surprise, like finding the keys to a new Corvette under the Xmas tree you werent expecting.
This stuff happens every year. Even if we lose out on these kids, Golden and staff have done a **** of a job considering the sh*t show we have been dealing with here. When we start winning again, and have this NCAA cloud finally gone from over our heads, we are going to start winning these big battles for the super studs again. Its impressive enough that we have landed the ones we have.
