So about that Dade/Broward/Palm Beach talent ...

Lots of good points here, but a couple things ...

1. You point out that high school football in Texas is community driven, which in conjunction with a very powerful HS Football Coaches Association and strict rules enforcement by the UIL (the Texas equivalent of the FHSAA), transfers are very limited.

That, of course, is the opposite of the free-for-all we see in Florida high school football.

BUT ... my question is this: If kids aren't allowed to transfer, why AREN'T inner-city schools in Houston and Dallas doing well? They're not losing kids right, other than a handful getting pulled by the non-UIL elite private high schools in those areas.

Where are former powerhouses like Dallas Carter or Houston Yates? They — or any other "inner city" schools — are nowhere to be found among the elite teams of the last couple decades

Football is absolutely dead in Dallas ISD, Fort Worth ISD, and Houston ISD. The power moved out to the suburbs in the mid 90s and will never come back barring major changes. Parents with the means found that they could move out to the suburbs legally by buying property in those places and moving their families (these aren't usually many of the inner city high D1 type kids, they're the D2 type kids who are great high school players with involved football-loving parents that can afford to legitimately uproot their family and buy property in the correct ISD when the kids are in grade school) and beat the inner city schools with just way better coaching and facilities combined with huge parental involvement. I have a family member who coaches at Southlake Carroll and it's not unusual for 3 or 4 kids in every single grade to have their own private QB coach as soon as they're playing flag football.

This disparity in resources and ability to bunch up talent was compounded by the huge no-pass/no-play emphasis that leaves so many inner city kids ineligible and got highlighted by news outlets in the late 90s and early 00s. Grades scandals at some of the inner city powerhouses put a giant spotlight on grade fixing and it became impossible (sort of like Miami being unable to drop bags because the NCAA holds us to the flame). The Carter and Yates types found themselves less and less competitive as grades casualties and suburban schools took hold. That really cemented the die off of inner city football in DFW and Houston. It sounds lame, but the no-huddle really hurt the inner city schools as well. Back when Art Briles, Sam Harrell, Todd Dodge, Que Brittain, and other head coaches of primarily white or suburban schools started throwing the ball 50 times a game in the late 90s/early 00s with plays coming directly from the sideline up tempo, they just started beating the tar out of some traditional powers via Xs and Os when those schools' staffs were outcoached. That stuff really blew up around the same time as the suburban flight and the grades stuff, so it all just compounded really quickly and the shift of power was complete.

These schools are not even CLOSE to competitive these days - if you play a DISD, HISD, or FWISD school and you are decent, you're winning by 50. Back in the old days, good football players in Dallas would go to Carter or a few others and they would ball out. Without the ability to play the kids with marginal grades or bunch up the best kids on the same teams Central/BTW/Southridge style, they just aren't as good. Coaches do NOT want to go coach anywhere near these inner city schools and it's avoided at all costs. Without the ability to recruit, you are just signing up for a lot of 2-8 seasons with kids who are half-hearted discipline problems and go into every significant game knowing they won't win. Inner city kids do not want to come out and play for loser programs. It has nothing to do with basketball emphasis. Texans don't give a **** about basketball, relatively speaking. There is no telling how much talent is just wasted in the Dallas and Houston ISDs every single year.

Not to go too hard on you swag, but it is exactly what I thought it was...and what I have seen with their college programs.

These tX team/kids are now SOFT. The bolded regardless would never happen in S.FLA...football means too much. Win or lose they will play and continue to go at it.

Kids give their all against STA weekly knowing they are at a competitive disadvantage but want to show out in front of a scout.

Then why are the SoFla kids flocking in droves to the same handful of winners every spring? I love you guys, but you're crazy thinking you have a monopoly on passion for football. Come to a few games over here sometime and watch a town close down. Did Houston look soft busting FSU in the mouth? College success is about coaching and quarterbacks. Art Briles, Tom Herman, and Gary Patterson proved that, winning at never-has-been/never-will-be programs with tier 3 Texas kids.

Again...what your saying is TRUE in the bold...then your TX kids are SOFT....No if ands or but about it. The great state of tx had to get a gift from The Vince Young gods to have a MNC...Other than that...well........Since the year 2000....all 3 of the BIG 3 have MNC. I'm just saying. Football is suppose to be what they rest their hat on ....and you posted that inner city kids just don't wanna play for loser programs??...tell that to the Antonio Brown, T.Y. Hilton, Pie Young's of the world. Everything you said were a problem in the metro inner cities of tx ...we have here in s.fla and even worse...yet....still churn out prospects after prospects...because...FOOTBALL MEANS TO MUCH
 
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To summarize:

Swag says: Miami players > Dallas/Houston players

Other folks say: Miami players >>>>>>>>>>>>> Dallas/Houston players
 
Texas hoods got overrun by the Mexi's over the last 25 years.

That's why they aren't as good at football anymore.
 
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Again...what your saying is TRUE in the bold...then your TX kids are SOFT....No if ands or but about it. The great state of tx had to get a gift from The Vince Young gods to have a MNC...Other than that...well........Since the year 2000....all 3 of the BIG 3 have MNC. I'm just saying. Football is suppose to be what they rest their hat on ....and you posted that inner city kids just don't wanna play for loser programs??...tell that to the Antonio Brown, T.Y. Hilton, Pie Young's of the world. Everything you said were a problem in the metro inner cities of tx ...we have here in s.fla and even worse...yet....still churn out prospects after prospects...because...FOOTBALL MEANS TO MUCH


Why would a coach make 60k less a year to coach inner city schools? I mean is it really soft to take a job that pays much higher when you know you can out coach the coach making 60k less?
 
Just to add:

I think the biggest difference is that football is unquestionably the No. 1 sport in inner-city Miami — no ifs, ands or buts about it.

There's really no other major city in America like it.

I think basketball has made big in-roads in both Dallas and Houston -- just look how many NBA players and college stars come from those two places.

It only follows to reason that more and more inner city kids in Texas are focusing on basketball.

I don't know DFW, but in ATL you don't see inner city schools win at football because they can't compete for coaches that single HS districts can. Looking at the 8 teams that won state last year, only one would I not send my kid too (Cedar Grove).

you should see the sh*t show in South Florida as coaches.....yet they still kick ***....IDK Drew...APS football for the most part wasn't that good when I lived in ATL BACK in 2002....around that time Parkview (outskirts), Stephenson (metro -outskirts) were hoarding talent...I think Westlake , Doug, Mays, Washington were solid teams then.

Those schools have good teams, but they never win state because they get out coached when they play schools OTP. I really comes down to pay, and large school districts don't pay way. APS is one of the worst districts in the entire country. There is still talent in those schools, they just aren't coached well. AH barely beat a 4 loss GA team this year, so while I knowledge that talent and level of football in south Florida, I don't think it's as big of a gap as everyone thinks, I think the draft shows that.
 
Again...what your saying is TRUE in the bold...then your TX kids are SOFT....No if ands or but about it. The great state of tx had to get a gift from The Vince Young gods to have a MNC...Other than that...well........Since the year 2000....all 3 of the BIG 3 have MNC. I'm just saying. Football is suppose to be what they rest their hat on ....and you posted that inner city kids just don't wanna play for loser programs??...tell that to the Antonio Brown, T.Y. Hilton, Pie Young's of the world. Everything you said were a problem in the metro inner cities of tx ...we have here in s.fla and even worse...yet....still churn out prospects after prospects...because...FOOTBALL MEANS TO MUCH


Why would a coach make 60k less a year to coach inner city schools? I mean is it really soft to take a job that pays much higher when you know you can out coach the coach making 60k less?

where did your comprehension skills go?. Go back and read his bolded part, their not even having kids come out to play because they don't want to play at loser programs. THATS SOFT.
 
Just to add:

I think the biggest difference is that football is unquestionably the No. 1 sport in inner-city Miami — no ifs, ands or buts about it.

There's really no other major city in America like it.

I think basketball has made big in-roads in both Dallas and Houston -- just look how many NBA players and college stars come from those two places.

It only follows to reason that more and more inner city kids in Texas are focusing on basketball.

I don't know DFW, but in ATL you don't see inner city schools win at football because they can't compete for coaches that single HS districts can. Looking at the 8 teams that won state last year, only one would I not send my kid too (Cedar Grove).

you should see the sh*t show in South Florida as coaches.....yet they still kick ***....IDK Drew...APS football for the most part wasn't that good when I lived in ATL BACK in 2002....around that time Parkview (outskirts), Stephenson (metro -outskirts) were hoarding talent...I think Westlake , Doug, Mays, Washington were solid teams then.

Those schools have good teams, but they never win state because they get out coached when they play schools OTP. I really comes down to pay, and large school districts don't pay way. APS is one of the worst districts in the entire country. There is still talent in those schools, they just aren't coached well. AH barely beat a 4 loss GA team this year, so while I knowledge that talent and level of football in south Florida, I don't think it's as big of a gap as everyone thinks, I think the draft shows that.

its a pretty solid gap in comparison. I lived there Drew and watched some stacked teams play around that time...and remember thinking how much trouble those same teams would have in south florida back then...Theres been some real IMPRESSIVE teams in metro atl...like that Grayson team and a few others that would steamroll a lot of teams....I'm also a guy that realizes and think we should recruit Metro Atl yearly..alot of talent...Airport base...kids fit in with Miami Big City life for the most part. But as far as hs football goes...naw brah. Your talking about pay...when florida are VOLUNTEERS...or 2 members of the staff make a 3k stipend a YEAR. I played on a team with about 10 div 1-1aa athletes and we didn't have an off season conditioning program...our coach told us to get a gym membership.. GA in my opinion is sitting in top 4 position as football goes.
 
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Crazy. Some kids here will transfer away from the suburban schools because the football program sucks and they have a better chance to earn a scholarship at a powerhouse. Ryan Williams playing at Miramar is a good example. I believe he was supposed to attend Flanagan but at the time Flanagan had a joke football program and he wanted to play somewhere he would be able to impress scouts.

Flawed logic. Never been true. (the exposure myth)

That's just some BS that they get told by guys who are trying to pull them from their home schools.
 
The one thing I will say about South Florida kids is that they're ultra competitive. Obviously I'm over on the West Coast now, which is still FLA and still has talent, but even these kids don't have that dog in them that South FLA kids have.

Example... (and me and my 2 fellow South FLA coaches at Southeast talk about this all the time)

There is no off season in South Florida.
Right after the play-offs were over these kids were already at a camp...throwing, catching, running routes, COMPETING.

As much as I can't stand Sly Johnson, these kids are at his camp EVERY SUNDAY getting that work. It has almost become a culture. If you ain't there, you ain't ****. There's actual PEER PRESSURE from fellow high school players to show up and get work. This creates a culture of competition that is unmatched anywhere in the country IMO. It gives these kids an extreme level of confidence and most importantly...REPS.
These camps are a who's who of local high school players...and in some cases...well known college players. (they come in the off season)

South FLA kids WANT TO WORK. They WANT TO PLAY FOOTBALL. It's actually "cool" to show up at these camps every weekend. It's like a **** social event. That's how all these kids know each other. That **** ain't happening over here in Bradenton/Sarasota area. We **** near gotta hold our kid's hands to get them to get extra work. For christ sake, 5 of our kids missed our first spring practice cause they were playing on some sorry travel basketball team. (2 of them are D1 level football players)

That **** don't happen in South FLA. Our kids want nothing more than to play football. Even our "bad" athletes are willing to work their a$$ off. At Western we didn't have to tell our kids to work. They wanted to lift, they wanted to throw, they wanted to run routes, etc. They didn't care (or think) that their ceiling was 7-3 or maybe 8-2. They worked like they wanted to win every game, even the kids who had no future in football. Why? PEER PRESSURE like a MF!

And South FLA kids ain't scared of ****. When you've been working and competing at elite levels from the time you were a child then you grow immune to pressure. The level of confidence they develop by the time they're in high school is unmatched.

I remember years ago I was working at a special needs school that sits behind Miramar High. The high school football season had just ended maybe 2 weeks prior. I look out the window and at least 25 Miramar kids are on their practice field doing drills on their own. (no coaches in sight) The football season had just ended!
 
Lots of good points here, but a couple things ...

1. You point out that high school football in Texas is community driven, which in conjunction with a very powerful HS Football Coaches Association and strict rules enforcement by the UIL (the Texas equivalent of the FHSAA), transfers are very limited.

That, of course, is the opposite of the free-for-all we see in Florida high school football.

BUT ... my question is this: If kids aren't allowed to transfer, why AREN'T inner-city schools in Houston and Dallas doing well? They're not losing kids right, other than a handful getting pulled by the non-UIL elite private high schools in those areas.

Where are former powerhouses like Dallas Carter or Houston Yates? They — or any other "inner city" schools — are nowhere to be found among the elite teams of the last couple decades

Football is absolutely dead in Dallas ISD, Fort Worth ISD, and Houston ISD. The power moved out to the suburbs in the mid 90s and will never come back barring major changes. Parents with the means found that they could move out to the suburbs legally by buying property in those places and moving their families (these aren't usually many of the inner city high D1 type kids, they're the D2 type kids who are great high school players with involved football-loving parents that can afford to legitimately uproot their family and buy property in the correct ISD when the kids are in grade school) and beat the inner city schools with just way better coaching and facilities combined with huge parental involvement. I have a family member who coaches at Southlake Carroll and it's not unusual for 3 or 4 kids in every single grade to have their own private QB coach as soon as they're playing flag football.

This disparity in resources and ability to bunch up talent was compounded by the huge no-pass/no-play emphasis that leaves so many inner city kids ineligible and got highlighted by news outlets in the late 90s and early 00s. Grades scandals at some of the inner city powerhouses put a giant spotlight on grade fixing and it became impossible (sort of like Miami being unable to drop bags because the NCAA holds us to the flame). The Carter and Yates types found themselves less and less competitive as grades casualties and suburban schools took hold. That really cemented the die off of inner city football in DFW and Houston. It sounds lame, but the no-huddle really hurt the inner city schools as well. Back when Art Briles, Sam Harrell, Todd Dodge, Que Brittain, and other head coaches of primarily white or suburban schools started throwing the ball 50 times a game in the late 90s/early 00s with plays coming directly from the sideline up tempo, they just started beating the tar out of some traditional powers via Xs and Os when those schools' staffs were outcoached. That stuff really blew up around the same time as the suburban flight and the grades stuff, so it all just compounded really quickly and the shift of power was complete.

These schools are not even CLOSE to competitive these days - if you play a DISD, HISD, or FWISD school and you are decent, you're winning by 50. Back in the old days, good football players in Dallas would go to Carter or a few others and they would ball out. Without the ability to play the kids with marginal grades or bunch up the best kids on the same teams Central/BTW/Southridge style, they just aren't as good. Coaches do NOT want to go coach anywhere near these inner city schools and it's avoided at all costs. Without the ability to recruit, you are just signing up for a lot of 2-8 seasons with kids who are half-hearted discipline problems and go into every significant game knowing they won't win. Inner city kids do not want to come out and play for loser programs. It has nothing to do with basketball emphasis. Texans don't give a **** about basketball, relatively speaking. There is no telling how much talent is just wasted in the Dallas and Houston ISDs every single year.

Swag,so where are these inner city kids from DFW playing? Is youth football still a thing in the inner city in DFW? It's a shame that those types of schools aren't any good at football anymore.
 
I remember watching Booker T beat Norcross 55-0 on ESPN back in 2013.

Might have been the most dominating performance I've ever seen between two quality high school teams (Norcross went on to win Georgia's 6A championship that season).

Booker T had an unheralded offensive tackle who flat-out manhandled the No. 1 defensive end prospect in the nation.

Just an epic beat down that night and as good of a display of SoFla speed, toughness and football savvy as anyone could hope to see.
 
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High schools with most NFL players drafted since 2006:
1. STA (Fort Lauderdale)
2. Glenville (Cleveland, OH)
3. Norland (Miami)
Poly (Long Beach, CA)
5. Central (Miami)
Northwestern (Miami)

7. Blanche Ely (Pompano Beach)
De La Salle (Concord, CA)
Stephenson (Stone Mountain, GA)
10. Atlantic (Delray Beach)
Glades Central (Belle Glade)

Chandler, AZ
Colton, CA
Crenshaw (Los Angeles)
DeSoto, TX
Dorsey (Los Angeles)
Evangelical Christian (Shreveport, LA)

That's 4 of the top 6, 5 of the top 9 and 7 of the top 14 NFL factories — located within a three-county area in South Florida!

Yet more proof that while the LA, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston areas produce a lot really good football talent, Greater Miami is on a whole different level.

LINK:High school programs that have produced most NFL draft picks since 2006

Has been the most frustrating thing about our losing over the past decade. South Florida has put out more all-time greats during this time in all the almost 40 years of me following football down here. Another reason I believe Richt will win a championship here. South Florida football players have different DNA then anywhere in the country to include GEORGIA! Georgia best high school teams against south florida best were no contest!
 
Crazy. Some kids here will transfer away from the suburban schools because the football program sucks and they have a better chance to earn a scholarship at a powerhouse. Ryan Williams playing at Miramar is a good example. I believe he was supposed to attend Flanagan but at the time Flanagan had a joke football program and he wanted to play somewhere he would be able to impress scouts.

Flawed logic. Never been true. (the exposure myth)

That's just some BS that they get told by guys who are trying to pull them from their home schools.

You may not like it but it happens. Parents pull their kids out of their area schools and enroll them in powerhouse programs all the time. For some, it works out. For others, they get lost in the sea of other talent and were probably better off being a big fish in a small pond.
 
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Crazy. Some kids here will transfer away from the suburban schools because the football program sucks and they have a better chance to earn a scholarship at a powerhouse. Ryan Williams playing at Miramar is a good example. I believe he was supposed to attend Flanagan but at the time Flanagan had a joke football program and he wanted to play somewhere he would be able to impress scouts.

Flawed logic. Never been true. (the exposure myth)

That's just some BS that they get told by guys who are trying to pull them from their home schools.

You may not like it but it happens. Parents pull their kids out of their area schools and enroll them in powerhouse programs all the time. For some, it works out. For others, they get lost in the sea of other talent and were probably better off being a big fish in a small pond.

Oh, I know. I hear you.
 
Where's Red Bank, NJ?

redbank.webp
 
Just to add:

I think the biggest difference is that football is unquestionably the No. 1 sport in inner-city Miami — no ifs, ands or buts about it.

There's really no other major city in America like it.

I think basketball has made big in-roads in both Dallas and Houston -- just look how many NBA players and college stars come from those two places.

It only follows to reason that more and more inner city kids in Texas are focusing on basketball.

I don't know DFW, but in ATL you don't see inner city schools win at football because they can't compete for coaches that single HS districts can. Looking at the 8 teams that won state last year, only one would I not send my kid too (Cedar Grove).

you should see the sh*t show in South Florida as coaches.....yet they still kick ***....IDK Drew...APS football for the most part wasn't that good when I lived in ATL BACK in 2002....around that time Parkview (outskirts), Stephenson (metro -outskirts) were hoarding talent...I think Westlake , Doug, Mays, Washington were solid teams then.

Those schools have good teams, but they never win state because they get out coached when they play schools OTP. I really comes down to pay, and large school districts don't pay way. APS is one of the worst districts in the entire country. There is still talent in those schools, they just aren't coached well. AH barely beat a 4 loss GA team this year, so while I knowledge that talent and level of football in south Florida, I don't think it's as big of a gap as everyone thinks, I think the draft shows that.

Are you talking about Colquitt County? If you are, weren't they nationally ranked when AH went up there? If not, are you talking about Stephenson(Metro ATL)? Because if you're talking about them, AH curbstomped them, 36-8. It would've been a shutout if the refs didn't give them a pity td. I'm not a guy that automatically ***** on a kid if he's not from SoFla or Fla., I know that there are athletes everywhere. In terms of raw talent, GA is definitely a powerhouse state and Metro Atlanta is a powerhouse area. But just about every measurable statistic shows that FL is THE powerhouse state and SoFla is THE powerhouse area.
 
Just to add:

I think the biggest difference is that football is unquestionably the No. 1 sport in inner-city Miami — no ifs, ands or buts about it.

There's really no other major city in America like it.

I think basketball has made big in-roads in both Dallas and Houston -- just look how many NBA players and college stars come from those two places.

It only follows to reason that more and more inner city kids in Texas are focusing on basketball.

I don't know DFW, but in ATL you don't see inner city schools win at football because they can't compete for coaches that single HS districts can. Looking at the 8 teams that won state last year, only one would I not send my kid too (Cedar Grove).

you should see the sh*t show in South Florida as coaches.....yet they still kick ***....IDK Drew...APS football for the most part wasn't that good when I lived in ATL BACK in 2002....around that time Parkview (outskirts), Stephenson (metro -outskirts) were hoarding talent...I think Westlake , Doug, Mays, Washington were solid teams then.

Those schools have good teams, but they never win state because they get out coached when they play schools OTP. I really comes down to pay, and large school districts don't pay way. APS is one of the worst districts in the entire country. There is still talent in those schools, they just aren't coached well. AH barely beat a 4 loss GA team this year, so while I knowledge that talent and level of football in south Florida, I don't think it's as big of a gap as everyone thinks, I think the draft shows that.


In 2015 there were 51 players combined from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. 31 from Miami and 20 from Ft. Lauderdale. The next highest city had 14. So yes, there's an absolutely giant gap.

Which state, city and high school has the most current NFL players? | USA Today High School Sports
 
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