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The Decline of South Florida

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And if South Florida not producing top talent ahow me who is not based on site rankings. But on draft picks and college/NFL production. I'm still waiting the NFL teams with no South Florida guys?
 
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kanin81 said:
I feel like the local players who are highly regarded are coddled and act like divas and think that’s how it’s going to be in college and can’t handle college coaches on them and pushing them. When they were used to getting away with their nonsense.
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There is no other explanation.
It happens all the time and it’s the reason why the nba and soccer are full of international kids.
The “crib”!!!
Kids get any bit of love and hype and they stop grinding.
Leonard Taylor, according to Flo, bought the suit he was gonna wear to the draft before the season was even over.


A lot of sofla kids get the blue chip hype and just forget what got them there or don’t understand that someone will outwork and beat them.

This 7 on 7 sht is spoiling these kids and now with nil it’s gonna get even worse.

They act like the nfl is some sort of guarantee after they get 20 offers and blue chip status.
 
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Many must have been sleeping under a rock the past 15 years.

Sofla talent is and has been watered down for quite a while. Outside of a few guys a year, you can find just as good if not better elsewhere with Less headache.

No disrespect to the coaches on CIS, but for the most part, coaching is cheeks in Sofla. Granted the state pay is terrible so that is a factor as well.

When Urban was still coaching at UF. He said he only wanted to sign 2-3 kids a year from sofla bc typically all the players were extremely raw. That was almost 20 years ago!!
 
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Almost as if we need to reallocate our resources entirely in terms of money spent. Even if we get the highly rated guys from south Florida(or the ones who didn’t pick Miami) they aren’t really panning out to what they were projected to.
 
DTP said:
I’d say it’s been more of a bad run than a decline of talent. I’ll believe there’s a lack of talent when the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world stop recruiting guys here. But I do agree that it’s in our best interest to recruit nationally that way a down year locally doesn’t automatically make it a bad recruiting year for us.
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Exactly. I'm not sure of the purpose of this article - the recruiting hotbed is essentially South Florida and there is more talent density in that little area than most of the other states have in total.

It's only normal that there will be a time frame where kids aren't as talented. That happens. Plus, Florida is trailing further and further in investments for HS coaches and facilities. At some point, you can't develop kids as well as other states because of infrastructure.
 
6th Ring is Near said:
The main problem is that the HS football coaching overall in the state of Florida is terrible with a few exceptions. Talented kids are having their development hurt but are still being ranked super high on the recruitng services based on the state and area they are playing in. The top programs are still going to come down here and try to recruit them, so that wont change. They probably see the talent and measureables and think they can get them into their program and "coach them up".
That can work in some situations but most of the time the kids are behind in the game from a fundamental aspect and can still be productive parts in a college program, but they never catch up and achieve the level we keep thinking they will be at based on being from Florida and ranked high.
Down here, everyone is too worried about 7 v 7 tournaments and looking cool at them with one handed catches and not on the fundamentals that will separate them from other talented kids at the next level.
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I agree to an extent.

The folks who are "ranking" the s.fla kids AS OF LATE are out the loop because based off the top 10 dmoney posted some of those guys werent in our real local sports guys top 10 as players.

But down here the 7 on 7 aau concept has EXTREMLY TAKEN off so we will see and it is a sh*tshow there so lets see how it goes in two years or so with trickle down effect.

Its South Florida it will forever be a 3star kid or 2 that pops....Teams like UCF seem to be benefitting from the passes we have on a few kids....

Hey i been a proponent in mining certain other metro areas. 2 of which we still havent gone into in The 757 ATLEAST WE WENT NEAR to the other one as we are in Louisiana but id like to sit in New orleans on a yearly basis.

These 3 spend resources in:
Philly/NJ
757 Tide Water(va)
New Orleans

I didnt see our MIDWEST swing coming at all...But Mario is being smart. Also it appears So Cal could be open for business and we should go into the South Bay with CAL BERKLEY now being in conference
 
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Well, I'm bored and I can't sleep, so I might as well point out why I don't like the article (although it mentions a point worth watching, it doesn't indicate an actual decline to me):

1. Metrics used.

Using 247 Sports Composite, with all due respect, is just not a good way of measuring talent. They are highly biased, not accurate and, at times, even downright ridiculous. Arch Manning was handed the #1 spot for all players with no evidence present as to why, let alone any sort of movement in the rankings based on him not attending camps or tryouts. And I don't even have to mention how 247 adjusts rankings based on commits - it's well-documented.

2. Size of area and comparison vs others.

I haven't received an accurate definition of what South Florida actually is in here and I won't make up my own. However, and everyone can agree: This isn't Texas and it isn't California. The density in this area is insane. If we're taking Bradenton as the last checkpoint for South Florida going north, it has the second-highest amount of players in the NFL whilst inhabitating 55.000 people. The mere fact that we produced so much talent for so long for this little space vs other states not having the talent we have for five years - you get the point.

3. Infrastructure.

Investment in other areas vs South Florida - I don't even feel like explaining this, everyone knows.

4. Development.

There's too many reasons why a prospect doesn't pan out. Most of the time it isn't the lack of talent. Sometimes there are legal issues. Sometimes there are cognitive issues (issues with playbook and college). Sometimes there are injuries. Sometimes you have ****** coaches and teammates. And so on. It's not necessarily the lack of talent.
 
Well done obituary. Sorry for your loss.

Hopefully a 10+ win season can ease your pain.
 
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Bender said:
Well, I'm bored and I can't sleep, so I might as well point out why I don't like the article (although it mentions a point worth watching, it doesn't indicate an actual decline to me):

1. Metrics used.

Using 247 Sports Composite, with all due respect, is just not a good way of measuring talent. They are highly biased, not accurate and, at times, even downright ridiculous. Arch Manning was handed the #1 spot for all players with no evidence present as to why, let alone any sort of movement in the rankings based on him not attending camps or tryouts. And I don't even have to mention how 247 adjusts rankings based on commits - it's well-documented.

2. Size of area and comparison vs others.

I haven't received an accurate definition of what South Florida actually is in here and I won't make up my own. However, and everyone can agree: This isn't Texas and it isn't California. The density in this area is insane. If we're taking Bradenton as the last checkpoint for South Florida going north, it has the second-highest amount of players in the NFL whilst inhabitating 55.000 people. The mere fact that we produced so much talent for so long for this little space vs other states not having the talent we have for five years - you get the point.

3. Infrastructure.

Investment in other areas vs South Florida - I don't even feel like explaining this, everyone knows.

4. Development.

There's too many reasons why a prospect doesn't pan out. Most of the time it isn't the lack of talent. Sometimes there are legal issues. Sometimes there are cognitive issues (issues with playbook and college). Sometimes there are injuries. Sometimes you have ****** coaches and teammates. And so on. It's not necessarily the lack of talent.
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iM WITH YOU HERE.

And even with some of the guys D listed.

For example...Taylor for us, James Williams for us these are 3+ year starters..those arent bust.
 
Zbrod95 said:
It’s not. I’ve been saying this for years. We have poured so many resources in SFL for years that we have settled for mediocrity instead of putting more resources in urban areas like NJ, PA, MD, VA, and Louisiana.

Butch understood this and created the greatest team to grace a college football field. Even though he’s living proof we were sold a lie that it was still the 80’s.
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Agreed! But that team will never be put together again because no way the guys that redshirted and waited their time would do that during this era.
 
Very good write up, appreciate the time you took to do so D$.

Quite simply put - recruit the best players period, especially the local studs…and don’t limit yourself geographically. We’ll be set up for the long run if we do so. Mario seems to be pushing the national approach more than any of his recent predecessors, and it seems to be paying off.
 
We have massive parenting and coaching issues in South Florida... and they're getting much worse.

1. Most high school programs down here are "enablers" to their stud players. They allow them to get away with what they want, which leads to less development, less accountability, poor work ethic, etc. They arrive at college with those bad habits.

2. There's not a lot of development going on down here. Kids aren't leaving high school "college ready"...mentally or physically. Their technique sucks, they can't read a defense/offense, DB's only know how to play one coverage, they dont know college terminology, etc.

Manny would take kids like this in a heartbeat...
And then he'd enable them some more.
That's why we got what we got.

Mario wants FOOTBALL PLAYERS. High character, high work ethic, knowledge of the game. And you gotta be willing to leave South Florida if you want a roster like that. Those kids aren't in abundance down here.
 
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