Twitter Tuesday: Urban Meyer, top talent-producing states, Florida
Twitter Tuesday is back again this week, as Southeast recruiting analyst Woody Wommack is answering your questions.
MORE: The puzzling question about Urban Meyer | South Florida recruits predict teams' next commit
A “no comment” in that situation would. not have really solved the problem. If Urban Meyer would have owned up to the situation and said once he had all the information, he decided to fire Zach Smith, there wouldn’t be as much consternation over the situation.
While your view of not talking about anything except X’s and O’s seems ideal for most coaches, it’s just now how college football works. If you’re the one of the state’s highest-paid employees, your job goes beyond football. Especially if you fancy yourself as a “molder of men,” which is a term we hear coaches uses all the time. These situations are tough, but with so much information now easily made available publicly, schools are going to have to take a tougher, more in-depth approach when it comes to hiring and retaining coaches.
Nikki is supposed to be on vacation yet took the time to send this tweet from Ukraine, so we’ll put a little extra research into the answer. According to the Rivals.com database, the states with the most four-stars in the early going for the Class of 2020 are Florida (32), Texas (31), Georgia (28) and California (23). Those states shouldn’t come as a surprise to football fans, who are used to those states producing elite talent on a yearly basis. Georgia continues to make up ground on the traditional “Big Three” talent producers and if the Peach State can put more players in the NFL Draft, it will officially become the “Big Four.”
Both of these things are kind of rolled into one.
I’ve been surprised with Florida’s relatively slow start on the recruiting trail and I couldn’t believe how little I heard the Gators mentioned by recruits I talked to when I was in South Florida over the weekend. I know the staff came in from out of state and is mining the relationships it has, but the lack of in-state recruiting is starting to become a concern.
Having a big fish commit would give the program some buzz and would catch the attention of other recruits around the country. But nothing helps recruiting quite like winning. If the Gators show progress on the field and get out of the gate strong, it will have a major impact on the 2019 class and also help with efforts to catch the attention of the class of 2020.
