I think it is obvious that no one is publicly going to commit to the tigers from this past weekends visits, football recruiting always has this double secret thing going on ??

I think most of these kids are weighing their options and probably do not want to commit until they see all the offers on the table.

The lack of a full staff worries me right now, I know that only so many coachs can be out recruiting , but if I were thinking about going to a school I sure would like to know who my position coach would be.

Tigersmm Wrote:I think it is obvious that no one is publicly going to commit to the tigers from this past weekends visits, football recruiting always has this double secret thing going on ??

I think most of these kids are weighing their options and probably do not want to commit until they see all the offers on the table.

The lack of a full staff worries me right now, I know that only so many coachs can be out recruiting , but if I were thinking about going to a school I sure would like to know who my position coach would be.

I have no super secret inside info, but I believe DE/OLB Dasmine Cathey has committed and RB/FB Davis from Northgate GA. I've been trying to find out for sure, but I've been lead to believe that Cam Baker is a soft verbal. The one I'm really interested in right now is QB Larry Smith.

And to answer your question, the number of coaches that can be on the road recruiting at one time is six, I believe that is right. But you always want your six on the road and a couple back at the office making calls, setting up in home visits and official campus visits, along with general follow ups with recruits, their parents, and their high school coaches. It becomes really hard to stay on top of everything without a pretty full staff.

And again, this is my opinion based on info I've heard / learned, but if the staff puts the right emphasis on them, the Tigers stand a good chance to land not only Dallas Walker this weekend but the offensive lineman from Madison Central, Michael Antonescu.

My concern is we haven't had too many defensive players visiting at all, even though there is a really good LB prospect named Brandon Maye visiting on January 26th, but I believe he's a Clemson lean and may cancel his visit.

Tigeredward, thanks for the updates, I share your concern on the defensive side. If you look at scouts elligibility table. We lost 8 on offense and 15 on defense last year. We have 6 offensive commits and 4 defensive commits and a punter. Who else do we have leaning our way on defense?

I think we're going to see some players move from the offensive to defensive side of the ball in the spring.

TigersRuleAll Wrote:I think we're going to see some players move from the offensive to defensive side of the ball in the spring.

I'm really starting to think that is the case, especially on the D-Line, in the interior. However, I don't see many offensive skill guys moving over to DB or LB. Maybe a WR like Brian Hall and Curtis Echols moving to DB, like Tommy did with Alton Starr and Michael Grandberry. Juco transfer, Lerico Mathis will impact the two deep along with Auburn DB transfer, Tony Bell. Another thing to remember, is we are back to a four man defensive backfield instead of a five. That alone, helps the depth there. I doubt any will move for LB, we do have some decent young LB's such as Corderick Govan, Jeremy Longstreet, and Jeremy Rockette. Those three along with Ole Miss transfer Dontae Reed and Juco transfer Tom Phelps should push the returning experienced players of Jake Kasser, Greg Jackson, Quinton McCrary, and Heath Grant. I still would have liked to have seen another quality big juco LB added, and I definitely think we should have gone after a couple of quality big D-tackles.

According to Scout, the Davis kid out of Georgia could play either running back or linebacker in college. Maybe LB is where we will use him, since I think there are a couple of other RBs we are reported to be in on.

bman Wrote:According to Scout, the Davis kid out of Georgia could play either running back or linebacker in college. Maybe LB is where we will use him, since I think there are a couple of other RBs we are reported to be in on.

Yes, Davis could very well could end up being as LB as could Olive Branch RB Demantise Hill if the Tigers get him. Both have good size and speed to play either in college.

if you see my previous thread, one LB recruit was quoted as saying we had backed off because we met our requirements commitment-wise at LB. Makes you wonder?

According to the Commercial Appeal Blog from a few days ago, the reporter said Larry Smith seemed "genuinely interested" in Memphis, and mentioned that one thing that was appealing was that we run the same spread offense he ran in high school. It also mentioned that the high-rated Mississippi RB was there, but did not say anything about his apparent level of interest in us.

I don't think we are recruiting Demantise Hill. We also should have two good Defensive lineman in this week, one high school and one JC.

Mortiger Wrote:I don't think we are recruiting Demantise Hill. We also should have two good Defensive lineman in this week, one high school and one JC.

Well that is good news on the defensive line, do you have any names? I do know we were very involved with Hill until the dead period. Any insight as to what happened. Having seen the kid a few times, I find it disappointing if we just pulled back. He is going to be a good D-1 player eventually somewhere, especially if he finds the right position.

is there any particular reason why our visits have to be top secret. Don't you think recruits check the message boards and like seeing their names and people getting excited about their visits. We get a back page article in the CA that might mention a little bit about them.

dscat Wrote:is there any particular reason why our visits have to be top secret. Don't you think recruits check the message boards and like seeing their names and people getting excited about their visits. We get a back page article in the CA that might mention a little bit about them.

Yea, Stukenburg (sp?) hasn't done near as good of job as he did in the past covering Tiger recruiting. We get very sketchy info from recruiting sites.

TigerEdward Wrote:

TigersRuleAll Wrote:I think we're going to see some players move from the offensive to defensive side of the ball in the spring.

I'm really starting to think that is the case, especially on the D-Line, in the interior. However, I don't see many offensive skill guys moving over to DB or LB. Maybe a WR like Brian Hall and Curtis Echols moving to DB, like Tommy did with Alton Starr and Michael Grandberry. Juco transfer, Lerico Mathis will impact the two deep along with Auburn DB transfer, Tony Bell.

I'm pretty sure Starr was recruited as a DB to begin with, but you're right about the overall idea.

Larry Smith would be incredibly dangerous in this offense.

Psicosis Wrote:

TigerEdward Wrote:

TigersRuleAll Wrote:I think we're going to see some players move from the offensive to defensive side of the ball in the spring.

I'm really starting to think that is the case, especially on the D-Line, in the interior. However, I don't see many offensive skill guys moving over to DB or LB. Maybe a WR like Brian Hall and Curtis Echols moving to DB, like Tommy did with Alton Starr and Michael Grandberry. Juco transfer, Lerico Mathis will impact the two deep along with Auburn DB transfer, Tony Bell.

I'm pretty sure Starr was recruited as a DB to begin with, but you're right about the overall idea.

Larry Smith would be incredibly dangerous in this offense.

He was recruited to play either but spent his first fall and spring during his redshirt year at WR.

Quote:[quote="dscat"]is there any particular reason why our visits have to be top secret. Don't you think recruits check the message boards and like seeing their names and people getting excited about their visits.

Recruiting rivals also check messageboards. Tommy West has always held most of his cards close to vest - that's smart if you ask me (especially for a school like Memphis).

Gray Avenger Wrote:

Quote:[quote="dscat"]is there any particular reason why our visits have to be top secret. Don't you think recruits check the message boards and like seeing their names and people getting excited about their visits.

Recruiting rivals also check messageboards. Tommy West has always held most of his cards close to vest - that's smart if you ask me (especially for a school like Memphis).

And you are a bit naive if you don't know that opposing coaches don't already know where prospects have visited and will visit. They too, just like the Tiger staff have these kids phone numbers, their parents numbers, their coaches numbers, along with the visits they themselves make to a prospect at his home or his school. This is another one of those made up urban legends by those that don't really follow recruiting. There are very few secrets or great suprises come signing day, except to the fans. There are minimal signing day switches. Most schools and their coaches want their recruits to state their committment publicly to hinder other schools from continuing pursuit, along with the fact that some key recruits making their committments public is good PR and good for persuading other good prospects to come around. I can't stand Orgeron, but they do this all the time, as do many schools. For example, if you get a commit from a decent high profile QB, it isn't much of a reach to sell that to incoming WR prospects, RB prospects or even a good OL prospect.