Beamer has done some outstanding things, but this is an unbridgeable gap.
Food For Thought
- Thread starter KingWard
- Start date
I can't say I'm totally surprised. Aside from Missouri, I'm not sure I see anyone who is ahead of us who I think we should be ahead of.
I'm surprised Bama's isn't higher. You just kind of expect them to lead the way on everything, but I guess their brand does much of their recruiting for them.
I'm surprised Bama's isn't higher. You just kind of expect them to lead the way on everything, but I guess their brand does much of their recruiting for them.
I cannot believe that LSU is where they are.
They don't have to go far, but I see what you mean. Maybe their recruiting is conducted "some other way", if you know what I mean.
Not too surprising.
Wonder if UGA is including traffic violations in their numbers?
Wonder if UGA is including traffic violations in their numbers?
They have their state, which has considerable football talent, locked down in a way that the other SEC teams do not. There are no split loyalties in Louisiana. And to the extent their state does not provide enough talent to complete a team, the next state over from them certainly does. Plus, LSU is a national brand who can go into any state in America to pluck a player or two.
What do you mean by "unbridgeable?" "Unbridgeable" in the sense that there is no salesmanship in the world that can overcome that spending gap? Or "Unbridgeable" in the sense that we can never close that spending gap?
With the exceptions of Bama, UGA, UT and A&M, everyone is fairly clustered together. You've got a spread from about $750,000 -$1.6 million.
It means that, if things were to remain proportionately the same in either of those respects, we would never be a premier force in the league except for maybe an isolated year once in awhile.
Georgia is certainly a talent-rich state, probably top 4 in the country. But UGA contends with major competitors right at its borders in a way that LSU does not. Tennessee, Clemson, South Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Auburn, and Alabama are all competitors located within 100 miles of the Georgia line. None of those programs are going to out-recruit UGA in the state of Georgia, but they will each often pull in 1 or 2 significant recruits from the state each year. Kirby has managed to retain a tighter grip on the in-state talent than his predecessors have, but he has had to work at it.
Yep. The football coach gets what he asks for, typically. I remember this same subject came out when Muschamp was here, and everyone got outraged bc Ray wasn't giving Muschamp enough money. Ray was asked about it and said something along the lines of "no request from a FB coach has ever been denied by me".
True that. But the days of Ohio, PA, CA and TX dominating are long gone. I think GA and FL are the best now, but TX due to its shear size (like CA) still has players.
I don't think we need to view "unbridgeable" as that we need to compete with those top 2-3 programs. In reality, we aren't that far from the middle of the bell curve teams, and that is probably a reasonable place to be.
The guy in Tampa that was poisoning his neighbors by shooting an opioid gas under his neighbors door was Asian too.
Not saying we have any idea who is coming into this country anymore because we do not, but I think the craziness in the world is colorblind. People everywhere of every kind are equally likely to snap these days.
Not saying we have any idea who is coming into this country anymore because we do not, but I think the craziness in the world is colorblind. People everywhere of every kind are equally likely to snap these days.
I don't KNOW this for a fact, but I suspect that there has been such a gap ever since we entered the SEC. And still, Spurrier led us to 3 consecutive top 10 finishes, including number 4 in the nation. I believe Beamer is more of a "go getter" in recruiting than Spurrier ever was. I don't mean that as any slam against Spurrier. Glad he was here. I will always look at him as a "Carolina man". He did great things for our football program. Beamer overachieved in each of his first 2 seasons here. If he finds a way to go 8-4 this season, he will have overachieved again. Being able to show recruits that he is a "chip off the old block"" coaching-wise" will supercharge his recruiting.
Agreed. I think Spurrier could afford to be more lax since his name and history could help recruit for him.
The big assumption here is that $$$$ is the only important factor in recruiting. I think Beamer has proven he can sell recruits regardless of budget $$$$, which means other factors are involved. All the money in the world does not guarantee outstanding recruiting. The top 4 have and can be out recruited on occasion.
Over time, no one who is underfunded moves from the tent to the main house. We've had one 1984, and it fizzed.
Last edited:
When Spurrier was here, I heard Tanner on 107.5 bragging to Jay Phillips that we had one of, if not, the lowest recruiting budgets in the SEC.
And when his boy took over the recruiting coordinator's role, we had the right staff person to go with it.