It's mostly a product of employing one of the best coaches in football while FSU or Miami struggle for something approaching compentence in that regard. Once either of those two ever manage to again land a good coach, UF wouldn't necessarily be relegated to secondary status, but they won't look like a flagship program along the lines of Texas.

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Is the point at which football ceases to be entirely.

Think about the "network effect" that Brown has with these coaches now. I'm positive Brown has a relationship with every major Texas high school coach who is in turn using his influence to get their best players to go to UT.

A&M's path to glory is either the Brown's retirement or recruiting along a different dimension (grab Texas and Louisiana leftovers).

Texas is the king of Texas unless it is down; same with SC in southern California, LSU in Louisiana, Ohio St. in Ohio. You anticipate that there will be individual kids who choose not to go to those schools, but on the whole they lock up the kids they want from their states as a baseline for recruiting. There is something to being a real flagship program in an area that emphasizes football and more importantly football at that flagship program.

For UF/FSU/UM, the dual problem for UF is that so much of the talent is down the state a ways and for many in the Miami/Dade area UM is as big "historically" (in terms of the lives of these kids and of their parents) as UF is. So while we tend to think that UF is king of its state, it really has more challenges than we admit -- though with the wealth of talent in that state, the challenges are not that great.

Contrast that to SC, LSU, OSU and Texas -- whenever the teams are rolling, it is incredibly tough to take substantial numbers of top kids out of their recruiting region. Look today at SC, even the spectre of serious penalties does not deter some kids. So it is with Texas, I think. While some individuals will leak out of the state, there is such a bred-in desire to play for the Horns that they will always get big numbers of top in-state kids, just like USC and the rest.

What if A&M or Texas Te...nevermind, that's silly....became a title contender again? Isn't that how Florida reduced FSU and Miami to obscurity?

Isn't Texas at all concerned the same might happen to them if their pipeline dries up?

I played HS football in "the south," and that alone was absurd and surreal even as I lived through it. And I'm pretty sure I still have no real concept of how absurd and surreal "big Texas football" really is. It may not be possible to characterize it in gothic drama and caricature too much.

--
Sometimes I rhyme slow sometimes I rhyme quick.

their backyard. In many ways it's a testament to the high school programs in the area.

and laps the field in terms of sticking to in-state talent, even compared to the other two elite teams you would think also enjoy a natural, home-grown, pick-em-off-the-tree recruiting base. Over that same time frame (2007-2010):

* USC signed 31 of 102 players from outside California

* Florida signed 51 of 121 from outside Florida

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2007 Blaine Irby (CA)
2008 Nolan Brewster (CO)
2009 Derek Johnson (AR)
2010 William Russ (LA)
2010 Jordan Hicks (OH)
2010 DeMarco Cobbs (OK)

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5 star Jordan Hicks from Ohio. But for the most part they are "content" to own Texas.

Great info Jay

That almost seems like they're underselling themselves. Do they ever reach for anyone nationally? Are there any 5-stars out there that want to play for a perennial contender at one of the best schools (culture, academics, climate, beauty, women) in the country? Do they only offer kids that they know will sign preferring to take the guys they know they'll get instead of playing that stupid hat game with NSD deciders?

Texas is a huge anomaly among the elite recruiting teams. By Rivals' count, Florida, Alabama, USC, ND, and other big names have 60-100+ offers on the table any given year.

Texas has just 24 offers out there right now, with 22 of those already committed.

In previous years, Texas offered just 29, 30, 29, and 31 players. Of their 89 commits over that time frame, 83 were from Texas.

They are just a juggernaut unto themselves.

Texas under Mack Brown locks up so many in-state star recruits early that the Horns are not going around making tons of offers out of state. They'll pick off kids here and there, but you won't see 50 offers on the table to guys across the board. You'll see an offer to a star RB from Kansas or a big-time OL from Georgia. But they won't offer a bunch of other kids because they already know they're set.

It's by far the lowest of the major recruiting powers. Anyone know why that is so? Is it that Texas locks up so many in-state recruits so early that ND and other competitors simply don't bother in such cases?

Now, as Jay said, let's see (hope) he can land them.

that Kelly is afraid to go head-to-head in recruiting against Coastal Carolina, Navy, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Temple and UAB.

But yes, I'd say Jay's data refutes the argument that Kelly doesn't recruit kids who are coveted by the top programs.

I posted the typical cohort for UC offers under Brian Kelly below. http://www.bluegraysky.com/forum/index.php?id=24159

Here is the current class of 2011 offers given by Brian Kelly at Notre Dame.

Big difference, huh?

(Of course, the important thing is whom he lands, not just offers.)

Notre Dame Offer Overlaps
49 Tennessee
45 Alabama
45 Nebraska
42 Florida
42 Florida State
42 Stanford
41 Michigan
39 Miami (FL)
38 North Carolina
38 USC
36 Auburn
36 Oklahoma
36 UCLA
33 California
33 Georgia
33 LSU
32 Duke
32 Texas Tech
32 West Virginia
31 South Carolina
31 Wisconsin
30 Clemson
30 Illinois
27 Arizona
27 Cincinnati
26 Louisville
26 Purdue
25 Ohio State
24 Arkansas
24 Minnesota
24 North Carolina State
23 Oregon
23 Texas A&M
22 Georgia Tech
22 Iowa
21 Maryland
21 Pittsburgh
21 Vanderbilt
20 Boston College
20 Kansas
19 Rutgers
18 Mississippi
18 South Florida
16 Colorado
16 Kentucky
15 Baylor
15 Michigan State
15 Penn State
15 Wake Forest
14 Kansas State
14 Oklahoma State
13 Virginia
11 Northwestern
11 Oregon State
11 Syracuse
10 Connecticut
10 Mississippi State
10 Missouri
10 Washington
9 Arizona State
9 Florida International
9 Indiana
9 Memphis
9 Texas
8 Iowa State
8 TCU
8 Utah
7 Houston
7 Tulsa
6 Virginia Tech
5 Boise State
5 Ohio
5 Southern Methodist
5 UCF
5 Washington State
4 East Carolina
4 Rice
4 Tulane
3 Brigham Young
3 Central Michigan
3 Marshall
3 Southern Miss
3 Toledo
3 Western Kentucky
2 Akron
2 Ball State
2 Buffalo
2 Colorado State
2 Harvard
2 Idaho
2 Miami (OH)
2 San Diego State
2 San Jose State
2 Western Michigan
1 Coastal Carolina
1 Navy
1 New Mexico
1 New Mexico State
1 Northern Arizona
1 Temple
1 UAB

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recruiting