Great point. Thanks for contributing.

Here’s another little secret: for every UT fan in Texas, you can find another that hates their guts.

I have never bought into the star system much for one basic reason. No way anyone can see every kid there is to see, have a handle on the different levels of competition, and then project each kid into the various college systems. The last one is the biggest key to me and one of my biggest frustrations with the way Mack has recruited at times. Too often it seems Texas has taken a kid who came to camp, tore it up running through cones and drills with no pads, and really doesn’t fit in what they are trying to do in the program.

It is easy to point out kids like Houston, Scott, and the Cajun Counterfeiter, but Texas has taken their share of in-state turds. Look no further than the misses at safety. Bobby Tatum, Rufus Harris, Robert Joseph, and James Henry all came from in-state, all not only didn’t pan out, but wasted resources by leaving the program in less than 2 years. When you consider the amount of time and energy it takes to recruit a ball player and a kid doesn’t even stay two years (for whatever reason) is not only causing a hole in the depth chart, but burning resources that could have been directed elsewhere.

Texas went through the same thing at defensive tackle when they signed Marcel Moses from Texas City and Sonny Davis from Austin Lanier and neither ever set foot on campus. Friend of mine claims that Mack pursued those kids despite the known grade risk because they were clearly the best two in the state. Don’t know how true that is, but if that was the case that would have been the perfect time to go out of state.

Bottom line to me is you get the best players you can get to win. Mackovic’s relationship with the Texas high school coaches didn’t get strained because he recruited out of state. It was because the guy was a huge fucking prick and treated them like shit. That isn’t the case with Mack and if any coach can’t appreciate a guy doing whatever he legally can to put the best team he can on the field they are a clueless.

In regards to Texas and Florida I am not as optimistic after watching the Texas offense struggle and how poor the Texas secondary tackled over the last half of the season. As much as I shudder at Hix and Ulatoski blocking Dunlap I can even imagine the Texas secondary trying to catch Harvin.

Alexander was just an example of us going out of state to get players, the only one on the list that wasn’t a 4 star. If he starts next year, I’d say he was an OK get for a 3 star. Honestly, he probably strengthens the argument to just stay in state for recruits. Houston, Studdard, Sendlein, etc were obviously good gets but they are all like that. 4 star Brewster I don’t expect to contribute at all. Darrel Scott? We will probably all be glad we took Tre Newton rather than getting that guy. Perriloux or McCoy? Just pointing out that OOS isn’t always some guarantee for more success. I also don’t get that upset about the small differences in recruiting like the differences between a 3 star and a 4 star when talking about individual players. Now when we get back to back classes like we did in 04 and 05, then that leads to what we saw in 2007.

I am saying that Mack is already doing what Scipio is suggesting, not perfectly but pretty dam close. You have basically picked the only two teams that have had it better than us recruiting wise and on field success and used that as your example. Keep going down the list of teams that also use the philosophy and you will see that we have more success on the field than them. The only ones close are tOSU, LSU and OU but they also stay within the same 200 mile radius as us for the most part. I’d also take our last 5 years over their last 5 years. Yeah LSU has a 2 loss NC and we got nothing for our 1 loss season but I’m not going to hang the crappy system on Mack. Mack’s got the same amount of undefeated NCs as USC and Florida combined as well.

Everybody would look bad trying to block Carlos Dunlap, just like everyone looked bad trying to block Brian Orakpo. After seeing how OU played them, I am confident in our ability to have hung with Florida.

Just curious, but which part do you disagree with? Alexander is cherry picking? Bad cherry crop that year I guess.

Mack has gone for long hanging fruit out of state for the most part. Problem is that staying within the state has left Texas threadbare at times.

California, Texas, and Florida on a regular basis produce the most recruits. Three schools (USC, UT, and UF) for the past few years have been the dominant teams in each respective state. One school has recently won two MNC, played for another, and run off a string of conference championships, one has two MNC and two conference championships, and the third has one recent MNC and conference championship.

USC does have a roster made up predominantly of kids from Cal, but if you look at their depth chart you find 1 player from Utah, 1 from TN, 2 from Ark., 1 from NY, 1 from MI, 2 from CO, 1 LA., 3 from AZ, 1 GA., 1 from NJ, 1 from TX, 1 from HI, 1 from Florida, and 1 from WA.

Florida has an even more diverse roster with 6 from GA, 4 from TX, 2 from CA, 1 from VA, 1 from CT, 3 from NJ, 2 from NC, 1 from AL, 1 from SC, and 1 from MD,

Texas on the other hand has 1 player from CA, 1 from NM, 2 from CO, and 1 from SC.

Would Texas have won more conference titles had they gone out of state? No one can prove one way or another just as I am sure some will point to the strength of the Pac 10 and a BCS bias to the SEC. Bottom line is that both Carrol and Meyer go out and get the very best of the best regardless of where the kids lives. I don’t think anyone at Florida was worried about how the coaches in state would feel if they signed Percy Harvin. Would imagine they were thinking how he would help them win a NC title. Doubt Pete worried if Taylor Mays would come work out for him in the summer.

I won’t deny Mack has done a great job rebuilding this program, but we have seen time and time again he select kids that test well and go through drills great and then never pan out. We have send Texas take kids that no one can see how they will fit into the system and they don’t ever seem to really contribute. All schools have kids that miss, but I would like to get the feeling Mack is going for the best instead of the easiest.

Point to the recruiting list if you wish and I will point out that in the time that Texas has had 21 players taken in the last five NFL drafts USC has had 31. Both are really relevant I guess as all the matters is on the field.

Guess I am also stupid for being glad that neither of Texas’ home grown offensive tackles had to block that interloper Carlos Dunlap from Florida (shudder).

Mack likes saying that he wins with Texas kids and I do too. I live in Florida and everyone here loves the fact that our starting QB is named Colt McCoy. I mean could you dream up a better name for Texas starting QB (a 3 star recruit I might add).