Mavric

Player: Robert Martin
Hometown: Montvale, New Jersey
School: St. Joseph Regional
Position: Offensive Tackle
Height: 6-6
Weight: 260
40 time:
Offers: Boston College, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Temple, Wake Forest
Visits:

Twitter

247 Composite: #573 Overall; #68 OT; .8567; :star

Rivals: :star
247: #44 OT; :star
Scout: :star
ESPN:

Hudl

I wouldn't necessarily say it didn't hurt us at QB. Hasn't our depth at QB been suspect for quite a while? Wouldn't it have been nice if we would have had a good back up or someone even better than Martinez or Armstrong?

You're assuming we would have recruited someone else in his stead. Perhaps we would have. Perhaps not. My point is, at the time, we didn't have a particularly pressing need at QB. Carnes still had a chance to turn into a legitimate backup - some even thought he should be playing in the following years. Turner didn't ever get a lot of a shot at QB but he could have in a pinch.

It's not like we were totally counting on Starling to be our QB for the next four year. It was known even before he committed that he was a likely high draft pick and that, if he was, there is a good chance he would choose baseball. If the coaches were that concerned about it, they could have recruited another one anyway. I don't think they were.

And you're also assuming that we could have gotten a commitment from someone "better than Martinez or Armstrong" had we tried. Yeah it would have been nice. But QB recruiting is a fickle business. You would have thought that getting a prospect like Stanton or Darlington instead would have made for a nice backup but apparently you would have been wrong.

 

It's really not that different than saving a spot for Dez Fitzpatrick or Isaiah Simmons and losing out at the last minute with no time to get a replacement.

With Simmons and Fitzpatrick, we had time (although very little) to fill the spot. With Crawford and Starling, it's a recruit that looks great on paper in your class, but they never make it to campus. It's like recruiting someone you know probably won't qualify...but....hey....they are a great athlete.

 

We had "time" but we didn't replace them. Next time, if we're waiting for a guy to announce on NSD, we won't have any time to replace them.

You're fine to feel the way you do. But all you're doing now is quibbling about the semantics. The effect of both situations is exactly the same - we thought we had a chance at a great player so we saved a spot for them but we didn't end up with them or anyone to replace them.

Help jog my memory, but wasn't there a player on the team flipping off and lashing out at fans? Clearly, there is zero disconnect between fans and players.

And clearly if one person does it that has to mean the other 120+ feel the same way.

https://twitter.com/Elijahgatess/status/700743283681538048

Player: Elijah Gates
Hometown: Buena Park, California
School: Buena Park
Position: Cornerback
Height: 5-11
Weight: 175
40 time:
Offers: Arizona State, California, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, UCLA, Washington State
Visits:

Twitter

247 Composite: #255 Overall; #32 CB; .9035; :star

Rivals: #224 Overall; #22 CB; :star
247: #75 CB; :star
Scout: #111 Overall; #12 CB; :star :star
ESPN: #29 CB; :star :star

Hudl

It's really not that different than saving a spot for Dez Fitzpatrick or Isaiah Simmons and losing out at the last minute with no time to get a replacement.

I think Carl Crawford is who you're thinking of.

I don't have any problem recruiting these guys. Try to get the best talent you can. I see your point about being full at a position but usually we end up with at least one spot open. In this case, it's not like it hurt us at QB. Would have been great to have him but we had Carnes the year before, had Turner is this class and got TA the next year. Not all those guys ended up working out but we had options at the time. Plus we had Martinez so we knew we had a couple years yet.

NCAA Football

1. Georgia Bulldogs

Why Georgia? Plenty of college teams are way worse -- take two schools mentioned above, Kansas and Wake Forest -- but no one really cares about football at those schools, except in the odd year where they're good or when Charlie Weis is getting run out of town. So, our list has to be hardcore football schools that haven't been playing very good football or, in the case of our No. 1 team, have been playing fine football but just can't put it together for one season to win the dominant SEC. Mark Richt had 10-plus wins in nine of 15 seasons in Athens and got canned, which should tell you something about expectations at Georgia.

2. Nebraska Cornhuskers

Plenty of schools would kill to have Nebraska's success since 2004, when the ill-fated Bill Callahan experience began. In those 12 years since, the team has three 10-win seasons, five nine-win seasons and a 5-5 bowl record. Again, plenty of teams would kill for those stats. But that's not good enough at Nebraska, a place with perhaps the greatest (and nicest) fans in college football and a school that wants to have national-championship expectations every year.

3. Boise State Broncos

It was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? Now there's a Boise State threatening to gum up the power-conference works every year and only rarely is it Boise State.

Link

Listed at 6-4, 225. Same height but 15 lbs lighter than Carter.

So he would need to add some weight to be a blocking force. But as a receiving target he probably wouldn't be that far off. We're going to be pretty short at WR after this year so kind of a TE/WR hybrid would be handy.

Politely disagree that there was much healthy about Bo's culture. Coaches' actions spoke for themselves.

 

"Who has a good relationship with the fans?"

MRI didn't explain it a lot but he did allude to the fact that Bo's attitude was closer to that. But he said that attitude didn't carry through the rest of the team.

https://twitter.com/Tavonn_/status/700711229325762560

Player: Ambry Thomas
Hometown: Detroit, Michigan
School: Martin Luther King
Position: Cornerback
Height: 5-11
Weight: 168
40 time:
Offers: Akron, Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Cincinnati, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Kentucky, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Carolina, Syracuse, West Viriginia, Wisconsin
Visits:

Twitter

247 Composite: #139 Overall; #15 CB; .9372; :star :star

Rivals: #174 Overall; #15 CB; :star :star
247: #113 Overall; #8 CB; :star :star
Scout: #77 Overall; #9 CB; :star :star
ESPN: #257 Overall; #22 CB; :star :star

Hudl

 

Played and coached at Penn State - Good

Originally from New Jersey - Good

Went from Penn State to Temple for the same job - ???

There is a 2 year gap between coaching at Penn State and coaching at Temple. Not sure what it implies but that might explain the lateral move as James Franklin was hired in 2014

 

Yeah, I was confused on that as well. On that page it shows a gap. But in an article I found about him being hired at Temple it said he was at Penn State "last year."

But you're right that it would make sense that he simply wasn't retained by Franklin.

We should all do our own 5 keys...

1 - Have some interest in Nebraska football

2 - Have access to message board or web site related to said football team

3 - Be able to type at least semi-coherent sentenses

4 - ???

5 - Profit