I rarely feel the need to start a whole new thread about a recruit or player, but I really feel like it needs to be pointed out that Stacy Coley got in this class through some pretty extraordinary circumstances.
A few months ago, it seemed like everyone on here had conceded Coley to the 'Noles. I guess it was pretty well-known that we had backed off of Coley a little bit, and a lot of people speculated that he either had grade problems or attitude issues, or both, and that he was a little bit too much of a "me" guy for the staff to seriously consider offering. My own take (which really has no gravity) on it is that the staff wanted to evaluate his on-field attitude a little bit first. Watching his highlights, I'm inclined to the think that the staff probably did find some attitude problems with Coley (the dude practically walked into the endzone on half of his highlight video just toying with defenders).
Then it came out that we were recruiting Coley, and that McDonald had been in regular contact with the kid, but we weren't quite ready to make him a solid offer or put the full-court press on him. Nobody could believe it, and if they did, they didn't give us a chance (except Duval - should have listened to our boy). A few people started saying that we gave Coley somewhat of an ultimatum - either straighten up and be a team leader on the field, or we can't take a chance on you, as talented as you are.
Then all of a sudden, Coley was mentioning us in interviews, and it looked like we were on him a little bit harder.
Now, this is based entirely on speculation, which by the way seems to be what most insider recruiting information is more less based on, but I think we really need to give Stacy Coley a **** of a lot of credit here for doing what the staff asked of him. If Golden and company really had doubts about this kid's attitude, he must have worked pretty **** hard to put those fears to rest. He must have shown them that he was ready to be a team guy and was ready to put in the amount of work that he needed to. He was really serious about being a Hurricane. There are so many guys out there who would say "**** that, I have a million other offers that aren't conditional on my putting in any work and I'll just take any one of them and be on my way." But no, Coley rose to the challenge. He wanted to be a 'Cane and he worked for it. He made absolutely sure the staff knew he was worthy of an offer, and then it all paid off in the end.
This is the kind of dude who succeeds in college, if any of this true. We're lucky to have this kid, and if this staff can get 100% percent from him, he's going to be a special talent. I hope that his effort during this process won't be forgotten three years from now when he's clowning everybody in a national championship.