I appreciate your response. Couple of thoughts:
I am not “the board”, you are not “the board”. Where a quarterback comes from is completely irrelevant to me. However, as you stated, the board tends to slant when it comes to locality — but in both directions. There are a lot of voices, you chief among them, who champion local guys. I don’t have a problem with that, in fact, I think it’s pretty freaking great.
The problem is when being from South Florida is treated as an attribute by itself. It is not, nor is it a detractor. Once again: it is utterly irrelevant where they come from, all that matters is what they can do.
Mendoza is an interesting comparison, especially because he was not all that highly sought after. The guy ended up at Indiana, which in hindsight looks like he’s desired by one of the best programs in the country. Last December that was not the case. Was IU somewhat well respected for their best season in decades, of course. But nobody was going, “oh no, Cignetti the QB whisperer got Mendoza, my God what did we miss?” In hindsight he was better than Beck, but it was not tht obvious a year ago.
Bailey will not be highly coveted nationally, not with the number of talented arms in the portal this cycle. Not that I really care about what everyone else thinks, I am going purely off of the facts of this player to form my opinion. He isn’t good enough to where this program has gotten.
I would invite you to respond to the other aspects of his game I mentioned, which are far more substantive and concerning. I’m not inviting you to agree with me, but your perspective on those will speak a lot louder than your perspective on where he’s from.
Because that doesn’t matter.