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Following recruiting back in the day

TheSwagger1

TheSwagger1

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Anybody remember the old Jeff Whitaker's Deep South Football recruiting guides? He'd put out one pre-season and then another season recap. Wifey has me cleaning out the attic and I found a box with these in em, thought it was interesting to look back and some of Butch's classes from 97 and 98.

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Oh yeah....I remember. 1998....Lee Jackson...safety from Longview Texas....HUGE Miami target....committed to Miami then flipped to Texas.
It was a battle for Sheven Marshall. There was an all world d end from Kentucky we were in the sweepstakes for......he ended up turning everybody down and went to Kentucky
Butch and company had an uphill battle that year....the 97 season was tough. The 97 class was legendary....the 96 class only had like 16 signees......but had something like 4 first rounders
 
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TheSwagger1 said:
Anybody remember the old Jeff Whitaker's Deep South Football recruiting guides? He'd put out one pre-season and then another season recap. Wifey has me cleaning out the attic and I found a box with these in em, thought it was interesting to look back and some of Butch's classes from 97 and 98.

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Cool find. Thanks for posting that! One thing I find really interesting looking at those two classes is how many of the recruits are NOT from the Dade/Broward/Palm Beach area. Sort of dispels that myth about how we just cleaned up in those counties in the past and got whoever we wanted, and didn't have to go outside the area much.
 
Yep, Dennis Johnson.

In his write-up in this mag it says:
"He started playing on the varsity team for his father, Alvis Johnson, when he was in the fourth grade. A law was instituted the following year to not allow kids under ninth grade to play on a varsity team, so Dennis didn't suit up again until he was a freshman".
135 tackles, 35TFLs and 19 sacks as a junior in HS.
Lead team to state basketball championship as a sophomore.
Three time defending shot & discus champ going into senior year, finished 2nd at state triple jump as a sophomore.

Ended up being a 3rd rounder and all-SEC but never quite got to be the all-world terror that he seemed destined to be.
 
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dk72 said:
Cool find. Thanks for posting that! One thing I find really interesting looking at those two classes is how many of the recruits are NOT from the Dade/Broward/Palm Beach area. Sort of dispels that myth about how we just cleaned up in those counties in the past and got whoever we wanted, and didn't have to go outside the area much.
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FSU got the following guys out of SoFla:
1997
9.75 WR Davey Ford - Cardinal Newman
10.00 DB Derrick Gibson - Killian
9.50 LB Bradley Jennings - Carol City
10.00 DB Clevan Thomas - Miami Senior

1998
9.75 DL Octavious Jackson - Carol City
9.75 "DL" (OL) Antoine Mirambeau - Miami Beach
9.50 DB Stanford Samuels - Carol City
9.75 Malcolm Tatum - Killian

****.... I guess I had forgotten how many Carol City kids were getting out.
 
The number of non So FL kids is surprising. Also, I was completely certain every single kid Butch ever recruited ended up 1st round pick. I am shocked to see guys that today I see referred to as JAGs. Et tu Butch?, Et tu! Howard told us all Miami ever needed was better coaching. That remains true. Al is doing fine recruiting; he needs better coaching.
 
Fire Albert Goldfarb!

Seriously, very cool find. Thanks for posting it. Definitely should silence a few loudmouth blowhards around here.
 
Just for the record, wasn't posting this to start any Butch/Al comparisons or anything similar, simply thought it was a cool find.
 
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Great pics. I remember those. Ill look thru some piles and boxes of old stuff and see if I have any of them.
 
TheSwagger1 said:
Just for the record, wasn't posting this to start any Butch/Al comparisons or anything similar, simply thought it was a cool find.
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Definitely. Didn't mean to start that either. Just kind of stood out and surprised me when I looked at the list. I'm sure it would be similar with Erickson, JJ, etc. as well. The myth of UM cleaning up in S. Florida throughout the years doesn't really match the reality.
 
dudenate said:
Great pics. I remember those. Ill look thru some piles and boxes of old stuff and see if I have any of them.
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I know somewhere I've got the Miami Herald sports pages from some of our big "Wide Right" games and National Championships.
 
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Those mags were the only in depth recruiting info I could find at the time. I remember Lee Jackson's miraculous conversion to Texas after going to church. That was about the same time I first discovered Grassy.
 
Gatorhater said:
The number of non So FL kids is surprising. Also, I was completely certain every single kid Butch ever recruited ended up 1st round pick. I am shocked to see guys that today I see referred to as JAGs. Et tu Butch?, Et tu! Howard told us all Miami ever needed was better coaching. That remains true. Al is doing fine recruiting; he needs better coaching.
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This class..1998...was tough for Butch....FSU and UF aG were top 5 teams and Miami just came off of a very tough season.
 
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Fly1 said:
Yep.Dennis Johnson
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Thought this kid was going to be an all-timer. Was living in Knoxville at the time and that was the only era where the Vols ever were nervous about Kentucky even a little bit...would love to have Hal Mumme (much like Leach, loves Key West) come down here and call plays to end his career one day.
 
Torrance Marshall ended up not enrolling and ended up starring on that Oklahoma team that we should have whipped in the 2000 national title game.
 
I still have the recruting videos i think grassy or all canes made them they were like 25 bucks for each vcr tape lol
 
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