Here's what I know on Mark Matthews...

Mario doesn’t seem like the type to assure a kid a starting role. Not saying Mike elko would either but Mario sure ain’t. He’s preaching his usual stuff I’m sure. The kid is looking at Cantwell and saying one spot is locked down for my first two years tho that’s for sure
 
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My wife guarantees she’s going to put it on me after a couple drinks, then she falls asleep on the car ride home. This kids young and dont understand what the word guaranteed means.
Very underrated post, Sir. But, also absolutely true. What about the guy they promised PT to last year or the one the year before. If the coaches are promising you PT w/o competition, that’s some Snake Oil s**t. What coach would play a Fr kid at a position he didn’t play in HS? Only one that’s looking for a new job next year. MM might still get to the league after year 3. But more likely it’s after he transfers to UM next year and learns to play here after 3 yrs under Mario. Just sayin’🙌🏽
 
This program is about more than one player or recruit.

The Surtain Jr. and Tyson Campbell recruitments back in the day almost broke me. Now that I'm much older and more mature, it's much easier to be realistic about all of this stuff. If Matthews or any other kid doesn't want to be here, then I wish them a healthy and successful career wherever they are. It's all about who wants to be here to bring the program back to the top.

We of course know that our head coach will never stop trying to do the best he can for our program.
Facts , I don’t get why we still melt down over losing a 5 star South Florida kid..it use to be a death blow in recruiting when we lost guys like this but now we just reload elsewhere we literally flipped a 5 star California DB from UGA lol, if that’s not a sign that things are different around here then idk what is .. I care more about product on the field then following recruiting nowadays especially with the transfer portal anyway
 
I get kids going where they think gives them the best shot at the league, but are there stats that show starting as a Freshman on OL makes you more likely to be a 1st round pick? Great players may start as a freshman but I don't know that ungreat players starting as a freshman makes the ungreat player a first round pick, meaning I don't see a cause-effect relationship to a promise of starting and making the NFL.

If the goal is playing time, then pick the easy path. If the goal is the league, then easy playing time may not be the best path. That is why Bama and UGA were able to stack 5 star players for years pre NIL.
You are looking at this issue from an objective and rational basis. The problem, as I learned from my experience with my nephew, is that people are rarely objective when it comes to themselves. So you and I can agree on the statistics that prove your point. But show that same information to a player and family and all they will think is, ‘ but I’m going to the league in 3 years’.

I met with an NBA player agent who told me that every NBA player in a locker room is really good in part because they are delusional. They all beleive they would score 20 points a game if only the coach played him more. We know that is delusional. But to play in the NBA (or NFL), the player needs to be delusional because they have to believe they are great in order to be great.
 
If he’s as good as he thinks he is, he should compete for Samson’s spot and win it. Mario will start whoever is better.
He’s most likely not as good as he thinks he is. But when one coach affirms how good he thinks he is by promising a starting spot, and the other coach does not, guess which approach connects with the ego of an 18 year old who believes he is great because everyone around him has been telling him he is great for years?
 
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