@NASTYQUEDAWG2 Mario is going all out for the local kids. Already landed (verbal) Ray Ray, Frankie and the Washington brothers. Going after Bain, Keem, Jean, others. I'm sure he's not sitting around conceding Innis or Fletcher. But if the kids are front runners who want the Bama or Taint et al logo on their Twitter account, Mario's not going to surrender and crawl into a hole. He's going to replace them with other top talent.
And the local boys aren't producing guys like Mauigoa or Wayne or Okunlola this class. So Mario is going out and getting them too.
I hear you, yet I also know the So FL kids have been mercenaries since optimist football seeking out the top or momentum school. STA, AH, now IMG. Even if they play local, they bus over to Northwestern or Central etc. Mario's not going to get Top 10 classes in 2023 by loading up on local kids because he's got to fight tooth and nail for every one of them and will lose half those battles or more. So going national is his only option, and he's crushing it.
BTW, that creates scarcity, which will be a positive feedback loop for Mario's staff to close the local kids more easily.
End of the day, do whatever it takes to win. Has to be a combination of both local and national, and the moment the local kids' eyes start wandering, time to find another national option.