Kirkland Ready for Playoff Run

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Peter Ariz

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Booker T. Washington is geared up for the playoffs, as they head into the 4A bracket as favorites for the state title. Star offensive lineman Denver Kirkland spoke about how the team is feeling on the week the playoffs are set to begin.

"Our mindset is really just scoring enough points to win. We want to smash everybody that's in front of us on the way. Last year's loss motivates us a lot and it's pushing us harder to come out with the wins."

Kirkland is satisfied with the way he matured on the field this season.

"As an individual, I've done a great job of stepping up and being a leader. I'm playing more tackle this season like last year."

Kirkland notes that no schools are currently sticking out for him on the recruiting side of things, but there are still a plethora of schools after him.

"The schools talking to me the most are Ole Miss, West Virginia, South Florida, Florida State, The U, UCLA, Memphis, 'Bama, and LSU."

Kirkland was in attendance for last month's Miami-Florida State game. He gave his thoughts on what he saw.

"It was a good experience. Both teams were getting after each other hard. I wasn't rooting for anybody, I just wanted to see the two top schools recruiting me."

The BTW OL said he plans on visiting both Florida State and Miami after his season wraps up. He also noted that him and his teammate Matthew Thomas plan on attending the same school.
 
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Booker T. Washington is geared up for the playoffs, as they head into the 4A bracket as favorites for the state title. Star offensive lineman Denver Kirkland spoke about how the team is feeling on the week the playoffs are set to begin.

"Our mindset is really just scoring enough points to win. We want to smash everybody that's in front of us on the way. Last year's loss motivates us a lot and it's pushing us harder to come out with the wins."

Kirkland is satisfied with the way he matured on the field this season.

"As an individual, I've done a great job of stepping up and being a leader. I'm playing more tackle this season like last year."

Kirkland notes that no schools are currently sticking out for him on the recruiting side of things, but there are still a plethora of schools after him.

"The schools talking to me the most are Ole Miss, West Virginia, South Florida, Florida State, The U, UCLA, Memphis, 'Bama, and LSU."

Kirkland was in attendance for last month's Miami-Florida State game. He gave his thoughts on what he saw.

"It was a good experience. Both teams were getting after each other hard. I wasn't rooting for anybody, I just wanted to see the two top schools recruiting me."

The BTW OL said he plans on visiting both Florida State and Miami after his season wraps up. He also noted that him and his teammate Matthew Thomas plan on attending the same school.[/QUOTE]

Must close!
 
I wonder why they didn't "plan on attending the same school" as their good friend Michael johnson...
 
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Golden must close these two

Absolutely. With the loss of Collins, Olsen and Carter are the only real standout guys left in this class (maybe Artie Burns). If we are going to come back eventually, Golden cannot afford to miss on any of these kids, and considering he already missed on one, he better hope for the sake of finding employment post 2015 that we get these kids.
 
Golden must close these two

Absolutely. With the loss of Collins, Olsen and Carter are the only real standout guys left in this class (maybe Artie Burns). If we are going to come back eventually, Golden cannot afford to miss on any of these kids, and considering he already missed on one, he better hope for the sake of finding employment post 2015 that we get these kids.

Keith Bryant isn't a standout? Angelo Jean-Louis? Artie?
 
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Golden must close these two

Absolutely. With the loss of Collins, Olsen and Carter are the only real standout guys left in this class (maybe Artie Burns). If we are going to come back eventually, Golden cannot afford to miss on any of these kids, and considering he already missed on one, he better hope for the sake of finding employment post 2015 that we get these kids.

Keith Bryant isn't a standout? Angelo Jean-Louis? Artie?

And...How is not giving someone's teammate a scholarship missing?
 
Golden must close these two

Absolutely. With the loss of Collins, Olsen and Carter are the only real standout guys left in this class (maybe Artie Burns). If we are going to come back eventually, Golden cannot afford to miss on any of these kids, and considering he already missed on one, he better hope for the sake of finding employment post 2015 that we get these kids.

Keith Bryant isn't a standout? Angelo Jean-Louis? Artie?

Not counting Angelo Jean-Louis because he is, in some technical sense, part of last years class. Lineman are always difficult to predict. I already put Artie Burns up there.


Regardless of whatever ****ed up situation led to us missing on Collins, we still missed. We can't afford to miss out on players like that. This program won't ever return to national relevance if we continue to miss out on guys like Collins (and Mathew Thomas) who have game changing potential. The others are really good, but Collins and Thomas have the potential (not a guarantee) to be the kinds of kids that elevate a team to elite levels, should you have enough of them. We've been missing on kids like that for most of a decade, getting a Sean Spence, Denzel Perryman or Deon Bush here or there, but Spence, Bush, and Perryman, while great, are not on that Duke Johnson, Patrick Peterson, Sammy Watkins level that I believe Collins and Thomas could (maybe) be on.

To reiterate, we will never come back as a program if we don't consistently grab kids like that.
 
Golden must close these two

Absolutely. With the loss of Collins, Olsen and Carter are the only real standout guys left in this class (maybe Artie Burns). If we are going to come back eventually, Golden cannot afford to miss on any of these kids, and considering he already missed on one, he better hope for the sake of finding employment post 2015 that we get these kids.

Keith Bryant isn't a standout? Angelo Jean-Louis? Artie?

Not counting Angelo Jean-Louis because he is, in some technical sense, part of last years class. Lineman are always difficult to predict. I already put Artie Burns up there.


Regardless of whatever ****ed up situation led to us missing on Collins, we still missed. We can't afford to miss out on players like that. This program won't ever return to national relevance if we continue to miss out on guys like Collins (and Mathew Thomas) who have game changing potential. The others are really good, but Collins and Thomas have the potential (not a guarantee) to be the kinds of kids that elevate a team to elite levels, should you have enough of them. We've been missing on kids like that for most of a decade, getting a Sean Spence, Denzel Perryman or Deon Bush here or there, but Spence, Bush, and Perryman, while great, are not on that Duke Johnson, Patrick Peterson, Sammy Watkins level that I believe Collins and Thomas could (maybe) be on.

To reiterate, we will never come back as a program if we don't consistently grab kids like that.

Disagree with you on a few points. Yes obviously Miami needs the Duke/Watkins/Peterson types to get back to prominence, but how many of those guys are there? I don't think Collins is on that level, sorry.

I laughed when I saw the part where you said Deon wasn't elite. Have you watched him this season? He has NFL first-round ability, but that's not elite?
 
Disagree with you on a few points. Yes obviously Miami needs the Duke/Watkins/Peterson types to get back to prominence, but how many of those guys are there? I don't think Collins is on that level, sorry.

I laughed when I saw the part where you said Deon wasn't elite. Have you watched him this season? He has NFL first-round ability, but that's not elite?


Collins is in that class IMO but the good thing is there are a lot of superstar backs coming up.
 
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Deon will be very, very good, but by elite I'm talking about having the kind of impact the aforementioned guys have. Deon Bush might be Kenny Philips good, but he won't be Ed Reed or Sean Taylor good. There is nothing wrong with being Kenny Phillips good, but we need a couple guys who are Ed Reed/Sean Taylor/Andre Johnson/Ray Lewis good to go with them in order to be great again. When kids with that kind of talent exist in our own backyard, year after year (skipping one occasionally), and we miss out on them, we are going to have problems.


I hope you are right about Collins, I really do (assuming he doesn't come here, of course).
 
Deon will be very, very good, but by elite I'm talking about having the kind of impact the aforementioned guys have. Deon Bush might be Kenny Philips good, but he won't be Ed Reed or Sean Taylor good. There is nothing wrong with being Kenny Phillips good, but we need a couple guys who are Ed Reed/Sean Taylor/Andre Johnson/Ray Lewis good to go with them in order to be great again. When kids with that kind of talent exist in our own backyard, year after year (skipping one occasionally), and we miss out on them, we are going to have problems.


I hope you are right about Collins, I really do (assuming he doesn't come here, of course).

You didn't know Ed Reed was Ed Reed until 2000. In 1997, Ed Reed was in the same boat as Deon is this year. Give it time.

And No...we don't need Ray Lewis, Andre Johnson, or Sean Taylor type transcendent talents to win Championships. Go check out what Alabama did it with and what they are doing in the Pro's. Go check out what Oregon got to the National Championship with.

Julio Jones isn't transcendent? Alabama has mega-talent, dude.


Florida won a championship due to having Percy Harvin and Tebow. They had other good guys, of course, but they couldn't win a championship without those two. Tebow fell short of the championship game after Harvin left. We need those types of players.
 
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Lol at this guy.
Ray Lewis? Came here as a 190 lb lb or safety. Wasn't a game changer.
Spence? 3 star?
Phillips? #1 safety in America.
 
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Disagree with you on a few points. Yes obviously Miami needs the Duke/Watkins/Peterson types to get back to prominence, but how many of those guys are there? I don't think Collins is on that level, sorry.

I laughed when I saw the part where you said Deon wasn't elite. Have you watched him this season? He has NFL first-round ability, but that's not elite?


Collins is in that class IMO but the good thing is there are a lot of superstar backs coming up.

+1
 
Stop declaring Collins a loss already. He has committed nowhere since his decommittment, which means he's still torn imo.
 
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