Mike Jackson of Palmetto is this years TuTu Atwell.

[dycane]

Atwell isn't Roscoe?

Easy there.

No. I recognize your need to keep it real and embrace the “local legend” mystique of an otherwise ok undersized slot receiver who has about the same production as Mike Harley. I don’t. He’s been underwhelming this year, inconsistent his entire career, and will struggle to make (and remain on) an NFL roster.

 

[Ethnicsands]

Go ***** yourself.

Atwell was in the Top 750 players. Schools can sign 25 players per year. To oversimplify for a moment, that means he could conceivably expect to snag an offer once the Top 30 recruiting classes are filled up. Which means (roughly) that Atwell would have been considered a "reach" for, say, the Top 20 to 25 recruiting classes. But that also means he was a prime target for at least 40 Power 5 programs.

Furthermore, Atwell went to Miami Northwestern. Not exactly a "fall through the cracks" school.

As for the rest of your delusional post, it's largely based on some concept that the coaches pay attention to the boards in order to do recruiting. Bottom line, this thread is about TuTu Atwell, not every single WR that Miami has recruited for 20 years.

And on the subject of evals, it is NOT Miami's "job" to evaluate every kid in SoFla for the benefit of every other program in the country. If Miami wanted to change TuTu's position from QB to WR, that is up to them. We were not interested in taking a developmental ATH who we would convert from QB to WR. We took 4 WRs who were already WRs.

No offense, but you're digging yourself deeper in doo doo with your responses here.

First of all, nothing I said indicates the corches are supposed to pay attention to message boards to recruit (though they surely have folks who do). What they're supposed to do is know how to find and take in information on local kids. If they can't figure that out, they are doing it wrong. If there are reliable stock tips available for free, and you trade in those stocks, you're supposed to figure out where to find them and then how to use them. If people on the internet can reliable figure things out about recruits, then our staff **** well know more, not less. Or, again, they're doing it wrong. History would suggest they're doing it wrong.

Secondly, your triage argument is absurd. Once you get outside of the top programs, very few programs have the resources to scour south florida for recruits, let alone the reason to do so. You're argument is premised on all schools looking for kids everywhere. It's just not how it works, how it can work, or how it should work. Saying Atwell was a 'prime target' for 40+ P5 programs outside of the top 25 is bizarre. You may fantasize that but there aren't 65+ programs scouring south florida with any level of intensity.

The entire point of being local is that you're supposed to know more about local kids than programs elsewhere. If we can't get that right, then keep firing the corches until we do.

And on the subject of evals, it is NOT Miami's "job" to evaluate every kid in SoFla for the benefit of every other program in the country. If Miami wanted to change TuTu's position from QB to WR, that is up to them. We were not interested in taking a developmental ATH who we would convert from QB to WR. We took 4 WRs who were already WRs.

I don't even know what you're trying to say here, but you sound bizarrely defensive and confused. It's a core job of college coaches to find talent and that includes figuring out where the kid should play. This program was built on guys playing different positions in college than in HS. Jimmy was famous for his recruit safeties to play LB mentality. Warren Sapp was a TE in HS. Dan Morgan was a RB. S. Taylor was a RB. That's kind of the point. Plenty of kids in HS who are the best athletes on their team plan QB or RB. College coaches have to figure out what to do with them. I hope our staff isn't as myopic as you sound on this topic. Their job isn't to find 4 kids who played WR in HS and offer them. It's to find kids who will excel at WR in college and get them. We've suffered at WR for most of the past 20 years because our staffs can't figure this out very well.

 

[Ethnicsands]

He was an unproven commodity at WR. So, you're evaluating an unknown against SF kids who've excelled at the position.

Kudos to Louisville for evaluating his talent. The best player on most high school teams is the QB.

Wasn't UM known for taking HS QBs who can play WR? IIRC we have done that in the past. Back when we had a staff that could evaluate.

 

[Ethnicsands]

We didn't have to pick vs. Atwell or Pope. We had spots. Bring Atwell in as a BALLER athlete and find a spot on the field for him. The kid was a local legend since he was like 5. I know we had some duds like Sam Bruce. But most of those were due to off-field issues. The local legends almost always pay off.

IIRC we took Ezzard over both Elijah Moore and Atwell.

 

[Harry Heinous]

1. Those other P5 schools aren't located in Miami, and they usually have "bigger fish" to fry. It's completely different when a kid like Atwell is right down the street.
2. Miami should ALWAYS take the best FOOTBALL PLAYER in South Florida EVERY YEAR. Throw height and all that **** out of the window. And Atwell was THE best player in South Florida that year.

What other P5 schools do should be irrelevant to Miami, especially when it comes to evaluating local kids.
The whole South Florida high school football community knew Atwell was a stud.

a-fn-men

Totally agree,

Who would you say were the best football players on each side of the ball this year in south florida?

I would imagine Brashard Smith would be up there.

 

[NC_Canes_11]

We have more “projects” on our roster than the average P5 school, but we couldn’t take Atwell bc he was a project? That’s what some of y’all are going with?

 

[Number1CanesFan]

Wasn't UM known for taking HS QBs who can play WR? IIRC we have done that in the past. Back when we had a staff that could evaluate.

Yes. It happens, but it's hard to evaluate against top WRs. Where do you rank a guy whose played QB and now WR? Just like the NFL converting QBs to WR. There's been some good one's but they're not taken high in the draft. So, if you have guys rated higher, then you may miss out on QBs who make the position switch.

There's something to say about just getting the best athletes and finding a place for them to play. I like two guys that fit that category from the 2021 class. Chase Smith and Malik Curtis. Both are underrated and I think they both are at least 1 star better than their evaluation. Some think Smith is elite and I'm very interested in the speed of Curtis.

 

[Number1CanesFan]

Umm...that's been us lately.

I agree. I hope the 2021 class has the goods. I don't know who emerges from the 2020 class since we haven't seen very many of them get playing time.

 

[Ethnicsands]

No. I recognize your need to keep it real and embrace the “local legend” mystique of an otherwise ok undersized slot receiver who has about the same production as Mike Harley. I don’t. He’s been underwhelming this year, inconsistent his entire career, and will struggle to make (and remain on) an NFL roster.

Whatever else is true about Atwell, this should be irrelevant to the discussion. Our staff needs to find kids who can make plays at UM. We got fans giving extra credit for finding kids who can be marginal NFL players and they ain't ready to play when they get here, and they leave before they make a mark here. NFL U needs to be put to bed.

 

[Canesfan1899]

Not nearly the player Roscoe was.

His stats tell a different story.

 

[Ethnicsands]

Yes. It happens, but it's hard to evaluate against top WRs. Where do you rank a guy whose played QB and now WR? Just like the NFL converting QBs to WR. There's been some good one's but they're not taken high in the draft. So, if you have guys rated higher, then you may miss out on QBs who make the position switch.

There's something to say about just getting the best athletes and finding a place for them to play. I like two guys that fit that category from the 2021 class. Chase Smith and Malik Curtis. Both are underrated and I think they both are at least 1 star better than their evaluation. Some think Smith is elite and I'm very interested in the speed of Curtis.

It may be hard to evaluate against top WRs, but that's the task and there's no avoiding it. All evaluating is hard. Our staff has been absolutely terrible at evaluating 'regular WRs', in any case, so it's hard to see how they'd do worse taking truly superior athletes who play QB in Dade.

Edit:

There's something to say about just getting the best athletes and finding a place for them to play.

There's a LOT to say for this. It can't or shouldn't be 100% one approach or the opposite, for sure. But taking great athletes has to be a key part of a good recruiting strategy. We used to do just that. Over the years, we evolved towards more of a cookie cutter mindset, at least at some positions. FSU was always more athletically tilted.

Personally, I think this is a good discussion that falls under what I've consistently yapped about around here as 'identifying your criteria' in order to have an effective plan and process for recruiting. Criteria is both overall (position needs) and position-specific (traits you look for or avoid). But it can and should include some traits that can show up here or there but are needed somewhere. Those traits include overall plus athleticism and character/leadership matters. You can take a questionable kid if you have the right culture. You cannot take too many of them. Conversely, you can take some great culture fits if they're okay athletes ... but again, not too many. It's a jigsaw puzzle any given year, but our staff has recruited like they're trying to put the puzzle together blindfolded. IMO.

 

[305407cane]

Who’s a better player in your guys’ opinion? Elijah Moore or tutu? I’d go Moore. He was doing it against better comp in both offenses he played in

 

[Coach Macho]

No. I recognize your need to keep it real and embrace the “local legend” mystique of an otherwise ok undersized slot receiver who has about the same production as Mike Harley. I don’t. He’s been underwhelming this year, inconsistent his entire career, and will struggle to make (and remain on) an NFL roster.

Lol ok.

 

[BoxingRobes]

People on this very forum knew Tutu Atwell was a stud. Tutu's own coach said Miami didn't even consider him at WR - and didn't even ask according to the article - and that Tutu himself was open to WR and was being offered as a WR by those other schools (including Louisville).

You can write a novel on why you think it was ok to pass on Atwell for a bunch of slop, but it doesn't make it a correct take.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

1. Those other P5 schools aren't located in Miami, and they usually have "bigger fish" to fry. It's completely different when a kid like Atwell is right down the street.
2. Miami should ALWAYS take the best FOOTBALL PLAYER in South Florida EVERY YEAR. Throw height and all that **** out of the window. And Atwell was THE best player in South Florida that year.

What other P5 schools do should be irrelevant to Miami, especially when it comes to evaluating local kids.
The whole South Florida high school football community knew Atwell was a stud.

Look, you are so full of ****e, it isn't even funny.

In one porst you argue (in capital letters) that Atwell was THE MOST EXPLOSIVE PLAYER IN THE STATE. You know, the State of Florida, which is the third largest state in the country, and produces the greatest number of Division I football players, per capita.

In the next porst, you act like 116 Division I-A schools have "bigger fish to fry" than THE MOST EXPLOSIVE PLAYER IN THE STATE.

Now, you can sit here for another half-dozen porsts claiming that it was sooooo obvious that TuTu Atwell was the BEST FOOTBALL PLAYER IN SOUTH FLORIDA as well as THE MOST EXPLOSIVE PLAYER IN THE STATE, but I've pointed out that none of the recruiting services agreed with you, and 63 out of 65 Power Five programs also didn't agree with you.

And, hey, pat on the back to you for being right once in a while, TuTu Atwell has done very well at Louisville. I'm happy for the kid and his development and his future, and I will always be a fan of his.

I'm stating, very clearly and very to-the-point, that if TuTu Atwell's projection to WR was soooooo obvious that even Stevie Wonder saw it, then it seems like the ranking services would have ranked him higher, more Power Five schools would have offered, and this all would have happened a year earlier. After all, he's been a "South Florida legend" since he was in Huggies.

But, oh yeah...none of that stuff happened. And, as per usual, and right on cue, Miami gets blamed for everything. Miami should have scouted Tutu better. Miami should have offered TuTu. Miami should have told the world about THE BEST FOOTBALL PLAYER IN SOUTH FLORIDA and, more importantly, THE MOST EXPLOSIVE PLAYER IN THE STATE.

Yes, Miami had the ONLY coaching staff available to act as The Silver Surfer to TuTu Atwell's Galactus. That's right, in one of the historically best (and most talented) high schools in the largest metropolitan area in the third largest state in the US, THE MOST EXPLOSIVE PLAYER IN THE STATE was busy falling through the cracks.

Give me a freaking break from all your defective logic and AT LEAST admit that there were plenty of scouts, coaches, and writers who did not have TuTu Atwell rated nearly as high as you did.

Look, in the past 20 years, the best WR signing classes that Miami has ever had have been THIS YEAR, 2018, 2016, 2008, and 2002.

But people still whine that we didn't take Santonio Holmes in 2002.

 

[MyKidIsLoggedIn2MyAccount]

IIRC we took Ezzard over both Elijah Moore and Atwell.

If we had those two guys this season, coaching issues or not, you can bet King would likely be much higher in the heisman consideration and we put up probably at least another td on average per game.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Umm...that's been us lately.

You're full of ****e. That was NOT Miami from 2016-2018.

Miami signed Ahmmon Richards, Sam Bruce, Dionte Mullins, Michael Irvin as HS WRs in 2016. We signed Jeff Thomas, Mike Harley, and Evidence Njoku in 2017. And we signed Mark Pope, Brian Hightower, Dee Wiggins, and Marquez Ezzard in 2018.

That is a lot of HS talent at the WR, and several did not succeed at Miami. But, hey, we signed a lot of SoFla legends in those 3 years.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Wasn't UM known for taking HS QBs who can play WR? IIRC we have done that in the past. Back when we had a staff that could evaluate.

When? 25 years ago?

Name all of Miami's "converted HS QBs" who played WR. I'll wait.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Who’s a better player in your guys’ opinion? Elijah Moore or tutu? I’d go Moore. He was doing it against better comp in both offenses he played in

We offered Elijah Moore.

 

[305407cane]

We offered Elijah Moore.

Not what I asked but ok