I dont agree with your take either.
You cant really say recruiting in the rb room is a problem when you have put up a fence locally and landed the best backs coming out in your area going on 3 classes.
Now what they do after they come to your school is a different variable (OL, OFFENSIVE PLAYCALLING, INJURIES) but its no question we have landed them..**** the only questioned one as of recent was Henry parrish when folks were wondering should we have taken 3 of them...and we STILL ended up getting him back in the portal.
S.FLa pumps out backs yearly...a competent coach can land them...Tim Harris locally is wayyyy above competency level. In state he can do well there too...From being around Brandon a lil bit and knowing how Ice is/was i dont think he would have any difficulty nationally recruiting either or helping us recruit at other positions.
We are not discussing the same thing.
Getting non-Top 100 local backs should be the bare minimum our RB coach should be able to accomplish. Most RB Coaches we have had have been able to get them. Landing those outside of the Top 100 RBs locally isn't putting up a fence locally, either. The reason we've been getting those guys is because they aren't those highly coveted, throw the war chest at them players. ****, we had 4 of them of the roster last year and we were 95th in YPC and YPG.
Over the past 20 years, the (Dade, Broward, PBC) Top 100 RBs we've had enroll here (so I'm not out here listing Shady McCoy or Lorenzo Lingard)...
Duke Johnson, Charlie Jones, Bobby Washington, Tyrone Moss, Joseph Yearby, Lamar Miller, Mark Walton.
Just outside the Top 100, Jaylan Knighton, Don Chaney.
IMO, there are 2 that lived up to the bill...Duke and Lamar Miller. A couple others were ...
fine.
Top 100 players we missed out on (using On3 consensus because 247 is being a ***** rn)...
James Cook, Dalvin Cook, Sony Michel, Kelvin Taylor, Greg Bryant (RIP), Alex Collins, Devonta Freeman (just outside the Top 100), Jamaal Berry, Armando Allen, Antwain Easterling.
Those two lists look very different to me and I can not understand how you can look at those lists and not think our RB recruiting has been spotty even locally. We've had a couple of dudes, but lots of busts and some just
good players. Getting the occasional dude and then some outside the Top 100 players is just bare minimum and saying "if Tim Harris does THAT..." to me, that is the competency level...to say he is way above that (which he could be), is that he's landing Dalvin Cook, Alex Collins, Devonta Freeman locally...OR...we're getting those big ticket backs nationally AND they pan out (no Lo Lingards and other bill of goods backs).
These "we put the fence up!" backs that've landed in the past few years...Thad Franklin (outside the Top 250), Knighton and Chaney (outside the Top 100), Cam Harris (mid-hundreds). That's not good enough by any measure, two of them (maybe 3, we'll see) didn't or won't finish their career here.
