Well, my first article about Lane Kiffin’s 187 offers caused quite a stir, soI thought I would do a follow up on what seems to be an interesting topic.
You know how touchy some college football fans can be. That’s what you have to love about the college gridiron. There’s so much passion in the air. College football fans will defend their teams to the end like a criminal defense attorney standing in court with a client wearing a blood soaked T-shirt. You can’t tell a Gator fan that their team has had too many arrests. They will tell you why 28 is not a big number.
My pointing out that Kiffin and his staff have 187 offers out on the table was not an indictment in any way of Kiffin’s method’s or approach. Hell, for all I know, putting a bunch of offers out there may turn out to be a winning strategy. I am not saying that it’s right or wrong, I am merely pointing out that it’s a high number. Only time will tell if Kiffin’s methods are right. I do know one thing, if Kiffin’s objective was to return Tennessee football to the stream of consciousness of college football fans then he landed that dart in the red circle. I think all of America outside of the Knoxville are watching his regime like two speeding trains heading towards each other on the same track. They want to know if there will be a crash or if one of those trains will find another track and successfully avoid disaster.
As far as the number of offers are concerned, it’s high Vol fans and that’s a fact. If you are from Knoxville and want to draw attention to something, you can take solace in the following fact: Scout.com has Tennessee only listed for 114 offers (a number that can change on a daily basis). Where does this stand against other schools? I checked it against the Top 10 teams in last year’s final BCS poll as well as some other notable schools and programs that I personally know have been very busy this offseason. Going by Scout’s numbers, the closest team to Tennessee is Alabama which has 90 offers out there followed closely by their nemesis and SEC combatant Florida (86) and West Virginia (86). This means that Tennessee has 24 more offers out there than the next closest team (or at least one that I could find). That’s an entire signing class ahead of the next team. Is it a good or bad strategy? Again, I don’t know but it’s both note and newsworthy which is what Kiffin’s master plan has been since he landed in Knoxville. Some think the old man in Oakland rubbed off on Kiffin more than he may want to let on. Let’s hope his results are different than that of the Raiders’ over the last few years.
List of Top Rated / Notable School and the Number of Offers to 2010 Prospects
| Team | Offers | BCS Rank at the end of ’08 |
| Tennessee | 114 | |
| Alabama | 90 | #6 |
| Florida | 86 | #1 |
| WVU | 86 | |
| LSU | 80 | |
| Florida St. | 77 | |
| Michigan | 70 | |
| Georgia | 66 | |
| Miami | 65 | |
| Auburn | 58 | |
| Notre Dame | 56 | |
| Oregon | 47 | #10 |
| USC | 43 | #3 |
| Michigan St. | 43 | |
| Texas | 39 | #4 |
| Oklahoma | 33 | #5 |
| Penn St. | 33 | #8 |
| Ohio St. | 26 | #9 |
| TCU | 23 | #7 |
| Utah | 14 | #2 |
About the Author
What is the point? This is nothing out of the ordinary for UT.
You don’t seem to comprehend that the Vols are forced to recruit nationally and cannot rely on in-state talent like many states.
This is something Tennessee has always had to do and always will, it was EXACTLY the same under Fulmer.
Comparing us to the dominate state schools in states like Georgia, Alabama, Florida, etc. is ridiculous, because of the in-state talent those states have that they can rely on getting. We don’t have that luxury, if we want to compete, we have to bring in players from all over the nation.
Also, using Scout to measure anything regarding football is a joke.
The point is that the number of offers is higher than anyone else making it news-worthy. The Vols aren’t the only team that is forced to recruit nationally. Notre Dame, Penn St., Michigan and others recruit nationally and none have an offer list close to being as long as Tennessee’s. Just because you recruit nationally doesn’t mean you got out and offer every kid you come across with a name in every state you visit. The number of offers out there begs the question if Tennessee is doing their due diligence in checking backgrounds. It’s also begs the question, what are they going to do when the commitments roll in from kids that aren’t their number one targets. Are they going to pull offers and piss off kids and high school coaches? These questions make this a news worthy subject.
If you read the original article, it stated that Tennessee had 187 offers out there. I used Scout as a measuring stick because it was able to give me a general idea of how many offers some of the other schools had out there. Sure the numbers are off but they aren’t in terms how far ahead in the offer game Tennessee is compared to everyone else.