{"id":3355,"date":"2017-01-11T09:25:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T14:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=3355"},"modified":"2017-02-06T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T16:43:10","slug":"internet-mentors-are-the-reasons-talent-leaving-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/internet-mentors-are-the-reasons-talent-leaving-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet \/ Mentors Are the Reasons Talent Leaving Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog<\/strong>
\nTwitter: @GridironStuds<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the flag landed on the turf of Sun Devil Stadium on January 3, 2003 symbolizing the end of the scariest mini era in college football history, \u00a0an entire nation of college football fans and programs rejoiced. \u00a0A Hurricane win vs. Ohio St. and the reign of terror may have grown stronger like an uncontrolled forest fire. \u00a0In the wake of this unfathomable loss, \u00a0college football programs began their forensic like study of the Miami Hurricanes program. \u00a0In so doing, plans were made to cut into the huge slice of pie that not only was Miami eating from heartily but the other two major college football programs in the state were enjoying as well.<\/p>\n

From 1992-2002, \u00a0Miami, Florida and Florida St. combined to have 11 undefeated or one loss seasons. \u00a0Since that Fiesta Bowl loss by the Canes in 2002, \u00a0the three schools have combined for five with Miami accounting for all of zero. \u00a0All of college football was forced to do something after Miami’s dominating 2001 season that produced a legion of NFL talent and ran roughshod through opponents. \u00a0Out of state programs observed the construction of the rosters of the big three and realized that some of the biggest performers were some lesser known talents tucked away in the corners and bushes of the state of Florida.<\/p>\n

Scouting Florida High School football was not something new for college programs across the nation but the need to do so increased rapidly at the turn of the millennium as it seemed Miami, Florida and Florida St. were going to juggle the Sears trophy between them for the foreseeable future. \u00a0Programs already scouting the state, doubled down on those efforts. \u00a0Programs who had not done so as much scurried up the budget to embark on the endeavor. \u00a0Right around the time that out of state teams came to this reality, \u00a0the powers and capabilities of the World Wide Web began their exponential growth. \u00a0Search engines like Yahoo and Google starting expanding their ability to find information from anywhere on the globe, \u00a0blogs started to become a thing and YouTube (2005) came on the scene to\u00a0forever changed how\u00a0coaches received highlight videos.<\/p>\n

With the plan set, \u00a0the tools to execute the job were getting sharpened. \u00a0Now, college coaches did not need to book flights to find players, \u00a0they could have their info delivered to their desktop or laptop with a couple of keystrokes. \u00a0Now, \u00a0expeditions into Florida’s fertile recruiting ground could be more efficient as coaches could follow the route to the schools they already found to have the talent during their\u00a0computer research. \u00a0As time wore on, \u00a0companies capitalized on the digital revolution to provide opportunities for under served recruits crawling all over the Florida landscape. \u00a0Companies like GridironStuds, Rivals, Scout.com, Hudl and others would be the conduit for coaches to discover talent.<\/p>\n

As time wore on, \u00a0coaches learned that the Internet was great for finding the talent within the Florida borders but more was going to be needed to actually rip that talent away from the Big Three. \u00a0Miami, Florida and Florida St. had established a strong history of performance and deliverance of talent to NFL riches. \u00a0Getting a Florida native to leave their backyard was going to need something more than just a coach knowing the talent existed. \u00a0Enter the mentor. \u00a0It’s a long standing fact that Florida HS coaches get paid a mere pittance for their toils on the prep gridiron. \u00a0Salaries often falling in under $5000 annually for “volunteers” who will spend an entire year developing talent is enough to make Nike factory workers in the Far East look at coaches with scorn. \u00a0Financial incentives to morally and economically challenged ball coaches became the key to victory in Florida recruiting wars. \u00a0Padding income with the deliverance of local talent became a way to profit from the one thing the lovers of the game loved to do the most. \u00a0Eventually, \u00a0some would realize that it wasn’t even necessary to coach at a school to fold presidential paper. \u00a0In fact, not becoming attached to one school meant that the professional mentors could ride around collecting talent like a lover boy plucking daffodils to give to\u00a0the apple of his eye. \u00a0Delivering the talent to the doorstep of programs conducting camps became an industry of it’s own.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, \u00a0lower tiered college football programs, not in the mentor business, became very successful sneaking away under recognized talent while the big programs duked it out over the 5 stars. \u00a0The major message being preached was why sit on the bench for three years when you can come be the man as a freshman for us. \u00a0The increased competition for the big time players combined with the scorned 3 stars getting showered with love from the out of state programs slowly weakened the rosters of Florida’s big three. \u00a0Miami was hit the hardest during this era of nationwide empowerment. \u00a0One of the biggest reasons for this has been that South Florida has the most talent and was thus hit the hardest by raiding out of state programs.<\/p>\n

The change in times made it almost impossible for the Frank Gores of the world to see it fit to sit behind Clinton Portis and Willis McGahee waiting for his chance to shine. \u00a0In 2017, \u00a0Frank Gore goes to LSU, Michigan, Pitt or any other program with a roster opening and a strong opportunity. \u00a0The likes of a Frank Gore would be taken to and shown the campus by the mentor who is eager to satisfy those programs for a multitude of reasons.<\/p>\n

There are two ways to look at this. \u00a0Fans of college football and kids can see it to be a blessing that athletes in the state of Florida are getting increased opportunities to be successful. \u00a0Prior to this age of Florida intrusion, \u00a0kids could sit on rosters and “possibly” get a chance while others made their way to junior colleges in hopes of discovery in a land far away. \u00a0The other way this can be viewed is as an affront to the state from which you come from. \u00a0Fans of the Florida schools certainly see it as the latter. \u00a0However, \u00a0fans have a singular focus. \u00a0Fans want players and could care very little about the cost to the athlete in the quest for fans to be happy each and every Saturday. \u00a0It’s the good ole catch-22.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, \u00a0what happened is what always happens in sports. \u00a0All dynasties are studied by their opposers and will eventually be attacked. \u00a0Miami, Florida and Florida State’s dominance was scary in much the same fashion that Alabama’s march on college football has a Halloween shine to it. \u00a0The question is what will be the attack on Tuscaloosa? We will all have to sit back and see what history presents us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds As the flag landed on the turf of Sun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,767],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-recruiting-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}