Is Recruiting Actually More Stressful than the Season?
Watching any team provides moments of joy, sadness, and – more often than not – stress. Regardless of who you cheer for, you had your moments of stress in 2010 – the ones that left your stomach upside-down or gave you a headache. For Boise State, it was two missed field goals. For Alabama, it was watching Auburn march back. For Florida, it was much of the entire season. We talk a lot about the great moments and the disappointments sports bring, but we rarely touch on the stress the fans experience. But for a college football diehard fan, are the games the most stressful events? When frequent TBG contributor One Eyed Willy asked me the question that became the title of this post, I had to think about it and at first glance he may be on to something.
This is how our discussion unfolded…
(TBG Note: Muschamp is Boom, Boom is Muschamp. You should know this by now. It’s easier to remember than even Finkel and Einhorn.)
One Eyed Willy: Is recruiting actually more stressful than the season?
The Bull Gator: Much more stressful. I think it’s because over the course of the season, we set expectations based on what we see the Gators do. Even I, the eternal optimist, was worried about South Carolina and had almost no hope Florida would beat FSU. To me, each win is almost a surprise. But with recruiting you really never know. Even during the Ron Zook years when the Gators weren’t doing well on the field, Chris Leak and Andre Caldwell and Earl Everett and all these huge recruits were still committing. It’s almost like your name doesn’t matter during recruiting as long as you’re FSU, Miami, Texas, Ohio State, Florida, etc. Even still, recruiting is much more stressful because it really could go anyway at anytime. That and no one is a lock. We still have to wait weeks before these guys are really Gators and now we have people like Adrian Coxson and Jordan Haden transferring before it even gets to fall practice. Too stressful!
I’ve heard others say they actually don’t follow recruiting or try their best not to. They say they know who the big names are, but try not to get caught up in it all because they would get too worried. Good enough strategy, but it’s too much fun for me despite the stress. I love the NFL Draft and recruiting is like the draft all day every day. And it’s better because the Floridas of the world have a shot with everyone. Too bad it’s this stressful for those remaining weeks. At times it’s almost too much to take.
OEW: I actually thought about that this morning…about just not caring anymore. Because it really is so darn stressful. I think a major difference is too that it is every single day. With the actual games, you get prepared for the week and then you watch the game on Saturday. But you know nothing big can happen on Monday or Wednesday, it’s just Saturday. With recruiting, a guy can do something big or devastating at any moment. Yesterday was going fine until Nick Waisome had to switch and Timmy Jernigan had to eliminate UF. Why did they have to mess up an otherwise content Monday? I also don’t like it because you can lose time and time again to your rivals. We lost once to FSU this year, but we could lose 15 times to FSU, LSU, Tennessee, Bama, etc. during recruiting.
What really sucks is I usually like watching the Army All-American game each year to see who picks UF, but this year I am not sure that we will have a realistic shot at pulling anyone in at that game. Remember the past couple years, we would get the Tim Tebows and the Trey Burtons and all you would hear about is how they would be making calls and meeting up with other guys and selling UF to them. I don’t really hear about that at all this year. Maybe because of all the other stuff going on or maybe because our best recruit (Jeff Driskel) doesn’t really seem to be a talker like our best recruit in other years, but I missed hearing about that. Now I have to hear about how Waisome and Jernigan are supposedly calling Haseasn Clinton-Dix to tell him to go to FSU. I don’t want to hear that crap!
TBG: Good point about the days. Things are supposed to be quiet throughout the week and definitely between the regular season finale and the bowl game. But this year not so much. We got Urban Meyer and then Will Muschamp and to add to all of that drama recruiting is going 24/7. I’ll never be that disappointed about Jeoffrey Pagan because he was honest in his reason for leaving and was someone I wasn’t counting on in the final class anyway. He had been too back-and-forth throughout the process. Ryan Shazier, I would have liked, but I felt he may have been unsure as well. I think, at this point, Waisome hurts the most. There was always a chance FSU would be able to pull him their way, but to lose him because he wants to enroll early and Florida doesn’t have his position coach hired hurts. I don’t want Muschamp to rush, but at the same time Waisome is a kid who could be on campus in only a few weeks. I hope Muschamp hasn’t dropped him entirely and is working him right up until the last possible second.
I get the not caring feeling from time to time, but for me it is more along the lines of the arrests. Sometimes I think it would be much easier to worry about they do on the field and nothing else. But with recruiting, again, it’s too much fun to follow. I guess to have that hope. But like you said, losing to the same teams hurts. It hurts a lot. That Jernigan’s final three is three of the Gators’ biggest rivals and Waisome went to FSU is the most painful. When kids take off for some far away school I don’t mind as much, but I hate watching them in rival uniforms for years to come. Greg Reid is in that category. He’s becoming quite an athlete and one Florida could have hung on to.
OEW: There is a lot of stuff on the message boards about the fact that apparently Boom doesn’t like the type of CB that Waisome is and wants bigger, stronger CBs. I understand that, but at the same time, we all know that is just UF fans trying to come up with a good excuse for this guy jumping ship. No offense, but with only a month or so to work with, I don’t think Muschamp can be all that picky with who he is getting. To me, the most important thing is keeping the guys we have. It’s a lot easier to keep a guy you have then to pull a new guy in or to get someone to jump ship from somewhere else. Even if he isn’t 100% sold on them, you do whatever you can to keep them. And the fact that we have lost 2 already and had another guy eliminate us from the running and that all 3 are on the defensive side of the ball is very scary to me.
The thing that really surprised me the most when UF hired Boom was that you and I, two normal guys that just like college football (albeit it like it a lot!), seemed to know more about him that 95% of the college football viewing population and more than just about every recruit I have seen speak since then. Every recruit was like “who is this guy” or “I don’t really know much about him” – how in the world do you not know much about him? You are going to go play football for the next 4 years of your life and possibly longer and you don’t know who one of the best assistant coaches in the country is? I guess it just goes to show you that they know the guys who are recruiting them and that’s about it.
I am just starving for some good recruiting news. The best we have had is that Driskel didn’t leave and that Kelvin Benjamin said he would wait. But that certainly doesn’t mean we will pull Benjamin from FSU. Two days ago I was very positive about Boom and I don’t want to be drug over to the dark side on this, but right now that side is pulling much harder than the good side!
TBG: People are always going to come up with whatever excuse they can find. If I had a nickel for every time I read “well if he doesn’t want to be a Gator then we don’t want him anyway!” I would be rich. The second a kid waivers, people jump ship themselves. At least the ship carrying the kid’s bandwagon. I’m sure I’ve done it to, but I hope I’ve learned over the years. If Waisome changes his mind in the next week or so, I’ll welcome him back with open arms. Maybe Muschamp does want bigger defensive backs, ones that can literally bring the BOOM!, but Waisome is talented regardless and shouldn’t be someone to just immediately dismiss.
The fact that some prospects don’t know who he is definitely does worry me. I’m like you in that I can’t help but wonder aloud “how in the world do you not know who he is?” I guess we have to assume that not everyone follows the sport as closely. A lot more people know Will Muschamp today than did a few weeks ago. The same could be said about Al Golden or Dana Holgorsen. But in the end it just adds to the stress. When I hear a recruit I have an unhealthy man-crush on say “I’ve never even heard of Florida’s new head coach,” I want to put my head through a wall. Call me! I’ll tell you all you need to know!
I think it’s far too early to head over to the dark side, but I get your point. We want the urgency with which Boom himself was hired. We want to know who his assistants are and we want a recruit, any recruit, to commit. Just show us a light at the end of the tunnel. I want the right hire and the right players over the wrong ones, but no news isn’t always good news. Sometimes it’s bad news and we don’t need bad news.
The conversation could have gone on and on and on, but we both lost track when news sprouted up about Ohio State players and free tattoos and the possibility of Steve Addazio heading to Texas. But the conclusion is simple: recruiting is stressful and we’re ready for some good news…NOW!