pharmDvol11
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Maybe this isn't thread worthy but I heard an interesting conversation on sports radio about instate recruits that were never pursued by their home state school that went on to do great things at other programs and beyond.
So I was thinking about Tennessee kids that were never recruited or overlooked by the Vols that went on to good or great college careers elsewhere and 3 came to mind:
Spurrier
Chad Pennington
Randall Cobb
Am I missing anyone else?
Randall Cobb was pursued. Just too late and half effort
Patrick Willis a great one mentioned above. Do we include Terrell Owens? He was from Chatanooga right (or only played at UTC?)
Cobb is the only one I wish we could have got. He would have made an great slot receiver here. If I remember correctly, Fulmer did pursue at the last minute. Fulmer wanted him on defense but Cobb wanted to play on offense.
Cobb wanted to play QB. Fulmer wanted him as a WR.
KY let him try QB.
Bingo. A lot of schools - including TN - wanted to let him play WR; Cobb wanted to play QB.
UK was one of the few willing to promise him that he'd play QB.
Ramsey wanted to run track also and the dumpster fire in our track program hurt our recruiting.
Same issue that kept Adoree Jackson in Southern California. Rebuilding and maintaining the track program needs to be a very high priority.
But to the subject at hand, there was no bigger whiff than Patrick Willis. A lot of the other guys mentioned so far wanted to be elsewhere. Willis practically begged for an offer, got turned down flat, and admits to crying on the way home down I-40.
Every time I see Fulmer anymore, I see the guy who said no to Willis, and roll my eyes when people go on about how great he was. Yeah, we can blame Kiffin, but he was here less than a year. And we can blame Dooley, but he walked into a train wreck. But the tracks fell apart because of Fulmer getting lazy and arrogant. And some want him as AD? :sick: :yuck: :whatever: :disappointed:
TI thought the Spurrier story went something along the lines of UT was interested but Spurrier was not due to our still running the single wing rather than that new fangled passing T backfield most of college football was moving to at the time. Myth or fact, can someone confirm it either way? I personally don't keep track of gator history.
T
Yes he was at Johnson City Science Hill and would have been a Vol had the offense moved from the single wing to the T formation. If Dickey was coaching then Spurrier would have been a Vol and provably coaching Tennessee now.