'24 AR RB Braylen Russell (Arkansas commit)

#451
#451
MarcoVol said:
Do AP and Callahan not have sources? If Russell goes to ARK then that’ll be 2 in a row where they were trailing the “breaking” news.

Can’t be good for business to continually be chasing others who seem to have better info.
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AP is more plugged in than Callahan imo.

I think 1) NIL has made recruiting weirder and more last minute with changes 2) we’re in the middle of a few very weird recruitments that has made it very difficult for these guys. Until a week ago it would’ve been safe to call Russell a Vol lock because of what he had indicated.. Arkansas finds out, decides he can’t leave the state, ratchets up a ton of pressure from all the people they have locally and now the kid is in a tough spot.

Most of the local guys info comes from the folks around Tennessee (duh). You build relationships with national related people but that’s not the day-to-day. Well when kids are saying one thing to coaches on one side and something else to coaches on the other and that’s changing by the minute, sometimes the national guys have better info at a zoomed out level. Or sometimes the national guys are more willing to “predict” where a kid is going.

AP and Ryan to a lesser extent obviously know a lot of this stuff but airing it out doesn’t make sense because 1) people say they want to know what’s going on but they actually don’t. I promise you it’s better to not have all the details and 2) in doing so they’d be burning the people they talk to. So better to just play coy / be quiet vs trying to get all the updates they have.

We have a few recruitments that hopefully shouldn’t get weird (Okoye, Matthews) and a few who have a bunch of unique considerations at play (Russell, Wingo, Franklin, Jefferson, Warren and maybe Bates). I’m sure we’d all wish we weren’t in as many weird recruitments but we should win our fair share of high-end guys in that group.
 
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#452
#452
KingNico said:
AP is more plugged in than Callahan imo.

I think 1) NIL has made recruiting weirder and more last minute with changes 2) we’re in the middle of a few very weird recruitments that has made it very difficult for these guys. Until a week ago it would’ve been safe to call Russell a Vol lock because of what he had indicated.. Arkansas finds out, decides he can’t leave the state, ratchets up a ton of pressure from all the people they have locally and now the kid is in a tough spot.

Most of the local guys info comes from the folks around Tennessee (duh). You build relationships with national related people but that’s not the day-to-day. Well when kids are saying one thing to coaches on one side and something else to coaches on the other and that’s changing by the minute, sometimes the national guys have better info at a zoomed out level. Or sometimes the national guys are more willing to “predict” where a kid is going.

AP and Ryan to a lesser extent obviously know a lot of this stuff but airing it out doesn’t make sense because 1) people say they want to know what’s going on but they actually don’t. I promise you it’s better to not have all the details and 2) in doing so they’d be burning the people they talk to. So better to just play coy / be quiet vs trying to get all the updates they have.

We have a few recruitments that hopefully shouldn’t get weird (Okoye, Matthews) and a few who have a bunch of unique considerations at play (Russell, Wingo, Franklin, Jefferson, Warren and maybe Bates). I’m sure we’d all wish we weren’t in as many weird recruitments but we should win our fair share of high-end guys in that group.
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Makes sense. I would just think for AP and RC, they’re gonna have to start letting folks peek behind the curtain a little more or something. Otherwise, why are people paying for subs to their services if their info consistently gets trumped from an insider at another school or a national guy. That’s just bad for business. That’s really my only point. Their livelihoods depend on subs, I would presume? Might be time to re-evaluate the strategy for sharing info.

Again, maybe it’s just bc these 2 recent guys. But if it becomes a theme…
 
#453
#453
KingNico said:
Wiltfong only predicts stuff before a commitment when he knows it to be true. So the question is did he take it down because he was asked to by someone or because it is no longer true that he was definitely going to Arkansas? I don’t know the answer to that but I lean to the latter because Steve hasn't seemed to have a problem spoiling kids moments with confidence 6 level predictions days before a commitment in the past so why would he now?

We’re cautiously optimistic right now but this kid is getting a *lot* of pressure to stay in-state so let’s see if we can survive that over the next 36 hours.
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I don't think recruiting analysts care about that anymore .... not that very many ever did. They just want to be right.
 
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#454
#454
KingNico said:
AP is more plugged in than Callahan imo.

I think 1) NIL has made recruiting weirder and more last minute with changes 2) we’re in the middle of a few very weird recruitments that has made it very difficult for these guys. Until a week ago it would’ve been safe to call Russell a Vol lock because of what he had indicated.. Arkansas finds out, decides he can’t leave the state, ratchets up a ton of pressure from all the people they have locally and now the kid is in a tough spot.

Most of the local guys info comes from the folks around Tennessee (duh). You build relationships with national related people but that’s not the day-to-day. Well when kids are saying one thing to coaches on one side and something else to coaches on the other and that’s changing by the minute, sometimes the national guys have better info at a zoomed out level. Or sometimes the national guys are more willing to “predict” where a kid is going.

AP and Ryan to a lesser extent obviously know a lot of this stuff but airing it out doesn’t make sense because 1) people say they want to know what’s going on but they actually don’t. I promise you it’s better to not have all the details and 2) in doing so they’d be burning the people they talk to. So better to just play coy / be quiet vs trying to get all the updates they have.

We have a few recruitments that hopefully shouldn’t get weird (Okoye, Matthews) and a few who have a bunch of unique considerations at play (Russell, Wingo, Franklin, Jefferson, Warren and maybe Bates). I’m sure we’d all wish we weren’t in as many weird recruitments but we should win our fair share of high-end guys in that group.
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I really enjoyed this. Seriously.
 
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#455
#455
EdEcEko77 said:
Callahan has even said he's hearing Arkansas and that WIltfong likely only took down his CB because someone asked him too.

Nice guys finish last and our very likeable coaching staff keeps getting friend zoned.
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If you dislike our coaching staff so much there's over 100 other teams you can dump yourself on. You ever think our coaches do there best. Maybe they really value said player but missing on him isn't a life sentence. Arkansas may be backing the brings truck up for him. Could the vols yes but what would it cause in the locker room. Use common sense you downing our vols coaching staff on everyother post gets old...
 
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#456
#456
MarcoVol said:
Makes sense. I would just think for AP and RC, they’re gonna have to start letting folks peek behind the curtain a little more or something. Otherwise, why are people paying for subs to their services if their info consistently gets trumped from an insider at another school or a national guy. That’s just bad for business. That’s really my only point. Their livelihoods depend on subs, I would presume? Might be time to re-evaluate the strategy for sharing info.

Again, maybe it’s just bc these 2 recent guys. But if it becomes a theme…
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Maybe so but I doubt many of their subscribers really give a **** about up to the second insight on where kids are going. I think that’s a small group of us sickos and even then.. everyone in this thread by definition is hooked on this drug so we’re probably not walking away cold turkey over some lack of transparency. Jmo gbo
 
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#460
#460
Unless the coaching staff is coaching kids not to talk to media, for some reason. Perhaps to allow Spyre et al to play their cards a little closer?
 
#462
#462
KingNico said:
Maybe so but I doubt many of their subscribers really give a **** about up to the second insight on where kids are going. I think that’s a small group of us sickos and even then.. everyone in this thread by definition is hooked on this drug so we’re probably not walking away cold turkey over some lack of transparency. Jmo gbo
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lol good point
 
#463
#463
KingNico said:
Maybe so but I doubt many of their subscribers really give a **** about up to the second insight on where kids are going. I think that’s a small group of us sickos and even then.. everyone in this thread by definition is hooked on this drug so we’re probably not walking away cold turkey over some lack of transparency. Jmo gbo
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I dunno Nico, I'm thinking of hanging up the spurs after 18 years on this site.
 
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#464
#464
Someone mentioned earlier that Braylen Russell's announcement is being broadcasts on 247. If that is the case, it could be Wilfong's bosses that made him take the CB down. A Wilfong CB could cause 247 to lose eyeballs/clicks during the broadcast.

With Wilfong taking down his CB it has stirred up more discussion around Russell's commitment. Just what 247 wanted.
 
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#467
#467
Rumor is that Wiltfong was told by the Russell camp to remove the CB so that his moment isnt spoiled, TIFWIW
 
#468
#468
smokeyz1 said:
Someone mentioned earlier that Braylen Russell's announcement is being broadcasts on 247. If that is the case, it could be Wilfong's bosses that made him take the CB down. A Wilfong CB could cause 247 to lose eyeballs/clicks during the broadcast.

With Wilfong taking down his CB it has stirred up more discussion around Russell's commitment. Just what 247 wanted.
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That’s interesting but I’m sure there’s precedent for a 247 commitment and Wiltfong knowing not to do that if so. Seems unlikely he’d make that mistake but who knows
 
#470
#470
matt_mccoy19 said:
Rumor is that Wiltfong was told by the Russell camp to remove the CB so that his moment isnt spoiled, TIFWIW
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Maybe so but like… why do it this time vs the 1000s of other times he’s done it? You just don’t think any of those kids asked? And if that’s the case, our side hasn’t heard that
 
#473
#473
swchandler1988 said:
Lol yesterday when you were doom and gloom you just forgot to mention this? TIFWIW…it isn’t worth sh*t
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Cause I saw it on twitter, but now that more people on twitter are starting to hint at it I felt more comfortable doing so
 
#474
#474
KingNico said:
Edit: I have 15 minutes ish. Any other random questions on this stuff
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Probably an obvious question but i'll ask anyways: Any clue on how the staff values recruiting the RB position? Going all in on 'elite' guys that want more nil vs a more nfl rb by committee approach? Seems like the latter, but i'm just a lurker.
 
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