This isn’t specifically about Russell at all but… everyone should understand all these kids are under a ton of pressure and dealing with a bunch of different considerations. I don’t fault any kid for not picking Tennessee or even handling it poorly. No one knows the fullness of what they’re dealing with. That said, anyone criticizing people like Austin Price on their reporting need to know that some of these guys are misrepresenting stuff throughout to multiple constituents from the coaching staff to the collectives to even their coaches. And even if they’re not misrepresenting it at all, maybe they’re not talking to anyone or they’re seriously torn or they want to go somewhere and their parents want them to go elsewhere or whatever. Austin or Callahan get most of their information from a Tennessee perspective and so you have to understand that what they’re hearing is consistent with what is being told to our coaches. We’ve dealt with a few weird circumstances where people haven’t been particularly forthcoming to us which is not imo Austin or Ryan or Matt Rays fault. I promise next week will be far better with this so cheer up!
all those guys I mentioned though are big boys and they can take people sh1tt ing on them but just know that predicting where 17 year olds are going to go is a tough job and especially so when you don’t want to ruin a kids moment the way Wiltfong will by posting 6 confidence predictions immediately before they commit. We’ve got a great group on our beat (particularly the VQ guys). They’re ethical and work their ass.