'20 IL OG Javontez Spraggins (UT SIGNEE)

#227
#227
dyllisvol42 said:
Kid looks tough as hell and mean. Not to mention he is from east St. Louis. To quote a friend of mine from the area east St. Louis don’t raise no soft a// Bit3)3$
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I used to go through there on business back in the 80s. Any kid coming out of that area has got to be tough.
That school also has a very good football program.
 
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#228
#228
preacherrandy said:
247sports says he is #948 nationally. I don't think that will get you in the top ten class.
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Who cares about a top 10 class. Just get me guys that want to work and have the potential. Let the coaches maximize his potential. If you watch camp drills youll notice very quick feet and great leverage for a guy his size. Had I not know his star ranking before I saw it, Id have thought he was a 4.5 star. He has what it takes.
 
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#230
#230
It will be fun when we can say our OL has put a Spraggins on you (UGA, Gata, Bammer)!

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#231
#231
You could tell the other kids wanted to retaliate but thought better of it. The kid is a beast!
 
#232
#232
WarMachine said:
As much as I like him, Kahlil McKenzie was a very high rated lineman, and he played like a 3 star a lot. Same for Drew Richmond. I'm happy for Pruitt to take a 3 star that plays like a 4 or 5 star. The recruiting services do the best they can, but they aren't paid millions to bet on their evaluations.
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But I doubt a program in CFB would have turned him away
 
#234
#234
WarMachine said:
As much as I like him, Kahlil McKenzie was a very high rated lineman, and he played like a 3 star a lot. Same for Drew Richmond. I'm happy for Pruitt to take a 3 star that plays like a 4 or 5 star. The recruiting services do the best they can, but they aren't paid millions to bet on their evaluations.
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#235
#235
preacherrandy said:
247sports says he is #948 nationally. I don't think that will get you in the top ten class.
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I can see why some obsess with the rankings, but it isn't the "end all, be all"of recruiting. And we all know how a commitment in June can be a de-commitment in October. But these are the greatest positions of need right now: O line and D line and he plays both. At this point, I don't care if he is #948. If he can develop and make a hole for a higher ranked RB, or blast through blockers and bring down higher ranked RBs and QBs, we can make jokes about how low he was ranked in a year or two. All I know, from looking at the 55 second twitter video, is this guy has potential. Looks like he has good balance, good technique, and very fluid movement. I can't wait for Fitzgerald to get him in the weight room.

Even if taking him lowers the chances at a top ten ranking, I don't care. This guy, on first glance, fills a huge need.
 
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#237
#237
WarMachine said:
As much as I like him, Kahlil McKenzie was a very high rated lineman, and he played like a 3 star a lot. Same for Drew Richmond. I'm happy for Pruitt to take a 3 star that plays like a 4 or 5 star. The recruiting services do the best they can, but they aren't paid millions to bet on their evaluations.
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Kahlil had the disadvantage of not being allowed to play his senior year of HS. Gained a bunch of weight and never recovered. Had Fitzgerald been here, there would have been a greater chance they both might have reached their potential. Plus it turns out, Kahlil should have played O-Line.

The recruiting services exist because of the nationwide interest in college football. Because of people like us. They make their best guess on these players. Coaching evaluation are more in depth (hopefully), and (hopefully) they include work ethics. If Pruitt and Friend feel he has the right work ethic, I would take 3 stars like him all day long.
 
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#239
#239
WarMachine said:
As much as I like him, Kahlil McKenzie was a very high rated lineman, and he played like a 3 star a lot. Same for Drew Richmond. I'm happy for Pruitt to take a 3 star that plays like a 4 or 5 star. The recruiting services do the best they can, but they aren't paid millions to bet on their evaluations.
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Kahlil also come in off an entire year long injury and not playing. Who knows if he ever fully recovered or would have still been a 5th star after a senior campaign, more camps, etc. He was obviously massive for his age at the time. Hard to say a year later if he still looked as dominant vs his competition.

Also something that worries me with a guy like Crouch...JJP...maybe even Toots. Guys coming off injuries are hard to predict. We've seen soo many guys recently never get back to their prime after an injury.
 
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#240
#240
TNnative said:
Kahlil had the disadvantage of not being allowed to play his senior year of HS. Gained a bunch of weight and never recovered. Had Fitzgerald been here, there would have been a greater chance they both might have reached their potential. Plus it turns out, Kahlil should have played O-Line.

The recruiting services exist because of the nationwide interest in college football. Because of people like us. They make their best guess on these players. Coaching evaluation are more in depth (hopefully), and (hopefully) they include work ethics. If Pruitt and Friend feel he has the right work ethic, I would take 3 stars like him all day long.
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Especially lower end guys. Barton even had a really nice reply recently on our board as to why guys like Means and Solomon were lower rated (someone just kindly asked what traits/attributes they were lacking to drag their ranking down). His answer was, in short, some guys won't always put up stats or flash on tape or even camp, but you have to trust a team's or set of teams (based on offers) eval in that case, because they have seen the kid up and close and done tons of research on him. Obviously services can dig deep on thousands of kids, but D1 programs have the resources to dive deeper on dozens or even hundreds.

Of course, all that still always leaves me slightly uneasy. It's easy to say "trust the coaches" and "they are betting their million dollar jobs on these evals", but so are tons of other coaches and programs and they can't all be right. Obviously Dooley and Butch weren't right as often as they needed to be. One can hope, off recommendations (granted, while at Alabama/UGA) that Pruitt is the elite evaluator many say he is. But now he is at UT, not Bama/UGA. Time will tell and we will all sit here in the dark until then.

But we can and should stay optimistic, if only for our own health.
 
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#243
#243
This kid plays with aggression. You know our QB’s are liking what they see coming!
 
#249
#249
Devo182 said:
Especially lower end guys. Barton even had a really nice reply recently on our board as to why guys like Means and Solomon were lower rated (someone just kindly asked what traits/attributes they were lacking to drag their ranking down). His answer was, in short, some guys won't always put up stats or flash on tape or even camp, but you have to trust a team's or set of teams (based on offers) eval in that case, because they have seen the kid up and close and done tons of research on him. Obviously services can dig deep on thousands of kids, but D1 programs have the resources to dive deeper on dozens or even hundreds.

Of course, all that still always leaves me slightly uneasy. It's easy to say "trust the coaches" and "they are betting their million dollar jobs on these evals", but so are tons of other coaches and programs and they can't all be right. Obviously Dooley and Butch weren't right as often as they needed to be. One can hope, off recommendations (granted, while at Alabama/UGA) that Pruitt is the elite evaluator many say he is. But now he is at UT, not Bama/UGA. Time will tell and we will all sit here in the dark until then.

But we can and should stay optimistic, if only for our own health.
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I think my main point was that they have a lot more at stake on their evals, and successful coaches probably are better judges than guys who do interviews and podcasts for a living (no offense to those guys).

And we have a staff of very successful coaches.
 
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