rexvol
The Minister of Defense
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- Apr 29, 2006
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from another board regarding Long...
also it's pretty well known that Long is now working on Marlon Brown to go to UGA.
EastMemphisVol tried to call the UT to tell them, mid-way
in the recruiting process, when the new staff was being hired,
about this young man and others. His calls were not returned.
People in Memphis tried to tell 'em. I have known EMVol a long time, although nowhere as long as Roy, Dr. Bill, Ron and others have.
EMV used to run a recruiting service. Chuck is still wired into the football talent pool, is respected and is 100% Vol. This is not the first negative report I had heard, that follow up without a strong salesman or two is not the long suite at UT, now that Phillip is allowing more people to do more of the recruiting. When he was the primary recruiter, NOBODY outworked him.
I had heard those calls were made when PF had the vacancies to fill. To me it is amazing that somebody---a grad assistant, etc,etc---could not get back to Chuck just to be polite and respectful---since he EMV is wired into h.s. talent in a good, positive way, is a known UT friend & ethical & positive.
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Earlier this week, I was in my old stomping grounds on business, and saw some friends---strong UT fans
Also I have heard rumors from friends in "the City," as Memphians like to call their home, that the Black Coaches Association---a group of Meffis's coaching professionals (primarily h.s. head coaching leaders)--has not felt much like they were very important to UT for a long time.
Some of my buds are shaking their heads at the way a growing number of colleges are making inroads into that group---which mentors thousands of young players---inroads including a couple of newly relocated collegiate coaches who were once Vol staffers.
I had heard that there was much head shaking among the coaches that one NATIONAL player of the week was not even pursued by UT, and that some UT folks in the Memphis TD Club had unintentionally fanned the flames by not waiving the club's rule that no junior can be honored.
Also, another great h.s. player's coach, I was told, was left out because one of the UT guys in the club had told the coach that only two guests could accompany the athlete---so the kid chose his parents. The coach is a great guy whom we certainly do not need mad at UT. Even UT supporters are perceived as delivering chaos, sometimes.
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The area 50 miles around Memphis has more than enough good, strong, academically capable athletes of all hues, to provide a couple dozen D-1 football and basketball solid players...maybe more,in a down year---maybe even three dozen in a good year.
To become vital again, UT needs marketing help, in many levels. The geography does not favor UT. Arkansas, Ole Miss, Miss. State, LSU, Bama, Auburn, Vandy, Missouri, UK...and other major D-1 schools are as close as Knoxville. (Even U. of Illinois is as close.)
Certainly UT's waning clout in local radio---both sports talk and UT Vol network stations---in Nashville and Memphis are just part of an overall declining exposure UT has in media. In Memphis media, a couple of years ago the 20 year affiliate of UT dumped the Vols in favor of U. of Memphis. The Memphis paper almost always will cover others first...and mostly UT gets no reportage, unless it is negative.
The hate-UT-attitude of Ron Higgins at theMeffis paper is legendary, even if his reportage is not. From Nashville, WLAC's 38-state, 4-hours a night, drive time, Vols-friendly talk show, M-F, shrank several years ago, to a shadow of its former self. One of those supposedly pro-UT announcers said Phillip should resign, when Adams wrote that stupid column.
Nationally, the shrinkage per year in number of high audience yield CBS/ABC/ESPN broadecast games has made UT anything BUT top of mind in the college football world, unless player misconduct, coaching defections and departures, and such occur.
Even when we DO play on national TV, \we get marginal results. In 2007, those included California, Florida, the SECC. Our bowl was one of the earlier ones in the major day of bowl season---good win, but much smaller audience.
If Mike Hamilton continues his series of smart moves, like hiring Bruce Pearl, he will get some help to fix the screwed up UT marketing and public relations, which is at best a dysfunctioning machine at a lot of levels. His funding problems will go away if he does, and recruiting will be helped, too.
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The way UT has recruited the Memphis market---our coaches no-showing and not calling on missed appointments, reportedly becoming involved in questionable activities (I'll let that part alone) that are the subject of gossip from opponents to parents and h.s. administrators, etc , etc., etc.,--- has been a shambles. "Ms. So-and-So, do you want to let ______, here, go to a school where the coach, every time he comes to Memphis, _________.?
UT seems to like Memphis as a convenient place to look for players after UT's primary targets signed elsewhere. Almost always, Memphis can come through as a 1st source, instead of an alternate, if UT learns a lesson that, so far, seems like it is missing.
Memphis is NOT the place to lay-off the bet, it is the place to make it. Bet ON Memphis, not against it. Court it. Treat it right, and its high school coaches and they'll more often than not, do the same. But you gotta work with them. They are not dumb---and other college coaches already know that and act like it and are getting the results that UT has been missing.
There are more than a FEW great athletes in Memphis. Heck, the Mephis Metro is the 50th largest in the country, if you look at Metro areas alone.
Unlike almost anywhere else in the Southeast, though; the area's (SMSA's) population is mostly in three counties, and 80% in Memphis, which is 65% black. Loosely translated, the good ole boy approach won't play here. This is urban, robust, vital and can separate b.s. from boogaloo in a hearbeat. Both the 65% and the 35% have to be addressed appropriately.
That's why Bruce Pearl is doing better than he expects here...and his stock is moving up. He plays both sides of the street, and his coaches do, too. Of course, Bruce Pearl has a reputation for outworking the other guys, staying and avoiding compromising his mission.
Memphis has good players to spare, if somebody will get here early, instead of trying to fill in with Memphis kids after losing elsewhere. Do YOU want to date the girl who thinks you are just there to be used?
Even the great current DT from Memphis, Dan Williams was NOT one of the top targets as a lineman at UT. We missed on the top target---a Memphis kid, Michael Orr, that year. UT wanted Dan, but he was not a TOP target, said the rumor mills, the year he was recruited.
Williams has shown that Meffis kids can play a little football. So did Cedric Wilson, Andre Lott---even the Canale brothers 50 years ago, before Knoxville and Memphis stopped talking to each other.
Currently UT recruiting in Memphis is broken. If we fix it, they will come; if SOMEBODY in Knoxville will give respect enough to come make the blessed calls on these coaches, players, schools and parents---instead of having off-field issues while in the City. And if somebody in Knoxville will have the courtesy to treat Memphis like it is equally as much part of Tennessee as, say, Kingsport...they will get different results.
In my opinion, Memphis high school coaches and more than a few Tennessee supporters have reason to feel dissed by UT, and have for years.I have found Memphis to be a place where, for the most part, if you plant respect, you harvest it.
If PF's NEW people can get into Memphis's hearts, minds and communities------there are about six or seven communities, and I do not mean cities or towns---
then UT will get the cream of the crop, which they only get now on an infrequent basis.
It is about respect in Memphis. From what I heard for years there, Memphians generally, and football coaches in particular in Memphis, feel like UT coaches only want 'em when they need 'em. It is important to note that there used to be one of UT's home games here, every year, because of UT Medical School, etc,, etc,.
Since the school is so well endowed, that makes sense, still. After all, when people give to the athletic department, sums equivalent to an entire season's home game receipts, a Memphis game is NOT out of the question, as a home game.
Some coaches in Memphis said that when UT's phat, they act like they don't need anybody. (Remember the recruits we ran off after the national championship, because coaches were perceived as talking down to recruits.)
The cavalier attitude, as is perceived from Knoxville by Memphians and Memphis coaches, is/was "we recruit nationally, so we dodn't need you." Maybe that works fine, when you are on national TV 9 games a year. But Northern Illinois, UAB and Nowhere State won't get you CBS, ESPN or even local cable broadcasts.
Uh...helloooooooo, earth to Knoxville. How's that strategy holding out????????
You would think the city was Memphis, Mississippi,
or Memphis, Arkansas,
or, more lately, Memphis, Alabama or Georgia.
UT can do a great deal better, and Memphis, the Vols and the State of Tennessee darned all deserve it. If UT players played like their coaches for the last few years recruit the Memphis area, we'd be 5-6.
You can bet Austin Long was led by GA to commit today---when UT is in Atlanta with the Big Orange Caravan---is UGA's way of saying UP yours, Smokey. If not, maybe The Lord is trying to get through to Knoxville to tell 'em somthing about the way we have been recruiting the past 5 years or so. They say coincidence is where The Almighty chooses to remain anonymous.
also it's pretty well known that Long is now working on Marlon Brown to go to UGA.
