no respect for the state

[Indian]

I was looking through a pretty detailed and what I thought was accurate high school/college football magazine today, but I was really disappointed with its view of Tennessee talent. You'd think by now, with recent players such as Gerald Riggs, David Payne, Albert Means, Ingle Martin, Luke Powell, others, being ranked in the top 10 in the country at their positions, that people would know there's talent here. Not even mentioning past talent such as Reggie White and John Hannah, arguably the best linemen to ever play the game in the NFL. Anyway, there were recruiting lists for each region, northeast, midwest, far west, etc and for the southeast in listed a top 200 in order. I know there's good talent in Florida and Alabama, but can you believe there was only 2 players from Tennessee in the southeast's TOP 200? I'm pretty sure everyone can figure out who there were, 1 is a receiver (10th in the southeast in receiving LOL..I've seen him listed as the #1 receiver in the country by one service, the other a defensive back from the midstate What a joke.

[Guest MailMan]

Is the WR Bowman from Notre Dame?

Is the DB the guy from Riverdale?

[TankTalk]

That so many of the so called "experts" rely on the past and hearsay when they decide on these type of things.

 

That's one of the reasons that the whole pre-season polls, and all-this or that team has been something I haven't paid much attention to.

 

Tennessee has had a reputation as a not-so-good football state for talent in the past, which is not a fair assessment.

 

The experts fool people for a while, then they get lazy and don't do as much research. Don't worry about the pre-season gargage because the recruiters do a fairly good job of finding the talent. The cream does rise to the top.

[TheEgoHasLanded]

I think Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Lousiana and Georgia have better talent...possibly Arkansas...but TN should have more then 2 players on that list...problem is, I just don't know who else should be on the list...but there should definitely be more =)

[Indian]

Isn't Kody Bliss (I think I spelled it right) a senior this year? If so, there's one at least who should be on it. And I wouldn't ever call Arkansas a better football state than Tennessee, not in number of prospects or quality.

[TheEgoHasLanded]

Not in quality? Dearrius Howard was the best runningback in the country last year...Little Rock Fair, Little Rock Central, Barton, Shiloh Christian, Cabot, Osceoloa, etc...there are some dang good teams there.

 

Kody Bliss is a senior.

 

Remember Jonathan Adams? Also the best runningback in the country from Osceola, signed with Arkansas state but could have gone anywhere...there is some talent in Arkansas, it just doesn't always bleed back to Arkansas.

 

 

I also said possibly...not definitely...

[Edited by TheEgoHasLanded on 8/2/02 12:23A]

[Indian]

I've heard/read Howard got to Arkansas in very poor physical condition and needs an attitude adjustment before he ever lives up to his hype. Tennessee had the #1 back in the country for 2001-2002 according to some "experts" so those probably cancel out if you're comparing the states. Adams was #6 in the country for running backs in a service I believe in for the most part, it takes the rankings of eight different such experts so it's probably pretty accurate. He couldn't have went anywhere because he had terrible grades and also a poor attitude from what I read. As far as Tennessee, this year in college from the state are two of the top 20 linemen in the counry Scott Wells, Will Ofenheusle, one of the top 20 fullbacks in the country, Donnie Lowe, one of the top 30 running backs, Santonio Beard, two of the top 40 receivers in the country, Tyrone Calico, Luke Powell which is a good number with 2 or 3 starting recievers on each team, the #5, #16 and #20 defensive linemen in the country, Kindall Moorehead, Dewayne Robertson and Mondre Dickerson, are all from Tennessee high schools. These are from that same service which like I said is very accurate. It also has Ken Hamlin as the #2 free safety in the country, Luke Powell as the #1 punt returner in the country, and Jason Witten as the #1 tight end in the country. Not bad. That's not even counting guys like Damon Duval, the Auburn kicker, Josh Bullocks, who is projected to start at Nebraska at safety as a freshman and lots of others. You'd be surprised at how many players from Tennessee are on the two deep at 1-A colleges. This isn't bashing Arkansas or the guy who posted about Arkansas players, just taking up from instate talent a little. (Also should have added John Henderson to the list from the previous post with Payne etc, and also Kenny Smith, a USA Today first team defensive lineman from South Pittsburg 7 years ago who played just over the state line in Stevenson, Alabama). I'll list the others some may have forgot in a few days, it's a good list.

[TheEgoHasLanded]

Indian, your knowledge is vastly superior to mine...and while there is an injustice in not promoting TN players...we must continue to do our part by hyping them up...and rooting for them. John Vaughn for BA is one of the best field goal kickers in the state...he should be up there, I doubt UT takes him but him and Bliss are putting up NFL numbers...and they still have at least 10 games left.

 

Adams did have terrible grades...no one thought he was going to make it, and at the last second he passed his ACT and the only school that was still recruiting him at the time was Arkansas State, Ole Miss and teams like that had left them.

 

Indian...I still have to question who else in the state deserves to be in the top 200...I mean lets face it, you got to be a pretty dang good player to be in the top 200 of the south (I consider the south better then any other region in the country).

[Edited by TheEgoHasLanded on 8/2/02 1:12A]

[64TNChamp]

I try to see multiple states' best teams play in person each year...of course I have my favorites, e.g. DeLaSalle, HI, OR, GA, FLA. Tennessee simply doesn't measure up. Other than the Bolles game has a good TN team had a home-and-home vs. out-of-state quality opponent?

[linebacker]

Tom Lemmings has Daniel Brooks, a linebacker from Jackson listed in his top 10 linebacker prospects. You did not mention him in your first post. I dont know what magazine you read but as far as recruiting, Tom lemmings is pretty much the main guy. Plus different magazines have different kids. There may be 3 in one from tennessee and 12 in another. It just all depends on the magazine. The one you read may not be a good one and therefore because of their lack of knowledge they will be biased to georgia and florida becuase everyone know they have tons of good players and it is not hard to write a magazine about them because it does not take much looking around.

[fuzby]

Posted by 64TNChamp:

I try to see multiple states' best teams play in person each year...of course I have my favorites, e.g. DeLaSalle, HI, OR, GA, FLA. Tennessee simply doesn't measure up. Other than the Bolles game has a good TN team had a home-and-home vs. out-of-state quality opponent?

 

Brentwwod Academy will be playing in the Ryle H.S. (Florence, Boone Co. KY) against a power out of Cincinnati (St. Xavier)