I think it is a pretty good gamble. Mississippi High school coaching is not up to par with Louisiana and Alabama. That should be obvious by the way they have dominated the Miss, Alabama all star game.[b said:RebelBruiser[/b]]. Mullen's gamble is that Mississippi talent is underdeveloped and underevaluated. He may be right on that, and in another couple years we will find out if that's the case.
EAVdog said:It should not be characterized that we are in any recruiting battles with USM. That is the big difference. We do have a couple of guys that are totally off the radar and may not have made it anywhere. I don't consider 3 star players regardless of offers CUSA only material. Nor do i consider just a kid having offers as making him a star i.e. Joe Price. Shaquille Perry is a sign and place so no offers.
Darius Slay is a player, period. He's been committed to us for 2 years.
The only difference is that some of the ones I listed are not from MS, but they have similar offer sheets to what you're talking about.You'refilling slots with the same type of kids but from different states (in most cases JUCOs)....Mullen is finding the same caliber kids in his own back yard.RebelBruiser said:Players from Mississippi with no better offers than CUSA or Sun Belt:
MSU 2011:
Kendrick Market
Daniel Knox (has a USM offer)
Darius Slay (they do list an offer from just about everyone for him on Rivals, not sure the discrepancy there)
Rufus Warren
Justin Malone
Taveze Calhoun
Benardrick McKinney
Shaquille Perry
Justin Cox
Devin Fosselman
MSU 2010:
Jamerson Love
Dylan Favre
Jeffrey Howie (did list a USF offer, but that was it)
Corvell Harrison-Gay
Christian Holmes
Jameon Lewis
Jeremy Lee
Curtis Virges
Ole Miss 2011:
Cody Prewitt
Maikhail Miller
<font color="#ff0000">Philander Moore
Aaron Garbutt
Zack Stoudt
Wesley Pendleton
</font><font color="#ff0000">Justin Bell
</font><font color="#ff0000">Woodrow Hamilton
</font><font color="#ff0000">Sylva Bay</font>
Ole Miss 2010:
Will Denny (signed walk on)
Not saying there is anything wrong with the strategy or that all of those players would've ended up at USM, but I'd bet a good number of them would've been at USM had Mullen not offered. Mullen's gamble is that Mississippi talent is underdeveloped and underevaluated. He may be right on that, and in another couple years we will find out if that's the case.
That's his strategy though, and I'm sure it is hurting USM. They've lived on being good in CUSA with a lot of overlooked recruits in Mississippi, and they've had some decent teams doing it. If Mullen is going to snatch up all those guys now too, then it leaves little to nothing for USM to pick through.