You are a legitimate and certified five star high school football recruit.
Rivals, Scout and ESPN have reviewed your film, talked to your coaches and all have decided to rate you among the top 150 players (out of 100,000 HS players) in the entire United States of America.
Letters have been arriving daily from Alabama, USC, Notre Dame, Oregon, FSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio State, LSU, Miami and many other prominent national college football programs.
Head coaches from some of the most prestigious programs have visited your house and met with your parents and practically begged you to attend their institution of higher education.
You are almost certainly going to be an incredible success story and can't wait for the huge crowds to embrace you, the national awards to surround you and the National Championships to fall into your lap. In fact you have heard that the Heisman Trophy is desperately waiting to be yours!
Stop the media hype machine and ask yourself one simple question: "Why is it that so many five star players wind up as an epic fail?"
Well let me give you just some of the reasons that these talented players fail:
Academics: A, B, C, D...Uh, what comes after D? Some players never get accepted and others flame out quickly when it comes to the main reason they are in college in the first place: getting an advanced education. It usually goes like this: "Coach when you said I would actually have to go to class and study and pass a test I thought you were just kidding dawg! You see in high school the teachers, well you know, they just looked the other way and gave me the grade. And that kid I had take the SAT for me well he was cool with the $250 I gave him so I could make the millions later on."
Drugs: Puff, puff, pass. Too often too many college athletes get caught up in the sordid underworld of drug use. While alcohol, steroids, amphetamines, cocaine, pain killers and other prescription and over the counter drugs are often abused by young adults nothing takes the place of the king: marijuana. When you fall asleep in the drive through of a McDonald's not once but twice while waiting for your food then you know you got the buzz working for you. Or is it against you, I forget? Who cares, just...puff, puff, pass.
Sense of Entitlement: You were a total stud in high school. You rated five stars, fast cars, loose standards and faster and looser women and all that. You wore #1, you got preferential treatment everywhere you went in your home town. So you walk into the college head football coach's office after seeing the depth chart that was just released today and you say: "Uh, Coach there must be some mistake here, you see I am a starter at (Name your position). I wear #1, I am a five star stud and just what the hell is going on here?" The Head Coach says: "Son, sit down here and let's talk about your attitude and lack of commitment to the...as Johnny five star walks out, transfers and heads to Memphis or Marshall or some other school like that.
Coaching Changes: Bobby five star was recruited by Head Coach A to play position X in a spread offense or position Y a 4-3 defense. That all sounds well and good until Coach A gets fired in your second season and then Coach K comes in and decides that you should play position G in a pro-set offense or position Z in a 3-4 defense. Bobby five star realizes he is totally screwed, figuratively and literally and goes into a major sulk or just transfers.
Lost sense of Ego: When you were in high school in Louisiana you were the big man on campus (BMOC). Everybody knew you from the name on your jersey since you were in Pop Warner football. The high school chicks dug you, the guys wanted to be you and the adults all respected you. Then, you go to college. Nobody knows you. The chicks are like: "Who is this freaky guy with the crawfish?" and the fans are all saying: "Show me what you got home boy from the Bayou!"
Can you think of any other reasons why so many extremely talented, highly rated, five star athletes fail at the college level?
Why do so many five star recruits fail? Let us count the ways...
If you want to know what happened to the Canes and the Noles, set your DVR for ESPN Classic. I had a chance to watch a few of our past games recently. Even though I've lived and died with every snap since starting college in 1981, it was eye opening to watch those old teams play.
For a frame of reference, recall this year's national championship game, shoot it full of steroids, and you have vintage Miami/Florida St. football. I don't know if we can get back to that, but this program is a country mile away right now. Golden has his work cut out for him.
Attitude was a part of it, but it was toughness, not just talent, that made Miami (and FSU) great. The swagger was a product of the strength and conditioning program. Golden seems to be aware of that based upon what I've seen so far, and at Temple.
I think we've had enough talent to be much better. The real question is whether Golden can get the kids to buy in.
Posted by: Mephistopheles | January 17, 2012 at 07:54 PM
Who else are we recruiting on offense besides young on the o-line??
Posted by: Sota cane | January 17, 2012 at 08:39 PM
I think we've had enough talent to be much better. The real question is whether Golden can get the kids to buy in.
Posted by: Mephistopheles | January 17, 2012 at 07:54 PM
Baseball season must not be far away? LOL
Posted by: 86Cane | January 17, 2012 at 09:06 PM
I've been around smart guy. It just gets a little loud around here during football season.
But now that you mention it . . .
Posted by: Mephistopheles | January 17, 2012 at 09:29 PM
Appreciate all the info, everyone- nbice to come here after being on teh road all day long and see more good news. Cal's staff is being raided by Washington again, look for some of their guys to look elsewhere as well. Not saying it will help us, but we do have some West Coast connections on the staff, so maybe . . .
Posted by: j.w. | January 17, 2012 at 09:57 PM
Fran, regarding recordable DVD players be aware that some broadcasts cannot be recorded with normal DVD -+ R or RW discs. I tried recording the Sunshine Network's broadcast of the Miami/FSU game and there was digital copy protection encoded in the broadcast that prevented it. You will need a special brand of DVDs (forgot that exact type) that allows for "copy once" programing. I have a Toshiba and this has come up on occasion.
Posted by: TonyCane | January 17, 2012 at 10:27 PM
On a side note, I saw that the Dolphins are considering drafting another offensive lineman or defensive lineman in the April draft. Did some quick research and saw that only two other franchises have gone as long as Miami has (29 years) without drafting a quarterback in the first round:
Teams that have drafted quarterbacks in the first round since 1983:
Miami: None
Buffalo: (1) JP Lossman
New England: (1) Drew Bledsoe
NY Jets: (2) Chad Pettington, Mark Sanchez
Cleveland: (2) Bernie Kosar, Eric Crouch
Pittsburgh: (1) Ben Roethlisberger
Cincinnatti: (2) Akili Smith, Carson Palmer
Baltimore: (2) Kyle Boller, Joe Flacco
Houston: (1) David Carr
Tennessee: (2) Vince Young, Jake Locker
Jacksonville: (2) Byron Leftwich, Blaine Gabbert
Indianapolis: (2) Jeff George, Payton Manning
Denver: (2) Tommy Maddox, Tim Tebow
San Diego: (2) Ryan Leaf, Eli Manning
Oakland: (2) Todd Marinovich, JaMarcus Russell
Kansas City: None
Dallas: (1) Troy Aikman
New York: (1) Philip Rivers
Philadelphia: (1) Donovan McNabb
Washington: (3) Heath Shuler, Patrick Ramsey, Jason Campbell
Green Bay: (1) Aaron Rodgers
Detroit: (3) Chuck Long, Andre Ware, M Stafford
Chicago: (3) Jim Harbaugh, C McNown, R Grossman
Minnesota: (2) Dante Culpepper, Christian Ponder
New Orleans: None
Atlanta: (3) Chris Miller, M Vick, Matt Ryan
Carolina: (2) Kerry Collins, Cam Newton
Tampa Bay: (3) Vinny Testaverde, Trent Dilfer, Josh Freeman
San Francisco: (2) Jim Druckenmiller, Alex Smith
Arizona: (2) Kelly Stouffer, Matt Leinart
Seattle: (2) Dan McGwire, Rick Mirer
St Louis: (1) Sam Bradford
Posted by: TonyCane | January 17, 2012 at 10:31 PM
WOW Washington & oakland sure has some awesome 1st round picks in the past!
Posted by: TJL | January 17, 2012 at 10:55 PM
From the best Miami Hurricanes pitcher:
BryanRadziewski Bryan Radziewski
At Miami u r getting the #38 best education $200,000 worth of tuition. UF is #58 and FSU is #101 both cost $20,000 over 4 yrs. Easy decision.
Posted by: Montreal-Cane | January 17, 2012 at 11:27 PM
We need 1 more stud linebacker in this class. Someone who will play right away.
What is the latest with Reggie Northrup?
Posted by: Montreal-Cane | January 17, 2012 at 11:36 PM
WAKE UP DAMN IT!!! WE ON THE VERGE OF LOCKING DOWN OUR BEST CLASS SINCE THE BUTCH ERA & NOW YALL JACKWAGONS WANNA SLEEP!!! SOUPY, OHIO, UPNORTH, TIME 2 GET UP & GET THIS THANG KRACKIN! U 2 HERBIE!!!
Posted by: 4-Real | January 18, 2012 at 06:48 AM
Papa Cane-
60%. @BringTheUBack I'm hearing that Northrup is being heavily recruited by FSU, Ohio State, Arkansas and others - think he decommits?
Posted by: 3G Cane | January 18, 2012 at 10:22 AM
Papa Cane-
I am under the impression that WR Robert Lockhart will join in the Spring. Hoilett this week. @t7soccer Lockhart, Hoilett, & Hope be EE?
Posted by: 3G Cane | January 18, 2012 at 10:23 AM
Whoops didnt see the jump!
Posted by: 3G Cane | January 18, 2012 at 10:30 AM
Epic Fail By Me!
Posted by: 3G Cane | January 18, 2012 at 10:31 AM
With Pease now at UiF, Agholor will be a hard get
.. even with Chick, Dewey, Duke, AJL in his ear at the Under Armour game
Fowler seems to be in lock down mode with FSU, even with Chick being his boy
Kent Taylor has no neck. Kid is working out at the same speed school that Chick did/does and Fowler as well. Big kid as a receiving TE, 6'5 230 coming out of high school
Posted by: Six | January 18, 2012 at 10:57 PM
Canes have Rayshawn Jenkins anyway, rather have him than Agholor
Posted by: Six | January 18, 2012 at 10:57 PM