The exemption argument is the crux of so many assertions (right or wrong) that assign blame for our talent level to the school itself and yet there is nothing about those numbers out in the light of day. It’s all heresay. I can think of nothing better to really understand our talent disparity issue than settling this debate about who could get in (wanted to get in) and who could not (did not want to) over the course of the last few regimes.
In the end it’s ether the chicken: CPJ can’t recruit because he is gruff and runs a unique system largely incompatible with the NFL
Or the egg: the academics don’t want to play ball and so we effectively don’t and no amount of coaching is going to significantly alter that.
Or a maybe a grilled chicken omelette: while it seems dirty and sacrilegious, CPJ’s scheme gives us a punchers chance that can sometimes bridge the inherent talent gap that will always hold GT back from being a football power.
The fear, while pessimistic but not beyond reason, becomes that without the scheme to cover for the talent disparity it’s back to the days of “Welcome To The Cellar, TEKKIES” unless we strike it rich on an up and comer where traditional powers like USCw, Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Michigan have wandered for years without stability or winning anything of note. Remember when Nebraska was a power? Do any of those schools have our coursework restrictions, in-state competition for recruits, alumni base, student body characteristic? Why are those teams still struggling to reassert themselves at the top of the mountain?
At some point the people losing their minds over the USF game need to honestly explain to themselves why they expect GT to be good at football using reasons that don’t live in the 20th century and then rectify that with whichever reality they subscribe to above.
