Esso, your handle gives away a pretty HUGE bias against USC
And neither you nor goose are addressing the fact that we're talking about kids who want to play, want to play early, want to do so in front of HUGE and adoring crowds who make tons and tons of noise, and in some cases are happy to live in a city like Columbia, SC.
I love Atlanta which is why I've chosen to live here. But that doesn't make me so blind to the fact that there are OTHER valid opinions besides mine. I have been to Columbia, SC a number of times for both business and for SC games. I've been to Clemson (not for business but for plenty of football and basketball games) and I think it's a great town too. I've been to Durham and I like it there as well.
As for history (I'm combining responses to both you and goose in here instead of posting two separate responses)... I only mentioned it because so many people seem to think that current recruits think it is important. I respectfully submit that the history of GT football vs the history of USC football vs the history of Duke football has very little to do with recruiting for any of our schools in most cases (though I'm sure one or two kids here and there are into it). I think RECENT history has a lot to do with recruiting and PERCEPTION has a great deal to do with that.
I am willing to bet that if you go to most cities in this country that more people will know who Steve Spurrier is than who Paul Johnson is. And while I'm very happy to have Paul Johnson here and am anxious to see what he can do with our program, and I might even believe that he's a better football coach than visor-boy, I'm not going to sit here and believe for one second that Steve Spurrier's name doesn't carry some cache to recruits vs Paul Johnson's name.
As for playing in the SEC-east... I'm not sure how that one gets spun as a negative. If you're an athlete playing at the top levels of your sport then MOST of the time you want to compete against the best there is. And one can certainly make the argument that the SEC east is going to put you up against top competition almost every week (and you'll be on TV doing it, too).
goose, perhaps you're right that Spurrier's days of winning championships are over. But obviously many kids think you're mistaken or think that the best place to show their capabilities is playing against the best.
Look, I'm not happy to lose recruits to anyone, and I am getting very sick of losing them to USC, but mainly because it certainly appears they've made us an easy target. They know how to sell against us and they do it very well and we haven't figured out (but give us time and I think we will) how to combat that. But I'm not going to sit and wonder how it is possible that kids might like the idea of playing at USC over other schools. I've seen the place too much to be surprised that kids would want to play in a fantastic football environment like Williams-Brice. And I agree on the "it suxes" comment WHOLE HEARTEDLY!!!
