Butch Davis on recruiting in Texas

Shark4

Shark4

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Butch Davis on recruiting ...

Davis said the facilities that the player has available to him in high school can lay a trap for a recruiter.

"You may be buying the finished product," Davis said. "There's a little bit of that in Texas. Those schools have got more money than God. They have a strength coach, 15 high school coaches. The players have been in the same program since sixth or seventh grade. You get them and four years later they are the exact same player.

"You go to Pahokee, Fla., where a kid eats once a day, his parents may not be around," Davis said. "You get him in a weightlifting program. Two years later, he's three times better than the kid from Texas."

[Then again, maybe Mack gets all those who are good AND have potential]
 
I guess that explains why so few Texans start for out of state schools. We're lucky we get enough good ones to even field a team.

Butch is a genius.
 
Sounds like he is speaking from experience. I wonder who the player was that is still sticking in his craw.
 
I think its a interesting theory. I have no idea if its even 10% true, but could see it being a factor, especially at some of the bigger, richer, 4A and 5A schools. Its certainly conceivable that some of those kids could look better than they really are due to weight programs, private coaching, etc. Especially when their teammates are provided the same opportunities, thus making everyone look better.

You could agree with it, and at the same time say that Mack is able to appropriately evaluate this type of player.

I don't know. Just something to think about.
 
This has been known for a while and some think it's one reason his Canes became so dominant.

He actually looks for the kids that have the natural strength but not have the workout regimen some other high schools possess
 
I think that is mostly crap.... it is not the facilities that max out a players potential, it is their genetics.

Kids are 17 and 18 in high school they can not compare to 20-22 year old players in college.

In my high school we had less than 10 kids that could bench 300 squat 400. I played Div.III and we had 32 players over 300 and 400 my junior off season, including myself and I played DB.

Kids mature.... he must have a gotten hosed on a kid that did not meet his expectations.
 
There's a lot of validity to what Davis is saying. You do have to be careful with elite high school program "system kids." A lot of them don't have a big upside.

But we also have more than our share of kids who fit the Pahokee, Fla description as well. A lot in rural East Texas, specifically.
 
Geez, if Davis is right, I'm surprised zero-u, LSU, the rest of the Big XII, USC, or for that matter any other schools even bother to recruit Texas players. I wonder how UT won the championship in 05 with a mostly Texas roster?
 
I agree with Scip, there is some validity to taking kids from certain programs and them already maxed out in ability. I hope Lake Travis is not one of those. I don't think Butch meant to generalize Texas as badly as he did.

Does Florida not have the Highland Park, Southlake, Westlake, etc of the world?
 
I guess if you're talking about all of Texas being like Southlake or Katy or even an Allen to an extent, but 98% of the schools are not like that, and Butch Davis knows better than that.
 
I think there's something to this too. Of course its probably a small percentage, but its definitely something to think about.

I saw a story a couple of years ago about kids in Florida (I forget what area) chasing rabbits for fun and for food. This really made them faster, quicker, and helped them learn instinctively how to take angles and things like that. Of course this is not the norm, but defnitely a factor.
 
I find the wording that Davis used in describing recruiting Texas football players amusing and very telling,

""You may be buying the finished product," Davis said."

"buying"...I thought these kids were recruits and not professionals. Hmm, poor choice of words Coach Davis.

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I think Davis is complimenting Texas High School football. There are probably better areas to scour for overlooked/underdeveloped talent.
 
Let's see.

Texas HS maximized their players potential to the fullest so they are probably not going to get any better in college.

Florida HS do not maximized their players potential so they are going to get better in college.

This is so stupid.
 
Longhorn Cougar,

Way back in the early 60s, Chasing rabbits was what was supposed to have made James Saxton so quick and elusive.
 
What is worse from a health standpoint is when coaches force kids to pack pounds on to look like mini sumo wrestlers. It is irresponsible and they are really jeopardizing the kids long term health. I had a nephew in the DFW area that this happened to and thankfully his parents made him quit football. He'll end up being a D1 baseball player instead.
 
Nathan Vasher, Aaron Ross, Cedric Griffin, Michael Griffin and Michael Huff would tend to put some cold water on this theory at least as it relates to DB'c , safeties etc. All improved dramatically in college. Davis probably got burned on one kid. The good news is, thats one less coach raiding Texas talent, he is a good enough recruiterhe might pick off one or two targets and the fewer poachers the better.
 
Davis is explaining why he does not recruit Texas. Take a kid from an Orlando, Tampa, Miami, school and compare them to the big school Texas kids, you will have the same kid. Take a kid from backwater Flordia and middle of no-where West Texas and you will have the same kid.
 
In the Houston area, some of the suburban schools do have pretty impressive faciltiies, and several have some very talented coaching staffs. However, the opposite is true of many of the urban schools. Some of them barely have enough coaches to hold competant practices. Maybe Butch has never seen those schools?
 
Mathew Stafford came from one of the "fortunate schools". I'm sure Georgia regrets getting a kid who maxed out in HS. I heard Quan (who weighed about 180) benched over about 400 lbs in his richy HS. Mart got all there was to get of him. Rex Burkhead should make Husker fans shiver coming from Plano... Other states have plenty of the same type schools. Jimmy Clausen and Scott Brantley didn't attend Hooks HS. Anyone who went to Jenks or Tulsa Union is eligible for this list. As someone else said, Davis probably got burned by a pampered child of fortune whose work ethic was focused on girls impressed by his ride. Matt Leinart comes to mind for some reason and I'm not sure why. I'm sure Chris Simms didn't go to school without advantages. I coached in Texas in the 80's for 5 yrs and I doubt there is any secrets that we're keeping here to improve the kids play. Just more schools and kids playing the game. I seem to remember about 10-15 yrs ago an epidemic problem in Fla HS football with steroid use. Now thats how to do it....
 
Whether you agree with him or not, in the last 38 years the state of Texas has been in TWO national championship games and has produced TWO national champions (Texas in 1970 and 2005).
The state of Florida has been represented in EIGHTEEN national championship games winning TEN of them.
hmmm.....
 
Would that all the other coaches at USC, LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, etc. not recruit Texas players. We would probably have many teams win MNCs besides just Texas.
 
Dallas:

What about 1977 and 1983 (granted we did not know until that night on 1/1/84 that we had a shot that day)?
 
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