excerpted from http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os-mike-bianchi-gators-signing-day-0207-20130206,0,7514701.column
After hauling in a second consecutive top-five class, Muschamp has obviously adjusted well since taking over for Urban Meyer. There is no question Meyer is one of the top recruiters in the country and brought some phenomenal players to UF, but he missed a bunch, too. And it's no secret that many of his players had serious character issues (see arrest records).
The reason is because Meyer relied much more on the star system and the opinion of others than he did his own evaluation system. Meyer's final class in 2008 is a perfect example. It was ranked No. 1 in the nation by Rivals.com but turned out to be an awful class.
"Two years later, that No. 1 class drove Urban Meyer to retirement," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier pointed out when asked about the recruiting rankings Wednesday.
Here's the difference between Meyer and Muschamp: Meyer was famous for signing highly rated recruits (see busts such as former cornerback Josh Shaw and former safety Jeremy Finch) even if it meant overruling the evaluations of his own assistant coaches. In contrast, it's not uncommon for Muschamp to turn down highly rated recruits because the rankings don't jibe with the evaluation of his coaching staff.
When asked how much consideration he gives the recruiting rankings before pursuing a prospect, Muschamp just smiled and said: "Absolutely no consideration at all. We get most of our guys committed before they [rankings] ever come out. Maybe they look at our ratings."
A few minutes later, Muschamp left his signing-day news conference to head upstairs to his office, where his coaches had already taken down the 2013 recruiting boards and replaced them with evaluation boards for the 2014 recruiting class. Believe it or not, the Gators already have five commitments for next year.
It should come as no surprise that Muschamp and his coaches celebrated their massive recruiting haul Wednesday night, but planned to be back in the office early Thursday morning working on next year's class.
In the SEC, the recruiting trail is an endless road littered with bearded, bedraggled men drinking cheap wine from a paper sack.
Total homer article, he's not going to get people reading his stuff by praising Meyer. He'll eat his own words when he sees Urban holding the crystal!
QuadrupleZ
I doubt bianchi will ever eat his own words; he has a grudge and it keeps him employed, no matter how delusional
You're right. Not even Bianchi himself would want to dine on such drivel.
Sour grapes, plain and simple. He should be asking Muschamp why he had his significantly more talented (thanks again to Urb) team so vastly unprepared in that butt whooping to Lou, rather than blindly listening to his lies about having his recruits locked up 'before rankings come up'. Maybe Bianchi should look at the commit list of OSU players that also held FLA offers. PS, it's not a short list. Bianchi=Loser.
sfgoods
Seriously, how about a no-show in the Sugar Bowl Mike?
If SCam Newton doesnt get kicked out of UF, does Urbs win another BCS? If Auburn could win one I'm pretty sure Florida could have too.
Its way easier to see 5* guys who flake out than 3*, the star rating are usually based on potential. Most of the 11-2 UF team were Meyer guys this year anyway.
I think they do win another with Cam at QB. He was already good when Urban brought him in, but one has to admit that coaching had atleast some small part in his development into such a good college player. One also has to admit that he probably didn't get that coaching at Auburn since he was there for one season & was already amazing, and he sure didn't get it at Blinn Community College. All he was is a Heisman winning QB who went #1 in the draft, but I guess Bianchi is right, Urban doesn't develop guys. (I'm guessing he doesn't yet realize how much they really lost when Urban left)
It's 5 o'clock somewhere, & Michigan still sucks
Butt-hurt much Biachi! What a loser.
Meyer misses on recruits. So does Saban, Brown, Beamer, Hoke, Spurrier, Miles, Kelly, Stoops, Gundy, Ferentz, Dantonio, Strong, Fisher, Pelini, Muschamp...seeing a trend here?
Josh Shaw held offers from 15 schools while jeremy Finch held 5. What's the point here? Guys bust Mike. It happens.
Next?
4-6 seconds from point A to point B and when you get to point B, be pissed off
Wait, are you saying everyone misses on recruits?
You can kill a fly with your slipper or a cannon. Either way, the fly dies. -Ramzy
He also wrote a column about how the Florida bball team could beat the Orlando Magic. That night, Florida got smoked by Arkansas.
what a fool
Bianchi is a sad little man.
"It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close."
Jesse Owens
Great Mike, I'm sure you are looking foward to Meyer's Ohio State team playing Muschumps' florida team soon.
How many National titles has Muschamp won with his own recruits?
How many conference titles has Muschamp won with his own recruits?
How may BCS games has Muschamp won with his own recruits?
He's done nothing but go barely above .500 and then the following year lose in the Sugar Bowl to Louisville to a better and former Florida coach.
Is Mike Bianchi the pen name of Bret Bielema ... sounds like good ol' Bret complaining to me.
JT
I don't think Bret is capable enough to write more than a word or two.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
Probably right about that, his articles would be full of grammatical errors, words being spelled incorrectly and just complaint after complaint after complaint.
JT
Didn't Urban Meyer punk this guy before the season on a media conference call?
Then Bianchi wrote a scathing article about a Blog who made fun of him for being punked.
Sounds like a heck of a guy.
Quit giving this troll airtime.
I'm sure Urban recruits guys soley because he likes their star rating and does no evaluation at all. Bottom line, if a guy is a 5 star player, ALL big programs are out to get them, and it's not because they have 5 stars next to their name. It's because they are athletically gifted freaks of nature.
And Muschamp has how many national championships ?
This article is inane.
Pretty terrible reasoning. First touts how great the UF class is because of how highly ranked it is by recruiting services. And then he goes on the say how Urban relied to heavily on recruiting services, and how five stars and high rankings by recruiting services don't really mean anything. Well done.
Yet that great defense that Muschamp had, nearly all of those players were recruited by Urban. Urban stopped winning because he got in a bad situation with a qb, it is my belief that Urban's system might not work with a shaky qb. However, the rest of the team that he recruited was/is very solid all around.
Cam Newton got kicked out for stealing that lap top though, I think you're right about his offense being bad with a suspect QB, John Brantley was supposed to be good but was too much of a pocket passer. But if Cam Newton stays, Florida wins another National Title. I'm not conflicting your point at all, I'm completely agreeing with it. I just simply want to say that his QB situation was suspect for reasons out of his control, before that, it was in more than just good shape. If Cam Newton can go to Auburn & win a Heisman & a championship without the weapons, defense, & the aggressive football culture that is an Urban Meyer coached team, he might have been the best ever at UF. He would have been so much better, it's sad really. Is it safe to say that technically, all Urban Meyer does is coach Heisman Trophy winners? Sorta like how Cris Carter just catches touchdowns?
It's 5 o'clock somewhere, & Michigan still sucks
I agree, in fact I would argue Urban might have 4 national titles if Cam stays. That transfer really hurt the program, I also read something about him being forced to recruit brantley because his parents were major boosters or something. Just so you know I wasn't insulting Urban when I said he needs a great quarterback, just an observation. Just like how Oregon needs playmakers or Alabama needs runningbacks, or Tsun needs players with Dreadlocks.
I never thought you were insulting him at all, & I've noticed the dreadlocks trend lately
It's 5 o'clock somewhere, & Michigan still sucks
It clearly wasn't a very good class but there were some gems. The class just didn't perform, the misconception though is that it didn't perform because of character issues which isn't really the case, many players just underperformed.
Bianchi is a fan, not a journalist. He writes as a jaded fan. Moving on.
I wonder how much of this drivel he actually believes, and how much is just thrown in to suit his narritave. Meyer's been oft-quoten in his criterion for evaluating players: only the most completitive men will do, regardless of what their profile on Rivals indicates. Besides, Pantoni's long been his go-to guy for player evaluation.
Again, a lot of this speaks to his audience; diehard fans who feel scorned by Meyer's exit, and who want to cling to anything that seems pro-Muschamp (especially at the expense of their former head coach), especially due to Meyer's seemingly immeasurable statue.
You know what Hodge - I think Bianchi believes all this horse shit. Actually, you may not know this, but a large portion of the Orlando Sentinels readership is tired of this & has time & again asked that he (Bianchi) get over his problems with Meyer & move on...They have even written in & asked that he be let go as he is an embarrassment. People down here have by & large moved on & after this years Gator success, which was largely Meyers recruits, have started to admit the guy really is a truly great coach...Bianchi is a stage 5 clinger when it comes to UFM. The most jilted of all lovers...
I think he also enjoys being tied to UFM, as every time he writes about him, people read it. We read it. Case in point: this thread. There a lot of Buckeyes. There are loads of Buckeyes in Florida. So that is the other side of this - like Mark May, he is a calculated troll fishing in the largest pond there is...OSUs fanbase.
The world is full of kings & queens who'll blind your eyes & steal your dreams - it's heaven & hell - Ronnie James Dio.
I stand corrected. Dude's just a contrarian, then. A jilted lover who can't stop trolling the shit out of the guy who left him.
If Aesop were alive today, the fox in the sour grapes fable would have been named "Mike."
The most "loud mouth, disrespect" poster on 11W.
Sounds to me like Mike's just hating on Urban, cuz he stacks paper to the ceiling, & rides on 24 inch chrome.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere, & Michigan still sucks
Yeah, he is such a horrible recruiter and all of his recruited talent gets arrested that it won him 2 NCGs... How unfortunate we are to have him as our coach lmao
Who. Gives. Two. Nickels.......If people are still bitter about UFM leaving, that is their problem. Everything at that school will be judged against who? UFM, who trumps Spurrier due to his two national championships, will be the measuring stick until someone either matches or wins 3 titles. Not going to be Muschamp that is for sure.
Alabama does not seem to mind getting #1 classes year after year. This article is a hack piece and would have more credibility if Urban’s name was omitted and it just talked about how hard his staff works to find players that pan out versus their star ratings. Move along those of you who are still hung up on Urban leaving.
He's a major douche, about everything I mean has anyone ever seen other articles of his. He even rips on the teams he writes about.
Hey Bianca... Go pound salt
I 2nd that he is a major douche
Urban is totally obsessed with stars (eye roll). Must be why we didn't accept Davonte Neal last year and kept Luke Roberts. Must be why we accepted a relatively unknown Ezekiel Elliot (when he committed) and gave up pursuing a very interested Derrick Green.
"Sherman ran an option play right through the south" - Greatest.Civil.War.Analogy.Ever
He should evaluate the Louisville approach to recruiting, that one seems to work pretty well
WB
What does Louisville have anything to do with this article? I think you commented on the wrong post or something! ha
I think he was just making a dig at Florida for losing to Louisville in thier bowl game this year. Something along the lines of Louisville's coach recruited better players than Muschamp, perhaps?
You can kill a fly with your slipper or a cannon. Either way, the fly dies. -Ramzy
Gotcha, seemed like a dig at Louisville or something.
Hell hath no fury like a fan boy Florida beat writer scorned.
A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men
busts happen in every class for every school...OSU had a couple under Tress...don't see what Bianchi is even arguing about...UF is stock with the talent Meyer brought in, and that defense was all Meyer... Think Bianchi needs to worry about Muschamp's offense rather than complaining about OSU having a better class than UF.
Funny how he writes this shortly after another Florida player gets busted for drug possession. Urban really screwed UF, so badly that the players currently there that he didn't even recruit are doing horrible things! unreal
Also, if that is his article about Muschamp's recruiting day, he should get fired. If I were his editor I would ask "Why the hell are you still writing about Urban Meyer when I asked you to cover National Signing Day for the Gators".
If I were Will Muschamp I would also be annoyed at this guy. How long does it have to be before a story can be written about him without leading to a rant about Urban Meyer? Seriously.
Urban is clearly at fault for the character issues of these players too:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8926274/loucheiz-purifoy-becomes-latest-florida-gator-arrested-marijuana
Hilarious. The tool gets burned on the very day he rips Meyer for arrests... Exactly the same when he commented on the Gators being NBA caliber...
So Biatchi, who were the recruits his assistants wanted but they didn't get because of Urban's highly rated "busts". Did they go on to do great things? Would they actually have been better for the team than the recruits UfM pulled in? Oh, you don't know because you are a hack who doesn't do research when you write libel articles (or ever)? Ok.
You can kill a fly with your slipper or a cannon. Either way, the fly dies. -Ramzy
Mike Bianchi loves rewriting history. Nevermind the fact that Team Recruiting Rankings directly correlate to on-field success, just ask Little Nicky!. Nevermind the fact that Urban put together top 5 classes year-in and year-out, won two Nat. Championships, and put countless 3,4, and 5* recruits in a postion to have successful NFL careers. Whatever... This guy blows hard.