re: 2026 Recruiting Thread (4* S Jordan Smith is a Dawg!)

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NIL has thrown a wrench in Kirby's masterplan, but no coach in college football is better at adapting and we'll be alright.

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A lot of these kids want upfront guarantees and Kirby hasn’t adjusted to that nor do I think he will. I’m not sure what the landscape will be 10 years from now, and I doubt Kirby will stick around long enough to deal with this shite. Unless laws/rules/whatever are implemented and enforced, everyone that doesn’t spend big money is fricked.

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This is just beyond stupid even for Miami

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Some programs are, and always have been, more desperate for success than others. The ones paying stupid amounts of money for high profile recruits have a big overlap with the ones that used to have a reputation for cheating. Unfortunately for them (as schools like Tennessee should but won't learn), highly paid mercenaries aren't necessarily good team players.

According to Brooks Austin this had a lot to do with the legal case involving NIL right now. Basically Miami front-loaded his contract or downpayment if you will because the Deloit (spelling?) settlement will drastically change NIL payments. Basically Georgia was willing to pay him the same as Miami or Oregon or whoever in years 2 and 3 but wasn’t going to make a huge (5 mil reportedly) first year payment.

Ya. It sure seems like next year will be different as far as the $ goes, but thats a guess. When you get agents involved they will do agent things. I’d wear a Gator shirt for a year if they gave my kid assurances of $5M in his first year.

Would embrace playing teams like Wake and Duke in front of 10k for $5mill as well. Just math at that point.

OSU is the supposed leader for Atkinson so maybe that’s the key domino.

Or we could just swing and miss on everyone and hope legislation gets us back into the game

OL is also tricky in that there are not very many high-end transfers to date, and the consensus 5* high schoolers seem to work out at a high rate. The traits that make an NFL LT are pretty obvious, so those guys mostly get rated highly as high schoolers. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect to have a top LT on the roster while staying disciplined on the NIL front. It’s possible a lower rated recruit transforms into that guy, but not likely. Very few 6’6” dudes with the frame and athleticism required to carry 330 lbs and still be agile, with long arms, etc. are slipping through the cracks at this point.

I get the drawbacks of paying a freshman so much, as well, so I’m not sure how I would approach it if I was Kirby.

There isn't a lot of nuance to how important the OL is. Missing at a key position like LT can be worse than missing on a QB.

We used to discuss during the CMR days how we'd rather see a 3* QB + RB behind a 5* OL than a 5* QB/RB behind a 3* OL. It hasn't ever changed, but the mercenary mentality of talented HS players in desperate need of derecruiting has entered the equation now.