The House of Blue

I try not to get too broke up over every instate kid that chooses to go out of state. Some of these kids just don't want to go to a school close to home and that is their choice to make.

How could somebody choose Arkansas right now? There coach has a 10 month contract. Who knows who it'll be next year. If they do bad they might lose some commits.

It just shows how bad things are if Timmons who Joker has courted for over a year chooses them in their situation... I feel different about the instate recruiting then some do... I agree it is important to get good out of state players but there comes a time when we need to be able to lock down our own state if we ever hope to really play for a SEC title... If we have to take kids that GA and half the SEC doesn't want how do we ever expect to beat em? Yes it is possible but our chances are super slim and our window is very small without the Ryan Timmons and Hunter Bivin types... Not trying to sound like Beeotch but I long for a day when we can have the horses to compete with other SEC teams blow for blow like we did in 07 sorda... What Rich Brooks done in 07-08 was nothing short of amazing... I don't see us going out of state and landing kids like Chapman, West, Cobble, Miller, Warford or Peters...

Until we can land 4 or 5 of the Bivin, Timmons types every year we are going to struggle... I know it's become cliche but if Vandy can do it we should be able to as well... How do we ever expect to win those battles against Vandy, Miss St etc if we can't recruit our own states best players like they do?

Does it show how bad things are? Or is it just par for the course? We've never really gotten players like Timmons before on a regular basis. And Arkansas, although in a bad situation, is going to pony up for a decent coach.....they are going to continue to recruit decently enough.....they are going to pack the stadium.....they are going to continue to have a fanbase that is all about football first.....they are going to have admin support....etc. Arkansas will continue to be decent.

I agree with this 100%. UK will certainly be in the bottom of the SEC if we were to try and live off of recruits from KY, but in order to move up the proverbial ladder in the SEC we can't simply continuing on the path where most elite level prospects (I'm talking truly ELITE level prospects who rarely pass through the state of KY, not the Bubba Tandy's of the world who may be highly rated in the state, but aren't that highly sought after outside the state) choose to go elsewhere. Just imagine what UK could be if the top players in the state over the last 3 years (including this year) elected to have some state pride and were excited about going to UK in order to change things there. I know we get some (Towles, Hyde, etc.), but if the majority of the truly elite guys in KY stayed home at UK every year like they do in most states, and all we had to do was fill otu the rest of the class with 3* or better guys from GA, FL, AL, MS, SC, TN, LA, etc., our chances of moving up in the SEC would be a LOT greater.

Kind of a chicken or the egg debate. No, depending heavily on Kentucky kids wont make UK a winning team. However, when UK is winning we do very well as far as gathering in the instate kids, even those with good options outside the state.

It seems like many have been goin nuts because we haven't been recruiting FL hard enough...now nearly have of our commits are from the sunshine state and now we aren't recruiting in state kids...

Just me but if i have to choose between the two...
Ill take FL kids over instate kids every time.
With that said, id love to pull the better instate talent, but as many have already said, we can build a winner with kids from FL, GA and so on...KY...not so much.

Well, Timmons hasn't recruited to the Hogs just yet. Let's hope he doesn't pull the trigger and instead opts to commit to UK sometime before his senior season starts. No single recruit is make or break, but Timmons is an important recruit for the staff.

Good article linked below from the Arkansas 247 site, with lots of good background info on the factors in Timmons' recruitment. One of Franklin County's assistants played for John L. Smith at UofL, so they definitely have an in there. The Franklin County head coach quoted in this interview sounds pretty enamored with Arkansas and chummy with its coaching staff. The articles does acknowledge that distance from home could be a factor to Timmons' (or to his mother, at least). Says Arkansas is selling him on being the next Joe Adams.

One other note of interest, I checked Arkansas' Rivals board, and there was no chatter whatsoever re Timmons. There are just a handful of posts responding to the article linked below from their 247 site. He'd be perceived as a huge get by UK fans, meanwhile.

Sorry todd, but your 100% wrong. It just takes common sense to someone who mildly follows recruiting to see that. When comparing states like Fl and Georgia to Ky it is abundantly obvious that they produce 10 times the talent (especially Florida), so your statement would be true IF the Floridas and Georgias of the world gave out 10X the schollys, but they don't. They have te same number (typically) to offer that we have. So, anyone with half a brain looking at that situation could easily see that taking those states scraps is better than making a living of our 'top' in state talent.

That being said, am I pissed that the best In-state players don't want to come to UK?? Hell yeah, but I am not going to throw out all reason (as you are notorious for doing) because of it. The solution is really quite simple: We need to win more to make our top in state players want to come here over the big boys. If we wanna win more, we need to recruit better players. If we need to recruit better players, we need to absolutely live in Florida and Georgia (breaking into Ohio would be nice as well). That's it. That's the strategy we need, and seems to be the one being employed. It is what it is with the in state guys right now, get over it. Should Joker and co. waste resources on fighting losing battles or go where the talent and competition is 10 fold better??? That's a rhetorical question btw.

These guys will spin the truth or lies to fit their agenda.

Spot on. What continues to amaze me is that posters like Todd continue to pass judgement on players that they have never watched play a down of
Football. It just goes to show that jr has no desire to seek the truth and only cares to push a factless agenda.