Kevin, one question. Are you skeptical of the talent we may land out of Texas being able to excel in the SEC or are you apprehensive of this staff foresaking the "Traditional" recruting grounds for greener pastures?
If they do in fact give Alabama, Miss., Georgia etc. the back of their hand in an effort to establish themselves in Texas, I'm with ya' 100%. It's an absolute given that we have to keep the relationships with local programs in tact and pull the corp of our kids from around here. But, if your skepticism is over the talent we get from out West, I don't see it.
The issue I have is with the general philosophy of turning recruiting attention toward Texas. That was what I got out of whatever the original thread was that opened this can of worms. I've said a hundred times -- and I think only one dromedary has at this point failed to comprehend -- that I have no issue at all with finding kids in other states who have an interest and pursuing them as hard as legally allowed. Ben Tate for instance.
I'd love to be a "national recruiter." But not even the best recruiters go panning outside their base. Pete Carroll identifies a handful of kids in other states and throws every trick in the book at them. No problem there. But his base is still the southwest. That's where he knows he can almost always get the BEST kids from.
So what are my problems with Auburn skulking around in Texas, even now?
1) Most of the guys we have on staff now know that area better. Other than Chiz, there's not a soul there who could find Andalusia, Muscle Shoals, Brantley or Gadsden without a GPS. The time to be learning where all those places are is NOW. Maybe you don't pick up any of the big names still on the board in the state, but you're damn sure not going to get them if you're fucking around in Gonzales. And you're not going to see their teammates who will make up the NEXT class.
2) Which brings me to the number of highly-rated recruits still on the board in the state. When we're dicking around with kids from Texas, what are the guys here being told? Maybe Rollison invented sliced bread, I don't know. Was Texas or OU recruiting him? But if you ask me if I'd rather have him or Dre or Tana... well....
3) Chizik's past history is another concern. When he went to ISU, the first thing he did was start recruiting Texas. He was going to get the Cyclones in the business of national recruiting. Pretty fucking long haul from Texas to Iowa. Didn't work there. And spare me the "that's ISU, not Auburn." I know ISU isn't Auburn. But didn't he learn anything? Why come to AU and start up the same bullshit?
Skepticism is not that there is no talent in Texas. I'm sure there is. But it will be much (much) more difficult to draw that talent. In Auburn's geographic recruiting base you've got kids who grow up dreaming of playing in the SEC. There, it's the Big 12. Unless it's a weird situation (like Stafford, who grew up a Dawg and was going there no matter what or Snead who couldn't pull ahead of McCoy at UT) I don't think Auburn (or Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia or any other SEC team) can fight off Texas, OU, A&M, TCU, etc. for the true playmakers.