Florida's Overrated

Gators undeserving of their No. 3 preseason ranking

Aug. 10, 2007

By Trev Alberts

Special to CSTV.com

	TREV ALBERTS Trev Alberts is a football analyst for CSTV and CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- TREV's MAILBAG 2/20: Show Some Patience 1/23: Cutcliffe Can Be Successful At Duke 1/16: To Each His Own 1/10: Watching Different Games 1/2: Brennan's Sugar Performance Won't Hurt Him 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 12/19: Rodriguez Licking His Chops 12/12: Buckeyes Have A Chip 12/05: Missouri Got Hosed 11/28: Some Coaching Changes Ludicrous 11/21: Love Woodson's Poise 11/14: Dixon Can Be Contained, But Not Stopped 11/7: Pac-10 Far From Overrated 10/31: Appalachian State Loss An Afterthought 10/24: No Halves Off In College Football 10/17: Nebraska In Good Hands With The Doctor 10/10: Trojans Still A Player 10/03: Don't Hate On South Florida 09/26: Hangovers Part of The Game 09/19: Nebraska's Performance Disappointing 09/12: DeSean As Explosive As It Gets 09/05: Tebow Impressive In First Start 08/29: ACC QBs Better Than Advertised 08/24: McFadden Not Quite In Bush's Class 08/17: From Overrated To Underrated 08/10: Florida's Overrated 08/03: Spurrier's Got That Twinkle 07/27: Big East Deserves More Credit 07/20: Badgers Playing For Second, At Best 07/13: Gators Repeat? Not So Fast 07/06: Pac-10 Still Owned By USC 06/29: One Big's Better Than The Other 06/22: WAC Ain't All That 06/15: Text Messaging Ban Excessive 06/08: Fifth Year of Eligibility A Good Idea 05/25: Hot Seat Warming Up For Some Coaches 05/18: Big Ten Falling Behind SEC 05/11: 'Canes, Seminoles Have Ways To Go 05/07: Sleeping Dawgs 04/20: Look Out For South Florida 04/13: Boise's Johnson Has No Shot At '07 Heisman 03/30: The Best Atmosphere In College Football Belongs To... 03/23: Tough To Compare QBs With Different Styles 03/16: Top Coaches Need To Be Appreciated 03/9: Woodson Nation's Most Indispensable QB 03/2: Things Just Not The Same At Nebraska 02/23: Rodriguez Does Well With His Chips 02/16: Believe It Or Not, I Don't Have An FSU Agenda 02/09: Yes, I Do Know College Football 02/02: Of Course Huskers Make Adjustments 01/26: Coach Alberts In Lincoln? No Chance 01/19: Can't Begrudge Kids For Leaving Early 01/03: Saban Heads to Alabama 12/29: Some Coaching Changes Come As Surprise 12/22: Too Many Bowl Games Way of Life 12/15: Who Has The Best Talent In The Nation? 12/7: Who's The More Deserving National Title Participant? 12/1: Irish Don't Deserve BCS Bid 11/16: Ohio State the Better Team 11/9: Give the Big East Its Due 11/2: What's Wrong With D at USC? 10/26: Where Will Bowden Be in '07? 10/20: Who Belongs in the Top 20? FOOTBALL 1/8: In Surprise, Ohio State Beats Itself 1/6: Good Start Vital For Buckeyes 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 11/23: LSU Loss A Microcosm Of The Season 11/19: Give It Some Time 10/13: Give Kentucky All The Credit 10/7: USC Loss Sends Shockwaves 9/1: Michigan's Loss Nothing Short of Stunning 6/19: Hoeppner Did Things His Way 4/27: Unexpected Reigned In 1994 02/22: Combine Experience Can Be Eye Opening 02/08: Signing Day Observations 02/07: Walk Down Recruiting Memory Lane 11/17: Remebering Schembechler 9/5: One Week Is Just One Week 8/25: The Return Of Trev

You've got college football questions and CSTV football analyst Trev Alberts has answers and opinions. Each week Alberts will be answering questions and queries on the world of college football. So if you've got a question for Trev, just ask him.

What is your opinion on why it seems so many highly-ranked high school players never make an impact at the college level? I have followed college football for twenty years and I would venture to say between 25-50 percent of the top-rated freshmen never reach the glory that was predicted for them. Is it that hard to predict future success? Did you find that many highly-ranked kids rang up big stats against lesser high school competition? Do you think many blue chip recruits fail to work hard in college, that they feel they can get by just on athletic ability alone? - Rob Braswell

Great question. It's a question that doesn't get answered or evaluated enough when you consider the fact that coaching staffs are given extensions and coaches are given boat loads of money because they're labeled as a great recruiter. Boosters, administrators and fans demand that you have a Top 25 recruiting class, yet the true measure of the class isn't when they came in, but rather, three years later. We really should have a recruiting service that ranks the classes three years later.

First of all, you have to understand who is making these lists and ranking these players, many of whom never played football. It's still a hype issue. It's still an exposure issue. These aren't coaches themselves that are evaluating players and looking at them on tape.

The second factor that's often hit on is that there are kids who come from backgrounds and programs where they were babied, then get to the big time and find out they're no longer the big fish in the little pond. They had to work and earn something where in high school everything came easy and naturally or was just given to them. Some of them weren't willing to pay enough of a price in college, and I played with a bunch of them at Nebraska. They just assumed things would be given to them. They quickly transferred or quit football. They weren't tough enough to persevere and deal with it.

Third, sometimes a kid goes to a place where he doesn't fit in all that well. You're asking kids who are 17-18 years old to predict how they'll enjoy an environment. How do they react from being away from home? Do they have a girlfriend and how do they react to being away from her? I've heard of guys going to a school because on their recruiting trip they met a girl there -- that's for all the wrong reasons. I think the factor of how you fit into the environment is really important. Like for instance, if you're a kid from inner-city Houston and you find yourself in Tulsa, you might not fit in all that well.

Fourth, there's an Xs and Os aspect to it. You see it in the NFL all the time where a guy gets drafted to a team and he just doesn't fit in. Then he goes to a new team in a few years and suddenly makes all-pro the second year he's with the new team because the system utilizes his skills.

Fifth and finally last, it's still an inexact science. It's pretty hard to see a kid on film and translate what you see to the SEC or Pac-10. Coaches feel intense pressure with these recruiting lists and sometimes they recruit off of it. I think the art of coaches sitting and watching tape and then making judgments on their football acumen has largely been lost because of the pressure to have that Top 25 recruiting class.

With Florida winning a national title and Miami having new coach Randy Shannon become a recruiting master, will Florida State become an afterthought in the Sunshine State? - Jeff, Baltimore

It's hard to predict the future, but it's hard to see Florida State ever becoming an also-ran. If you go down to Tallahassee and see what has been built, the reality is, the commitment is there, and they understand the importance of football. Florida State before Bobby Bowden came was a non-player. Bowden and the football program largely put that school on the map. That's the reality of it and some people don't like it.

When Bowden retires and moves on, there will be another excellent coach who takes over. There's a hotbed of talent and tradition. Teams can go through a lull, like Florida State has, but teams that have tasted success before I believe will continue to make the effort.

But here are two quick thoughts since you mentioned those two other Florida teams. I'm absolutely pumped to see Miami. We've read a lot about players getting suspended and being in trouble all over the country. Randy Shannon seems like a guy who's not messing around with his team. I haven't read of too many guys running afoul of the law since he's taken over compared to Georgia, where it seems like another guy's getting arrested all the time. Miami being down is not going to be for long.

Florida is the most-overrated preseason team in the last 10 years. I understand what they achieved last year. But with what they lost, the conference they play in, to be No. 3 in the country in the Coaches' Poll? They're probably No. 11, No. 12, just outside the Top 10 if you ask me. All of their preseason rankings are based on what they accomplished last year.

With Tennessee's record at 70-30 since winning the title in 1998, and after the last two seasons (5-6, 9-4), if Tennessee struggles again in a tough SEC, how secure is Phillip Fulmer's job? - E.L.

I'm done predicting the security of coaches' jobs. I've seen coaches who, to me, should have been long gone. I remember when David Cutcliffe was at Ole Miss and had just come off of winning 10 games with Eli Manning. The following year they struggle early on and fire Cutcliffe. Where are they at today?

Now the next coach is on the hot seat -- Ed Orgeron -- because they're going to want to get a recruiter. That firing of Cutcliffe has to go down as one of the more moronic firings from an athletic director and president that I've ever seen. Ole Miss was on the verge of being relevant in the SEC, then they fire the coach.

Translate that to Tennessee and that's why I'm excited about the Vols. I know LaMarcus Coker just got suspended, and if some of these players would just grow up a little bit and they actually make the team and play, I think Tennessee is a sleeper. Georgia is being overlooked a little bit, but in the SEC East no one is looking at Tennessee. They have a veteran quarterback in Erik Ainge and this is year No. 2 under the Cutcliffe system. Phillip Fulmer's bio should have an asterisk: when David Cutcliffe was the offensive coordinator and when he wasn't the offensive coordinator.