Tubbs and Luginbill talk The U on ESPN U…

Earlier on ESPN U’s Signing Day special, they were talking Miami with Tommy Tuberville, former Canes defensive coordinator from yesteryear. Tubbs dropped some pearls of wisdom regarding the hardships coaches at The U go up against. Recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill also chimed in and talked Canes and The State of The U. For those who missed it, I transcribed their comments below:

ESPN U Host: Then there is Miami, all of a sudden a sleeping giant, winning again on the recruiting trail. Was it just a matter of time before this program started getting those blue chippers left and right?

Tommy Tuberville: Randy’s a good football coach. Randy played for me when I coached at Miami and he’s a guy that understands the school.

Miami’s a lot different than most schools because you have so many players within a five mile radius of that campus – number one you gotta be able to evaluate them, number two you gotta be able to get them to the school and number three you gotta be able to make sure that they stay in school and do things the right way. It’s a tough school to coach at.

ESPN U: It seems obvious that it’d be easier when you have all that talent, like you said, in a five-mile radius. Is that true? Does that make it easier?

TT: It makes it easier to recruit them, but a lot of thing also come along with that. They’re close to home… distractions… all the distractions are there.

The big thing… when you sign a scholarship and you go to that university, whether it’s five miles down the road or five hundred miles down the road, you have to persevere, give it all you got and get the most out of your ability because they’re going to get in a line at the school that they’re going in and in the next year coaches are going to try and recruit players just as good as them so you have to keep improving each year.

Tom Luginbill: You know, I don’t think there’s been any team in college football in the last couple of years, outside of USC, that is creating an environment of competition the way Randy Shannon has right now. This is a football team that a year ago played over twenty true freshmen and many of them, including Sean Spence, including Aldarius Johnson, Marcus Robinson, the list goes on and on, started and played significant time for this football team and are becoming the backbone and foundation for getting this team back to the pinnacle of college football.

So now what happens… the recruitment starts for the next class and now it’s up to you to beat that guy out who just came in and it’s not like he’s a junior or a senior, so the competition remains wide open. A lot of speed, a lot of athleticism in this class. The question will be can they continue to get kids to sign over the long haul when you have this much talent – and it’s all youthful – at the same time. 

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