from Bobby Burton. First Petrino in regards to recruiting.. Petrino has proven to be an effective recruiter, and has dominated Kentucky in state. But I personally wouldn't categorize him as an elite recruiter yet because of a couple of factors -- a) UK has been down in both of his years at UL, and b) his top recruit, Brohm, was a lock for UL b/c of his brother being on staff, so he hasn't really recruited a superstar that wasn't in his own backyard. That being said, he did keep Michael Bush at home the year before Brohm came out. Like I said, I feel like Petrino has been effective (though most of the guys making it for UL right now were actually recruited by Smith) and Petrino has some guys on his current staff who are good recruiters. But at LSU or at any of the other big guys in the SEC, I really think you're going to get good players. I think you have to recruit difference makers and then it's more about what you get out of your team as a whole. That's where Saban excelled in both aspects IMO. I would rate Petrino's ability to "do something" with a team as very high and his "recruiting ability" as somewhat an uncertainty because of the fact that he just hasn't been a head coach at a place like LSU. Louisville is just a vastly different situation than LSU as far as level of talent on the team, level of talent available in surrounding areas, etc. How many elite players grow up wanting to play for LSU vs the number that grow up wanting to play for Louisville? And, at LSU, it can get down to choosing/evaluating which receivers, running backs or defensive linemen you like, and all of them may have NFL potential. At Louisville, they just don't have that sort of luxury. For Louisville, it's more true recruiting as opposed to a combination of "selecting and recruiting", which is what you do at a power school like LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, Miami, USC, Michigan, Ohio State, etc. Thanks, Bobby
Some Les Miles info. Les Miles is a recruiting machine. I think Miles can recruit with the best in the country, period. I'm amazed at him and his staff in that regard, I really am. That being said, I think Miles is a solid gameday coach, but may not be a great coach. He has brought consistent respectability to OSU, and DEFINITELY improved their talent level. On the down side, his offensive schemes have been up and down and his defense has been inconsistent at best. He's a run-oriented offensive guy and he doesn't have a Muschamp IMO. I'd give the edge in coaching to Petrino and the edge on the recruiting trail to Miles. Either of them would be successful in Baton Rouge, but I'd coin successful as 9+ wins a year. If you're looking for a NC, then I'd say Petrino, simply b/c he's already run a team that is darn close to being perfect this year. But that doesn't mean Miles couldn't compete at that level, too. He just has a harder go of it in the Big 12 South than Petrino does in C-USA. I will say this, it's interesting to me that these candidates are all offensive guys. The three guys who have dominated college football the past couple of years -- Carroll, Stoops and Saban -- are all defensive guys. Tuberville is a defensive guy, too, and he's undefeated this year. Thanks, Bobby
I think he underrates Brohm's interest in Tennessee and also, didn't Petrino bring in Jeff Brohm to be the QB coach (article makes it seem like Jeff had already been there)?
