The Memphis area has a long history of recruiting problems or rumors of problems. The Albert Means / Alabama recruiting mess a few years ago brought the reputation national attention. The word around town was that several coaches intentionally stayed away from Memphis to avoid being mentioned in any possible recruiting scandals. Another historic problem is that many of the players with SEC and upper D-1 potential are from the inner city, very poor families, and in many instances have difficulty qualifying academically. This leads to the inevitable rumors of cheating on test, etc., and keeps the NCAA in town frequently. Finally, when the area is recruited, or when we see really great high school talent that is or will qualify academically, they get lots of attention from Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Arkansas, the University of Memphis, Arkansas State and other smaller state schools. Ole Miss recruits the area hard with mixed results. Several of their players and commitments have run in to legal problems. Recently, Ole Miss got a high profile commitment from a metro area QB named Cannon Smith (son of FedEx founder Fred Smith). According to reports in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, last Friday night the kid and a friend were arrested for speeding, possession of marijuana and ecstasy. Not that any of these problems are peculiar to the Memphis area, but we do see more of it than many cities in this region.
What I meant by memphis area was North MISS. there's way more talent in the 5A schools in North MISS than Memphis. Just look at the win lose record of those schools versus Memphis schools. Schools like Provine in jackson, Meridian HS, Tueplo, South Panola of course, Horn Lake and Clarksdale. Very good solid ball players every year wind up playing ball somewhere else. Like D. Townsend playing for the Steelers, etc..
