Do 2018 college football recruits even remember your team's last national title?

[Gold Ranger]

I can't post the link because there is a dirty word, but here are the highlights.....

Jan 1, 2000. If you’re a college football recruit in the class of 2018, that is roughly the average of when you were born. You were a Y2K baby. And the lens through which current recruits view college football is far different than the average fan.

Two things recently hammered home this point for me.

First, I was chatting up the college position coach of an All-Pro linebacker and made the comment that it has to help him in recruiting. Surprisingly, he said not much.

“They don’t know (expletive),” he said of current recruits. “And I don’t think they read about the past greats, or watch replays of them like we did, either. They don’t watch as many games going on now, either. If we don’t tell them, they don’t know.”

Yup, an elite receiver recruit had never heard of FSU legend Peter Warrick and was seeing him for the first time thanks to a highlight video. He then guesses that Warrick played “way before my time.”

In that regard, Chase was right. Warrick, one of the best college players of the last two decades, played his entire college career before between 1996-99, before Chase was born.

Colleges go to great lengths to market their tradition, but there is no substitute for a real memory of having seen a player or team succeed live. Let’s look at college football history through the eyes of current recruits.

RECRUITS WERE NOT BORN WHEN GEORGIA, MICHIGAN, NEBRASKA, NOTRE DAME, PENN STATE, OR TENNESSEE LAST WON A NATIONAL TITLE.

For most reading this, those things did not happen all that long ago. But these things happened anywhere from two to 20 years before current recruits were even born.

THEY ARE TOO YOUNG TO REMEMBER WATCHING OKLAHOMA, MIAMI, AND USC WIN TITLES.

Kids don’t really remember things from when they are small, thanks to a phenomenon known as childhood amnesia. Some research suggests this exists for memories formed up until the age of 7 are generally lost. But to be safe, let’s focus on what happened before they entered elementary school.

From a college football perspective, a lot happened between 2000 and 2004. Miami, Oklahoma, and USC ended title droughts of 10, 15, and 25 years, respectively. And none has won one since.

.....


Imagine being a coach at one of those historic powers and explaining that no joke, we actually have recently won a title at Miami/Oklahoma/Tennessee/Michigan/Nebraska, and then looking at a kid as he decides whether to believe you without Googling it.

THE FORMATIVE YEARS HAVE BEEN DOMINATED BY ALABAMA, OHIO STATE, FLORIDA STATE, AND CLEMSON.

The Tide took home back-to-back championships in 2011-12. FSU broke the SEC’s seven-year streak by winning in 2013. Ohio State followed in 2014, Alabama won another in 2015, and Clemson broke a 35-year drought by winning in 2016.

Since the current class of recruits entered middle school in 2011, only those four programs have won titles. They are also the only four FBS schools with a winning percentage above .800 in that span, and have produced two Heisman winners in that time (Jameis Winston and Derrick Henry).

Those four schools are whom current recruits have grown up with as the best during their most formative years.

OK..... Everyone point and laugh

TEXAS AND TENNESSEE HAVE BEEN THE MOST LACKLUSTER OF THE PRESTIGE PROGRAMS SINCE CURRENT RECRUITS ENTERED MIDDLE SCHOOL, WITH AUBURN AND MIAMI NOT FAR BEHIND.

The Vols check in at 40-35 in that span, while Texas is one win better at 41-35. Auburn is 46-32, which is surprising until you realize that the Tigers won the title with Cam Newton the year before the class of 2018 entered middle school. And Miami is just 45-31 in that span, with no division titles.

sbnation.com/a/cfb-preview-2017/recruits-championships

 

[biggdogg]

The parents of some UGA recruits probably don't remember their last title...

 

[Matthew6]

The parents of some UGA recruits probably don't remember their last title...

probably still in diapers at best; much like the older dog fans that remember 1980 and went to the games.

 

[Gold Ranger]

The article was mostly a reminder of either.....

How young these recruits are.

or

How old I'm getting.

 

[biggdogg]

You realize you're old when you realize that there are zero athletes in the NFL, MLB, NBA or the NHL that are older than you are....

Even more depressing is that many of them are making more in a season than you or I will in a lifetime...

 

[Browning Slayer]

The parents of some UGA recruits probably don't remember their last title...

The kids of a lot of Gators and Bama Alumni don't know who their real father is..

 

[Gold Ranger]

The kids of a lot of Gators and Bama Alumni don't know who their real father is..

When in doubt, Antonio Cromartie is a good guess.

Here’s where the mystery comes in: TMZ Sports says it will be Cromartie’s 14th child, but the weird thing is he revealed in a book about the 2011 New York Jets that he got a vasectomy after famously fathering 10 kids. Yet that didn’t stop him from fathering a set of twins with Terricka.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/05/ant...s-cardinals-terricka-pregnant-instagram-photo

Worst guess? Tebow.

 

[Gold Ranger]

Exhibit A (supplied by tj)....

 

[elfiii]

Exhibit A (supplied by tj)....

That was back when actively recruiting convicted felons fresh out of jail was in vogue.

 

[Matthew6]

That was back when actively recruiting convicted felons fresh out of jail was in vogue.

nowadays its just called Auburning.

 

[Browning Slayer]

nowadays its just called Auburning.

Auburning...