By Mike Gibson
The old folks are fond of saying it.
Back in the day.
You know, back in the day we did this, back in the day we did that.
Well, back in the day the map of where the football players are was strikingly different than it appears now.
About 40 years or so ago, there was a heavy concentration of players in Pennsylvania and Texas and a smattering of players everywhere else.
The shift has occurred now.
Pennsylvania still has a lot of nice Division IA football players but even though the size of the state is roughly the same as Florida, that state has about three times as many players.
Why?
One reason is, duh, the weather.
Kids can do the kind of rigorous outdoor workouts there all season that maybe snow days or very cold days prohibit.
Another is spring ball.
Yes, Florida high schools have spring football.
They have another season perfecting their game while Pennsylvania football players are playing basketball, baseball or lacrosse.
It makes a difference. The latest charts available are from 2002, but the statewide patterns of NFL players and what state they played their high school ball in has been pretty much the same.
The warm-weather states of Florida and California are where the players are at.
In this class of 26 football players at Temple University, Al Golden has stayed true to his recruiting footprint of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while grabbing a couple of players from Florida.
Here's the breakdown:
- Pennsylvania (12);
- New Jersy (4);
- Florida, Maryland (2);
- New York, Georgia, Texas, D.C., Va., Conn. (6).
You've got to like the approach.
Golden is getting players the big schools want, like Vaughn Carraway, James Nixon and Tony Cornelius, just to name a few. Still, he's trusting his gut and film on players like Alex Jackson and Quentin White.
It's a gut based on years of watching film.
Back in the day, Wayne Hardin had the same kind of gut recruiting for Temple University.
That turned out pretty good.
I trusted Hardin then and I'm going to trust Golden now.
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