Terrapin Station's exhaustive review of MD football recruiting

Fully worth the read, I highly recommend -

http://terrapinstationmd.com/2011/01/07/an-exhaustive-overview-of-the-decade-in-marylands-football-recruiting/

Here is what I posted:

Great work, a lot of information that is really useful. Might have worked even better in reverse-chronological order, to give a better perspective on the history of things. Though I do get why you did it the way you did.

I can’t quibble with the facts, and don’t. But one thing I really wish people would bear in mind about keeping the in-state talent (and we should do a better job, I’m not defending Fridge on this front) is that probably about half of the kids DON’T want to go to Maryland.

Lot’s of kids want to "go away" to college. So even if that is just 1/3 of the top talent, our ceiling is 66%, which means those near 50% years are more like 75% years in retention.

Further, the top top tier kids are apt to go to the states of California, Florida and Te*as (that’s actually 2 Republics and 1 State). Just like the majority of top talent. The weather is better, those schools have better profiles and better TV coverage. MD just is not a top-tier school. We’re not a top 6 SEC school, and the ACC is not as good as the SEC.

I also think this is hard for undergrad alumni to wrap their heads around. "How could MD not be the best?" Cause it ain’t. I’m a lifelong Terp, and I mean that literally. I’ll put my attendance record at lacrosse games up against almost anyone else’s hoops attendance record, or my baseball attendance record against anyone else’s football attendance record. I couldn’t be a bigger fan, but not having gone there as an undergrad gives me a view of the school from a little bit of an outsider’s perspective.

The only shot, at the present and next 5-8 years of MD football, is for a 4 or 5-star kid to have grown up as a mega-Terp fan. Otherwise? No shot.

I think the "going away" % speaks to a big chunk of the PSU, WVU, UVA and VT crowd.