...couldn't recruit, it's that he didn't recruit. A home visit from SOS was an EXTREMELY rare occurence. In fact, a phone call from the HBC was uncommon. Jim Collins was Spurrier's recruiting coordinator for a number of years, and he was a really, really, really nice guy, but he was hardly a recruiting dynamo. Think about it. Some of the best players Spurrier had in his last few years here had to beg him for the chance to be a Gator. Rex Grossman sent videotapes and had to beg SOS to watch them. Earnest Graham came up to Gainesville with his buddy Teddy Dupay, and Gator basketball AA Tim Maloney, Dupay and Graham's former HS basketball coach, had to walk Graham over and introduce him to the football staff, because they'd never heard of him. Gerard Warren wanted to be a Gator his entire life, but Florida was the last school to make a push for him, and he had almost given up on us. The list goes on and on and on and on. What if these kids had not had such a strong desire to play for UF? Where would we have been? On weekends in January, when recruits made their official visits, Spurrier was scarce. He'd come around for a couple of hours and meet with all the kids, giving a little special attention to the "stars" among them. Then, he'd be gone. He essentially left all the recruiting up to his assistants. Sometimes, they'd do a super job, and sometimes they wouldn't. Coincidentally, when RZ was an assistant, we brought in the recruits that made up the MNC team. Spurrier wanted as little to do with recruiting as possible. He hated visiting high schools, and he rarely did it, and the current staff has spent many, many hours on the road rebuilding relationships that had died under Spurrier's watch. There's something admirable about Spurrier's attitude about kids really having to want to be a Gator. As a lifelong Gator fan, I loved that about him. But, unfortunately, that attitude isn't enough to keep the stables full of great players. The thing is, Ghost, SOS would be the first to tell you that recruiting was not his strong suit. He could do it when he really wanted to, but that was all too rare. Did Spurrier like to recruit? No. Does that mean he couldn't or didn't recruit? NO! This lie must stop circulating as truth. Trying to blame Spurrier for last year's and this year's messes is a MUCH worse form of disloyalty than putting the responsibility on the current coaches, imo. Btw, Spurrier’s 1999 class was ranked seventh in the nation by Prepstar. In 2000, the Gators were fourth nationally according to the same service. Whether or not many of these players, such as Brock Berlin, didn't pan out for the Gators, the recruiting was fine. Sure the following year wasn't as good by the rankings, but to make the giant leap to the conclusion that Spurrier couldn't or didn't recruit... I'd go on a longer rant, but I'm going to stop now before a vein pops on my forehead.