Three-Point Stance: Teams hurting themselves, surprises, Butch

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s thought-provoking Three-Point Stance is here with some thoughts on teams that have hurt themselves in recruiting so far this season, five of the most pleasant surprises in college football so far and Butch Jones upset about the media.

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Earlier this week, I took a look at five programs that have clearly helped themselves in recruiting so far this season with on-field play, but there is always the opposite side of the spectrum. Here are five teams that have hurt their 2018 and potentially 2019 recruiting efforts with poor play:

Florida State – Quick question: If you’re five-star Justin Fields, are you more interested in Florida State when you see it starting a true freshman at quarterback than you are in Georgia when you see it starting a true freshman? I think the answer is no because FSU is 0-2 and Georgia is undefeated. If the ‘Noles continue to struggle, recruiting will take a hit. Not a huge hit because Jimbo Fisher is a great recruiter and FSU has a great brand, but a hit nonetheless.

North Carolina – What happened in Chapel Hill? Larry Fedora went from a hot name linked to jobs at places such as Texas, Texas A&M and LSU to leading an awful team with a bad defense. It’s hard enough to keep kids from being poached out of North Carolina when you’re winning.

Nebraska – The momentum of the Calibraska movement and early success in Texas this cycle could fade quickly if the season continues to swirl around the bowl and the heat rises on Mike Riley. Nebraska needs to beat Illinois and pull a big upset to right the ship.

UCLA – The Bruins get recruits because they are in LA and a lot of kids don’t want to go far and aren’t into USC (or offered) but even that will dry up quickly if they keep losing. Josh Rosen won’t be around and the rest of the team looks disinterested.

LSU – The state of Louisiana is being targeted more than ever and the offense has clearly not been fixed. If LSU doesn’t solve its offensive woes and gets the defense to play better, it will lose more in-state recruits.

We are only four weeks into the season, but there have already been some very pleasant surprises so far. Here are the things that have taken me by surprise the most:

True freshmen quarterbacks – Jake Fromm has been impressive, Kellen Mond is coming into his own, Sam Ehlinger has shown heart, Kasim Hill flashed skill before his injury at Maryland and James Blackman wasn’t the problem for FSU in the loss to NC State. There are others but of the above names, most felt maybe only Mond and perhaps Hill would see the time they have seen.

Michigan defense – Should I be surprised? After all, the best defensive coordinator in football (sorry Brent Venables) is Don Brown and he’s working his magic for Michigan. But losing so many starters from a formidable defense last season, there’s no way it should be this good this early.

Notre Dame defense – One of the big problems at Notre Dame last season was a lack of overall athleticism on defense. This year, with a lot of the same personnel but a new defensive coordinator in Mike Elko, this looks like a new defense. The defense has become very opportunistic and is helping the offense out with turnovers and a pass rush; that didn’t happen consistently last season.

Sooners reload in backfield – I was one of many who didn’t think OU could replace Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon this season, much less do it so quickly. But Abdul Adams and true freshman Trey Sermon have been amazing and, while they don’t have the same dynamic athleticism and power combination, they have been a huge key for the OU offense.

West Coast replacements – Bryce Love looks amazing replacing Christian McCaffrey and Rashaad Penny has been awesome replacing Donnel Pumphrey. Those two lead the NCAA in rushing yards respectively while trying to replace backs that had serious Heisman buzz last year and beyond.

I don’t know Butch Jones but what I know of him I like. I’ve had very limited interaction with him but he’s always been kind and polite and seems like a good guy. That being said, I guess I have to still give Butch some advice. Don’t complain about the media, it only makes things worse.

When Jones came out and talked about how negative the media is about the Tennessee football program and dropped the “fake news” quote, I cringed. So here’s my advice, and this can go to all head coaches:

First let’s try to avoid the term “fake news” at all costs, it doesn’t put you in a good light and will only make for inflammatory and negative headlines.

Secondly, don’t complain about the negativity of the media because it will only make the focus of almost everything on that negativity and push it further. There’s a way to handle this and Jones handled it the wrong way.

So how do you handle it? You win football games, you beat horrible teams like UMass by four touchdowns like you should, you don’t let receivers behind your deepest back on the last play of the game as happened against Florida and you win the SEC East like the fans have expected the last few years. Win and there will be nothing negative to write about. I understand his frustration, I appreciate the defense of his players as a leader of young men and, as a 3-1 football coach perhaps he has a point about the negativity.

Just keep it to yourself, never quote Donald Trump and beat Georgia this weekend. Then everyone will shut up.