Proseteye

I kind of doubt it, Ray. Gage played seasons with IMG when one of the top running backs in the nation Kaytron Allen was there. Gage got a lot of playing time and was in a lot of plays with Allen. Could be financial problems or maybe he just didn't care for the coaching method at IMG.

Can anyone explain the reasoning why organized practice is not allowed outside of certain specific timeframes? What is the purpose of it?

I still like, IMO, the only plausible scenario, which I believe was adapted by the FHSAA a few years back, and that was a student transferring would have to sit out sports in the year he was transferring. It didn't completely shut down transfers for sports only, but it surely limited them. I don't seriously think that the Florida Legislature envisioned students transferring for sports only when they approved unlimited student transfers anywhere in the State. Their intension was to allow students to transfer out of schools performing poorly academically to schools performing better academically.

Columbiahighfan and others There is really no comparison between public and private schools. Public schools are funded by taxes and are administered by local school boards. Private schools are funded by tuition payments and are administered by private entities. Public schools are an entitlement. Private schools are not. Public schools keep their doors open regardless of how many students they have in their buildings. Private schools stay open if and only when they have enough tuition paying students in their buildings. Private schools cannot depend on local students only due to high tuition and standards that they set. As such, they have to find students from other places. That is why there are no districts for private schools. Since public schools do not have to bring students in from other areas they can function quite well with only local students. Private schools have to bring in students from other areas in order to pay bills and stay in business. So, what would be considered "recruiting" by public schools should not be considered "recruiting" by private schools. There is also the factor that many public school students, both in and out of sports, transfer to private schools for better academic possibilities and a more comprehensive disciplinary structure. At least this is the way that I see it unfolding.

IMG recruits all of its students. They are, after all, into training future stars in various sports. What else would they be? Who tells you that they don't recruit anyone?

Apparently you did get a little excited to research the new head coach and players transferring out. Can you bring us up to date on the players that did transfer out? Any of the starters from last season? I do follow IMG although I don't get too excited. Just enjoy watching a top HS team, based in Florida, play against some of the best in the country.

Seems that all of the prior head coaches, and possibly a few assistant coaches, have gone on to College and NFL level jobs. I guess they figure if you can handle a team that maintains top level play against the best in the country then you can handle more difficult tasks. Let's face it, if you are HC of a high school team and you're offered a college or NFL position then you take it. These colleges, and later NFL teams, recruit players from IMG. Why not the coaches that groomed them. And probably doesn't take more than a season to convince them.

Replaces Thomas Johnson who apparently is now with the Tampa Bay Bandits of the US Football League as defensive coordinator. https://www.imgacademy.com/news/img-academy-announces-billy-miller-head-coach-national-football-team https://www.linkedin.com/in/billy-miller-653041128

A tougher schedule than most of the higher classifications have. And a team that I believe has few if any transfers to make them the excellent team they are and have always been.

They blew away both Central 49-13 and Norland 49-0 when they played them in 2019. Also handily defeated De La Salle in 2021. Would like to see them play Centennial on their field in California and blow them away too.

It's no embarrassment to say that. I would be willing to bet that no team in Florida is going to defeat St. Frances. They took both IMG and Mater Dei to the woodshed. You have to be a super team to beat IMG once. But twice. They did lose a very close one to STA on their field last season. But, they won't do it again. Also, Venice did lose to them 49-7. St. Frances is a very tough team but are a recruiting factory. I think someone once joked that the St. Frances players don't know any of the other players first names.

If you do that you won't see Madison roll over IMG when and if they play them. . In all seriousness Madison is one of the best teams in Florida considering that they play with mostly local talent and routinely defeat much higher classification teams just like Pahokee has always done. I take Jess with a grain of salt. He's probably a pretty good guy. Love the way he gets Columbia grinding his teeth when debating with him.

I don't think that any private school, including head coaches and ADs, are foolish enough to outwardly recruit. Everything is done through word of mouth or social media mostly by the students themselves. The private schools that have good sports team would not need to recruit anyway as there are many students continually wanting to enroll. The moral/ethical and tuition factors possibly being the only drawbacks. I know that my team, Trinity Catholic, used to have a superb football team. Played in 4 championships and won 2 of them. The reasoning was head Coach Kerwin Bell. So many Players wanted to play for him as he was not only a knowledgeable coach but he built a great team. They accused TC of recruiting because public school players were transferring to TC. Those public school players simply wanted to play for a winning team, a great coach, and get a private school education. Also an ex U of F QB who had connections to the college recruiters. I personally saw top college recruiters at most important TC games.

Well, we might say that recruiting is no longer necessary considering that Florida law allows unbridled transferring from anywhere to anywhere for any reason at least among the public schools. Transferring to private schools is still limited by many factors to include high tuition costs and desks available. I think that most of us, that are against unbridled transferring, are against it for moral reasons in that it defeats the objective which is to promote community and family cohesiveness. Otherwise high schools become nothing more than Jr Colleges or farm teams for senior colleges.

All private schools recruit as they are all businesses and to stay in business they have to fill their positions with paying students. Advertising and seeking out paying students is recruiting, whether it is for an academic student only or a student that plays a sport as well. A private school, by virtue of their unique situation, needs to accept as many qualified students as possible no mater where they live or they cannot make a profit nor survive. That being said, private schools are at a disadvantage as many have pretty strict entry qualifications, moral and ethical codes, and most families cannot afford the tuition and/or other requisites. Thus they are limited in recruiting top players that may not meet these requirements. IMG is a sports training facility that happens to be a high school. Apparently they worked out an agreement with the FHSAA so that they could play under the FHSAA umbrella as long as no Florida team was forced to play them. At least that seems plausible.

At least IMG admits that their transfers are recruited. As such, they don't have mandatory district play and are not able to play in the playoffs and championship games. Not so much for the other fabricated all star teams out there.

100% correct, Ray. However, even before the unbridled school choice nonsense, under the zoned districts policy players were moving into their Uncle Festers house (wink wink) in that district. None of the school administrators seemed to care enough to police it in accordance with the FHSAA rules and regulations. And that is the reality of it all. If the schools or some other entity are not going to verify legitimate residence then in order to stop recruiting altogether the policy would have to be players sitting out the year for any and all transfers regardless or at the least players sitting out a certain amount of games before being allowed to play. We all know that none of this is ever going to happen and so recruiting will continue unabated, nothing will ever change, and will just continue to get worse.

Well then, I guess things will still stay the same. So, everyone should stop complaining about there being fabricated all star high school teams that miraculously win most if not all of the championships through recruited talent. I wonder about all of the families who get to watch their son, brother, or cousin sitting on the bench every game observing a replacement player who just got brought in from another part of Florida or from another state. This may be fair in college or the NFL. Not in High School.

I still think that the only way to inhibit all the forming of these star teams and consistent championships is to revert back to the old, but proven, way. Stop recruiting. That's what I call unbridled transfers. Let the school go back to utilizing local talent only. The situation that is the reason for local high schools in the first place, for both academics and everything else. Revert back to students transferring for sports not being able to play in the year that they transferred. And then police phony transfers into the district for residency. No other new fangled way is going to change anything. The way it stands now there are a few all star sports high schools in Florida through unbridled recruiting and then there are the also rans. No way to run traditional high school programs that are supposed to fairly benefit the students that live in that school's district and whose families pay property taxes to run those schools.

Thanks.

I asked a simple question. If you can't answer then please keep the smart aleck reply to yourself. And, no, I'm in northern Florida so Miami is the farthest thing from my concern.

Approximately when are these usually available?

I knew before the game that Brown was injured and I was really surprised that he was cleared to play Sunday. He did make an effort to play the first half and I believe him when he didn't want to continue playing with an injured ankle. Obviously it was bothering him as he only made 3 short yardage catches. Looked like on those catches that he lacked his regular speed and couldn't break away. If the coaching staff was trying to force him to play injured then I don't blame Brown for getting upset. If his teammates realize this then I don't think that any of them would blame Brown. They might blame him for his antics but not for being reluctant to continue playing with an injury that was hampering his performance. I still hope that Arians reconsiders his split decision to release Brown. Brady, I think, will mitigate the situation.

If Fournette gets healthy he's an additional target for Brady. Beside being one hell of a RB he catches passes like a WR. In the last game against the Panthers I would give Evens and Fournette the entire game to rest up. I don't think they are needed against the Panthers especially at home. Regardless of how absurd the Brown episode was I think that the Bucs should reconsider his firing. The Bucs will have a tough road through the playoffs without Brown. And, after all, winning the Superbowl again is their main objective. There are a lot of players in the NFL that do stupid and illegal things and they are kept by their teams even though they are not even that good.

I agree with your assumption. Actually I was surprised that the Jets did not kick a field goal instead of running the ball on 4th down. And to think that the Bucs top WR Godwin was out. Another top receiver Brown walked out of the stadium at the half, and one of the best RBs in the league Fournette was out. And then Brady threw the winning score to WR Grayson who had been activated off the practice squad that week. If Brady is not considered the best QB in NFL history then he's among the top 3.