Top SC WR from Dutch fork going to IMG for his junior year

[king ward]

They most definitely do have better coaches. Tom Knotts is a good coach, but he's gotten lucky that his 11 years (and 4 titles) at Dutch Fork coincide with the weakest period in history for the traditional South Carolina football powers. Since 2010, Byrnes, Dorman, Gaffney, Greenwood, and Summerville have all been down as I think all of them lost their great coaches and made bad hiring decisions. Look at the fact of how good TL Hanna has been running a crappy option attack. TL Hanna has a long history of being a punching bag for the big powers. South Carolina football is just really down right now, which is also why it's dropped from the #7 state in producing blue chip talent to around #17. Knotts is just a very good coach in a time period where he doesn't have any competition. I also notice the Foxes don't travel to play the really big boys out of state like some of the other great SC teams used to do.

But let's look at IMG coaching.

• The Director of Football is an All American Offensive Lineman who won a superbowl with the cowboys.
• The Head Coach started as a GA for Charlie Weiss, became Tight Ends coach and special teams coordinator for Bo Pelini, was then quality control coach and a recruiter for Urban Meyer at Ohio State, and then became the head coach of Audrey Kell, giving them their best seasons in history. That sounds more like Beamer's pedigree than a traditional high school coach.
• The Strength and Conditioning Coach is Jeff Dillman. Say what you want about him, he's better than whoever Dutch Fork has. It's pretty wild their S&C coach was the S&C coach of 3 different P5 programs and one of the best G5 programs.
• Their Defensive Coordinator was one of the best head coaches in the state of Florida.
• Their two QB coaches are Jeff Blake, a pro bowl QB, and Kurt Gould, who trained college QBs for the NFL combine
• Their Special Teams coordinator was the Special Teams coach for Rutgers and the Tamba Bay Buccaneers
• Their receivers coach is probably the weakest of the bunch, but he was a stud for Purdue back in the day and led the B1G in return yardage
• They even have a nutrition coach who is a registered dietician, has a PhD in Sports Nutrition, and a professional cooking certification through Rouxbe culinary school. The guy was the #2 nutritionist at Ole Miss before that.

It's not insulting Knotts or Dutch Fork. But this isn't a high school coaching staff at IMG. If you saw UCF with this coaching staff, you wouldn't be surprised at all.

Was he also lucky when he won those multiple state championships at two different schools in North Carolina? I'll admit it's high school ball, but high school ball is what we're talking about.

 

[The Doctors Back]

O and can I add, there is no such thing as a high school National champion.

He didn’t say National Champion, but if he had, he would have been correct because yes, there is a high school national champion and IMg has won it.

 

[GarnetBeamer]

I guess I'm not really seeing the fuss over IMG. Has an IMG alumni ever won a Heisman? They did set a record for # of former players drafted this year, but looking over a list of current IMG players currently in the NFL and it's not impressive. Has an IMG alumni ever won a Super Bowl?

Based on what this other poster is saying, going to IMG is supposed to make you a super player, but I'm not seeing it.

This article from 2018 lists the top 10 IMG alumni. Five are football players. Isaac Nauta is currently in the NFL. Kellen Mond was just drafted. Shea Patterson is in the CFL. Deondre Francois in playing in Fan Controlled football. Bo Scarbrough has been an NFL practice squad player.

Ten top former Mater Dei and IMG Academy athletes

MaxPreps News - Heading into Friday's national football showdown, Mater Dei and IMG Academy both boast impressive alma-mater lists.

www.maxpreps.com

That's the most impressive list? Are you telling me Francois wouldn't have made it to Fan Controlled Football were it not for IMG?

They do have a lot of players currently playing FBS, but I'd wager that any one of those players would have been recruited and signed to an FBS team anyway. So, basically, they get players who are already great high school players, get them to come IMG, but for what purpose? They will already end up playing FBS football, no matter where they play.