Allen Wallace Quotations

I would be the first to tell you that if 50 percent of the guys I put on the Super Prep All-American team make it, I would be happy. About one out of every two guys is going to be a disappointment in some way. But what is success, a guy who starts two years, an all-conference player? He might even be a starter and still be a disappointment.

I don't think people think about Zook anymore at Florida. He's just a memory there now.

He has a great reputation as a linebacker, but I think he looks better running the ball.

He was most definitely one of the guys who got the wheels going. The advantage he had was that no one else was doing it.

I think it's case of Penn State not focusing on the right kids. You don't see them often bringing in superior skill athletes from outside the state.

I think this is going to go down as a gut check for the Miami Hurricane program. They're at a low point recruiting-wise.

I think that's part of the charm of recruiting. You can never get enough great players. It's just another way to inflict injury on your rivals. That's why recruiting is so important to some people. You're winning two times. You're getting a player and you're taking him away from somebody else.

I think if you watch the aggressive way Urban Meyer coaches on the sidelines during a game, and watch his wife in the stands, you know they're not going to take no for answer from a recruit. I think his persona has a lot to do with his recruiting.

It doesn't even matter if a guy is highly ranked at the end. Even if a team gets a commitment from a two- or three-star guy, that's huge news (to fans).

I thought it was a disappointing year in Arizona. Jermaine Williams was the only top-ranked player.

Michigan's the kind of program that recruits well regardless of its record. Because of the tradition, the great rivalries and because of the helmet, Michigan is a big deal.

You can have all the talent in the world and have a mediocre team. You see it all the time. The bottom line is it's all about coaching. The success of a football team has everything to do with leadership at the top.

There is a trust there that Callahan will bring Nebraska back to its stature of old. In the past 10 years, only two Nebraska recruiting classes have been in the top 10 in my book, but this is shaping up to be one of the better looking groups out there.

The existence of biases hurts recruiting ... intentionally overlooking some things just because you want to promote certain kids.

I've seen strange things happen. For those who suggested (Florida's class) was a runaway weeks ago, it's being demonstrated by our very eyes that it's not a runaway.

It was typical Bobby Bowden. They should change letter of intent day to Bobby Bowden day. He does this every year.

The thing you hope for is that he's working on the SAT or working hard on the GPA. He's got to qualify.

Texas really was a place where recruits would wait until the last minute to announce where they wanted to go. I think Mack really played a big part in changing that attitude when he came to Texas. Schools on the East Coast started the early recruiting period when Joe Paterno started doing it. Joe Pa started recruiting through his summer camps. And Mack brought it to the Southwest.

Despite his physical talent, if he doesn't improve, he won't be great.

A player makes a name for himself and then causes younger players to look and see what can be accomplished. The younger players start focusing on being like one of the older guys.

There's enough talent there on defense, combined with what they have coming back on offense, to win the whole enchilada.

It's all about coaching. The kids hear about a team's success, the parents hear about it. They start thinking this is where the leaders are and this is where the championship experiences are.

It's the best Georgia class I've seen in an awfully long time. It just looks like a typical hugely ranked class looks. You see a lot of people who are ranked in the elite ranks of their position groups.

It's like going to the courthouse and picking out 50 marriage certificates and spreading them out and saying who is going to be married 40 years from now. There are so many factors that come into play. How is a player going to mature? Is he going to have a drug problem in a couple of years? There are so many ways for a kid to go sideways, and sometimes it has nothing to do with anything negative.

It's irresistible. You look at Matt Simms and imagine hundreds of conversations he's had with his father and brother about what to do under pressure.

They have the stature now where they can appeal to anyone, anyplace.

If you win the mythical recruiting title, it shows you're focused, you've got momentum and that you're a very appealing program. It's a burden that every single coach in the United States would like to wear, whether they admit it or not.

He's very patient. He goes after the best guys and he realizes a lot of these guys aren't going to decide until the end and he also realizes some of them are going to decide and keep it a secret. And most of the time he wins that late battle.

If he (Schilling) goes to Washington that will be a giant positive for them in many different ways.

The great charm of recruiting as subject matter is that we don't know. We don't know what is going to happen.