On Thursday, Michael Carvell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on his talks with Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson about recruiting. Johnson, a guy who has seen recruits pull out at the last minute, like most schools, was very candid about his feelings on high school coaches, other collegiate coaches, the recruits and the like.

Now, for anyone who has followed Johnson and his unique recruiting philosophies, this should come as no surprise. He does not permit his commits to take visits elsewhere. He wants an early signing period as a means of protecting himself. He wants high school coaches to turn away college coaches inquiring about his commits.

He wants recruiting by Paul Johnson, for Paul Johnson.

This is less about Johnson and more speaking to a point that we made closer to national signing day here at Your Best 11. The player is the one who has the power. As coaches realize it more and more, they can either make it work for them or against them.

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Most college football quarterbacks are not elite. Attempting to pinpoint why is a maddening exercise that takes you down many a rabbit hole.

Ultimately, the weaknesses that stop guys from being top-notch talents are plentiful. They come on the field and off the field. There are flaws in their skill set and players that don't fit into systems. All of these things keep players, from 5-stars to none whatsoever, to growing into top-notch signal-callers.

As far as player-controlled weaknesses, physical flaws, limitations and mental hurdles keep guys from reaching the pinnacle of success. Physically, the inability to make all of the required throws, escape trouble in the pocket or be a running threat has kept many a player off the field and buried on a depth chart.

Coaches have found a way to be successful with limited players, thanks to systems catering to what they can do, but the bar for being an elite quarterback is still one that most guys playing never clear.

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What up, folks?! It is Thursday, spring ball is rocking and rolling and we are here with the Your Best 11 Mailbag. I've got quite a big weekend planned as I'm heading to a wedding and of course things will get awesome. I'll be on my suit and tie...

Hell to the no. I hit on it earlier this week at Your Best 11. Just to summarize, a move backwards, turning down all the money that's out on the table has never truly been Delany's thing. Throw in the fact that moving back means cutting teams, jobs and pay for a lot of moving pieces, and I just can't see it.

I don't think there is an order to this. For some kids, being close to home is paramount. For others, being far from home is the goal. Playing time plays a big role for kids. As does being a part of a prestigious program for others. Style of play and/or ability to get to the league is another factor.

And yes, even academics matter for some kids, as the top reason to go to certain schools. 

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The zone read is, much like the spread that spawned it, is quickly becoming one of the vogue terms folks throw around when talking about football. In the NFL it is becoming an offseason project as coaches look to stop a new crop of quarterbacks that allow for the zone read's use. At the collegiate level, the zone read has saturated the game to the point where it is the norm in many leagues.

So, what is the zone read?

At its core, it is "zone" blocking up front, with the quarterback giving or keeping based upon the "read" he makes.

However, because most folks lack the ability, and are often too lazy to investigate the differences in the plays, "zone read" gets slapped on everything that has a quarterback and running back at a mesh point with a give-keep option. So the inverted veer, the mid-line read and the like are all lumped into the zone-read category.

It's just easier that way.

Thanks to sites like FishDuck and Smart Football, even folks that are not truly well versed in the game can grab some understanding of these concepts. 

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"It's about competition!"

That's what echoes over the sound of the music pumping through the speakers as the clock hits 11:30 in the morning at Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. The voice is that of Vince Jacobs, one of the founders of the group putting on this high school football event, VTO Sports. 

The athletes, 212 to be exact, are preparing to go through a dynamic flex exercise before splitting into groups to work agility drills and position specifics. To the untrained eye, it seems that the day of players showing what they can do, polishing skills and competing, is finally about to get started.

However, that could not be further from the truth. After yours truly spent 20 minutes being lost on the way to Mallard Creek, I arrived at the high school at 10:30 to plenty of folks prepping for the event. No kids on the scene, but coaches, both paid and volunteer, were setting up for the day's camp.

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LSU is coming off a disappointing loss, by its standards, as the team not only missed out on a BCS Bowl game, but lost to an ACC opponent in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. This year, it is all about getting back into the spotlight and, as usual, LSU has the pieces to position itself for success.

Opening up with the offense, even as the LSU offensive line loses key pieces, it returns experience. Expect the protection of Zach Mettenberger, and more importantly the run lanes, to be sound. Kenny Hilliard and Jeremy Hill are back in the backfield, along with a now healthy Alfred Blue, and that's a recipe for trouble, if you are the opposition.

Cam Cameron is Les Miles' newest offensive coordinator, and he comes to the team after being fired during the year by the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. Look for Cameron to do a lot of what was successful in Baltimore, run play action and then use your weapons to stretch the field on the edge. The former NFL OC meshing with the freaks on the outside in Baton Rouge should make the spring entertaining from an offensive standpoint.

On defense, the Tigers are one of those squads that is a proverbial "re-loader." They have bodies coming off the bench who are ready to play and because there are other players, including freshmen, breathing down their neck, they either perform and fall by the wayside. Look for the defense to find their strength from the interior of the line this season, and for the secondary to be strong, as it has been for quite some time in Red Stick.

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When spring ball wraps up, coaches will be thrown into the offseason. Or, "offseason" that is. As the almost cliché adage goes, "there is no offseason" where college football is concerned. Obviously, the players will be getting after it with the strength and conditioning staff, but what about the coaches? They are not allowed to interact, in an official capacity, with their players once spring ends, so what's next?

A lot.

The coaches have to balance family time with job obligations, recruiting and of course, a lot of praying.

We'll start with the praying, because this is the one aspect of the entire offseason that coaches have no actual control over. Sure, tangentially they control this through how they teach their players and what they expect out of the players, but they cannot actually get their hands on this situation.

If you have not figured it out, we're talking about praying that no bad things happen. No arrests, no injuries, no tragedies, no accidents and no academic issues. And, in all of this, all the coach can do is hope that none of these things touch his program.

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As it stands now?

No.

Once you've seen the money, engineered your existence to make the money and have positioned yourself to continue to make money, going back to nothing is not a very realistic option. Not for the infrastructure of the universities, and most certainly not for the people who have dedicated their lives to getting the big money.

The edict of "too big to fail" came into the Penn State conversation last summer as folks wondered what the NCAA was going to do, and how crippling their blow would be. This situation, reported by Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples, is not much different from a dollars standpoint.

It is a novel concept, and one that academics would certainly love. The idea of big schools like Michigan and Ohio State returning to their academic roots. Cutting off the gigantic athletic funds and going to an Ivy League model that puts the emphasis, not on entertaining, but on academic achievement above all else.

However, once you get out of the idyllic world, you start looking at dollars and cents. Dollars and sense, actually, is more like it.

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