CLEMSON | There was a time when it seemed no one from Florida had a prayer of going in and nabbing elite talent from the Sunshine State.
We're thinking of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Miami was in the process of winning four national titles in nine years. Florida State was in a decidedly elite air under Bobby Bowden. And Steve Spurrier was doing his fun and gunning in Gainesville.
Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!
For a time, this power trio presented an unsolvable problem: When those programs in that state are that successful and marketable, how do you go in and find anything more than scraps left over from their feast?
That context is what makes the present-day reality so remarkable. A reality that's flipped to the point where it's the out-of-state powers feasting to the point that you wonder when it's going to turn.