Not every kid feels like they have to walk into a school that is full of winning tradition. I actually respect some of these kids. They are the type that believe in themselves, their teammates and their coaches and want to build that winning tradition. If recruiting was as big of a national spectacle back when Devaney was hired people would have been saying the same thing about many of those guys that built NU football. They did it because they believed in something greater than past performance being a guarantee of future results.
Plus the kid is going to be with a guy who is like a second father to him. Good luck to McWilson. At least he did it the right way as opposed to a certain other commit that shall remain nameless.
Nailed just about everything in this post, especially the bolded sentences. After a few days of irrational hysteria at the thought of getting a recruit stolen by Kentucky, I have come back to the realm of reason, realizing that he probably had his own personal reasons for picking them besides prestige. Good luck to the kid, by all accounts he sounded like a high-character, level-headed individual who would have been a positive representative of the program both on and off the field. Won't be surprised if he has an outstanding career at UK.
I think we may trump up 'tradition' more than it may be worth ( I know that sounds like blasphemy). Extending the 'tradition' sales-pitch to recruits, like blessed2bahusker alluded to, Old glory stories make us feel warm and cozy inside as fans but it has decreases in impact as a selling point with each year we don't sustain that level, or very near that level, of winning, making the winning of championships a 'tradition'. Our traditions of prior success is long-gone and we had to start back up from scratch after 2007 to hopefully try to get near that level (it was a ridiculous standard of winning that will likely never be replicated again in CFB and unrealistic to expect). As the years go on recruits will be less and less familiar with our prior status unless they catch the occasional reference on ESPN. My perception is that the tradition and the pageantry that elicits the fuzzy feel-good sentiments for fanbases of CFB powerhouses, is becoming less and less of a selling point for top recruits anyway these days. In this hyper-commecialization era, it seems finding the school which gives you the best chance to make yourself into a bona fide marketable, superstar athlete to eventually land in the NFL has increasingly become one of the biggest priorities for many of the nation's top recruits. I could be completely wrong though, I'm not the one visiting recruits in their living room.
