A REAL newspaper does story about recruit rankings

cydsho · 02-07-2008, 09:57 AM

www.kansascity.com | 02/06/2008 | Highly rated recruiting classes dont always spell future success

"Using the Rivals.com star system, the All-Big 12 team contained one five-star, eight four-star, 11 three-star and four two-star players, plus a handful of no-stars (walk-ons)."

"Missouri and Kansas, 2007, become case studies in ranking peril. No player on either roster came from a recruiting class rated in the national top 25. These were the fourth- and seventh-ranked teams in this season’s final poll. Their 2007 game was the biggest in college football."

Thanks again to the KC Star for real reporting.

cyclonemaniac7 · 02-07-2008, 10:02 AM

Good article, and I believe there's a lot of truth to that. While Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, etc. usually have highly ranked recruiting classes and usually do well with them, a lower ranked recruiting class does not always equal a poor team.

Drizzle · 02-07-2008, 10:14 AM

Nice article, thank you for posting...

Doc · 02-07-2008, 02:00 PM

The sheer numbers of 2 and 3 star recruits coming into the Big 12 each year means that there will always be a lot of 2 and 3 star recruits on the Big 12 teams. It's a simple-minded article. A greater percentage of 4 & 5 star players become B12 all-conference players. A team full of 3-stars can be good, but you'd have a better shot at being good if you're full of 4-stars.

cyclonekj · 02-07-2008, 03:51 PM

I wish we had a sports writer the quality of Blair Kerkhoff locally. Another well-written piece. Thanks for posting.

CyRocket · 02-07-2008, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by Doc

The sheer numbers of 2 and 3 star recruits coming into the Big 12 each year means that there will always be a lot of 2 and 3 star recruits on the Big 12 teams. It's a simple-minded article. A greater percentage of 4 & 5 star players become B12 all-conference players. A team full of 3-stars can be good, but you'd have a better shot at being good if you're full of 4-stars.

Did you really consider what you just said? If stars were the end all in determining greatness then ALL on the Big 12 players should be 5 star recruits. It would be nice if our recruiting class averaged 4.5 but its not going to happen, ever! That does not mean that ISU is doomed to being a lower tier team it simple means that the coachs have to work hard to find and develop players that fit our system. The numbers of 2 and 3 stars coming into the conference should not skew the number of all-conference players if the star system determines quality.

Wesley · 02-07-2008, 03:59 PM

My takeaway is the stars perhaps count more than we want to admit. More high star players than I opersonally expected appeared on the 28 man 2007 group.

cycloneG · 02-07-2008, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by CyRocket

Did you really consider what you just said? If stars were the end all in determining greatness then ALL on the Big 12 players should be 5 star recruits. It would be nice if our recruiting class averaged 4.5 but its not going to happen, ever! That does not mean that ISU is doomed to being a lower tier team it simple means that the coachs have to work hard to find and develop players that fit our system. The numbers of 2 and 3 stars coming into the conference should not skew the number of all-conference players if the star system determines quality.

I believe he was stating the there will always be more 2 and 3 stars players on the all-conference teams because of the sheer number of 2 and 3 star players in the conference. The star system is not accurate but I'm willing to bet money that a higher percentage of 5 star players make the all-conference teams than do 2 and 3 star players.

SpokaneCY · 02-07-2008, 04:38 PM

This class "only" has 11 3 stars and "only" 7 4 stars and "only" 1 5 star. This average class he talks about is still lightyears ahead of where our classes have ever been ranked. So ranking don't mean anything if you continually have higher ranked classes, but to schools like us struggling along in the 60s and 70s it means quite a bit.

jumbopackage · 02-07-2008, 04:56 PM

Great article.
It'd be interesting to see how many players in the Big 12 had how many stars. For example, if there were only 10 5 star guys in the Big 12, and 3 of them made the All Big 12 team, that means you've got 30% of all 5 star guys making the team. If you've got 400 3 star guys, and 20 of them make it, you're looking at 5% of 3 star guys.

That's an exaggerated example, but you can see what I mean.
And I can certainly understand his point.

nickwc · 02-07-2008, 05:09 PM

i hate to say it, but look at iowa's program while they had one of their worst recruting years in 02 and 03 they got to the orange bowl and all of those new years day bowl games. while in more recent years they had top 25 recruting classes and went 6-7 in in 06 and 5-7 last year.

cycloneryan · 02-07-2008, 05:14 PM

I wonder what star rating seneca wallace and troy davis had coming into college.

nj829 · 02-07-2008, 05:39 PM

Houston Nutt reportedly said Darren McFadden was a 2 star, and the local Arkansas paper today said that Jamal Anderson (8th pick last year's NFL draft) was also a 2 star, so if any of our 2 stars have that type of talent, I'll be happy.

AirWalke · 02-07-2008, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by nj829

Houston Nutt reportedly said Darren McFadden was a 2 star, and the local Arkansas paper today said that Jamal Anderson (8th pick last year's NFL draft) was also a 2 star, so if any of our 2 stars have that type of talent, I'll be happy.

I looked up Jamaal Anderson, and he was indeed 2 stars coming out of high school, but there's no way McFadden was a 2 star.

Ficklone02 · 02-07-2008, 06:42 PM

I think people are trying to formulate an argument for how ISU can be very successful with less heralded recruits/or just bashing the "star" system because it doesn't usually treat us very well. Yeah, I think we can become very successful if we are able to pick out the guys that fit our system and they work hard, take advantage of the red-shirt system. I'm reminded of something Ferentz said last year though about recruiting, and that is that there was a time earlier in the decade when he had the right combination of recruits, even though they weren't the most highly ranked, and they were able to become very successful. However, when you're Iowa you can't hit the right combination of recruits all the time, and in the big 10 there are only two teams that get those good recruits...yeah those same two teams that are always good.

So I think we can be good, but the challenge is to be consistently good....and thats where we will probably struggle.