Bucks disappointing 2007 class

[consigliere]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiti ... id=2757802

Damn, 20th? Coming after a great year, and a memorable OSU-Michigan game?

I know this stuff is subjective, but to not land some top prizes and sniff the Top 10 is concerning.

[Dozen]

Not really, look at last years class. Tressel doesnt seem the type to over-stockpile like some schools do. Then that leads to transfers, distractions and eventually will hurt them in recruiting. They had a solid core of recruits and they are saying next year will be far better. I also have heard the M.Wells is transfering to an SEC school better suited for his talents.

[The Score]

Wasn't this Tressel's highest rated recruiting class based on the average of stars per recruit?

The reason it is ranked so low is because there are so few recruits in the class, which is a problem of only signing kids that can get into the University as well as being good at keeping kids eligible and with good GPAs (relatively speaking).

[consigliere]

I believe USC signed the same number of guys, no?

[The Score]

I thought tOSU signed 15 and USC signed something like 19? The class is basically quality that is 4 star heavy. No real 5 stars but hardly any 3 stars either. I think it comes down to more of an off year in Ohio moreso than anything else.

Anyway, Tressel is nowhere near the snake oil salesmen that Carroll, Zook, and Meyer are... tOSU always deals with recruits fairly straight up about where they project and what their playing chances are.

[pup]

The rankings are based on "average star rating". If you sign 10 4* and 5 3* you would get ranked the same as someone who signed 20 4* and 10 3*. Then the team with more kids would probably get bumped up a spot.

The strength in Tressel has never really been with the star recruits. Even the great class he got 4 years ago, most of the big stars never performed, while the rest of the class turned out to be stellar.

Also, for the most part, it seems like Ohio kids do not get rated as highly as Florida kids. So when you recruit mostly in state, it is hard to get the overall high rating (even though they have been up there in the past). Yet, Ohio usually turns out some of the top players, who over-achieve their rankings coming out of high school. Brandon Saine is a good example. He is possibly the fastest RB recruit in the country, as well as a tough kid. Yet, Rivals had him as like the 16th best RB recruit. I would be willing to bet in 3 years, Saine is every bit the RB as Joe McNight, the #1 ranked RB.

It was a tough year for OSU to recruit. There are not really any spots for a Frosh to step in and contirbute right away. USC has shown the willingness to play the most athletic 22 guys they have. OSU gives the oppurtunity to guys who have been around.

Most of these rankings are based on "skill players" and not too many young skill players are coming in here and unseating Chris Wells, Brian Hartline, Roy Small, Brian Robiskie. I thought QB would be an area addressed hard core, but I think they have a couple of guys they focused on next year, instead of getting caught up in the Claussen/Sims battle this year.

We will see. It is not very often that the teams rated #1 actually end up with the best class. Florida and USC will always be there, both in recruiting and play, but 4 years ago, Florida State had the best class, some said ever, and look how that panned out. People think it is tough evaluating college kids to enter the NFL, imagine how much harder it is judging 17 and 18 year olds.

[The Score]

The rankings are based on "average star rating". If you sign 10 4* and 5 3* you would get ranked the same as someone who signed 20 4* and 10 3*. Then the team with more kids would probably get bumped up a spot.

Rivals has a ranking based on points, not average recruit. They also have tOSU with their highest average in the Tressel era. How ESPN does it, I have no idea.

Nothing is really scientific though.

http://www.rivals.com/teamrank.asp?SID=880

[consigliere]

True. I liken the high school signings in college football to the high school players taken in the baseball draft. A lot of guys are rated high, but the hit-miss rate is so high. There is a lot of volatility in how players ranked in the Top 100 shake out.

[furls]

I know this stuff is subjective, but to not land some top prizes and sniff the Top 10 is concerning.

Ranking college football classes is retarded. Look at USC's class for instance. They are #1 because they got the #1, #2, and #3 recruits. Now, 2 of those 3 guys play the same position, that should devalue them some but it really does not.

Jim Tressel goes to great lengths to ensure that he has open scholarships each year, and this year was a small class. Additionally, there is a clear bias against midwestern recruits (as eluded to earlier), basically, midwestern recruits are generally not rated as highly as guys from CA or the south.

[yargs7]

Very good points fellas. I feel alot better (less worried) about this year's recruiting after reading your posts.