some things to remember

[furls]

who had the best year, blah, blah, blah.

Those guys who rank recruits assess a 40 time, a height weight, and a couple of video tapes and think that they know everything about a recruit. Well that is not all there is to it.

First and foremost a new recruit needs to be a coachable team player. Alot of these kids talent their way through high school. That is not going to cut it in big time division I football. Talent will only get you so far.

Attitude is every bit as important. There are some players, a certain one that will be facing armed robbery charges in the immediate future comes to mind, that will never quite help the team as much as they should. Emmanuel Moody comes to mind. He is the best thing ever to happen to football, just ask him... he'll tell you. As far as I am concerned USC can have him. Hopefully Los Angeles is large enough to handle his ego.

And finally, it doesnt matter how much raw talent you bring in, if you can't develop it and build a game plan around it you will be mediocre at best. i offer Lloyd Carr and Larry Coker in recent years as evidence. The hallmark of a Jim Tressel club is that it gets better as the year goes on. You can say all you want about his constipated approach to offense (last year as the exception), but one thing you have got to give Jim Tressel is that his teams improve every season as the year progresses. I don't think there was one team in the nation that would have wanted to play OSU in a bowl this year.

So as you are reading that this guy is a five star this and a four star that, keep in mind that it is based on a very narrow view. Furthermore, the ranking of a school's recruiting class has very little to do with a teams future success.

[Guest]

Furls, I couldn't agree with you more. I was quite disturbed to see the Buckeyes on the outside of the top ten recruiting classes in the nation. It seems that teams who snag 4 and 5 star recruits sit atop the poll. Since my world revolves arond the scarlet and gray, I had to investigate to see just how relevant these ratings are.

So, I took a look at the past few recruiting classes that JT had reeled in. I was comforted to see that AJ Hawk (the AP defensive player of the year and multi-season All American selection) was only a 3 star rated player coming out of high school! As far a developing talent goes, Rob Sims, TJ Downing, and Doug Datish were also "3 Star" guys. Ask Notre Dumb how many stars they would give those big fellas now after they paved the way for the Bucks offense that doubled up the Irish in total yards. Don't forget Antonio Pittman, the 1300 yard back that put the dagger in the hearts of "that Team up North" and ND. He was also a "3 star" recruit.

The point is...all these SuperPrep athletes are All-Stars. Each class has one or two "can't miss" players like Vince Young, Adrian Peterson, and Ted Ginn who were all at the top of their respective classes. Beyond those exceptions, college Mel Kipers like Tom Lemming base their opinions on tangible attributes (not a knock on Mr Lemming and his counterparts, I appreciate their work). What separates the AJ Hawks from the rest of the world are intangibles such as heart, intelligence, leadership, and work ethic. Coaching also plays a huge factor as stated in the previous post. I believe Coach Tressel has an uncanny knack of finding players who possess these "intangible" attributes and he turns top 15 recruiting classes into top 5 TEAMS.

[swerb]

Great post Furls. I agree also. Looking forward to reading your Buckeyes takes all year as we head into what should be an exciting 2006 season.

[yargs7]

I must have screwed something up. I replied to Furls' post and for whatever reason, it says guest instead of my username. If you think that post sucked...please disregard this message.

[Lebowski]

True dat.

AJ Hawk was one of the least touted recruits in his class.

Troy Smith was the last recruit offered in the same class.