How Much Do The Stars Even Matter?
Another signing day has come and gone across the college football world. Teams from across the nation received letters of intent from five star blue chip players and various recruiting websites have come out with their team rankings. Let's be honest, what does it all really mean?
Once again the SEC reigned supreme with five of the top ten recruiting classes going to their schools. Does this mean the SEC will have five teams in the top ten in years to come? Will the SEC Champion finally be ruled the automatic National Champion like they would lead you to believe? Is the SEC prepared to take over the college football world? Please...can we get serious for a minute.
Preseason rankings for the 2010 season only have two or three SEC teams in the top 20. How is this possible with all of the top ten recruiting classes? This just doesn't add up? How can this be? Here, let me explain.
Take for instance the rivals.com rankings for the class of 2007. The SEC had seven of the top ten recruiting classes in the country. In 2009 these highly touted freshmen entered their junior year of college. Out of those seven teams only three were even ranked at the end of the season. Florida, Alabama and LSU all had great classes, but fellow top ten classes at South Carolina, Auburn, Tennessee and Georgia failed to pan out. Not to mention Notre Dame and USC who both had top ten classes in '07.
In 2008 Alabama had the highest rated recruiting class in the nation. Out of their 32 commitments Heisman winner Mark Ingram was not in the top half according to rivals.com and star defensive lineman Terrence Cody was the fifth lowest rated recruit they signed. Needless to say, it's not always the stars that count.
Now, there is some prevalence to these rankings and they are a good starting point, but it is clear that just getting the talent does not always equal success.
Take for example the Cincinnati Bearcats. The Bearcats classes from 2004 and 2005 included 44 commitments. Out of those 44 only two were as high as a three star. The rest were all two star recruits. Funny thing is, eight of those two star recruits are playing on Sundays right now and another was a first team All-American while at UC. In this case the stars didn't seem to matter near as much as the development of the players.
Examples like this are everywhere including right here in Columbus where the highly touted Buckeye class of '05 has already produced five NFL players all of which came from the bottom half of that recruiting class.
Experts and recruiting gurus can keep grading the recruiting classes but as a fan of a team who consistently has a class in the lower half of the country, I will keep ignoring them. I mean how can I not?
The 2005 recruiting class for the Cincinnati Bearcats was rated 94th and the class of 2006 slipped to 102nd. That didn't stop those Bearcat seniors from posting a 12-0 mark in the regular season, a birth in the Sugar Bowl and a number three ranking in the final BCS Standings.
Maybe the class of 2007 is why they had so much success these past two seasons. No, not exactly, as that class finished 89th on rivals.com. So how is this possible, how can a team with recruiting classes near the bottom of the country have so much success with such lowly regarded players? It can only be one of two things.
Either Cincinnati and teams of the like have superb coaching, or maybe the recruiting experts are not as spot on as we think. Perhaps it is a mixture of both.
One thing is certain for all coaches. They recruit to fill needs and to fit their system. In a lot of cases a lesser-known player fits in better than a five-star recruit. That is how these smaller schools compete with the powers of the SEC.
While the Bearcats and Buckeyes did not have recruiting classes to rival the SEC, they did what they had to do to fill their respective rosters. Since moving to the Big East, Cincinnati has slowly climbed the recruiting ladder and has even managed to grab a few four star recruits over the past few years. With their success that will continue and so will the wins.
For the Buckeyes, rivals.com was not too friendly, rating them 26th this year behind count em' eight SEC teams. Those schools can smile all they want in February because when fall rolls around it is safe to say OSU will be rated higher than at least seven of those eight teams when the real rankings come out and as usual will be competing for a national championship while the South Carolina's and Georgia's of the world can watch their top recruiting classes lead them to 7-5 seasons and trips to the Independence or Outback Bowls.
For Cincinnati, a recruiting class that finally cracked the top 60 should allow them to finally compete with the big boys. Wait what's that I hear...they already have. Oh wait...my bad. The Bearcats will be ranked around 15th when the season starts and will certainly move up in the rankings led by three star recruits Zach Collaros, Isaiah Pead and DJ Woods. Two star receiver Armon Binns might not be the answer, but five star transfer Vidal Hazelton from USC will automatically step in and be the Bearcats best player...or more realistically their third best receiver.
Now, I am not saying these rankings mean nothing. Just look at Florida, Alabama and Texas. But, these rankings mean very little compared to what most people think. Success is and always will be measured on the field during games, not in rankings and stars.
So, go ahead SEC and take all the speed and talent you want, because for some reason, there is always enough left over for everyone else.