4 Stars

[BlazeOrange]

i wonder about the correlation between rankings and bottom 25 finishes. do ranking plummets precede actual plummets?

not that i expect you to know that, just thinking out loud

If someone was interested enough to check rankings, Texas might be a good team to review. Was last years drop foretold in recruiting rankings a few years back?

A complicating factor is what kind of talent is lost from year to year? The UT example may come down to simply replacing Colt McCoy. But if 4- & 5-stars are supposed to be the top players, they are also the most likely to not redshirt and leave early for the pros. Even if a team is reloading with similiar highly-regarded players, the loss of certain combinations that affect the nucleus of a teamcould muddy up any conclusions.

 

[OttoMets]

I don't know how long there has been a star ranking system for high school football players, but I doubt anyone's keeping track of these droughts.

There are two groups of people who heavily prioritize star rankings:
1.) Fans of bad football teams who bring in a lot of highly-ranked recruits and are reaching for something to brag about (e.g. Rutgers); and
2.) Fans of football teams who are dissatisfied with the current quality of play and are searching for reasons (our gang).

Getting highly-ranked recruits should help our program. Getting a group of guys our coaches identify as potentially good players would also be nice. I think we're achieving the second of those two, and as they continue to win games, it should bring about the first.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

The Northeastern US has a grand total of 28 4 and 5 star players listed among the "Scout 300" top recruits for 2012. I am including in the Northeast, Maryland and DC, along with PA, NJ, DE, NY and New England. Only 6 of those kids are listed as 5-star products. Not surprisingly, Notre Dame, the B1G and the SEC get the lion's share of these players.

We're beginning to open up recruiting again in Florida and elsewhere in the southeast, but it will be a while before we can expect to pluck too many 4 stars from this area. ACC membership will help here, as it will in Virginia and Maryland. If Rutgers remains stuck in NJ I think our recruiting there will also begin to turn-around.

While I'm optimistic that recruiting will improve with time, the fact is there just aren't all that 4 and 5 star players in our prime recruiting grounds , excluding FL. And while I don't put an abundance of faith in the star system, I'll be happy when the bulk of our recruits are once again garnering at least 3 stars.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

And while I don't put an abundance of faith in the star system, I'll be happy when the bulk of our recruits are once again garnering at least 3 stars.

That's where I'm at too.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

4 stars = top 300 coming out of HS.

or roughly top 11% of all kids who sign with 1A schools each year.

 

[suloyalfan]

Maybe, but that doesn't explain the correlation to highly rated recruiting classes and top 25 finishes.

Right... but it's not typically 2 star kids getting bumped to 4 or 5 stars... it's the 3 star kid (basically the biggest group of eventual BCS level recruits) that gets bumped to a 4 star player. The player in most cases probably deserves it, but the recruiting services haven't paid much attention to the kid until one of the "factories" shows interest.

 

[Scooch]

The Northeastern US has a grand total of 28 4 and 5 star players listed among the "Scout 300" top recruits for 2012. I am including in the Northeast, Maryland and DC, along with PA, NJ, DE, NY and New England. Only 6 of those kids are listed as 5-star products. Not surprisingly, Notre Dame, the B1G and the SEC get the lion's share of these players.

We're beginning to open up recruiting again in Florida and elsewhere in the southeast, but it will be a while before we can expect to pluck too many 4 stars from this area. ACC membership will help here, as it will in Virginia and Maryland. If Rutgers remains stuck in NJ I think our recruiting there will also begin to turn-around.

While I'm optimistic that recruiting will improve with time, the fact is there just aren't all that 4 and 5 star players in our prime recruiting grounds , excluding FL. And while I don't put an abundance of faith in the star system, I'll be happy when the bulk of our recruits are once again garnering at least 3 stars.

This adds a lot of great context to the discussion!

 

[PhatOrange]

Has any BCS program gone longer than Syracuse without getting a LEGIT 4-5 star player. When I say legit, I mean the last legit 4 star would be Marcus Sales. I know Marquis Spruill was listed as a 4-star and deservedly so but that was as a prep player. Our usual competitors didn't even notice him due to the terrible high school team he was on.

How about kids with 4 BCS offers let alone 4 stars. Lets start there. If we filled our entire class with kids with 4 BCS level offers we'd be in a lot better shape no matter the star ranking.

Averin Collier
Marcus Sales
Romale Tucker
Jermaine Pierce
Doug Houge
Andrey Baskin
Delone Carter
LaVar Lobdell
Rick Krautman
Brendan Carney
Perry Patterson
Darryl Kennedy
I'll add Damien Rhodes (same class as Perry P)

Of this group of kids (which by the way only a couple of them were 4* on rivals) but of this group Rhodes, Collier, Sales, Houge, Carter and Lobdell had more than 4 BCS offers. Jermaine Pierce may have by the time he left Milford. Nevertheless.

Marrone's classes have been very underwhelming when it comes to offers. Not to fault him because he inherited one of the worst BCS programs in the nation. He's done well to recruit from where we started. But at some point he has to take the next step and start landing his fair share of kids with other BCS level offers.

 

[tep624]

I wouldn't say most of them sucked. I would say the only ones who "performed" below a 4 star type kid was Kennedy, Patterson, Lobdell and Tucker. Others never made it here for one reason or another (Pierce, Baskin), or screwed up (Collier/Sales). I would say Hogue, Carter and Carney all lived up to it. So IMO, 3 did it, 4 didn't and the others we will never know.

Scout was a lot looser with their ratings when Carney, Patterson, and Kennedy were rated 4 stars. Even though they were 4 stars in '02, I ignore it.

That being said, there were others that were rated in the 2-3 star range that probably deserved a 4 star rating in more recent years. The problem we have is that if a guy commits to SU early, he falls in a recruiting ranking black hole regardless of his talent level. Mike Williams is a good example.

 

[SWC75]

It's like major league baseball payrolls. There's a correlation between the highest payrolls and who makes the playoffs or even wins the championship but it's far from absolute. HCDM needs to take what he can get and win his way into the top 25 in recrutiing. One fairly good year isn't going to do it.

 

[SWC75]

The Northeastern US has a grand total of 28 4 and 5 star players listed among the "Scout 300" top recruits for 2012. I am including in the Northeast, Maryland and DC, along with PA, NJ, DE, NY and New England. Only 6 of those kids are listed as 5-star products. Not surprisingly, Notre Dame, the B1G and the SEC get the lion's share of these players.

We're beginning to open up recruiting again in Florida and elsewhere in the southeast, but it will be a while before we can expect to pluck too many 4 stars from this area. ACC membership will help here, as it will in Virginia and Maryland. If Rutgers remains stuck in NJ I think our recruiting there will also begin to turn-around.

While I'm optimistic that recruiting will improve with time, the fact is there just aren't all that 4 and 5 star players in our prime recruiting grounds , excluding FL. And while I don't put an abundance of faith in the star system, I'll be happy when the bulk of our recruits are once again garnering at least 3 stars.

I suspect Rutgers will remain stuck in New Jersey. The question is: will they remain stuck in the Big East?