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Message: [QUOTE="Lou_C, post: 927889, member: 3201"] Absolutely. I'm not putting down Syracuse's class in any way. I am NOT saying you should have done better. I believe it's a stronger class than you've had recently. You should absolutely be thrilled with every 4 star you get, as well as many three stars. And the percentage of 3-stars versus 2-stars. As well as the offer sheets of the kids you are getting. Those are all strengths, and most people here are rightly pointing to those. None of those things mean "stars don't matter." You don't have as good a class as LSU or Clemson and Illinois or Utah didn't have as good a class as Syracuse. Hell, FSU signed a bunch of 3-stars among it's stellar haul, including a 3-star OT that it landed the night before signing day that was also holding an offer from UF and LSU. I'm just reacting to the nonsense that "stars don't matter." They simply do. Over time you will not outcompete a school that averages 3.5 star recruits if you average 2.5 star recruits. Can you be a Boise State or WVU and pull a shocker once in a while? Sure on a sample size of one or two games a year. The formula for success is not that complicated for you guys... 1. Get better talent in the front door than you've gotten in the recent past. 2. Work harder and be better talent evaluators than the schools you compete against now for recruits. Find the 4-star talent with a 3-star rating and 3-star talent with a 2-star rating. Here's where you're grade inflation comes in...if Jimbo Fisher offers 2-3 star kid (like Devonta Freeman)...his rating is going to rise. It also means everyone comes after the kid. Syracuse offering a 2-3 star kid is not going to have the same effect. That's not necessarily a bad thing. 3. Develop that talent better than your peers. If you do those things, then the star rating will get better every year. Obviously, I'm not saying anything you guys don't know. But if you have the right guys in place on the coaching staff, this will happen and Syracuse will raise it's profile to the next level. If it doesn't then you stay where you've been hovering for a few years and you've got to make a decision. But stars matter, and give you and idea of progress and indicate the future. If 3 years from now you still have 1 four star and 20 3-stars, I bet you won't be as happy, and you shouldn't be, because there will be a problem. But there will still be some guy saying "stars don't matter", which simultaneously doesn't hold your coaches accountable for enough, and at the same time sets unrealistic expectations of what you can expect on the field. Again, I think most people understand this. It's not meant to disparage in any way Syracuse's best class in a while. Stars matter. [/QUOTE]

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