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National Signing Day

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Feb 4, 2015.

  1. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    It's really cute how you keep saying that, Baron, but does reality ever enter your world?
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Sorry, I forgot the blue font with the last line.
     
  3. albert77

    albert77 Well-Known Member

    There's one misconception afoot here and that's that kids are often rated based on who's recruiting them. Fact is, a lot of the top prospects have been to various summer camps from the time they were 12-13 years old, where they are tested and evaluated, plus colleges all get plenty of game tape and often watch games in person, so the colleges see them in real competition. There are still a lot of good players who fall through the cracks, but it's not as random a process as a lot of people think.

    That said, I intensely dislike the obsession fans have with recruiting and really only get involved on Signing Day. We have another writer who is all into it, and I defer to him when it comes to which kids are going where.
     
  4. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    I have no doubt that the college coaches are recruiting them based on legit evaluations from camps, game film and in person scouting.

    What I doubt, though, is that the web sites and publications are really rating the players on much more than who is recruiting the kids.

    They are essentially stealing the coaches work to say "Joe Blow must be a big time player if Ohio State wants him."

    If that's how you decide Joe Blow is good, you can't then give Ohio State credit for getting him.

    Maybe someone with more insight into the recruiting coverage can correct me.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I don't think it's just offers, though that plays into it. I'm sure they talk to coaches to get their scouting reports on these guys. Same as Baseball America, really.
     
  6. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    If a kid is some kind of combination big, strong, fast with good-to-great stats depending on his high school competition, he's going to get a good star rating. Give Saban or Meyer a bunch of kids who are big, strong and fast and they are going to turn enough of them into players to have a really good team even if some of them flame out.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Bobcat, if you look at the lists of finalists on these guys, you aren't going to see "Ohio State/Central Michigan/Indiana/Pitt/Toledo." It's going to be "Ohio State/Florida State/Michigan State/Penn State/West Virginia," say. So if those five schools all want him, there is probably a darn good reason.

    My Mizzou guy who was the #2 recruit on ESPN, he chose Mizzou over Ohio State, Auburn and FSU. So, although I haven't seen him play and I'm sure the ranking sites haven't either, it sure sounds like he's a big-time player.
     
  8. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    I'd bet the ranking sites have had multiple staffers see him play and he's probably been to combines hosted by one or more of them.
     
  9. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    That's a good point.

    I would amend to say I don't particularly trust the talent evaluations of the ranking sites. If the guy was choosing between Mizzou and Iowa State and they had him in their top 50, I wouldn't believe them.
     
  10. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    Yeah, some are better than others at that. I went to school with a guy who is now an editor at one of those networks at the level were all the sites in one power conference report to him. He's always been good at evaluating talent and even as a college kid he identified several 2 and 3-star recruits who wound up being really good college players.

    I would never be able to do a good job breaking down film or any of that, but I can guess that if you get enough guys who are combine monsters you've got a shot to be good.
     
  11. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    My three truths about recruiting rankings:

    1. There are, in any given year, about 50-80 non-QBs who really are a cut above, and getting those guys is a pretty great indicator of how good your team is. FWIW, I'm guessing most fans, if exposed to these players 3 or 4 times, would know who these 50-80 players are. It's pretty obvious.

    2. After that, it's like top 30 players at each position, and you gotta put the dude on a list somewhere. The No. 12 RB probably isn't any better than the No. 22 guy and may be worse.

    3. Nobody knows a fuckin thing about QBs anymore, and that includes the pro scouts. It's not even their fault; they can't tell, based on the offenses high schools and colleges run these days. Look at this dumpster fire of QB ratings:

    Yahoo Sports: Rivals.com Ranking - Rivals.com pro-style quarterbacks 2010

    Nobody. Knows. Anything. About QBs.

    Recruiting services do not really exist to rank athletes and haven't for some time. They exist to be a conduit between college coaches and HS athletes, and this relationship -- which college coaches mostly control - allows said sites to run gossipy message boards that are the real driver of traffic.
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I brought this up on another thread, Alma, probably the Super Bowl one, but I'm not even sure I'd draft a quarterback in the first round of the NFL Draft any more.
     
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