Re: Recruiting tactics

quozzel

Hall of Famer [20540]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 11684

Joined: 10/15/02

Mar 28, 2018, 11:45 AM

I think you have to trust your evaluations. If a guy's a take, he's a take, and it doesn't matter what his "star rating" is.

Keep in mind the recruiting services follow trends and offers, and most are herd animals who think a guy is worth X stars because of their offer list. They also rely on drama to pull in readership so most of the services aren't above, say, elevating Justin Fields over Trevor Lawrence even though anybody who's ever seen the two guys play would laugh at the comparison. But Fields was uncommitted and was shopping a lot of the top programs, whereas everybody knew Lawrence was an "All-In" type guy who wasn't going to shop himself about. Which is great for Clemson...but boring as far as recruiting drama and hype goes. So Fields got the bump up.

And despite the Internet age, it's still shocking how many guys fall through the cracks. How many 1st-round guys still come from mid-major programs? Way too many.

So at the end of the day, if, as a staff, you decide a kid is above a certain minimum threshold and has the attitude, IQ, work ethic, and character you want, and he's got the physical ability you want, you ignore the rating and pull the trigger.

And which guys are you worried about? Some of these 3-stars we pulled the trigger on early for 2019 are no-brainers. Keep in mind we're losing Hunter Renfrow after this year so we're in the market for a slot...Brannon Spector is so much like those traditional Dabo-era slot guys (Curtis Baham, Tyler Grisham, Adam Humphries, Renfrow) that it's ridiculous...and oh yeah, he's Baylon Spector's younger brother so we've got a very good idea exactly what we're getting there. When Dabo Swinney is sold on a slot receiver, I'm sold on him, and given Dabo's track record with his slots you could probably slap 5 stars on Spector and he'd end up delivering. Watch his tape; Spector will sell you real fast too.

Jaelyn Lay looks like King Kong at TE, but he came from a terrible football team and, not coincidentally, he got a flurry of offers after Clemson came in for him. Aidan Swanson is a mutant at PK...you know this because he's on scholarship at IMG Academy, the most selective development program on the East Coast and maybe the country. He got two stars because he's a kicker but honestly he should be a 5-star if you rated him in terms of leg talent. (I don't know why kickers get dropped so badly, it's ridiculous.) And Joseph Charleston is a 4-star DB who could write his own ticket to virtually any team in the Southeast, including Alabama (who offered!)...would you turn him away because he's not a 5? The guy is a take all the way.

Those kind of takes don't worry me; they're the ones the staff is pretty much 100% on.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Agreed- nobody's going to rich questioning this staff's evaluations. Looking back, it seems we've had more 5* disappointments than at any other rating, though that could be just because they stand out more.

I get their point on kickers to a degree. Let's say two teams are tied in the rankings with one slot to go. One team signs a 6.0 4* DT and the other signs a 5* kicker. Who would you rather be?
Or given your choice of a 5* at any position, wouldn't kicker be the dead last on your list?
That said, the penalty for being a kicker is really excessive.

Given Dabo's approach to keeping kids they did miss on, signing full classes is going to be more a rarity than a rule. And given Dabo's tendencies to hand out what seems to be a charity schollie every year or two and to seemingly over-sign specialists, I doubt we'll ever have the top class according to the raters. And I kind of like that- it sends a message that we consistently over-achieve and it helps create an underdog mentality.

Recruiting tactics