I liked it better when this was held in February. There is simply more time to prepare for it. The coaches think so also, but like everyone else we adjust to the realities. We will know who won recruiting on paper after today (and the second signing day period in February) but we will not actually know until they hand out trophies over the coming seasons. That is what this is all about, after all.
We can highlight some superlatives right now.
Nicest announcement looks: FIU.
That is some quality design. Clean, uncluttered, pops of color. I like it.
Best design that kids these days like? Charlotte
I am not quite sure what this is about or what is happening but it looks interesting.
Everyone else fell into the continuum of boring photo+signing day logo/NSD21 pun and some over designed idea from someone with way too much time spent on photoshop forums.
Okay But Who Is Winning?
Going by the 247 Sports rankings the day began like this:
- FAU — 23 commits (23 โ โ โ ) – average 83.01 – total 159.5
- UTSA — 19 commits (17 โ โ โ) – average 82.82 – total 153.08
- Rice — 18 commits (17 โ โ โ) – average 82.27 – total 140.4
- UNT — 14 commits (14 โ โ โ) – average 83.09 – total 137.13
- Charlotte — 16 commits (12 โ โ โ ) — 81.58 – 127.13
We will stop there to encourage you to link to the CBS-owned site.
You might have noticed that the rankings are determined by the total points of the class. it is possible to have a higher per-player point average and still come in behind another. That is a reasonable way to group things, as the hit rate for the recruits is less than 1-to-1. That means every guy that comes in is not going to be his projected potential. So it goes.
While the exact position in the rankings is less important, the average relative rankings is. If a program is consistently at the top of the rankings it means it is consistently getting in good talent. FAU was always recruiting well and when Kiffin stepped in he won two titles in three seasons. He had a lot of talent on the roster already. Marshall has consistency been in the top of the rankings for the last four years. In 2017 they dropped (from 1st) to sixth, (the average ranking was in line with the top of the league: FAU, however). The next season they were right back up to the top. Where is Marshall now? Well in the title game.
There is also development to consider. While UAB has been good and talented for a while they have not necessarily been making noise on the recruiting rankings. Last year was a high finish, but amid a lot of bottom-half ones for Bill Clark. His roster situation was different than most (to the chagrin of the rest of the league) and we saw the depth on display against Rice last weekend. Recruiting is important — but the rankings are not necessarily so.
The only evaluation that matters is by the coaches of their targets and the players and the program. The rest is development and that is the heart of the evaluation process. Can this place turn this player into a contributor for this team? That is the whole point of today. It isn’t plug-and-play outside of the Alabamas of the world.
[…] Here is the high-level view. As we wrote in the previous post, none of this is a guarantee. […]