Words for those of you who live and die by recruiting ranks...

[RougeDawg]

I no longer give any ****s about the recruiting drama. Unless our staff completely whiffs, we should be fine from here on out. DM finally has the personnel he wanted/needed and has the depth needed for SEC action. Stars don't mean everything. Just look not too far away, slightlu north of us in state. We have the players in place to win now. It's just a matter of filling the yearly losses with each subsequent class. Relax and enjoy the others getting their panties in a wad over a 17/18 yr olds, who may never even see the field, especially if they choose the Lafayette plantation.

[Op4isabitch]

A-****ing-men

[FlabLoser]

I agree 100%.

Mississippi players don't get the coverage or recognition they deserve. They mostly only get stars when big schools show interest.

Chris Jones being a prime example. You think he deserved to be a 2-3 star for so long? The stars came after the other attention did.

Banks is another obvious example. Did Mullen get lucky and find lightening in a bottle or did he fairly evaluate Mississippi talent that the crootin world ignores so long as a Saban isn't sniffing around?

[Rick Danko]

I honestly believe in large part the talent is there with Mississippi High School players just as much as it is with players all over the country. One glaring difference, in my opinion, is the player development at the High School level between Mississippi and, just say Texas. The amount of money and resources spent on football in that state and many other starting at a young age is unbelievable.
Now, what Dan is doing, at least I think, is accepting that 90% of the players he is bringing in will not be field ready until they have had 2 years of college coaching to instill the needed techniques and field knowledge that goes with playing in the SEC. What excites me is now he has been here 5 years so these players are his, and have been developed by his staff since they arrived on campus. We will see the fruits now of what he is trying to do, take unmolded clay and make art with it (cheesy statement). Is this the proper approach compared to going and finding sure fire 4 and 5 stars, I don't know. But we will find out in the coming years if his vision pays off.

[HancockCountyDog]

I no longer give any ****s about the recruiting drama. Unless our staff completely whiffs, we should be fine from here on out. DM finally has the personnel he wanted/needed and has the depth needed for SEC action. Stars don't mean everything. Just look not too far away, slightlu north of us in state. We have the players in place to win now. It's just a matter of filling the yearly losses with each subsequent class. Relax and enjoy the others getting their panties in a wad over a 17/18 yr olds, who may never even see the field, especially if they choose the Lafayette plantation.

Just wait until next year - we will all love recruiting ranking:cool:s.

[smootness]

Well, the main difference between Mississippi and Texas is simply sheer numbers. There will always obviously be a lot more good players in Texas than in Mississippi. But I think that per capita, there is probably more pure talent in Mississippi and certainly a top player in Mississippi will be just as good as a top player in Texas, generally speaking.

[FlabLoser]

From the twitter.... And keep in mind that MS has about half the population of Bama, 1/9 the population of TX, and 1/3 the population of GA. LA has about 50% more people than us.

Top #SEC talent producing states in 2014:
GA 58 SEC commits
FL 48
MS 47
TX 46
LA 28
AL 21”

[The Croom Diaries]

I agree. I've been harping on this for the last week or so. We just need to accept our coaching staff's strengths and work with that (not that we can't try to improve, but we are what we are for the most part). Mullen has proven his abilities to evaluate and develop so we have to trust that. I know many of our fans are just as passionate about recruiting rankings as OM fans, but those folks are just going to have to adapt to what we actually have. Regardless of what they were rated, it only matter what they are now. Benardrick McKinney is a 5 star, not a 2. Taveze Calhoun is a 4 star, not a 2. Dak Prescott is a 4-5 star, not a 3. Preston Smith is a 4 star, not a 2. Blaine Claussell and Justin Malone are 3 stars, not 2. Dillon Day is a 3-4 star, not 2. The list goes on. I'd like to see recruiting classes retroactively graded after they graduate. I bet you the 2009 class would be near a top 10 class after what they proved on the college football field, rather than projections from their high school careers.

[smootness]

From the twitter.... And keep in mind that MS has about half the population of Bama, 1/9 the population of TX, and 1/3 the population of GA. LA has about 50% more people than us.

Top #SEC talent producing states in 2014:
GA 58 SEC commits
FL 48
MS 47
TX 46
LA 28
AL 21”

? What is this list? If it is the number of SEC commits from each state, MS definitely does not have 47.

[DawgInMemphis]

? What is this list? If it is the number of SEC commits from each state, MS definitely does not have 47.

Yeah, not buying those numbers.

[DawgInMemphis]

? What is this list? If it is the number of SEC commits from each state, MS definitely does not have 47.

TOTAL SEC COMMITS BY STATE (SEC REGION ONLY)ALL CLASSES CONSIDERED – ’14, ’15, ’16, ‘17 NO.
1. Georgia 62
2. Florida 48
3. Texas 43
4. Mississippi 37
5. Louisiana 24
6. Alabama 20
7. Tennessee 19
8. South Carolina 12
9. Missouri 9
10. Arkansas 7
11. Kentucky 5

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/recruiting/sec-by-the-numbers/

[mjh94]

surely those are D1 commits

[FlabLoser]

Probably just SEC. Texas and its 26 million people would dominate almost every state in number of D-1 commits.

[sandwolf]

I think the guy has included JUCO commits in his numbers.

ETA:

Based on the Scout database:

2014: 34 MS players committed to SEC schools - 22 HS and 12 JUCO
2015: 6 MS players committed to SEC schools - 5 HS and 1 JUCO
2016: 3 MS players committed to SEC schools - all HS
2017: No committed players

[esplanade91]

You can mask a lot of talent with hard work and intelligence in the college game. Look at many of our "best" players the last 5 years... they either didn't make the NFL, made it as an UFA and play only on special teams, or flame out on a practice squad. I'm just as proud of guys like Emmanuel Gatling or Corey Broomfield as Fletcher Cox because they are guys who probably shouldn't have started a single game for an SEC school and did very, very well because they wanted it more than the guy with infinitely more natural talent and did everything to beat them out for the job.

We're going to have gaffs when we rely heavily on guys like this sometimes, but 90% of the time I believe they show up and do the job. It might not be as pretty as some of the 5*s, but statistically we finished ahead of guys with a lot more flash than we do. I'm ok with it.