Why Players Rankings Shouldnt Be Worried About

Website rankings don't matter but where you are as compared to your competitors does matter.

Good coaching and consistency reduces the impact of missing on the top guys in opinion. Bringing in solid 3 star guys that fit your system offensively and defensively, redshirting them, then developing them within the system is worth alot. Mullen has been here a few years now and has been able to do this and thats why we have a good depth chart and have been to 4 bowls. He does makes odd choices at times, but i think he knows how to build a program.

Obviously you want the big name guys, but if you do miss having a solid plan in place helps build good football teams.

recruiting rankings are like gambling. the odds are in favor of the house. that doesn't mean someone doesn't walk in a win a bunch of money.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...fl-draft-picks

the uninformed looks at that chart and sees 10 3* and immediately thinks about all those undervalued kids, especially when there's only 6 5* kids. but you have to remember that there's only 25 or so 5* recruits each year, while there are hundreds, maybe even more than 1000 3* recruits each year. the success RATE is so much higher with 5* recruits. when 3* guys are making up the bulk of your class, you have to have a definite schematic advantage and/or be excellent talent evaluators to nail every one of your 3* recruits. thankfully, mullen and co. seem to be pretty damn good at talent evaluation, but even still i don't think anyone would put our talent level on lsu's or bama's level.

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Originally Posted by engie

Here's my thing on this... and I'm not quite positive how "I believe" at this point -- so I won't take a stance.

BUT -- either rankings don't matter and we are addressing needs(2014 class) -- or they do matter to us(probable 2015 class). We can't have our cake and eat it too -- and there is a portion of our fanbase that has been hypocritical about this. So, we need to come to a consensus and stick with it...

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We can have our cake and eat it too. I think Mullen has proven that he has a pretty good eye for talent and that his program will develop players. We are going to be able to put solid SEC players on the field. But he's not going to hit on enough play-makers to be competitive in the SEC with his early recruiting success. I think the 2012 class (this year's RS Freshmen and true sophomores) was the first class Mullen had with enough playmakers to be competitive against top SEC teams (assuming you get four classes like that). I think 2013 was also good enough. 2014 is what it is. It's a small class, but it has some prospects that should be playmakers (Green and Williams) and I think Dak proves a qb like Staley is particularly valuable to Mullen, so is probably worth more than his ranking would indicate. 2014 by itself would be worrisome, but 2014 following '12 and '13 and a promising start to '15, and I don't think it's anything to be concerned about.

All that said rankings are a piece of information. It's not the be all, end all, but if you're consistently recruiting outside the top 30 and you're in the SEC, you should be a little worried unless you have reason to think your coach has a system in place that will maximize talent or is a particularly good evaluator/developer of talent. SImilarly, you shouldn't be too comforted by recruiting in the top 20 consistently if you are getting their by taking a bunch of grade and character risks. 2015 is a very good sign, because it's the first indication that Mullen might really be building on his momentum. But 2014 doesn't concern me that much b/c of what preceded it. It'd be nice to have a small class full of 4 stars or better, but I don't see any reason to think this class will hamstring us (as long as we hit on our JUCO OT, which is my biggest concern by far).