Knudson: Star Search
FacebookBy Mark Knudson, The Mtn. Insider
January 31, 2011
The long and winding road of “College Football Recruiting 2011” finally ends this week - for a short time, anyway - with National Letter of Intent (LOI) Day.
It has become a day circled on the calendar of most college football fans and a full out media event for those of us with overactive keyboards who just can’t get enough college football. After LOI day is over, we start counting the days until spring practice.
Is all the fuss about LOI day worth it?
Most knowledgeable observers will tell you straight out that recruiting gets too much attention, that you never know what these 17 and 18-year-old kids are going to turn out to be and that the whole “star” system employed now by the major “recruiting services” is not just unscientific, but down right unreliable.
Others say it’s an excellent gauge on where a football program is at and where it will be in four or five years. No matter your opinion, chances are you’ve kept an eye on those recruiting rankings ever since the season ended. Just in case.
Whose take is right?
In truth, probably both.
There is no doubt that the statement “recruiting is the lifeblood” of a college football program is true. No matter how good a coach you are, you cannot win without talented players in your program. Coaches everywhere put a premium on bringing in as much talent as humanly possible, and they leave no stones unturned in searching for it. It’s a critical part of every program’s success. The coach who does not put as much emphasis on recruiting as breathing is not a head coach for very long.
As for the much-ballyhooed “star” system, let’s just say there’s not too much time spent worrying about it.
A little research would back up the coaches’ belief that the star system isn’t all we in the media make it out to be.
For instance, most of the impact upper classmen that we watched on the field less than a month ago, who brought a thrilling end to the season in Fort Worth, didn’t get a lot of love from the recruiting services four and five years ago. In both 2006 and 2007, TCU finished outside the Top 50 in Rivals.com Team recruiting rankings. They were left behind such powerhouse programs as Kentucky, Maryland, Boston College, Washington State, Rutgers and Colorado.
Same story for Boise State. The Broncos don’t appear anywhere on Rivals.com Top 50 for those years, either.
Is either program devoid of talent?
Hardly.
In fact, I’m sure if you went back and reevaluated things with perfect 20-20 hindsight, those Top 50 rankings would look a lot different and would have a strong presence from both TCU and Boise State, and maybe less placed on teams that were in the Top 10 those years like Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and even Notre Dame.
We saw how their seasons panned out.
No so good.
Fast forward to 2011 and the usual suspects are ranked near the top by Rivals: Alabama, USC, Texas, LSU et all. But low and behold, lurking now at #25 are the defending Rose Bowl Champions from Fort Worth. This begs the obvious chicken and the egg question: Do you crack the recruiting rankings because of your recruits, or are your recruits now given better star ratings because of the success of your program?
Regardless, Gary Patterson and the Horned Frogs aren’t complaining. They’ll keep doing things exactly the way they’ve been doing them.
It ain’t broke.
Ditto for Chris Peterson and the Broncos. Rivals says they have the second best class in the Mountain West Conference this season. Somehow I doubt that Coach Pete is too worried about how many stars his incoming players are bringing with them.
The services say San Diego State will sign the third best MWC class and Colorado State fourth.
But you know what they will say on campuses on signing day: Everyone finished No. 1!
ALL TIMES MOUNTAIN
