Recruiting is so fucking stupid. It makes my eyes bleed.
First though, is that seriously a Maryland hat at Joe McKnight's table over there? Are you kidding me? And what's with those cheesy rings on his fingers? Did he get one for every grade he passed?
I'll try not to belabor the point here but the amount of attention that gets paid to the recruitment of kids in high school is INSANE. Perhaps you can chalk it up as an extension of the entertainment we all get out of college football. It's just a way to keep score when there are no games being played. You certainly get the feeling sometimes that there are college football fans out there that pay more attention to the number of stars next to a kids name as they do the numbers in the win-loss column.
Is recruiting important to college football (and basketball programs)? Of course. It's vital in fact. You simply cannot sustain any success at the highest level without getting the best athletes. Is Pete Carroll a great football coach? It's certainly debatable. Is he one of the best recruiters of all time? I think so.
To reduce the whole process to some sort of mathematical formula is beyond ludicrous though. How many five-star recruits do you think Navy had on the field this year? If you count the hairs on my head you'll get the same number, ZERO. Guess what? They won TEN games this season and wrapped things up by kicking the shit out of Missouri in their bowl game. Oh, some of you may have noticed they took Ohio State to the wire in The 'Shoe earlier in the season also.
Did Navy play for the national title? No. And they're not going to anytime soon either. The point, that I will now pound into the ground, is that using some sort of formula to figure out if one recruiting class is definitively better than another is like saying red is clearly better than blue. Huh? Exactly.
The University of Cincinnati, Boise State University, and Texas Christian University all have what in common? No Top 25 recruiting classes four years ago at any of those schools. How many regular season losses amongst those schools last season? ZERO. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
And credit where credit is due, ESPN's Pat Forde discusses this topic in his latest column with appropriate candor.
In addition to highlighting the accomplishments of UC, BSU and TCU, Forde also gives us the following nuggets in reference to 2006 recruiting classes:
USC had the No. 2 class and just finished its worst season since 2001. Georgia was No. 4 and performed so poorly that Mark Richt had to shake up his staff and has himself edged toward the hot seat. Notre Dame was No. 5 and fired its coach. Florida State was No. 6 and got its legendary coach pushed into retirement.
My two favorite examples recruiting rankings and their relative lunacy in regards to Ohio State football are as follows; Mike D'Andrea, AJ Hawk, Justin Zwick, Troy Smith. Two of those guys were headline super-recruits, the other two were signing day afterthoughts. I probably don't need to point out that the afterthoughts turned out to be a Top 5 NFL Draft pick and a Heisman Trophy winner respectively.
Here's another blast from the past. Anyone remember Derek Morris? Another stud recruit that generated far more attention off the field than he ever did on it. A mammoth offensive lineman out of North Carolina, Morris committed to Ohio State, showed up in Columbus with a questionable academic record and then quickly turned around headed back home amidst much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth.
Mr. Morris wound up at North Carolina State, played three unremarkable seasons, left early for the NFL, went undrafted, and has never been able to make a training camp roster. So basically the high water mark for this guy was his senior year of high school, as it is for so many touted recruits.
There are just as many "busts" out there as there are heralded recruits that live up to the hype. Don't get me wrong here, recruiting is paramount to success. You bring in 20 studs, you're probably going to have a better chance than the team that brings in two. At the end of the day though, to split hairs amongst the top recruiting classes is a waste of time the likes of which we rarely see. Move along people...
