Newsome: Good! Rest of Class: ???

If this class rounds out with at least Brown and Exum, we will have addressed most of our needs going forward. Adding Jenkins would be gravy and would put us in the stratosphere. If you look on Scout we have the 10th rated class right now. It’s all subjective. Rivals is pretty down on Mark Arcidiacono and The Drake, both which are believed to be pretty damn good players by most of PSU. Arc had a bunch of good offers I don’t know why he’s so low, but I digress.

It doesn’t really matter. We have a great class coming in that has filled most of our needs. Let’s hope the coaches coach them up and let’s win a few consecutive Big Ten titles.

You have to be careful looking in absolutes like that. Rankings can sometimes offer guidance but filling holes with players who fit into your program cannot be measured with star rankings. On top of that, offensive linemen and kickers are strong in this class but those guys are never going to be more than three stars simply b/c of their position.

USC has made a habit of picking up a lot of skill players, but when they have three five star running back in one class? Is that better than three four star guys at four different positions?

Everything needs to be put in context.

Star rankings mean almost nothing. The landscape is littered with five star recruits that busted and two star recruits that went on to become All American first round draft picks. Charlie Weis brought in a top five class a few years ago loaded with five star kids. Half of them have either left the program or have yet to see the field.

Recruiting is a big part of the game, but so is developing that talent. Some guys are great recruiters but they can’t do anything with that talent. Think Weis and Ron Zook. Other guys excel at finding unrecognized talent and developing it into the kind of player he needs. I would put Joe Paterno up against anyone in the latter category.

The key thing is we’re recruiting kids at positions of need. That’s way better than taking a walk on kid and throwing him on the field. The coaches see these kids play in person. They watch hours and hours of film on them. They invite them up to camps to work them out in person. They sit down and have dinner with their families. If at the end of the day Joe Paterno thinks he’s good enough to play for Penn State, why should we question that just because some guy on the internet only gave him three stars?

then take a look at Scout. It’s much rosier. Here’s some highlights:

1. 10th ranking overall
2. tied for 4th overall with 4 Top 100 recruits
3. 3.27 avg stars

Scout’s Team Rankings

We have 10 kids who run the forty in 4.55 or faster. We’re doing fine and the last few commits will be very strong IMO.

How many overlooked kids has PSU turned into superstars? The stars mean jack-shit. Yeah they might indicate initial talent and overall starting quality, but it’s what the school makes of them that’s the real test of what they’ll do for us. And I put full trust in our coaching staff to be able to spot talent when they see it, even if it needs to be developed a bit, and then turn the kids into players.

I know thats a good football state but all those 5 star and 4 star players from the same state? I think the rating system varies a lot from region to region depending on who is doing the star gazing.