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Around SBN: Doug Flutie's Hail Mary, And Why College Sports Matter

There's A Star Man Waiting In The Sky

Yes, it confirms what we already knew, but it's refreshing to actually read it in a sourced quote:

In [South Carolina defensive line coach Brad] Lawing’s opinion, the rating of players and the ranking of signing classes is a scam.

"I can take a three-star and make him a four-star, and I can take a four-star and make him a three- or two-star with the contacts I have," Lawing said. "That’s how ridiculous recruiting on the Internet is. I took Chris Culliver (USC safety) from a three- to a five-star in three weeks. All you’ve got to do is talk to the right people."

Lawing added that a danger of the rating systems is the fans are sometimes misled about the talent level of a prospect and a class overall.

"There are a lot of staffs getting fired for unrealistic expectations," Lawing said.

Did you know that Pitt had the #11 class in 2006 and #8 class in 2007 according to Scout.com?  How's that working out? 

Again, this is no shock to anybody who follows college football recruiting, even on a passive basis. The star systems exist for exactly one reason -- to drive discussion and traffic on recruiting websites.  It's a creepy cottage industry that does nothing positive for college football*. And of course talking to "the right people" helps -- those people have a job to do and will bend over backwards to maintain their access, which keeps the Creep Train chugging along.

Yet, we still crave their information because, in most cases, Scout and Rivals are the most convenient place to obtain information about the kids coming into the program.  Oh, and it fills a void in the seven months without, you know, actual football.  (Unless you are going to head down to rural Virginia to check out that next can't-miss defensive end prospect, but you probably have an actual job / family / life.)

And what do we get out of the deal? Hundreds of incoming college athletes who have been spoiled and hardened by over-attention and harassing phone calls from recruiting gurus, resulting in pathetic press conferences and hat ceremonies for decisions which, in reality, mean very little. 

Small9a05cf9ddc155ada53_medium

Yeah.

Also, a set of long-range expectations for coaching staffs, built on a fluid (if you talk to the right people!), yet crumbling foundation comprised of non-coaches evaluating five minutes of highlight footage against crap competition**. 

Yet, we crave the information, just as people obsess over the MLB Hot Stove, NFL free agency, and so on.  We love the sport and need a pacifier in the months between January and August.  Recruiting is important -- let's not lose sight of that part, it's the lifeblood of the program and it's comforting to know that an incoming wide receiver can run forty yards in 4.42 seconds instead of 5.28 seconds -- but star rankings are a sham designed to increase revenue (and occasionally boost the status and access of craven, jock sniffing Notre Dame fanboys).  They're just piddling little data points, not proclamations from Football God.

* - In a sense, it's like the talking point among college football illuminati that argues against a playoff system because the current horseshit system generates so much discussion.  Yes, because it sucks.  Legitimate, widespread outrage is not a positive thing, people.

** - No slight on Mr. Dukes, who is likely to end up being a fine running back at Penn State, but come on, I think Wormser from "Revenge Of The Nerds" was a free safety in at least eight of those clips.

20060801wormser4_medium

Wormser, playing a little Cover Four.



 

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Absolutely.

Interesting he’s from South Carolina, as the South is the worst when it comes to manipulation and overexposure of star ratings. The hype is ridiculous. Take a kid from Idaho and he’s a two-star, put the same kid in Massachusetts and he’s a three-star, put him in rural Georgia and he’s a four star.

by Cairo on May 28, 2009 10:53 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Cover Four!

Wormser could fill the Rubin role in a heartbeat.

by speedomike on May 28, 2009 11:03 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

If I drank coffee

I’d need a new keyboard after the Wormser bit.

Guys like Lemming are the worst because he does them all by himself. At least Rivals and Scout are compiled rankings. Recruiting is a weird thing but it passes the time. Star Rankings are seemingly useful when looking at the total class over a period of time, but individually they are very inaccurate.

"From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explian it."

by psuphiman80 on May 28, 2009 11:05 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Maybe I'm just imagining this, but...

…has anyone else noticed that the longer a recruit holds out, the higher his ranking gets nudged upward as we approach February?

No? That’s just me?

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 11:12 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Depends

Kids who commit early may fall because they don’t get the same kind of offers early and they do later in the game. I don’t recall anything particularly outrageous from Scout. To me it’s just the early guys falling due to the lower number of prospects.

"From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explian it."

by psuphiman80 on May 28, 2009 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

That's probably it.

A kid commits to [insert school here] in June and other coaches give up on him, he ultimately gets less offers, and another undecided kid sucks up the decided kid’s attention and offers, thereby bumping up his status.

That makes sense, but it also shows how irretrievably screwed up the system is. The first kid didn’t get any worse, the second kid didn’t get any better, but the second kid is regarded as the better player because he has more offers.

Weird, weird stuff.

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

If you just focus on what PSU is getting

filling needs and such, you don’t have to shower as much after checking out the recruiting sites. If you take it to a national level, you’ll look like Pigpen.

"From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explian it."

by psuphiman80 on May 28, 2009 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Mr. SOA cares not for your star ratings

"...You know, Reemer, someday I'm gonna own a big sports bar."

by IcersGuy on May 28, 2009 11:19 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Two star recruit:

DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?

by ReadingRambler on May 28, 2009 11:21 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

FAIL, but for different reasons.

Morelli was from a run-first, run-second, run-third high school system, but had this unbelievable cannon for an arm. Other than that (and his size, I guess), there was really no reason for him to be ranked as highly as he was.

Austin Scott was legitimately unbelievable in high school, but just didn’t have the mental makeup to fully capitalize on his ability. And what did Penn State fans do, in both cases? Play Morelli instead of Robinson (and hey, in the first half of that ’05 NW game, I was there too)! Play Austin Scott instead of Hunt!

But we don’t see practices, we don’t talk to the kids in the film room, etc. Coaches know. We just yell.

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 11:28 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

It's like they say

If the coaches start listening to the fans they will soon be sitting next to tehm

How could Nixon know so little about Watergate and so much about football ?

by psupride on May 28, 2009 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

For some reason...

That made me think of a story about the Iggles from the the late 60s/early 70s

Anyway, the coach and the team at that time were both pretty bad, and the coach started getting death threats (RESISTING. URGE. TO MAKE. PHILLY. JOKE). During one of the games, he goes and sits down at the bench. All of his players get up and move away. “What the hell’s going on?”, he asks.

“Guy might not be a good shot!”

DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?

by ReadingRambler on May 28, 2009 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

darn straight we were cheering for them to pull Robinson

do you remember those first 3.5 games? esp the 1st half of nw – 4 fumbles?!

Scott lost his job to Hunt – and I think that most fans were okay with that, disappointed, but okay. His failure off the field was coupled with the non-realization of his potential – I don’t see Scott turning into a gary brown -

by PSUgirl on May 28, 2009 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

With respect to Robinson...

…I think that was a combination of his sucking throughout the early games and Morelli’s five-star ranking. There couldn’t possibly have been a worse choice for a starter, and we had this cannon-armed guy just sitting on the bench. What the hell were the coaches waiting for?

But they knew. They almost always do.

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I regret it

but at the NW game I also joined in on the Morelli chants, and yes, it was because he was a highly touted 5-star recruit, and Robinson was looking terrible in that game, up until he didn’t look terrible. I don’t think I chanted Morelli’s name the rest of the season, though ;-)

by The JuggerNitt on May 28, 2009 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Wow

I really appreciate people taking accountability for this. It wasn’t just at the NW game (my 2nd favorite PSU game seen live), but really most people wanted Morelli to play coming into the season.
I visit this site multiple times every day, but even for me sometimes the Kool Aid is a little thick. I really appreciate the honesty here.

by InScoresOfOtherGames on May 28, 2009 3:30 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I know what you're getting at

But at the same time, things have been pretty good for PSU lately. Not much to whine about.

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

test

DO YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE, DANNY?

by ReadingRambler on May 28, 2009 12:31 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

There is definitely merit to talent, but the stars, complete with 52 annual versions of each list is, I think, way more business than science.

The apologists always point to that thing SMQ did a while ago, but I’m surprised no one has questioned the logic that, because the top 25 teams on average correlate to the top 25 classes on average, star-makers are good at what they do. What if it’s all by design? Giving USC recruits more stars because they are USC recruits? Then you get your correlation without having to bother with accuracy.

But the conclusion sentence with recruits is and always will be: it’s just too creepy.

by Kevin HD on May 28, 2009 12:28 PM EDT reply actions   1 recs

Yup, Ziggy Stardust

One man doing the work of 100's for the good of 1000's

by rahpsu92 on May 28, 2009 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Sure is.

And I don’t know why, but it’s probably my favorite Bowie song.

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

That whole album

Is probably one of my top ten favorite albums of all time

by dawsonPSU10 on May 28, 2009 7:07 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

You know....

I actually prefer the Seu Jorge cover of Starman. Somehow, it just works in Portuguese.

If you want the best Bowie song ever – Panic In Detroit. Unbelievable song…. and apparently true!

by Tailgate Shogun on May 28, 2009 9:01 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Does the fact

that I recognized Logan-El immediately mean I’m more awesome than he turned out to be?

When I say to a kid, ‘Hey, get ready to get knocked on your rear end,’ I also tell him, ‘Learn. Learn why you got knocked on your rear end. --jvp

by jtothep on May 28, 2009 5:12 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Absolutely.

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 7:01 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I was waiting for someone to tell me who the hell that was.

So thanks.

What ever happened to him, btw, did he go somewhere else, and did we ever find out why he actually left?

by dawsonPSU10 on May 28, 2009 7:09 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Transferred to Towson, quit the team.

--
Black Shoe Diaries

"Never. We would never shoot nuclear weapons at Decepticons." -- Gen. Jack Jacobs

by Run Up The Score on May 28, 2009 7:11 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Poor guy

found out D1 practices were hard.

'People are about as happy as they decide they want to be'

by Pete the Streak on May 28, 2009 8:54 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah at Towson too

"From the outside looking in, you cannot understand it. From the inside looking out, you cannot explian it."

by psuphiman80 on May 28, 2009 11:50 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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