Read this drivel from the weekend:

one sentence paragraphs

“Coxson will not be a part of this class. Done deal.”

The poster is almost always accurate with stuff like this. Ouch.

But logically, the higher the ranking means the higher the chance of success with that kid. I know Royster and DC17 were not highly ranked and turned out to be awesome, while some 5* kids turn out to be huge busts. But I have to imagine those are the exceptions, not the rules. I’m not big on star rankings either, but they are a good/rough estimate of how a good will be. However, that’s only half the battle. How the kid is coached is more important, which brings us back to WHY Royster and DC17 were great.

like DWill, Bowman and Maybin..

there’s always guys at Penn State like Poz, Clark, Royster and Deon Butler that make star rankings silly.

Does anybody remember what MRob was ranked at? Scout doesn’t go back that far.

I mean recruiting rankings are no exact science, but check out the Rivals top 100 from 2005 or 2006 and see how many of those guys are in the NFL right now. You might be impressed.

Isn’t necessarily the star rankings themselves, but who these guys look at. It is always going to be tough to gauge how a kid will succeed at the next level. The rankings are more about who has the better physical tools, and doesn’t take into account mental things, coaching staff ability, injuries and other miscellaneous stuff.

The bigger problem for me is that they can’t evaluate every single kid. Certain areas, especially in the south, Texas, Western PA, etc will always have more analysis because the HS football is bigger there. Since we recruit heavily in the northeast, a lot of our guys won’t get the same attention and their talents are often overlooked as they do not play in hotbeds. Some kid out of Lancaster County may be physichally gifted enough, but wasn’t playing on a big stage and thus didn’t receive his dues.

the talent evaluators at the schools do the real work.

However, there’s definite coorelation between recruiting classes and success on the field. The star system actually works, just not all the time :-)

Three to four star recruit depending upon the recruiting service and he was a hellified athlete (you don’t get a ship offer from Johns Hopkins in Lacrosse if your not). B. Carter was a four star RB recruit that year too so we had a good running back class. PSU always gets good backs no matter what people say. Redd looks like the real deal so whether we get Lattimore or not we are in good shape. That said would love to have Mr. Lattimore be the next great Penn Stater from the Palmetto State!

It’s like we know we’re back and now everyone is starting to realize that the sleeping lion is fully awake and ready to go.

Lattimore is supposedly down to Oregon and PSU…I read this yesterday on the ever so reliable internet (sarcasm), but cannot remember where I had seen it, or I would cite the source (my apologies). I’ve been following recruiting for a long time, and not that that makes me an expert or anything, but this scenario with Lattimore has played out before. Royster sticking around will cost us this kid…but you never know…stranger things have happened on signing day. I surely hope I am wrong and we get this kid. He’s a good kid and could be a huge asset for this program.

Thornton will be at Penn State and so will Pullium (which everyone knows anyhow).

Coxson is not exactly an exemplary citizen…and it played a big part in him not being a Nittany Lion.

and Scout was a 3/4* DE. So who knows, if he’s versatile its a good thing.