Football Recruiting Primer

Football Recruiting General NCS Football27

Tomorrow is college football signing day, so we thought that we would offer up a quick, relevant entry on the topic. This will require your clicking to previous links.

Our own Bayou Bengal asked the question, “Does Recruiting Matter?” last year in a good piece.

There seems to be different ways to judge the answer to this question

* Rivals gets it right is a really good analysis at some of the individual projections of past years.

* The Wizard of Odds is tackling the topic today in this entry that focuses on this great article from a San Diego newspaper. There is a nice .pdf file associated in the article that includes both NC State and UNC-CH.

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Football Recruiting General NCS Football

27 Responses to Football Recruiting Primer

  1. noah 02/06/2007 at 5:14 PM #

    Yes, it matters a great deal if you take the long view.

    Tomorrow, we’ll assemble a pretty mediocre class. I would bet that about half of the kids in it will help win us some games. And I would bet that the other half hold the bench down and keep it from flying up when someone gets up to go in the game.

    As long as we rebound and come back next year with better results, we’ll be fine.

    I’m troubled by the amount of success Davis had at Carolina. I’m hoping he takes that Arkansas job sooner rather than later.

  2. RedTerror29 02/06/2007 at 5:21 PM #

    It also depends on the strength of a coach as a recruiter. Butch’s strength will be getting big name recruits. TOB’s strength is his ability to evaluate talent. We may not have as highly rated classes as UNC, but it doesn’t mean we won’t come out ahead.

  3. statered 02/06/2007 at 5:34 PM #

    “We may not have as highly rated classes as UNC, but it doesn’t mean we won’t come out ahead.”

    Well red if you take the long view then yes it does. You can’t count on consistently being “smarter” than rest of the college football world.

  4. IrishPackFan 02/06/2007 at 5:46 PM #

    In TOB’s defense, Butch “I’m-Native-American-I-Promise” Davis had more time to pull together a class than that of our beloved coach. Red is right in that TOB is an outstanding evaluator. Just look at the product of the mediocre classes he assembled at a private institution geared towards religion. Consistantly winning with those classes could only mean better recruiting classes down here at NCSU. I honestly can’t wait to see him in action next year. He will be butting heads with Butch and Spurier for kids just in the Carolinas alone! It’s a shame that football season is 6+ months away…*sigh* What the Hell am I gonna do once March Madness is done?!?

  5. RedTerror29 02/06/2007 at 5:52 PM #

    As a caveat, TOB will need to show he can bring in better talent at State than he did at BC. Logically, he should, but he still has to actually do it.

  6. Gene 02/06/2007 at 5:57 PM #

    Just look at the product of the mediocre classes he assembled at a private institution geared towards religion.

    From what I read, the mediocre classes at BC were a product of a limited football recruiting base in the New England area and subpar facilities.

    With the larger recruiting base NCSU has to work with and better facilities, I’d be interested to see if he can put together better recruiting classes and get some big name recruits.

  7. Sam92 02/06/2007 at 6:08 PM #

    are we in the running for anybody tomorrow, or are we done?

  8. vtpackfan 02/06/2007 at 6:13 PM #

    We need help at OL and from what I’ve seen is coming in we’re doing just fine. Let’s hipe they get redshirted (especially Sam Jones from Fuquay if in fact he signs tommarrow) and mature into the the program similiar to TOB’s OL’s at BC, and WF’s teams. I’m not all that consumed with big rating out of the recruiting right now as long as a process of evaluation, maturation, and execution comes into play here over the next few years.

  9. burnbarn 02/06/2007 at 6:21 PM #

    I have heard we are done.

  10. class of 74 02/06/2007 at 6:44 PM #

    Well we supposedly out recruited UNC during Amato’s years and that didn’t seem to matter too much in our games with them so who can say. Personally the matchup of Davis and TOB should be awesome to watch unfold over the next four or five years. I really would be surprised if one or the other dominates in recruiting or records over their tenure.

  11. Woof Wolf 02/06/2007 at 6:54 PM #

    I heard CTC was trying to steal Dominique Ellis, Anyone know anything about how that’s going to end up.

  12. noah 02/06/2007 at 7:16 PM #

    Sam Jones isn’t going to qualify. I think he’s hargrave bound.

    Ellis is fine. We’re sweating Jonathan Hannah tomorrow.

    BTW, if you haven’t heard…Carolina is going to sign the #1 DT in the country tomorrow.

    (dammit)

  13. Buddygreen 02/06/2007 at 9:43 PM #

    The proof of recruiting is in the results. Wake Forest won the ACC and never had a top 25 Class. Lots of school put up lofty numbers as our own Amato and Bunting did. Those two were also at the top of the league in players leaving or not beign there in five years. Many schools will have ranked classes tomorrow but will have several kids not even qualify come this fall and go elsewhere. I think this is a great post recruiting is all about getting a talented kid that is going to get in school and be there four to five years. Our own Amato was not good at red shirting either due to always being thin own bodies given recruits that didn’t qualify or left school, we played too many freshman.

    I don’t think it is fair to judge TOB this year. Most of our class and Butch Davis’ class is made up of recruits that had already verbaled to Amato and Bunting. Just shows that Amato was not going to have a big recruiting year when Bunting was actually on his way to a good recruiting year and Butch stepped in and will reap the reward. But I do think TOB knows all about recruiting and will target kids that he thinks that will get in school and will be here for graduation. A three star recruit that red shirts and plays five year trumps a four or five star recruit that does not qualify or leaves school after a year. TOB is all about building a solid team lets watch him do it and trust that he knows what he is doing. Most new coaches don’t have highly ranked recruiting classes their first year I didn’t expect we would this year with such short time to recruit.

  14. class of 74 02/07/2007 at 6:12 AM #

    ^I totally agree with your sentiments.

  15. BoKnowsNCS71 02/07/2007 at 8:07 AM #

    While 5 star players are great I just have to look at the data in the news and Observer today that shows the recruiting rankings by year since 2002 and scratch my head.

    Wake Forest recrutiing class rankings in the ACC starting in 2002 were 8th, 7th, 10th, 11th, and 12th — and won the ACC Championship and went to a BCS Bowl.

    Georgia Tech was 7th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 10th and played for the ACC Championship and went to a good bowl game.

    Seems to me — what matters most is what has been said above, these players mature and gain experience but the ability of the coaching staff plays a major role. We have a great coaching staff in TOB et al and he’s going to bring some that to the table.

  16. BoKnowsNCS71 02/07/2007 at 8:30 AM #

    Noah SI has the #1 DT with multiple choices still listed. FYI
    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/highschool/01/18/rivals.100/index.html?cnn=yes

  17. branjawn 02/07/2007 at 9:12 AM #

    Today looks pretty decent so far, through 12 signings.

  18. noah 02/07/2007 at 9:31 AM #

    Hannah apparently is going to FSU. Frankly, I’m fine with that. Let’s see…he committed to us and to Carolina and then to S. Carolina. And then he was going to transfer here…whoops, didn’t have the grades, so he goes to Louisburg and then he’s coming here and now he’s going to FSU.

    WHATEVER.

    Committing to Florida State to play TE is like committing to Hawaii to play fullback.

    If they ever throw him the ball, he better catch it…it might just be the only one.

  19. noah 02/07/2007 at 9:38 AM #

    And Carolina is getting Greg Little out of Hillside.

    This isn’t a knock on O’Brien, who basically had no shot at a quality class this year.

    But we’re obviously behind Carolina in talent and ability. We haven’t beaten them in four years. And they are taking MANY steps forward today while we’re standing still.

    I’ve basically resigned myself to the fact that Carolina basketball is going to be a top-five program from now until Roy Williams retires. I don’t know how I’m going to react to Carolina actually having a strong football program as well.

  20. BoKnowsNCS71 02/07/2007 at 9:40 AM #

    Houston Nutt’s luster is still fading with the razorbacks. Keep hope alive!

  21. choppack1 02/07/2007 at 9:47 AM #

    Noah – Wasn’t Little committed elsewhere? It looks like Butch is putting together a huge recruiting class. Scary, really.

  22. noah 02/07/2007 at 9:48 AM #

    That’s the thing that pisses me off to no end. I know that my best bet is just to wait for the great coaches at our rival schools to die, retire, or find other employment.

    I have to wait for everyone to sink to us.

    Argh.

  23. newt 02/07/2007 at 10:08 AM #

    I don’t worry too much about recruiting rankings in football because there is not the clear correlation between recruiting rankings and success like in basketball.

    That said, UNC got a jump on us this year because they fired their coach mid-season; however, I think we have the better coach and the better program long term.

  24. BoKnowsNCS71 02/07/2007 at 10:09 AM #

    Ellis signed his LOI with NC state. Sorry CTC.

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  1. StateFans Nation » Blog Archive » Football Signing Day - State Talent - 02/07/2007

    […] It is signing day! So, why not run an in-depth piece on talent and recruiting (as a follow-up to this entry with some great links in it) […]

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