FanPost

The Football Recruiting Cyclone



Impressive, 16 commitments for 2012 before the 2011 season even starts....patterns seem to be emerging.

I dont care that a lot of these kids are 2-3 star recruits tops, and many are as of now unrated.  I also like that:

  1. Almost all are team captains, or will be their senior years.
  2. Almost all have a very high GPA in high school, many are part of honors societies. 
  3. Almost all want to obtain an advanced degree at SU and cite that as one of their reasons for attending
  4. All of them comment how much they like the coaching staff, and their vision for balancing college goals, community service, and football.

Observation?  Marrone doesnt necessarily want or need freaky athletes, he wants smart kids who he can mold into smart men and football players.  I feel like a lot of the 4-5 star kids are the freaky above-average high school players that really stand out since their game is already elevated above high school play, but that game doesnt seem in large part to always translate to college, and not because of their athletics, but a lot of times their flaws are overlooked earlier since they are such good athletes.  Future criminals, below average grades and other behavioral issues seem to derail a lot of these top flight recruits once they get into college. 

Unlike basketball where players can become pro-ready faster in many cases,  most football players will NEED to spend 4 years in strength and conditioning and training to get ready for the NFL,and that means you need to cut it academically to stay eligible, and also keep your nose clean.  It seems like a lot of the 4-5 star recruits at the bigger schools either wash out early or don't get the playing time since deep benches are the rule at a lot of elite/premiere football schools.  (Its a good problem to have, but that means you shelve a lot of talent that could be playing somewhere else). 

Given, that's not across the board and does a disservice to many many great 4-5 star players to make that sort of generalization, but I just wanted to say that getting 4-5 star recruits isnt the end-all be-all of college football.   Thats also not to say that Syracuse in the last couple of years hasn't had their share of washouts due to academics and behavioral or legal problems.

With that being said, the 2010 NFL Draft 1st round by the numbers: (6) 5 Star Players, (14) 4 Star Players, (5) 3 Star Players, (6) 2 Star Players, (1) NR Player

So while 20 were 4-5 star recruits, and 12 were 3 or less, it would seem on the surface that yeah, a lot more 4-5 star recruits get into the NFL.  But how many 4-5 star recruits were in the 2006 high school class?  About 120.  So there were a lot of kids that washed out after high school with those rankings.  I'm not really trying to make a point, just provide a little perspective that your odds as a 2-3 star recruit aren't that much worse for going pro if that's your wish, or proving your recruiting class is a success, that determination can only be made in retrospect.

Coach Mac seemed to be the same type of coach looking for the same type of players, so its no coincidence that Marrone takes a lot of cues from him.

So what do you think of the recruiting effort so far?