Comparing the recruiting class rankings.

[Gmoney4WW]

We didn't compare too well, but neither did Houston or SMU who are working with new staffs just like us. Never expected to compete with Cincy or UCF this quickly. just thought I'd check it out. Was a little shocked to see Justin Fuente didn't get any more bounce off of last season.

Pacer Recruiting Comparison

 

[TulsaEye]

The good thing, Tulsa isn't last. It could have been much worse with how little time the coaching staff had to recruit with.

 

[Tulsafanzz]

If you add in our 2 transfers, Harding from Auburn & Reed from SMU, we would finish higher than Houston & probably close to SMU. Considering the coaching change, I think we did OK. We addressed our defensive backfield needs in a big way.

This post was edited on 2/4 10:00 PM by Tulsafanzz

 

[bigzit]

LOOK AT quality not quantity.... we outdid 5 AAC teams.
NOT bad considering the change over. In fact, I will argue we finished better than BB would have faired.

Good class.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

Yeah I forgot about adding in our transfer. That does make it significantly better. Thanks for reminding me fanzz. I don't know that the quality vs quantity argument does anything for me. Although I definitely can agree that our recruiting class is a big improvement over what Blankenship would have done. Nobody has any comments on Memphis?

 

[Gmoney4WW]

My guess is that we would have lost Whitfield and a whole mess of others if Blankenship had stayed.

 

['Cane-man]

To quote the acclaimed American philosopher Douglas Wojcik..."it is what it is."

A two-star who can be coached up is more valuable than a four-star headcase.

Hopefully our four-star, Chad President, will be more like our four-star Demaris Johnson than our four-star Shavodrick Beaver.

We'll know how good this class is in two or three years. What I see is that Montgomery and his staff recruited very aggressively...makes me optimistic.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

...I should have prefaced my very first post with the fact that I love our recruiting class. I just thought a nuts and bolts rating comparison was interesting to compare where we are, to where we want to be in a year or two. I hope nobody misunderstood my opinion on this recruiting class.
This post was edited on 2/4 10:40 PM by Gmoney4WW

 

[TU_BLA]

GMoney, the comparison is bizarre actually because they have classes with a lesser avg. star rating rated higher than those below them with a higher avg. star rating. It seems a little bit subjective.

IMO, we have a couple kids who are under-rated like Grotts and Hefley. Grotts absolutely OWNED a 4* tackle in the state championship and Hefley by everything I've seen projects to be a much better player than his recruiting rating.

As JJ Watt pointed out, doesn't matter what rating some arbitrary guy gives you, it's what you turn the opportunity into. Watt was a 2* that ended up at Central Michigan, same with Antonio Brown. Those 2 guys were all NFL players this year.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[astonmartin708]

Hefley was ranked behind another Arkansas QB who signed with our new (old) rival Cincinnati and was rated substantially higher on both rivals and 247sports. They met in the Arkansas state title game where Hefley thoroughly out performed his higher ranked counterpoint while winning the state title. The rankings are really dumb sometimes.

 

[cmullinsTU]

It's important to keep in mind in years past, including the Graham era, were middle to bottom of our conference in these ratings. That never stopped us from being highly competitive in conference.

In regards to Hefley it's still odd to me that he's a 2 star but is 1 of 11 HS QBs selected to the All America team.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Muskogee9]

Say what you want..............The QB position, is one area you must send out a play maker on Saturdays. Well, we just signed two highly rated QB's (a 4-star & a HS All-American) in this class. I believe that should elevate this class slightly higher but time will tell.

 

[alchemy]

It is interesting to note that cold weather schools landed exactly "zero" 5 star recruits.

 

[aTUfan]

I tend to judge the value of a player based on the other schools interested in him.

 

[lawpoke87]

aTUfan posted on 2/5/2015...


I tend to judge the value of a player based on the other schools interested in him.

________________________________________

^^^This.....except replace "interested in" with "offered". You can tell a lot about a kid based on who wants him. Kids are overlooked in the process but if schools like Louisville comes calling you can bet the kid has talent. Petrino may be a shadeball but he can evaluate talent. Excited to have Whitfield in the fold. The biggest issue I have with this class is that I don't think it's very deep. However, that's to be expected with a new staff scrambling to get numbers. I would expect next year's class to rank considerably higher than 9th.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

I have this to say and then I'm thru talking bout it. All the arguments everybody seems to be making against this rating system could very easily be made for the majority of teams rated low, and probably rated high as well. There are a couple of issues I have problems with this from the get go, one of which is that teams who have a signing class equally rated per athlete of 26 players ranks higher than a class of equally rated players for a class of 18. It is simply a flawed ranking system(as are probably almost every other ranking systems) in some form or fashion. But it is rivals ranking system, and we are always talking about rivals rankings, so I found it interesting to look at. I found it very interesting because it ranked SMU, Houston, and Tulsa on the approximate same level, all who just hired good new coaches who are under similar time constraints. I don't expect nor necessarily desire that we have 12 or 15 3* players, but it will be nice when Montgomery has a season under him and the same time constraints as the majority of other coaches, when he will probably bring in at LEAST twice as many 3* players.(6 considering Harding) You can tear apart, or build up just about any subjective rating system. I find it of more merit to point out as an aside it's deficiencies, but at the same time talk about it's merits, and how they rank us high or low.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

Originally posted by lawpoke87:

aTUfan posted on 2/5/2015...




I tend to judge the value of a player based on the other schools interested in him.

________________________________________

^^^This.....except replace "interested in" with "offered". You can tell a lot about a kid based on who wants him. Kids are overlooked in the process but if schools like Louisville comes calling you can bet the kid has talent. Petrino may be a shadeball but he can evaluate talent. Excited to have Whitfield in the fold. The biggest issue I have with this class is that I don't think it's very deep. However, that's to be expected with a new staff scrambling to get numbers. I would expect next year's class to rank considerably higher than 9th.

I AGREE completely with lawpoke & aTU fans point. I feel that there are advantages and circumstances TU had with Harding, Reed, & President that brought them here, aside from that we don't know with any certainty who pursued them. The only recruit/transfers left, Anderson and Whitfield, were 3* or better. Of the two remaining 3*, it was a 50/50 pursuit/non pursuit. Not a big enough sample to make much of a argument on one way or the other. All I can say is with the recruiting rankings we have, and who was pursuing, we know Whitfield is a helluva recruit.(TU fan politically correct statement

)
This post was edited on 2/5 11:09 AM by Gmoney4WW

 

[aTUfan]

There were no 5 star players on either Super Bowl team.

 

[2PoorTUFans]

Originally posted by aTUfan:

There were no 5 star players on either Super Bowl team.

in the starting lineups. Off the top of my head, New England has former 5 star QB Garrett Gilbert as their 3rd stringer, and I think Chrstine Michael is still on the Seahawks roster.

 

[Oregon alum]

Oregon will always remember a 3 star lightly recruited player named Marcus Mariota.

 

[TUTigerCane]

Originally posted by Oregon alum:
Oregon will always remember a 3 star lightly recruited player named Marcus Mariota.

So will Memphis which was the only other school to give him an offer.

 

[Tulsafanzz]

An avg. * rating for a class, instead of total points for a class, would be a more accurate measure. TU's avg. * rating was 2.22 with our 18 signees, & 2.35 including our transfers. TU finished 7th in that rating, 6th including our transfers.

Another flaw in the ratings is what I call the "Drama King" factor. Players who like the attention & play schools against each other to get more offers will be rated higher than players who commit early to their favorite team & tell other schools "no thanks".

 

[TUGrant]

Austin Chadwick was having quite a solid rant against people overvaluing the current rating system. He referenced Grotts and the fact that he didn't have any stars until Tulsa offered. His main example was how Grotts manhandled the kid who ended up getting picked up by Nebraska. He essentially said the star system is majorly flawed in favor of the kids who go to camp after camp and run good 40s and less about how they actually perform on the field.

He also, without naming names, pointed out that there is a kid in the Tulsa area who is a 3 star recruit but he does not even start for his football team.

 

[noble cane]

Originally posted by TUTigerCane:

Originally posted by Oregon alum:
Oregon will always remember a 3 star lightly recruited player named Marcus Mariota.

So will Memphis which was the only other school to give him an offer.

And everyone will forget him when he becomes a mediocre pro....

 

[TU_BLA]

Was Gilbert actually on the active roster or just a practice squad player? He didn't exactly pan out like you would hope a 5* would in college either.

Whitfield is going to be a monster player. You don't have Minnesota (B1G) and Louisville (ACC) pressuring a kid until the actual moment of signing unless he is special. BB recognized it last year and was in on him quickly. (Some props to BB and his staff for some of the kids in the mix like Michael Anderson, Hefley, and Whitfield). Had Anderson and Whitfield had 3* by their names from the beginning TU would have had to fight off some more suitors.

BTW, did anyone see Whitfield's tweet earlier defending his decision. Tells me some over-zealous fans have gotten on him about his decision. Kid has his senses about him. It's time for TU fans to support him and welcome him.