"Stars? I don't need no stinkin' stars"

[NormalBull]

;D  Great story from the local rag in Bloomington/Normal, IL.  Omar Clayton quarterbacked Normal Community High School to the 6A state championship last year.  He received no scholarship offers from D-1 schools.  He walked on at UNLV and was 5th on the depth chart when fall practices started.  He moved to 3rd on the depth chart when the season started.  Last week he started and threw for 300 yards and rushed for over 120.  He has gone from unrecruited walk on to D-1 starter as a true frosh in 3 months.  The UNLV staff has awarded him a scholarship.  Not bad for a no star, unrecruited player.  Stars ain't everyone kiddies.

Normal

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/10/25/sports/doc472027a5ba100003968591.txt

[SANJAY]

Anyone who saw the OTL segment this past weekend should know that stars do not mean everything.  The interviewer asked George Selvie whether he had a stack of college offers and Selvie responded, "Nope, D2 schools and South Florida."  Bill Buchalter with  the Sentinel and a recruiting guru was the next clip and he said that he never heard of George Selvie, Selvie never appeared on any recruiting lists ever and here he was probably the best college player in Florida this year.

[Ruger7mmmag]

Stars don't mean everything, but if you look at the teams who consistently load up year after year with 10+ win seasons without much trouble, you'll find they have a good number of 4 and 5 star players.

YEs, you can get a Selvie or Grothe that slips through the cracks, but when you talk about a recruiting class of 20-25 guys, you are nuts if you think you'll have more "hits" than misses if you took a full boat load of 4/5s vs 2/3s like we've been having.

Coaching is great, but it can only get you so far with the biggest difference being on offense.  WIth defense, adhering to a scheme and discipline can make up for physical talent differences.  On offense, you can't teach speed, height and hands and footwork into someone if they aren't born with it.  Not to the level of someone who was born with all the tools.

I'm extremely happy with the players we have, but there's no doubt in my mind if Leavitt had a few more guys who were 5 star type players, this team would be undefeated bc that small difference is what cost us that RU game and made some of those others close. 

[SANJAY]

Ruger, statistically you are right.  I would rather have a team of 4-stars than a team of 2-stars.  However, for individual players stars are meaningless.  Also, I would rather have our current staff which is coaching players up than most staffs who are unable to do the same with much more talented teams, see current FSU staff.

[tampaboi07]

I understand what you are saying but there are others teams that pull in top rated classes and they still struggle.

[SANJAY]

Well there are two different issues, one is stars and the other is class rankings.  According to Rivals we have 13 commits and 6 are 3-stars, yet we have a #66 recruiting class.  Looking at the schools ahead of us there is no correlation between stars and class rank as teams with less commits and less stars have many more points.

[Mama_Bull]

Well there are two different issues, one is stars and the other is class rankings.  According to Rivals we have 13 commits and 6 are 3-stars, yet we have a #66 recruiting class.  Looking at the schools ahead of us there is no correlation between stars and class rank as teams with less commits and less stars have many more points.

It's hard to figure out exactly how that works.

Even more head scratching is how a player like Corey Grissom is still only ranked with 2 stars by Rivals, when they write such a glowing report on him:

A Sleeper heading to South Florida: The South Florida Bulls have taken a lot of not-so-high-profile recruits and turned them into major players to help them put their program on the map.

They may have another one this year in defensive lineman Corey Grissom. Grissom is a 6-foot-2, 275-pound interior defensive lineman that will fit right in down in Tampa.

He quietly picked up double-digit offers this year and the Bulls may be getting a steal. He explodes off the ball, he keeps his pad level low and he is dominant with the bull rush.

Grissom was mainly a pass rush guy on the edge last year, but this year he moved inside and has become a more balanced defensive lineman. He has good size, good quickness and he plays hard. He is a good get for the Bulls.

http://usf.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=736998

How can he STILL be considered a "sleeper" when he has all those offers and is mentioned so highly by their top recruiting guy? I suspect they don't feel a "need" to upgrade him since he's already a verbal and USF doesn't have many subscribers on their site.

[Ruger7mmmag]

I like the sound of the guy, but is anyone else hoping to see a 300+ DL come here so we aren't so darn vulnerable to these UP THE GUT type runs?  The book is out on how to beat us so we need to adjust as well.  Or get enough depth to rotate guys depending on down/distance.

[SANJAY]

RUger the staff wants big guys who can move, not just big guys.  We have Corey Grissom committed, and he is 6'2" 275.  We are recruiting Kyrhi Thornton pretty heavily and he is 6'4" 290.  Both guys can move.

[Mama_Bull]

I like the sound of the guy, but is anyone else hoping to see a 300+ DL come here so we aren't so darn vulnerable to these UP THE GUT type runs?  The book is out on how to beat us so we need to adjust as well.  Or get enough depth to rotate guys depending on down/distance.

Yeah, I'd like to see some more size inside as well, but they don't have to be five star recruits. I'd be tickled pink to land either Kyrhi Thornton or Javontae Boyd and they are only three star players. I think it's more important to see who has "offered" them than how many stars they have.

For example, Boyd has been offered by:

School Interest Level Offer? Attended Camp? Visit Date Signed LOI?

Clemson Med Interest Yes  None 

Georgia Med Interest Yes  None 

Louisville Med Interest Yes  None 

Mississippi Med Interest Yes  None 

Rutgers Med Interest Yes  None 

South Carolina Med Interest Yes  None 

South Florida Med Interest Yes  None

http://southflorida.scout.com/a.z?s=359&p=8&c=1&nid=3029481

Rivals has Thornton listed with 3 stars but Scout has him only two. Here are the schools that offered him:

School Interest Level Offer? Attended Camp? Visit Date Signed LOI?

Mississippi Med Interest Yes  None 

Purdue Med Interest Yes  None 

South Carolina Med Interest Yes  None 

South Florida Med Interest Yes  None

http://southflorida.scout.com/a.z?s=359&p=8&c=1&nid=3247328