Updated Rivals Top 100 Florida

[Rizman]

Rankings are a starting point, but we have all seen a player that is not ranked that takes the NCAA by storm.  I played with one during my stint at USF soccer.  Then we have all seen the player who is ranked high and does nothing.  Now, I think that rankings gives us a pool and we want to have a mix of ranked and unranked players and we will find the gem.  I like that LeRoy Selmon said, next year is going to be USF's best year.  I really thought USF was going to not do well last year and low and behold, Matt Grothe was a suprise.  We need more of that.

Go Bulls

[bulls96go]

if ford pans out at a position of need it will make us so much better,

but if you get a 5 star when you don't have a glaring need i think the impact is not felt nearly as much.

[BigShoop]

Ruger hit the nail on the head.

[BullBlood]

The fact that we are getting FLA talent is way underemphasized.  Every weekend you hear commentators talking about how teams like Rut/WF/GT/etc, etc are stockpiled with "Florida talent."  Many of these kids were 2 or 3 star guys but they certainly have the ability.  We are lucky that 95% of our team is from the state regardless of their 2-star status.

The recruiting has definitely gotten progressively better.  In the 1-A ind years we were playing kids that were recruited as 1-AA players.  In CUSA we were playing with kids recruited as 1-A ind players.  In the BE we've been playing with kids who were recruited as CUSA players.  In the next year or two, our talent level will finally catch up to our competition level.  We have never experienced this before, so i'm excited as hell to see how that plays out. ;D

[JoeB]

Florida talent normally refers to speed.  Which is pretty big in the college game.  You can basically have a game breaker RB at 5'9 play all four years in college, where as the pro game he'd be lucky to make a roster.

[windbane]

Leavitt has been a better job than I think anyone ever thought, but let's not look through our homer glasses too much.  Recruiting services are generally right the majority of the time and the way you build a BCS champion is to stockpile these guys.  How many of our 2 and 3 star guys are in the NFL?  How many were invited to the Senior Bowl?

anthony henry and k mitchell I believe.  nicholas could have been invited but apparently it was a deep position and we'll see where he gets drafted.

anyway, I like to think of the rankings in terms of percentages.  I think there is a higher percent chance that a 5-star guy will perform than a 2-star.  I think leavitt and staff has done a great job finding higher-than-usual percentage guys that were underrated, but of course getting more 4 and 5 star plays will be nice. until then we can recognize that a lot of our players are underrated and we'll be just fine.  

I also think that recruiting rankings for schools only tells you a lot if you are seperated by a good amount, and you can really only tell the effect of a class after a few years as many have said before.

[Joe]

Winbane is a Genius and to prove it I did some research and stayed an extra 15 minutes at work.

1 Adrian Peterson - Top 5 Pick of this year's Draft

2 Theodore Ginn, Jr - 1st Round pick

3 Early Doucet - Top returning WR for LSU, had over 700 yards and 8 TDs this year; Top return man.

4 Rhett Bomar - Was slated to be Oklahoma's starting QB until...

5 Keith Rivers - One of the best defensive players in the country will be a 1st rounder in 2008.

6 Willie Williams - Jury's out, we'll see how he does in UL; tons of talent...no discipline

7 Brandon Miller - Decided to stay at UGA will be a 1st day NFL pick

8 Derrick Harvey - Recorded 3 sacks in the National Title game; returning to UF

9 Jeff Schweiger Jr. - Starts for USC

10 Xavier Lee - Played the worst on the list so far.

11 DeMario Pressley - Starting DL at NC State

12 Anthony Morelli - Starting QB, Penn State

13 Chad Henne - Starting QB, Michigan

14 Kyle Williams - Starting OT at USC

15 Chris Patterson - Bad grades, Started at Oklahoima this year

16 Matthew Tuiasosopo - Decided to play Baseball

17 Cameron Colvin - injuries have hampered his junior season.

18 Franklin Okam - Starting DT, All Big 12

19 Fred Davis - Starting TE USC

20 Jeff Byers - Severe Hip Injury has pretty much hampered career, will start for USC next year if ok. Started some this season.

21 Lance Leggett - Leading receiver on Miami

23 Thomas Herring - Still a RS Freshman because of blowing his knee out twice.

24 Dan Connor - Behind Rivers the best LB in teh country next year; NFL 1st rounder in 08

25 Brian Toal - Starting LB at BC.

Now that I've stayed at work an extra 15 minutes. Most 5 stars work out to be at least 3 star level. In most cases they are some of the best in the country (Bush, Peterson, Young, etc)

I think that the top 100 list on recruiting sites is usually pretty good, because most these guys are can't miss. However, It's the lower guys they get wrong, guys end up a lot better than those site think more often that the reverse.

[nukebull]

Joe

Am I missing something? you agreed with him and made his point.

[CRBULL]

That's what I thought too. To me, Joe's list seems to show how the five stars have the highest probability of success, as Windbane stated. The only thing better would be to take the top 25 pics by national ranking from the four, three, and two star ranked players as well and compare the success rates across all four. I have a strong feeling Windbane would be correct in his assumption. In our case though, as Windbane stated, I don't think that means one coach couldn't be better than other coaches at identifying the players of lower rankings that are more likely to succeed than other players with the same low ranking.

[Joe]

Ah jeez, It's this flu I'm coming down with.

Wind, might I give you my Full and Unwavered apology. I thought you said "I  think there is a higher percent chance that a 5-star guy will perform like a 2-star."

Sorry. I would delete the post, but I spent so much time on it.