Recruiting Stars is hit or miss

[Velcro]

coaching is more important...

Boom and bust: Seminoles' 2002 recruiting class was both  

  Feb. 5, 2007

By Dennis Dodd

CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer

   

This is how a recruiting class can kill a program.

• Ten of 22 signees never make it to their senior year. Four don't qualify academically. Three transfer. A promising quarterback runs screaming into the street, calling himself God, gets pepper sprayed and eventually gives up football.

This how a recruiting class saves a program.

• At least seven signees are drafted, at least two in the first round. Seven become All-ACC.

   

Lorenzo Booker never became the star the 'Noles expected in 2002. (Getty Images)    

In 2002, that was the same class at Florida State. A bust if you consider the Seminoles bottomed out at 7-6 with fifth-year seniors from that class in 2006. A boom if you consider the likes of Lorenzo Booker are happy with themselves.

"It had nothing to do with recruits," said Booker, perhaps the nation's best prep tailback prospect in 2002. "The players continue to go out and play at the next level. People can say what they want, recruiting was never a problem. Talent was never a problem."

Florida State's '02 class was a consensus top five group nationally. It included studs like Booker, Leon Washington, Brodrick Bunkley, A.J. Nicholson and Buster Davis.

But it also included misses like running back Thomas Clayton (transferred to Kansas State), linebacker Nate Hardage (failed to qualify, transferred to Valdosta State) and five-star receiver Dishon Platt, who never made it academically.

Quarterback Wyatt Sexton was set to become the starter in 2005. The bizarre incident in June that year was attributed to Lyme Disease. The son of former FSU running backs coach Billy Sexton was soon out of football.

Taken altogether, though, the class was a success even if only half the players became serviceable contributors. Bobby Bowden's '02 group helped lead FSU to three ACC titles and three BCS bowls through 2006.

"(In a typical class), 10 are going to make it, 10 aren't," said CSTV recruiting expert Tom Lemming. "There are academics, social life, injuries. The truth is the more blue chips you have, the better off you are."

FSU had those blue chips -- six five-star guys in '02. It averaged almost nine wins per season in Booker's five. Almost any school in the country would consider that an overwhelming recruiting success five years ago.

FSU is one of those "almosts." Beginning when the class of 2002 came in, Bowden began suffering the consequences of losing two of his best recruiters (and assistants) -- Mark Richt (in 2001, Georgia) and Chuck Amato (2000, N.C. State). The ACC expanded, making it harder to win. FSU still won but lost at least three games in all three championship seasons, five in two of them.

Maybe, just maybe, Bowden and staff didn't work as hard during that time. Heard that one before? Half of the rivals.com top 10 in 2002 either won or played for national championships or went undefeated (Miami, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Texas, Auburn). What a strange, strange place, then, FSU is in.

"If you want to compare us to every other college in America, we're fine," Booker said from Sarasota, Fla., where he is training for the NFL Draft. "If you compare us to FSU, which is all that matters to us, yeah, we're on the decline right now."

Decline? That's a relative word when it comes to recruiting. The FSU class that will sign Wednesday is rated somewhere around No. 40 nationally, one of the lowest rankings for Bowden in years.

But what will it mean in four or five years?

DODD'S TOP '07 CLASSES  

1. Florida  

2. Texas  

3. Tennessee  

4. USC  

5. LSU  

6. Notre Dame  

7. South Carolina  

8. Georgia  

9. Nebraska  

10. Auburn  

The stubborn Bowden finally addressed the decline (or whatever it is) changing five coaches this offseason, four on the offensive side. You don't need a Seminole-to-English dictionary to decode Booker.

The players were there. Jeff Bowden's play calling/leadership wasn't. Bowden resigned as offensive coordinator under pressure last year, getting a nice $537,000 golden parachute from boosters who appreciated his last name, if nothing else.

"I'm not going to sit up and say it was all Jeff's fault, but I'm not going to say it was 50-50 (either)," Booker said. "If that person is going to tell us it's all our fault, that's where I have a problem.

"Most of the time it happened, we'd come into a meeting room. He'd come into the meeting and say, 'You should have done better.' Pardon my French but that was bull----."

Booker has been characterized as a bit underachieving himself considering his recruiting hype. He never rushed for 1,000 yards but takes pride in a career that fell just short of both 2,400 yards rushing and 1,000 receiving.

"Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson, go out and put up those kinds of numbers," Booker said. "You either sink or swim. I stopped worrying about it. Now that I look back, I was able to do something, catching for 1,000, running for 2,000. It made me a better football player."

It was the losing that got to him, or rather the uncharacteristic Florida State losing. In his five seasons (2002-2006), the Seminoles went 43-22. In the previous five seasons, FSU lost only nine games.

After he redshirted in '02, FSU got worse each year Booker was on the field (10-3, 9-3, 8-5, 7-6). That ignited digs from cousin Curtis Richardson, who played at Idaho in the early 1990s.

"When I was going through my time, he was joking with me, looking at my coaches," Booker said. "He had (head coach) John L. Smith, Scott Linehan (now coach of the Rams). He'd say, 'My coaches were better than yours.'"

At Idaho?

Looking back at the Class of 2002

Good? Bad? Judge for yourself. This is what happened to Florida State's 2002 class of 22 recruits. (The stars assigned to each player are ratings from rivals.com).

Chris Anderson, DL (four stars): Failed to qualify, went to prep school and eventually landed at Middle Tennessee.

Lorenzo Booker, TB (five): Franchise-type back was Parade's No. 1 running back in the nation. While showing signs of greatness, Booker never became the breakout talent he was projected to be. His career rushing high of 887 yards came as a sophomore.

Chris Bradwell, DT (four): Failed to qualify out of high school, went to prep school. He showed up back at FSU in 2004 and registered one tackle. He was kicked off the team in February 2005.

Brodrick Bunkley, DL (four): Capped off a solid career by becoming a first-round pick of the Eagles (14th overall) in the 2006 NFL Draft.

Darrell Burston, DE (three): Played mostly as a backup in his career. Burston made 14 tackles as a senior in 2006.

Thomas Clayton, RB (four): Rated as the No. 10 back out of high school, Clayton played sparingly as a freshman in 2002. He transferred to Kansas State, where he was the Wildcats' leading rusher in 2005.

Buster Davis, LB (four): A three-year starter who made some All-America teams as a redshirt senior in 2006.

Chris Davis, WR (five): Coming in as the nation's No. 6 receiver, Davis was seen as something of a disappointment. He never reached 700 yards receiving in a season.

Lonnie Davis, TE (four): Never qualified, instead shuffling off to a couple of jucos. The only tight end in the class, Davis' absence created a fairly big hole down the line.

Nate Hardage, LB (four): Failed to qualify, went to junior college. Hardage eventually got to FSU but transferred to Valdosta State before the 2005 season.

Sam McGrew, LB (four): A solid contributor playing 52 games in his career that concluded in 2005. McGrew had a career-high 11 tackles in his final game against Penn State in the Orange Bowl.

Cory Niblock, OL (two): Overachieving lineman who overcame position switches and injuries to become a solid starter.

A.J. Nicholson, LB (four): Eventually rose to become second-team All-ACC as a senior in 2005. Drafted in the fifth round by Cincinnati last year.

Dishon Platt, WR (five): Poster child for recruiting busts. Parade's No. 1 receiver never qualified to play at FSU. One of six five-star recruits that year but the only one never to play for the Seminoles.

Lorne Sam, WR (four): Played sporadically, underwent two surgeries and eventually transferred to Texas-El Paso.

Wyatt Sexton, QB (four): Started seven games and was set to start in 2005 when symptoms from Lyme Disease forced him to the sidelines. Sexton eventually made it back to the practice field but gave up football in January 2006.

Chauncey Stovall, WR (five): Juco transfer who started 11 career games in 2003-04, catching career 72 passes.

Chris Turner, DL (four): Did not qualify out of high school. Signed with Alabama in 2004 but eventually quit the team.

Leon Washington, RB (five): The 2002 Mr. Florida in high school football was rated the No. 1 cornerback in the country. He ended his career as the No. 10 rusher in FSU history. The only player under Bobby Bowden to score a touchdown five ways (running, receiving, punt return, kickoff return, fumble recovery). Drafted by the Jets in 2006.

Torrance Washington, FB (three): After groin and knee problems, Washington was forced to leave the team before 2004 because of the injuries.

Pat Watkins, FS (five): Another Parade All-American who played in the last 49 games of his career. A fifth-round draft choice of the Cowboys in 2006.

Kamerion Wimbley, DE (four): A solid contributor who was the 13th player taken in the 2006 draft (Browns). Despite missing three games because of injury, Wimbley made his NFL bones with 7½ sacks as a senior.

[Bull Dozer]

FSU is a bad example as they got burned by ALOT of academic casualties that year take away the kids that didnt get in and look how many went on to play in the NFL or had solid college careers.  Stars do matter BUT they arent the end all be all, noting is exact in evaluating talent in any sport at any level if it was NFL draft picks would have a higher level of success.  Also expectations are too high for 5 stars, if you dont come in and set new school records alot of people look at you as a bust when in reality having a solid collegiate career is very impressive and getting drafted in any round of the draft or being invited to a training camp is even more impressive as less than 1% of college football players get that chance.  All stars are is an evaluation of a players measureables and their high school career at a statistical level they speak more on past accomplishment than future potential IMO.  

[fidbull]

How St Bobby does so well on the recruiting trail, courtesy of Yahoo & his son, Terry...

Recruiting's a lowdown, dirty game

Recruiting's a lowdown, dirty game

By Terry Bowden, Yahoo! Sports

February 5, 2007

Wednesday is National Signing Day. As the day approaches, I am reminded of how vicious recruiting can get in these final days before an athlete has to decide where he wants to go to school. I often am asked if I miss coaching and would ever like to get back into the game. And to be quite honest with you, it's getting harder and harder to find reasons why I'm not back in already.

Regardless, there is one aspect of the job that never gets old and quite often gets out of hand – and that is recruiting. Invariably it seems that every year in the final days before signing day, after all the nice things have been said, it quite often comes down to negative recruiting.

You know what I'm talking about. After a year of courting a high school recruit, a coach has said about every nice thing he can say about his school, and with a week or so left there's nothing left to do but rip the opposition. "You don't want to go to State, the girls are ugly. You don't want to go to Tech, the guys are all in jail. You don't want to go to the University, they don't drive nice enough cars." You know the drift.

So for the first time in print, here's a true story of one of the best (or should I say worst) examples of negative recruiting I ever experienced.

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It was 1994, after my second year at Auburn. We had just completed a two-year run, going 20-1-1. Although we were finishing up probation from the prior coaching staff and had not been able to go to a bowl or compete for the national championship, the fact that we started my tenure at Auburn with 20 straight victories was getting us into the homes of some of the best players in the country.

It was the last week of recruiting, and the No. 1 defensive player in the state of Florida was named Martavius Houston. He was a defensive back from Boyd Anderson High School in Fort Lauderdale, and he had the choice of going to any school in the country. However, by this final week he had narrowed his decision down to two schools. He was either going to go to Auburn and play for me or he was going to go to Florida State and play for my ol' man, Bobby Bowden (I'm sure you've heard of him).

Per NCAA rules, the head coach is allowed only one official home visit. I strategically looked at the calendar for the best chance for me to go into his home and hopefully close the deal. I decided to have my home visit from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday night. He had a basketball game Friday night, which would keep him busy, and he had no more official school visits left for the final weekend. I made up my mind that Thursday night was do-or-die time with this recruit.

I booked the flight to Fort Lauderdale and rented a nice Lincoln Town Car in order to impress him when I drove up. As I met him and his mother on the front porch, I immediately hugged his mom and told her how much I loved her and turned to Martavius and said, "Son, you're going to win a Heisman Trophy at Auburn University."

I followed them into the house and proceeded to sing his praises – nonstop – for an hour and a half. I said, "Son, you are the No. 1 recruit on my list, the best player I've ever seen, I'm going to make you my star, I'm going to make you my captain, and you're going to win two Heisman trophies at Auburn. Only Archie Griffin at Ohio State has ever done that." The more I talked, the bigger his eyes got, and the more he started leaning off the front of that chair. As most coaches will tell you, when you get a "leaner" you need to seal the deal right then and there. I wanted to stick my cell phone in his face and say, "you call that Bobby Bowden right now and tell him you don't want to go to FSU, that you want to be an Auburn Tiger."

However, high school coaches do a great job of prepping these young men by telling them not to get pressured into making a decision in front of the head coach but instead to wait until they can be alone with their family and loved ones so they can make a rational decision. So although he didn't verbally commit right there, I believed I had done the best selling job ever – I knew I had him.

As we walked back out onto the front porch, before I said goodbye, I turned to his mom one last time, hugged her neck and reminded her how much I loved her. Then, with all the sincerity I could muster, I looked that young man directly in the eyes and said, "I have never told anybody this before, but you're gonna win three Heisman trophies at Auburn. You'd win four, but you're gonna be in the NFL by then."

As I turned to leave, a long black, stretch limousine pulled up in front of the house. A little, short driver with one of those driver's caps and half-jackets on got out, walked all the way around the back of the limousine and opened the back door next to the curb.

Out stepped my ol' man.

He had scheduled his official visit for 7:30 p.m. on the same night.

As he waddled up that sidewalk wearing that silly-looking safari hat and those red/yellow/green sunglasses that he always wears, my eyes got as big as saucers and my jaw dropped.

My ol' man stepped up on the porch, said hello to that mama, shook Martavius' hand, turned to me, patted me on the head (in front of both of them) and said, "Terry, when you get home, your mama wants you to call her."

That's all he said!

You talk about dirty recruiting – it doesn't get any dirtier. Nobody has ever been "who's your daddy-ed" worse than that.

I mean, who do you want to play for – BOBBY – or terry?

I'm sure every coach out there has his war stories to tell. I just thought you'd like to hear mine.

Incidentally, Martavius Houston had a great career at Auburn University.

[Bull Dozer]

;D

SONNED