The Lions' Pride

Look at what are kids from last year were rated when BoB and co first offered them and where they ended up. Almost all rose, minus Mahon for some odd reason.

One word. Higher

For a guy with few offers and who only ran right for a year that's pretty good. Hits up some camps this year he'll move up. Either way, he's ours and I'm more than happy to have him committed.

who cares about stars

Hopefully this becomes a trend. Would love to have a sophomore like Reid jump aboard early next year.

^^^ This is really it.

IMO, to get a better feel for the recruiting class, don't go by stars. Go by what plan (i.e. plan A, plan B, plan C, etc.) the kids were.

We never really know *exactly* where each kid was on the coaches board, but we can usually make a good estimate -- And to me, plan A kids are 5*, plan B kids are 4*, plan C = 3*, etc.

So, IMO, based on when these kids got their offers, we have three 5* recruits.

[Disclaimer: All rating systems are flawed, and obviously my system has it's flaws too. I just think it's a better guideline than recruiting service stars/ratings, primarily because the evaluations were done by actual football coaching staffs (in this case, ours) rather than homer evaluators at recruiting services. No offense to those at 247 -- or any of the other services -- but when it comes to evaluating talent, they can't compete with our staff, or many other staffs. I don't think that's an insult.]

More than anything his offense makes him hard to rank. He is similar to Curtis Dukes in that way, whose HS offense was very similar.

What I'm sure the analysts want to see is him running downhill between the tackles.

MTayl, what Division did you play in and how much of a jump was it from HS to college for you in terms of the size and strength of the guys you were playing against?

Even at the lower division. I was one of the smaller guys on the line. However, most of the bigger guys I played against (like D1 size) I loved going against because I knew if they were actually good football players they would be at a bigger division. There is a jump from HS to any division. I do like to pay attention to the size of schools for the simple reason that I met tons of all staters from small schools that wouldn't have sniffed the field at my HS. The biggest thing is the speed of the game. Some guys get it, some don't.

Agree(maybe slight difference in the small school thing) College sports is much different. You take the best from a HS and put him on a team of 'equals', generally speaking of course. And play agaisnt others of the same caliber, again, generally speaking.

Instead of teams having 0 or 1 or 2 big men on an OLine or DLine, they have all larger boys.
Instead of teams having 0 or 1 or 2 pitchers on a team that can toss 85mph and have multiple pitches, a large majority can.
Instead of....pick the team, sub similar numbers...you get the point :)

Pretty much all sports as well, the speed of the game is much different. With each level you rise in sports as well, determination and dedication also factor in (talent has to be present as well at the upper levels) as it is harder to just go out and wing it on gameday like it was in HS. Gotta put in some work unless you are one of those rare gifted ones that come along now and then. Deion Sanders for example who didnt give a rats arse for working out, was pretty good. Prolly didnt even have to warm up to run a slow 4.35 on a cold day lol.

I can tell you this, none if the three guys currently committed will get four stars on rivals. They will never let that happen after what they claimed post sanctions.

Darn...