Ohio Pete

Speaking of, what's the story on Lee's knee? Will he be ready for Spring practice?

Thanks GC, this has been corrected. I appreciate it. Looks like Marcel Jones has the wrong bio too. Looks like Burkes'. Can you imagine those two on basketball court? Wonder if we'll see them pull a Julius Peppers and play both sports. Also Anthony Blue has the Bio for Armando Murillo

They better catch it or Keller will be on their *sses if the stories about the scout team are any indication.

I was thinking Grixby. Now that we don't need him in the secondary imagine how fast he would be at LB. Oh and put McKeon at Safety. He'd really bring the wood against the run.

Eh, Lubbock, Stillwater, College Station, Happy Valley, Gainesville, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Blacksburg, South Bend, Ames, Manhattan, Athens -- many schools are in crappy little towns (no offense if you are from one of the above mentioned towns or if they are really nice, I'm generalizing) in the middle of no where and are either too cold in February or too hot in August. Win and recruit like crazy (not necessarily in that order) and you'll get top talent. If it was all location, San Diego State would be dominating.

Okay, now I have to add a new excuse the myriad of excuses in the Coz defenders’ arsenal. The defense giving up 45 to K-state, and 70 to T-tech was actually not Coz’s fault…it was the offenses’ fault. Now it is much more clear. How could I have been so wrong? The D and O were both horrible in that game. We (or rather Daily, Davis, and LeFlore) threw 5 interceptions for 102 return yards. TT scored TDs on 4 drives of less than 15 yards. Here is how the offensive drives of NU finished the game after starting the 3rd quarter with a 3 play TD drive (to make it 21 to 10): 3 plays, 2 yards, Punt 3 plays, -5 yards, Punt 3 plays, -6 yards, Fumble 1 play, 0 yards, Interception 1 play, -6 yards, Fumble 1 play, 0 yards, Interception 3 plays, 4 yards, Interception 3 plays, 6 yards, Punt 8 plays, 32 yards, Interception Not sure which side of the ball was more important in blowing this game and embarrassing us, but I know the offense sure didn't help. On the other hand, the number of plays and time of possession was nearly identical, so I'm not sure how tired the defense could be. And on 61 passing attempts, we intercepted only 1 ball and got only 1 sack. It should also be noted that while up 42-10, TT threw 12 passes and ran twice, converting on 2 fourth downs to score, 49-10. The next drive consisted of 3 passes to score 56-10. The second string finally came in (Cody Hodges). The next drive was 1 pass and 1 rush to score, 63-10, the next 1 pass and a score, 70-10, and leading 70-10, the next drive was 3 passes and a punt. Usually, when a team throws 61 times, they are trying to come back from a large deficit or are in some kind offensive shootout. In this case, TT has a coach who is a complete D-bag. Any parent who allows their kid to go there gets what they deserve. Regardless, Calli learned an important lesson in this game which may have led to him playing tight in the games this past season. I'm not sure that Coz necessarily learned anything. (Other than the TT coach is D-bag.)

West Virginia will take anyone.....if you can spell your name - your in!!!!!! Best party school in America Just sing County Roads and you're on academic scholarship.

Cuz they suck?

I actually put together a spreadsheet with the top 100 teams recruiting rankings from rivals. I'm not sure what the policy is on posting files to these forums. I also remember nothing from stats class so keep that in mind when I say things like correlation. Another thing to keep in mind is that some years are better than others in terms of talent so a top ten class from 2005 might not have made it in the top ten in 2006. I would use the Rivals Points, but I suspect they changed the scoring system. I'll have to research that more. Unfortunately, I only have top 25 stuff from the AP poll for most years so NU and Florida look equivalent in 2002 and 2004 when both finished outside the top 25. The 26-119 ranking for 2006 is from Sportsline. I was looking for a source which just had the ratings of the teams falling outside of the polls, but didn't come up with anything with historic data. Anyway, here are the teams with the top recruitng average ranking from 2002-2006: 3.5 Southern Cal 6.33 Georgia 7.5 Oklahoma 7.83 Florida 8.5 Florida State 8.5 LSU 9.5 Texas 10 Miami-FL 10.17 Tennessee 11.33 Auburn Except for 2002 (Ohio State) all of the champions from 2001-2006 are on this list. In fact, all of the number 2 and 3 teams are on this list also except for Oregon (#2 2001), Penn State (#3 2005), and Ohio State (#3 2006). On the other hand, pretty much every year, 2 of the teams with the highest average recruiting (2002-2006) finished outside the top 25: 2001 Auburn, USC; 2002 Florida, LSU, TN; 2003 Auburn; 2004 Miami, Florida; 2005 Miami, TN; Miami, FSU.

Yes, he certainly saved the Coaches from making the same bone-headed mistake the media did. Apparently to some media members, barely beating a team led by Ryan Leaf was more impressive than pasting a team led by Peyton Manning and Jamal Lewis.

I hope with Paul and OLs coming up next year, we are starting another cycle of talent like that, but it will be a few years before we can make that determination.

Good point. In the 2002 class at Ohio State, Mike D'Andrea was a 5 star player and AJ Hawk (playing for the Packers now) was a 3 star player. Santonio Holmes (Steelers I think) was a 3 star and Roy Hall was a 4 star. At QB, Justin Zwick was the #3 in the country and Troy Smith was the #12 Dual-threat. Maurice Clarrett was 5 star in the same class. So getting 5 stars doesn't mean you'll play in the NFL one day or even start in college, and getting relatively few stars won't prevent you from being a star in college or the pros.

Troy Smith was about the same size Probably shorter, but he wasn't a 5 star. Looking at Rivals they have him as a 4 star. Don't recall the ranking being that high, but everyone thought the QB of future from that class was Justin Zwick, the former Mr. Ohio. Smith seemed like just an afterthought at the time. But a change to the spread offense, and he was at the right place at the right time. So Parker might be a 5 star QB in an offense like Florida's, but I'm not sure how well a 6' tall QB fits in the WCO. Seems like a lot of those quick pases would get knocked down. Of course he's still a teenager, so he may still grow a few inches.

If not for certain people, I think Boulder would be a lovely little town. Because of its location, I always imagine those people are like the evil guys from one of those 80s ski movies, but it is more likely that they are from LA or Texas and wanted to go to a party school far away from Mom and Dad. At least that's who always gets the blame in the Denver papers.

Could be both. I had a bad reaction to Advil once. But of course this is just speculation. We'll find out more when Lucky's ready to tell us. Glad to hear he's doing better.

Yes recruiting is important, but other factors are obviously afoot. Zook delivered great classes to Florida, and Blake got them to Oklahoma, but it took someone who could coach to deliver the promise of those classes. Having a top recruiting class is no guarantee of future success, but it seems to have helped a few recent champs. Here are the top 10 recruiting classes (rivals) and the team's poll finish the year before and the next few years. Year Rank School_________2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2002 1___Texas______________5___6___12____5___1___13 2002 2___Tennessee__________4___X___15___13___X___25 2002 3___Georgia___________22___3____7____7__10___23 2002 4___Florida_State_____15__21___11___15__23___41 2002 5___Ohio_State_________X___1____4___20___4____2 2002 6___Auburn_____________X__14____X____2__14____9 2002 7___Oklahoma___________6___5____3____3__22___11 2002 8___Miami-FL___________1___2____5____X___X___42 2002 9___UCLA_______________X___X____X____X__16___43 2002 10__Colorado___________9__20____X____X___X___97 Year Rank School_________2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2003_1___LSU________________X___2___16____6___3 2003_2___Florida____________X__24____X___12___1 2003_3___Southern_Cal_______4___1____1____2___4 2003_4___Oklahoma___________5___3____3___22__11 2003_5___Miami-FL___________2___5____X____X__42 2003_6___Georgia____________3___7____7___10__23 2003_7___NC_State__________12___X____X____X_100 2003_8___South_Carolina_____X___X____X____X__30 2003_9___Mississippi_Sta____X___X____X____X__95 2003_10__Texas_A&M__________X___X____X____X__32 Year Rank School_________2003 2004 2005 2006 2004_1___Southern_Cal_______1___1____2____4 2004_2___LSU________________2__16____6____3 2004_3___Florida_State_____11__15___23___41 2004_4___Miami-FL___________5___X____X___42 2004_5___Michigan___________6__14____X____8 2004_6___Georgia____________7___7___10___23 2004_7___Florida___________24___X___12____1 2004_8___Oklahoma___________3___3___22___11 2004_9___Ohio_State_________4__20____4____2 2004_10__Texas_____________12___5____1___13 Year Rank School_________2004 2005 2006 2005_1___Southern_Cal_______1___2____4 2005_2___Florida_State_____15__23___41 2005_3___Oklahoma___________3__22___11 2005_4___Tennessee_________13___X___25 2005_5___Nebraska___________X__24___28 2005_6___Michigan__________14___X____8 2005_7___Miami-FL___________X___X___42 2005_8___Texas_A&M__________X___X___32 2005_9___California_________9__25___14 2005_10__Georgia____________7__10___23 Year Rank School_________2005 2006 2006_1___Southern_Cal_______2___4 2006_2___Florida___________12___1 2006_3___Florida_State_____23__41 2006_4___Georgia___________10__23 2006_5___Texas______________1__13 2006_6___Penn_State_________3__24 2006_7___LSU________________6___3 2006_8___Notre_Dame_________9__17 2006_9___Oklahoma__________22__11 2006_10__Auburn____________14___9 Year Rank School_________2006 2007_1___Florida____________1 2007_2___Southern_Cal_______4 2007_3___Tennessee_________25 2007_4___LSU________________3 2007_5___Texas_____________13 2007_6___South_Carolina____30 2007_7___Auburn_____________9 2007_8___Notre_Dame________17 2007_9___Georgia___________23 2007_10__Alabama___________59

Forget Beck, if Mustain's lucky, he may be mentioned in the same breath with greats like Leaf and Marinovich. Anytime I hear guff from someone around here about about the '97 title, I mention that we beat the crap out of a team led by Peyton Manning and Jamal Lewis. Michigan barely defeated a team built around Ryan Leaf. 'Nuff said.

So just how exactly bogus is this ranking then? Is this why Georgia and Tennessee (among others) are always in the top of the recruiting rankings but cannot deliver? TN has had the same coach and superior recruiting, but hasn't had a title since '98. GA is always among the tops in recruiting, but hasn't had a title (or played for one?) in more than 20 years. Any other SEC schools I'm missing? LSU has top classes and has won a split title. Any other conferences pull this kind of thing? I know we encourage some kids to walk on with the promise of a future scholarship (gray shirt), but I'm not aware of us dropping extra kids or sending them to JC. Are these academically ineligible kids or is TN dropping kids that signed a LOI and could enroll? Awfully shady.

I read the other day about a change to add an early signing day. I think some of the kids would be in favor as it would allow them to worry about grades and school instead of getting 100 text messages before first period. Also might be nice for us and other northern schools since late visits are kind of a problem when it is -2 out.

Rivals Class of 2008 100 to Watch

Well if you want to see for yourself how he deals with adversity and are in or near Omaha Saturday night, go check out Omaha Central playing against the #4 HS team in the country Montverde (Fla.) Academy at the Qwest Saturday night.

Ohio State head coach (Tressel) is from Youngstown so it might be tough if they show interest. However, 2008 is supposed to be a big year for talent in Ohio so they might not offer. Also good idea hitting the borders of Ohio (Toledo, Cincinnati, Cleveland) as the Buckeye religion isn't as great in those areas. If Tenessee can pull a kid out of Cincinnati, we ought to be able to recruit the state. Is Michigan State offering, yet? The coach from Cincinnati, Dantonio, is now at MSU.

Glad to see we are some Ohio kids. The feeling around here is that 2008 should be a banner year for talent. When Ohio State lost a few kids late, they decided not to pursue anyone else and save the schollies for next year.

Might have one less real soon: LOS ANGELES -- The University of Southern California is looking into whether it may have violated NCAA recruiting rules while pursuing highly rated recruit Joe McKnight, a university official said. McKnight signed a national letter of intent with USC on Wednesday and made comments during a news conference that seemed to suggest communications involving former Trojan Reggie Bush, who is now with the New Orleans Saints. Former players are forbidden from telephoning prospective recruits, their relatives or guardians.

I was just going to mention Urlacher playing Safety in College and moving to LB in the Pros. We get a couple of Budha-bellies in front of him and that would allow him to flow to the play and drop into coverage as needed. Could work quite nicely. On the other hand, he might make a pretty good strong safety too. As a senior, Washington split time on defense between the secondary and defensive end, finishing the year with five sacks, in addition to ranking as one of his team's top tacklers.