AndyDufresne

Rivals rankings would be seen as more independent of college offers if they released their rankings earlier. We all know that who offers a prospect has a bearing on where they are ranked, and I would guess a big reason for the wait is because they want to wait until the coaches finish their spring evaluations and see who offers who.

Texas tries too hard to maintain an image of recruiting superiority. I know for a fact that they offered Gerald McCoy. When it was apparent he was going to OU, they probably pulled his offer and had Rivals revise their offer list.

*Based on information from Rivals: 1. Sam Bradford - Oklahoma 5.7-3*, #12 pro-style QB. Other listed BCS offers: Iowa State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech 2. Ndamukong Suh - Nebraska 6.0-4*, #6 defensive tackle. Other listed BCS offers: California, Miami, Mississippi State, Oregon State 3. Gerald McCoy - Oklahoma 6.1-5*, #1 defensive tackle. Other listed BCS offers: LSU, Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame, USC, Virginia Tech 4. Trent Williams - Oklahoma 5.7-3*, #28 offensive guard. Other listed BCS offers: LSU, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech 5. Eric Berry - Tennessee 6.1-5*, #1 cornerback. Other listed BCS offers: Auburn, Georgia, Ohio State, USC. 6. Russell Okung - Oklahoma State 5.6-3*, #33 offensive tacklet. Other listed BCS offers: Arizona State, Iowa State, LSU, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Texas Tech 7. Joe Haden - Florida 6.0-4*, #3 athlete. Other listed BCS offers: Georgia, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers 8. Rolando McClain - Alabama 6.0-4*, #2 inside linebacker. Other listed BCS offers: Auburn, Kentucky, Louisville, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt 9. CJ Spiller - Clemson 6.1-5*, #1 all-purpose back. Other listed BCS offers: Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, USC 10. Tyson Alualu - California 5.7-3*, #24 defensive tackle. Other listed BCS offers: Arizona, Michigan State, Oregon, Oregon State 11. Anthony Davis - Rutgers 6.0-4*, #5 offensive guard. Other listed BCS offers: Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC 12. Ryan Mathews - Fresno State 5.5-3*, #69 athlete. Other listed BCS offers: Arizona State, Colorado 13. Brandon Graham - Michigan 6.1-5*, #2 inside linebacker. Other listed BCS offers: Penn State 14. Earl Thomas - Texas 5.9-4*, #12 athlete. Other listed BCS offers: Texas A&M 15. Jason Pierre-Paul - South Florida 6.0-4*, #6 Juco player. Other listed BCS offers: Arizona, Kansas State, Nebraska 16. Derrick Morgan - Georgia Tech 6.0-4*, #6 strongside defensive end. Other listed BCS offers: Boston College, Miami, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Penn State 17. Mike Iupati - Idaho 5.4-2*, not ranked. Other listed BCS offers: Arizona 18. Maurkice Pouncey - Florida 5.8-4*, #15 offensive guard. Other listed BCS offers: Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska 19. Sean Weatherspoon - Missouri 5.2-2*, not ranked. Other listed BCS offers: Iowa State 20. Kareem Jackson - Alabama 5.8-4*, #17 prep school player. Other listed BCS offers: Connecticut 21. Jermaine Gresham - Oklahoma 6.0-4*, #1 tight end. Other listed BCS offers: Arkansas, Georgia Tech, LSU, Miami, Tennessee, USC. 22. Demaryius Thomas - Georgia Tech 5.6-3*, #58 wide reciever. Other listed BCS offers: Duke, Georgia, Indiana, Louisville, South Carolina 23. Bryan Bulaga - Iowa 6.0-4*, #6 offensive tackle. Other listed BCS offers: Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin 24. Dez Bryant - Oklahoma State 6.0-4*, #9 wide receiver. Other listed BCS offers: Arkansas, Louisville, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech 25. Tim Tebow - Florida 6.1-5*, #1 dual-threat quarterback. Other listed BCS offers: Alabama, LSU, Michigan, USC 26. Dan Williams - Tennessee 5.6-3*, #35 defensive tackle. Other listed BCS offers: Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi, Mississippi State. 27. Devin McCourty - Rutgers 5.2-2*, not ranked. Other listed BCS offers: None 28. Jared Odrick - Penn State 6.0-4*, #3 defensive tackle. Other listed BCS offers: Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Virginia Tech 29. Kyle Wilson - Boise State 5.0-2*, not ranked. Other listed BCS offers: Rutgers 30. Jahvid Best - California 5.9-4*, #9 running back. Other listed BCS offers: Arizona, Arizona State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon, USC, Washington 31. Jerry Hughes - TCU 5.3-2*, not ranked. Other listed BCS offers: Iowa State. 32. Patrick Robinson - Florida State 5.8-4*, #16 cornerback. Other listed BCS offers: Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee So we have: 5-stars - 5 4-stars - 15 3-stars - 7 2 stars - 5

I know it is super early and stars and rankings aren't out yet, but I took a peak at all of the North schools commitment lists for 2011. I broke them down by BCS school offers, and here are the results: Colorado 2 commits 0 BCS offers Iowa State 0 commits Kansas 2 commits Offers: Iowa - 1 Kansas State - 1 Minnesota - 1 Wisconsin - 1 4 total BCS offers - 2.0 BCS offers per verbal Kansas State 5 commits Offers: Oklahoma State - 1 1 total BCS offer - 0.2 BCS offers per verbal Missouri 7 commits Offers: Arkansas - 1 Illinois - 1 Kansas - 1 Kansas State - 1 Miami - 1 Stanford - 1 Wisconsin - 1 7 total BCS offers - 1.0 BCS offers per verbal Nebraska 6 commits Offers: Arizona - 1 Boston College - 2 California - 1 Cincinatti - 1 Clemson - 1 Duke - 1 Florida - 1 Florida State - 1 Georgia - 1 Illinois - 2 Indiana - 2 Kansas - 2 Miami - 1 Michigan - 2 Michigan State - 1 Minnesota - 1 Missouri - 1 Ohio State - 1 Purdue - 2 Oklahoma - 1 Oregon - 1 South Florida - 1 Stanford - 3 Syracuse - 1 Tennessee - 1 Texas A&M - 1 Texas Tech - 1 Vanderbilt - 1 West Virginia - 1 Wisconsin - 1 38 total BCS offers - 6.3 BCS offers per verbal I know there are other teams fans who will state that Tyler Moore is most of the offers. Both Kevin Williams and Ryan Klachko each have more offers than the total for all of Missouri's recruits. I know that there are those who will look at the commitment dates and use that for lack of offers (which is valid in many cases). We have two commits that are in the same boat (Admire and Reeves both show only one other offer each), but Moore commited in October 2009 and has a huge offer list. There are also those that will say that these offer lists aren't updated for commits. That is true, as I know Lane Kiffin contacted both Ryne Reeves and Tyler Moore, yet no USC offers are listed above. So really, all of the excuses apply to Nebraska as well and the truth is that at this point in time, we are just recruiting at another level. Whether this will hold for the rest of the year or translate on the field remains to be seen, but it is an exciting time for those of us who just can't seem to get enough football during the long months between spring game and fall practice.

This puts us in a great position for the rest of the cycle. We should be pretty much done at OL. There is speculation over at HI by a couple of insiders that we will be taking one more. A likely candidate seems to be Derek Farniok from South Dakota even though he doesn't have an offer yet.

Nebraska usually outperforms it's population rank by at least a couple of places. The last couple of years, graduating instate talent has been down. Also, Wyoming and Colorado State usually pick up a few Nebraska kids between the two of them but this year they took zero. In 2010, no Nebraska high school player picked up a non-Nebraska BCS school offer. Looking at Rivals database (which goes back to 2002), this is the first time that has happened. In fact, it is the first time that a Nebraska kid has not committed to a non-Nebraska BCS school in this time period. Going by stars, prior to this year Nebraska has had a minimum of 3 kids who rated 3-stars or higher during this time period as well (2005 had 3, every other year besides 2010 has had more). This year, Rodriguez was the only one. On the bright side, we already have 4 2011 instate kids who have picked up BCS school offers (3 of the kids hold offers from schools other than Nebraska). I would be shocked if we didn't have a few more pick up major offers, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the number of instate kids going division 1 near or above the double digit mark.

Scout has an article up that Davie from Beatrice received his first offer. Anyone know who it's from?

Here's our players and the offers they had from teams that ranked in the top 20 in Rivals 2010 team rankings (rank follows the offer): Kenny Bell - Cal #11 Brion Carnes - Georgia #16, West Virginia #19 Corey Cooper - Florida State #10, Notre Dame #14, Tennessee #9 Lavonte David - Tennessee #9 Quincy Enunwa - not listed, but Sean Callahan stated on Big Red Wrap-Up that UCLA #8 made a huge push for him Ciante Evans - Texas A&M #15 Jay Guy - Cal #11, Michigan #20, Ole Miss #17, Texas A&M #15, UCLA #8 Jermarcus Hardrick - LSU #6, Ole Miss #17 Braylon Heard - Penn State #12, West Virginia #19 Tobi Okuyemi - Michigan #20 Chase Rome - Florida #2, Oklahoma #7, Michigan #20, Tennessee #9, UCLA #8 That is more than half of our commits. All of our players except Joshua Mitchell, Tyler Evans, Jake Cotton, and Bronson Marsh had offers from at least one team in the top 27 (even though it isn't listed, Andrew Rodriguez had a Miami offer). Not too shabby.

The interesting thing about the rankings is that Rivals would actually rank us higher without Cotton, Marsh, and Evans. How does taking away 3 players actually make our class better?

I believe he was actually committed to OU for a time, but Stoops dropped him when he decided to visit Mizzou after his verbal commitment.

With that avatar, you really ought to change your sig quote to: "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age." Wooderson

Tom isn't nearly as high on Mizzou's class as Rivals. Interesting how one has them top 15 in the nation and the other around 40th.

I believe that the editors on the Texas prep site under Rivals had Turner as the #16 overall prospect in the state of Texas for 2011. This is the biggest get out of Texas in quite some time.

Oregon has been USC's biggest competition in the PAC-10 for sometime now. It is not like this is their first year being towards the top of their conference. They have done this without the same kind of recruiting class as USC, ranking (according to Rivals): 2009 - 32nd 2008 - 19th 2007 - 11th 2006 - 49th

Are you referring to the post on the free board? Seems a little suspect, but perhaps there is confirmation on RSS. We'll find out soon enough. I linked the thread I am refering to above. If nothing else it will jazz up this 30 page thread that has little new info in the past 5 pages. I saw that after I posted. Hopefully it is true and HI will confirm it tonight.

Are you referring to the post on the free board? Seems a little suspect, but perhaps there is confirmation on RSS. We'll find out soon enough.

It is hard to glean too much information off of just one year. I remember reading last year's article that looked at 2005 5-stars, and I don't think they were as successful. If you look at Nebraska's 3 and 4 stars from 2002-2007, the 3-stars have received just as high a percentage of all-conference recognition as the 4-stars. Of course, that is looking at recruiting classes from Solich and Callahan. Not enough players have contributed from the 2008 and 2009 classes to come to any significant conclusions regarding how good our staff is at identifying the 3-stars that will make a difference. Looking at Dennard and Gomes, I think the end results will leave everyone happy.

Nice summation. Lots of good info there. I do believe that Daniels and Moore are qualification risks. I'm not sure what the rules are, but it seems like in the past the walk-ons who have signed their paperwork in February were already qualified or were for sure qualifiers.

Between Carnes, Colter, Fajardo, and Godfrey; I am confident that we will sign a QB in this class. I wouldn't mind the coaches taking two of these guys and making one a safety if they have a bad vibe about Cooper. Looking at our projected depth chart 3 years out, safety is our biggest need right now. I also wouldn't be surprised at a visit and commit in the last two weeks from someone who either hasn't been talked about or who has long been forgotten. Eric Martin didn't visit until 1/26 and didn't commit until 2/1.

I share the same perspective. While we probably won't have the #1 scoring defense in the nation without the raw talent of guys like Dillard, Suh, and Asante; I believe that we will always have a very good defense regardless of the stars as long as Bo is here. If Gomes is any indication as to the lesser recruited guys that Bo brings in (only other BCS school offer was K-State), I feel good about Bo's ability to find the players that will thrive in his system.

I believe Wynn is also Todd Peterson's cousin.

There are 7 other offensive linemen on the Army All-American West squad. According to Rivals, their overall national ranks among all prospects are #1, #62, #64, #78, #101, #148, and #152. If Rodriguez is one of the 5 best offensive linemen and earned a starting spot among these prospects, what more proof do you need that he is, at the very least, a solid prospect.

i agree. i don't see a real problem, though it is interesting to note. additionally, there will certainly be attrition over the next two years that creates additional scholarship openings, there always is (injuries, lack of playing time, arrests, homesickness, going pro early, etc.). Florida only took 16 last year. In 2007, Ohio State only took 15. We'll be fine regardless of class size in 2012.

That is the average. The bounds would be much higher. For instance, in the study Cincinnati outperformed it's recruiting class average by about 75 places.

So using our current 2010 Rivals ranking of 29th, our 5 year class average for 2006-2010 is 24th. If I told you that using historical data, I predict that in 2010 our final ranking will be somewhere between 4th and 44th, would you consider this a good predictor of future success? Because in a multi-year study, BCS teams were found to rank an average of 20 places higher or 20 placess lower than their 5 year Rivals class average. To draw any meaningful predictions based on recruiting rankings, I would think most would like to see a tighter correlation between the two.