247: Recruiting Moneyball

[Mavric]

Pretty interesting article. I'll have to look for the rest of the series.

First thing is first. I am not talking about Alabama, Florida State, USC, Ohio State, Notre Dame or any of the so-called “blue bloods” of college football here. Any program that recruits across the board at an elite level nearly always does so. Sure, they make mistakes and there are times when a program goes through the wilderness (Michigan, Florida), but nearly always a new staff ends up arriving and loading up on the talent and they compete for championships again.


That’s how it works if you are one of the top 15-20 programs in college football.But what about the rest?

You can be Clemson or Ole Miss and recruit your butt off against the big boys and win your share of battles. Those programs both do an outstanding job, but they are outliers and to be honest, it’s not a given that the Tigers aren’t at least somewhat of a college football blue blood and the Rebels have great tradition.

Or you can do it a different way.

I am going to say something honest here that most of my peers in the recruiting industry will not tell you- it is a myth that you can’t win at the Power 5 level in college football recruiting classes with up to 90 percent of your class rated three stars.

I mean, it’s absolute hogwash. It’s recruiting industry Pravda and anyone who says otherwise really hasn’t looked at the facts. 



Link

 

[zoogs]

The only "fact" in this one was here:

Looking at the 2014 NFL Draft, half of the 32 first-round picks in the 2014 NFL Draft were of players who were rated three (or two as there were a pair) stars coming out of high school.



The author then proceeds to outline a pretty detailed guide about how you can Moneyball your way into finding the "right kind" of 3-star athletes -- looking for elite measurables, quick twitch, loving football.

But Moneyball is analytical, data-driven, and results driven. It is not making the observation that a lot of three-stars become 1st round draft picks, and then drawing up a list of what you, 247 Staff Writer, would personally look for in a 3-star. It is a good way to attract buzz to your article, I guess. Maybe the later parts in the series will deliver more substance.

 

[Mavric]

Yeah, it's definitely not the same system that they stole the title from. But I think the idea was how there is quite a bit of difference in the potential of guys who are rated the same so if you're not getting a lot of the top flight guys you have to make up for it by doing well with the second tier guys. Which is what the A's were (are?) really good at doing.

 

[NWHuskerfan]

Yeah and the A's win so many titles.

 

[teachercd]

You can't really measure "heart" and you can't really know for sure how big and strong a kid is going to end up...So of course there are going to be lots of kids that get better or change positions or get "lost" under the radar.

Now with that said, usually I go back to thinking about when I (you) would be a captain in gym class and would be picking your team for dodgeball.