Being Bleacher Report virtually all of us are likely better informed than this guy, but at least he puts more than a "system" and "stars" out there regarding this year's class...
Grading every FBS team's 2013 football recruiting class
Quote:UAB is trying to find a way to the top of Conference USA, and it has made some strides lately. This 2013 recruiting class will provide a bit of a setback, though. This is a very top-heavy class with a lot depending on freshman contributors. This is not a strong showing for the Blazers.
The headliner is offensive guard Vincent Hunter, who stands at 6’4”, 315 pounds. He will be a contributor early along the line, as the Blazers are looking for earth-movers along the interior offensive line.
This class will also look for effort from JUCO transfer ATH DeVante Scott and incoming freshman DT Andra Smith on defense.
This team finished with a bad class, but it does have some potential scattered throughout.
Grade: D
"but it does have some potential scattered throughout" is about all one can ask when recruiting from a place where 4* and 5* recruits don't "grow on trees". How many recruiting classes for ANY school will be asked to play as a unit this fall? What any school is going to ask of its coaching staff is that they bring in as much help as possible for the guys already there.
I don't understand his use of the term "top heavy class" as a description of a mainly freshman class unless he thinks every school should bring in a dozen or so JUCO players every year. No, I don't expect that a majority of this class will play early or at all (red-shirt) in 2013, but I expect some critical position help from several of our new players right away. This is going to be a critical spring practice for a large part of our 2013 team since the opening game's lineup will be about 85% made up of people already on campus and working hard this spring.
& we can choose to ignore or laugh at that opinion.
Not into giving a crap about what a blog site says or for that matter most anyone else.
The only way Coach Mcgees 1st full recruiting class gets better is if you gave each kid he signed another star.
recruiting checklistfor 2013 -
A hand full of linebackers to give depth to the guys stepping in to replace Burdette & Irvin. - Check
Taller & faster safeties and DBs to provide depth and competition to our young secondary. - Check
An immediate Juco replacement for Cornelius Richards at one CB. - Check
A Tight End, otherwise known as a QBs best friend, ready to play the minute he sets foot on campus. - Check
A 4 star QB, that can be groomed to take over in 2014 if he is ready or in 2015 if we can wait that long. - Check
Tall fast wide receivers. Lots of them. - Check
Sign possibly the best RB in Birmingham. - Check
Sign 2-3 standout OL or DL, every class. - Check
Make solid in roads to the power house High School football programs in around Alabama & the best in Memphis, and sign kids from them. - CHECK
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The first 8 guys on the 2012 D-Line depth chart are returning. I'm not sure if that is good or bad news, but at least they are more experienced and stronger.
The same goes for returning 6 of our top 8 DBs and safeties.
Brown is a solid QB, who got thrown into the fire way too early. He will be tough to beat out now that he has gotten his feet wet.
Our RB corp is solid. Especially if Frankin stays, and he should.
Can't really disagree with any of that, Phil. Good observations.
(02-08-2013 08:44 AM)the_blazerman Wrote: [ -> ]& we can choose to ignore or laugh at that opinion.
Not into giving a crap about what a blog site says or for that matter most anyone else.
Yeah, Turner Broadcasting (part of Time Warner now) purchased b/r last year and certainly the plan has to be to move away from the unpaid, living-in-mom's-basement content providers, but outside of the handful of "Feature Reporters" that are actually paid (and are actually journalists with contacts and everything) it's impossible to put much stock in anything on the site. Same goes for SB Nation even though they have big-money backing now. But, again, it's better - to me - than Rivals, Scout, Sagarin, et. al. just putting out stars based on their super-secret model.
Plus Callaway /Mcgee signed five O-linemen last year. And we have 5 of our top 7 O-linemen returning. Immediate needs there are at Guard and especially Center. McGee signed one of each.
I do imagine most of the RS will be on offense barring injuries & most of the defensive signees will probably see some time in the rotation mostly in the later part of the year. BR put about as much into his evaluation of UAB as the other recruiting services do.