http://rivals100.rivals.com/viewrank.asp...&Year=2007

I'm going to go out on a limb and say we won't get either kid from Knoxville.

Man, Memphis isn't on but two or three lists. So, going on that alone, we would be lucky to get just one. Of course it is early, the Tigers still have time to make an impression.

tigerlands Wrote:Man, Memphis isn't on but two or three lists. So, going on that alone, we would be lucky to get just one. Of course it is early, the Tigers still have time to make an impression.

I checked most of the Top 20 and we were on every list. Of course, seems like most TN D1 schools were. And everyone was a medium. I don't have much in this list yet....or ever.

We did get the kicker from Knox Bearden this year. Not sure if he ranked or not but he did come across the state.

There are some decent players up here in Knoxville but not many are ever given scholly's to Div 1 schools

I'm excited for Tiger Football, but I am equally excited about Mustang Football.

Wow, the kid from Knoxville Catholic scored an 1850 on his SAT.

I'm not surprised to see 5 of the players already committed to UT. I am surprised however that all 5 are 3 star or below. They haven't landed a single commit from one of the blue chippers in state. Obviously, they will eventually, but it's unusual for the list to be that way even at this point.

To answer your question on how many you get, I'd say 2 or 3 would be a good year, especially if you have one or two of the Top 10. Usually the state of Tennessee isn't a hot bed for football talent, so you mainly need to only get the cream out of the state and get the rest from out of state. I say this b/c I played on a team in high school that sent 2 players to D-1 ball over my 3 years, yet we made the playoffs every year and advanced a few rounds...in the highest classification in the state. In most other states, 2 D-1 prospects in 3 years gets you a ticket to stay home every year.

Of course, I'm going to stick my chest out a bit and say that we've already landed commitments from 5 of the top 10 players in the state of Mississippi and 8 of the Top 25 according to the same site. Of course, what does all this mean in July? Nothing, except that Major League Baseball season is too long and there is nothing to talk about.

bmglennreb Wrote:I'm not surprised to see 5 of the players already committed to UT. I am surprised however that all 5 are 3 star or below. They haven't landed a single commit from one of the blue chippers in state. Obviously, they will eventually, but it's unusual for the list to be that way even at this point.

To answer your question on how many you get, I'd say 2 or 3 would be a good year, especially if you have one or two of the Top 10. Usually the state of Tennessee isn't a hot bed for football talent, so you mainly need to only get the cream out of the state and get the rest from out of state. I say this b/c I played on a team in high school that sent 2 players to D-1 ball over my 3 years, yet we made the playoffs every year and advanced a few rounds...in the highest classification in the state. In most other states, 2 D-1 prospects in 3 years gets you a ticket to stay home every year.

Of course, I'm going to stick my chest out a bit and say that we've already landed commitments from 5 of the top 10 players in the state of Mississippi and 8 of the Top 25 according to the same site. Of course, what does all this mean in July? Nothing, except that Major League Baseball season is too long and there is nothing to talk about.

Maybe it would benefit Tennessee to get a couple more of their own workin for Rivals and Scout. You know, like Ole Miss has with James Bryant (Rivals), Grant Gannon (Rivals), and Yancy Porter (Scout). Surely that could help the star ratings. lmfao lmfao lmfao

TigerEdward Wrote:

bmglennreb Wrote:I'm not surprised to see 5 of the players already committed to UT. I am surprised however that all 5 are 3 star or below. They haven't landed a single commit from one of the blue chippers in state. Obviously, they will eventually, but it's unusual for the list to be that way even at this point.

To answer your question on how many you get, I'd say 2 or 3 would be a good year, especially if you have one or two of the Top 10. Usually the state of Tennessee isn't a hot bed for football talent, so you mainly need to only get the cream out of the state and get the rest from out of state. I say this b/c I played on a team in high school that sent 2 players to D-1 ball over my 3 years, yet we made the playoffs every year and advanced a few rounds...in the highest classification in the state. In most other states, 2 D-1 prospects in 3 years gets you a ticket to stay home every year.

Of course, I'm going to stick my chest out a bit and say that we've already landed commitments from 5 of the top 10 players in the state of Mississippi and 8 of the Top 25 according to the same site. Of course, what does all this mean in July? Nothing, except that Major League Baseball season is too long and there is nothing to talk about.

Maybe it would benefit Tennessee to get a couple more of their own workin for Rivals and Scout. You know, like Ole Miss has with James Bryant (Rivals), Grant Gannon (Rivals), and Yancy Porter (Scout). Surely that could help the star ratings. lmfao lmfao lmfao

James Bryant, Grant Gannon and Yancy Porter.

This could explain alot. Thanks Edward.

TigerEdward Wrote:

bmglennreb Wrote:I'm not surprised to see 5 of the players already committed to UT. I am surprised however that all 5 are 3 star or below. They haven't landed a single commit from one of the blue chippers in state. Obviously, they will eventually, but it's unusual for the list to be that way even at this point.

To answer your question on how many you get, I'd say 2 or 3 would be a good year, especially if you have one or two of the Top 10. Usually the state of Tennessee isn't a hot bed for football talent, so you mainly need to only get the cream out of the state and get the rest from out of state. I say this b/c I played on a team in high school that sent 2 players to D-1 ball over my 3 years, yet we made the playoffs every year and advanced a few rounds...in the highest classification in the state. In most other states, 2 D-1 prospects in 3 years gets you a ticket to stay home every year.

Of course, I'm going to stick my chest out a bit and say that we've already landed commitments from 5 of the top 10 players in the state of Mississippi and 8 of the Top 25 according to the same site. Of course, what does all this mean in July? Nothing, except that Major League Baseball season is too long and there is nothing to talk about.

Maybe it would benefit Tennessee to get a couple more of their own workin for Rivals and Scout. You know, like Ole Miss has with James Bryant (Rivals), Grant Gannon (Rivals), and Yancy Porter (Scout). Surely that could help the star ratings. lmfao lmfao lmfao

I'm no expert on UT, but I'm willing to bet they have a few people working for both Rivals and Scout.

Like I said, I know the ratings don't mean everything, but it's still unusual to see 5 commits from the state of Tennessee to UT and none of them are the blue chip prospects. I say this b/c usually they try to cherry pick their home state and concentrate more on national prospects.

bmglennreb Wrote:

TigerEdward Wrote:

bmglennreb Wrote:I'm not surprised to see 5 of the players already committed to UT. I am surprised however that all 5 are 3 star or below. They haven't landed a single commit from one of the blue chippers in state. Obviously, they will eventually, but it's unusual for the list to be that way even at this point.

To answer your question on how many you get, I'd say 2 or 3 would be a good year, especially if you have one or two of the Top 10. Usually the state of Tennessee isn't a hot bed for football talent, so you mainly need to only get the cream out of the state and get the rest from out of state. I say this b/c I played on a team in high school that sent 2 players to D-1 ball over my 3 years, yet we made the playoffs every year and advanced a few rounds...in the highest classification in the state. In most other states, 2 D-1 prospects in 3 years gets you a ticket to stay home every year.

Of course, I'm going to stick my chest out a bit and say that we've already landed commitments from 5 of the top 10 players in the state of Mississippi and 8 of the Top 25 according to the same site. Of course, what does all this mean in July? Nothing, except that Major League Baseball season is too long and there is nothing to talk about.

Maybe it would benefit Tennessee to get a couple more of their own workin for Rivals and Scout. You know, like Ole Miss has with James Bryant (Rivals), Grant Gannon (Rivals), and Yancy Porter (Scout). Surely that could help the star ratings. lmfao lmfao lmfao

I'm no expert on UT, but I'm willing to bet they have a few people working for both Rivals and Scout.

Like I said, I know the ratings don't mean everything, but it's still unusual to see 5 commits from the state of Tennessee to UT and none of them are the blue chip prospects. I say this b/c usually they try to cherry pick their home state and concentrate more on national prospects.

If we are going to judge a recruiting class by the number of stars that the players have, then the Univ. of Tenn. should have been playing for the national championship this past year. Year in and year out, Tenn. has signied classes in the top five, that is being ranked by recruiting services.
Stars mean nothing once a player is signed.

nctiger Wrote:

bmglennreb Wrote:

TigerEdward Wrote:

bmglennreb Wrote:I'm not surprised to see 5 of the players already committed to UT. I am surprised however that all 5 are 3 star or below. They haven't landed a single commit from one of the blue chippers in state. Obviously, they will eventually, but it's unusual for the list to be that way even at this point.

To answer your question on how many you get, I'd say 2 or 3 would be a good year, especially if you have one or two of the Top 10. Usually the state of Tennessee isn't a hot bed for football talent, so you mainly need to only get the cream out of the state and get the rest from out of state. I say this b/c I played on a team in high school that sent 2 players to D-1 ball over my 3 years, yet we made the playoffs every year and advanced a few rounds...in the highest classification in the state. In most other states, 2 D-1 prospects in 3 years gets you a ticket to stay home every year.

Of course, I'm going to stick my chest out a bit and say that we've already landed commitments from 5 of the top 10 players in the state of Mississippi and 8 of the Top 25 according to the same site. Of course, what does all this mean in July? Nothing, except that Major League Baseball season is too long and there is nothing to talk about.

Maybe it would benefit Tennessee to get a couple more of their own workin for Rivals and Scout. You know, like Ole Miss has with James Bryant (Rivals), Grant Gannon (Rivals), and Yancy Porter (Scout). Surely that could help the star ratings. lmfao lmfao lmfao

I'm no expert on UT, but I'm willing to bet they have a few people working for both Rivals and Scout.

Like I said, I know the ratings don't mean everything, but it's still unusual to see 5 commits from the state of Tennessee to UT and none of them are the blue chip prospects. I say this b/c usually they try to cherry pick their home state and concentrate more on national prospects.

If we are going to judge a recruiting class by the number of stars that the players have, then the Univ. of Tenn. should have been playing for the national championship this past year. Year in and year out, Tenn. has signied classes in the top five, that is being ranked by recruiting services.
Stars mean nothing once a player is signed.

Agreed that stars mean nothing once a player is signed, but I will argue that recruiting means everything. Without the best players, you can't win consistently. Your odds are better at getting a superstar out of a 4 or 5 star player than out of a 2 or 3 star player, but the trick as a coach is being able to get a lot of the "can't miss" prospects at the top of your class and then filling out the bottom of your class with the best guys that may have been overlooked.

Of course, as a coach, once you've built a winner, other coaches and the services tend to take notice when you show interest in a player, therefore, those guys that you used to be able to sneak in under the radar get the 4 and 5 star ratings they should. USC is a good example. They won the national title in 2004 simply because they had the most talent in the country. They were in the 2005 title game also because of their talent. The recruiting services took notice, and surprisingly, their 2006 recruiting class averaged just over 4 stars per player, which is ridiculously high. Some of their prospects may be overrated, but looking at Pete Carroll's recent results, I'd venture to say that the class will likely pan out as one of the best in the country.

This is not taking into account redshirts and Juco players that allow for some players to leave early and others to be a year behind, but here is what UT's national recruiting rankings were accoring to Rivals (what I consider the best service) for the classes that for the most part made up last year's team.

2002: 2
2003: 18
2004: 11
2005: 4
2006: 23 (not a part of the 2005 team)

So obviously, they did underachieve, though I think a lot of other factors played into why they went 5-6, not just the talent, or lack there of.

I also took a look at USC and Texas's class rankings, as we can probably say those two teams were head and shoulders above the rest of the country in talent this past year.

USC:
2002: 13
2003: 3
2004: 1
2005: 1
2006: 1 (not a part of 2005 team)

Texas:
2002: 1
2003: 15
2004: 10
2005: 20
2006: 5 (not a part of 2005 team)

So their rankings weren't that far off. Obviously you can see the trend I was talking about with USC and how, with victories, their recruiting is gaining more respect, therefore their players and classes are rated higher.

Of course, like I said, the rankings aren't everything and definitely aren't foolproof, but in the end, the players you bring to campus and keep on campus do mean everything.

Quote:Your odds are better at getting a superstar out of a 4 or 5 star player than out of a 2 or 3 star player

Bmglennreb,

I don't think there's any doubt the above statement is true. The better the material, the better chance a sculptor has of creating a great work of art. Mathematical facts. USC is dominating recruiting out here on the West Coast, and they're reaping the benefits. They've got high-school All-Americans standing on the sidelines for the games. They're two- and three-deep in quality players at every position, even after losing a ton of players to the NFL. Quarterback is their primary concern this year.

Of course, there's the matter of coaching, personalities, team chemistry, injuries, fate, and just plain bad luck (players not panning out for various reasons). Some of the reservations other Tiger fans have been expressing about Orgeron may be a cause for concern for your team. Of course, we don't have to worry about it; we're Tiger fans.

Also, speaking of recruiting being important, have you seen Texas's recruiting this year? Wow!!! Here's the Texas Top 100 from Rivals:

http://rivals100.rivals.com/viewrank.asp...&Year=2007

Texas has commitments from 15 out of the top 25 players in Texas at this early stage. That's very, very impressive. Oklahoma has been marginalized in Texas the last couple of years. Since Oklahoma signed Adrian Peterson a couple of years ago (and Texas put up a big fight for him as well), Texas has dominated recruiting in the state of Texas. Oklahoma can't survive long term without doing well in Texas.

All this good recruiting has already resulted in one national championship for Texas. The 2006 and 2007 Texas recruiting classes are some of the best I've seen in some time, and show how important it is to protect your own backyard. Certainly Orgeron is doing well with the top recruits in Mississippi. Now the queston is going to turn to, "What can he do with them?" and "Can he keep them on the team?" We'll see.

I agree completely. That's why I was saying that recruiting means everything while recruiting ranking mean very little. The players you get or don't get on your campus are the main reason you are going to win or lose games. Coaching strategy matters, but not as much as the players on the field executing that strategy. It's just a matter of getting the most talented players that mesh well, fit your system, and play well together that's what really matters. Of course, recruiting those players is the only way to get them.