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Recruiting revisited: Ranking the top 25 in college football’s Class of 2018, four years later — the hits, misses and more

4. Cincinnati
Adjusted average: 2.88
Class rank in 2018: 49th
Four-year record: 44-7
Attrition: 26%

Top signees: DE Myjai Sanders, WR Alec Pierce, TE Josh Whyle, S Ja’Von Hicks, OL Lorenz Metz

I won't post the article (Athletic). But cool to see the Bearcats identifying and developing talent. Top 5 class off of a 4 win season is amazing.

Paywall https://theathletic.com/3128181/2022/05/...ars-later/

The genius' ranked us at 49. Shows how much they know.

That's why I don't get hung up on recruiting rankings.

(05-23-2022 01:46 PM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  The genius' ranked us at 49. Shows how much they know.

That's why I don't get hung up on recruiting rankings.

i guess it depends on if you trust the coach or not. the teams that recruit "better" typically do better

(05-23-2022 01:46 PM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  The genius' ranked us at 49. Shows how much they know.

That's why I don't get hung up on recruiting rankings.

Retroactively ranking high school recruits based on another 4 years worth of development after the fact is not even remotely what they're penning it to be. To me, this should be a "class development ranking" not a "re-ranking the recruits" type thing, because recruits are based on potential, and this ranking has everything to do with players over-achieving on that potential ranking.

The further down the rankings you go the less reliable they are because they are more dependent on fit and development. The schools that get the five star and high 4 star guys are almost always going to be elite programs, because the miss rate on those guys isn't high. But as you go down the players are more flawed and rankings don't always tell you as much. In a vacuum higher ranking recruits are going to do better, but this is where really good coaches can find equal or better value even with lesser recruits. Coaches that understand fit, can see a development path for talented but not as highly regarding kids and can successfully implement the development path are going to outperform their rankings. Fickell is excellent at targeting the right guys and then developing those guys.

I think it's hard to separate recruiting from development, because part of the development is finding the right guys that can develop the way you want them too.