Started By
Message
re: Class of 2015 Recruiting MEGATHREAD - Twilight Edition
Posted on 2/3/15 at 3:19 pm to Taskrj
Posted on 2/3/15 at 3:19 pm to Taskrj
If Alabama is going to land a National Signing Day surprise, history indicates the Crimson Tide have the recruiter on staff to seal the deal in assistant Kirby Smart
In the past Smart has taken on some of the Crimson Tide's toughest recruiting battles in seemingly impossible odds and more than held his own. This year is no exception with the Tide staff battling for 247Sports Composite five stars CeCe Jefferson and Terry Godwin with Smart the lead recruiter on both prospects.
Jefferson has been linked to many schools in recent weeks but only recently has serious talk regarding Alabama picked up steam. Godwin is a long-time Georgia commit and with his sister enrolled in Athens already, Alabama is facing tough odds but Smart has consistently proven himself in those situations.
Could the Tide be in position to land a late stunner?
“I have said it many times but it's tough being the defensive coordinator for a school like Alabama who competes for a national championship every year. They get every opponent's best shot and Smart has to have them prepared defensively," BamaOnline Recruiting Editor Tim Watts said. “At Alabama, recruiting is always a team effort but when it's crunch time, Smart is as good as anyone in the country when it comes to recruiting. You can see his past results and those are not easy battles he is fighting. He knows how to close.
“This year he is fighting hard for two out of state five stars who were considered locks to other schools. Will he get them? We will find out one way or the other on Wednesday but I can tell you he has made this very interesting and it won’t be from a lack of effort.”
Last year on National Signing Day, Smart landed a commitment from Auburn native and five-star defensive end Rashaan Evans who committed in the middle of Tiger country on national television. Just a week or so earlier, Marlon Humphrey ended the suspense of many Tide fans when he committed to Alabama after his official visit.
“Evans was one of the best recruiting victories for Alabama in recent memory and certainly a feather in Smart’s hat. Auburn made him a priority and the area pressure to commit to the Tigers was incredible. That was a lot of work and it paid off," Watts said. “Humphrey in hindsight probably seems like an easy victory but I can assure you Alabama fans were on the edge of their seat when he finally pulled the trigger. In typical Marlon fashion, he did it on twitter in the middle of a snow storm but Smart had to put out some fires down the stretch and he wrapped that up earlier than expected.”
Go back two recruiting cycles and Smart was again pulling out top prospects out of impossible odds with Norcross (Ga.) five-star athlete Alvin Kamara and Auburn High School five-star linebacker Rueben Foster. Kamara was a top target of Georgia while Foster had sealed a previous commitment to Auburn with a tattoo of the Tigers' emblem on his forearm.
“All of these prospects make up a special list of recruits. You are talking about a five-star linebacker and a top 100 running back when Alabama already had 3 committed,” Watts said. “Kamara ended up transferring but he was named JUCO player of the year in 2014 and is a talented back. And we all know the roller coast of Foster’s recruitment. It had many twists and turns.”
Smart is the primary recruiter this cycle for Alabama commitments Adonis Thomas, Brandon Kennedy, Mekhi Brown and Anfernee Jennings. Smart is currently ranked the nation’s 16th best recruiter by the 247Sports Composite Recruiter Ranking for 2015 after finishing third for his efforts in 2014. Pulling either Jefferson or Godwin down the stretch and that ranking is sure to rise.
LINK
In the past Smart has taken on some of the Crimson Tide's toughest recruiting battles in seemingly impossible odds and more than held his own. This year is no exception with the Tide staff battling for 247Sports Composite five stars CeCe Jefferson and Terry Godwin with Smart the lead recruiter on both prospects.
Jefferson has been linked to many schools in recent weeks but only recently has serious talk regarding Alabama picked up steam. Godwin is a long-time Georgia commit and with his sister enrolled in Athens already, Alabama is facing tough odds but Smart has consistently proven himself in those situations.
Could the Tide be in position to land a late stunner?
“I have said it many times but it's tough being the defensive coordinator for a school like Alabama who competes for a national championship every year. They get every opponent's best shot and Smart has to have them prepared defensively," BamaOnline Recruiting Editor Tim Watts said. “At Alabama, recruiting is always a team effort but when it's crunch time, Smart is as good as anyone in the country when it comes to recruiting. You can see his past results and those are not easy battles he is fighting. He knows how to close.
“This year he is fighting hard for two out of state five stars who were considered locks to other schools. Will he get them? We will find out one way or the other on Wednesday but I can tell you he has made this very interesting and it won’t be from a lack of effort.”
Last year on National Signing Day, Smart landed a commitment from Auburn native and five-star defensive end Rashaan Evans who committed in the middle of Tiger country on national television. Just a week or so earlier, Marlon Humphrey ended the suspense of many Tide fans when he committed to Alabama after his official visit.
“Evans was one of the best recruiting victories for Alabama in recent memory and certainly a feather in Smart’s hat. Auburn made him a priority and the area pressure to commit to the Tigers was incredible. That was a lot of work and it paid off," Watts said. “Humphrey in hindsight probably seems like an easy victory but I can assure you Alabama fans were on the edge of their seat when he finally pulled the trigger. In typical Marlon fashion, he did it on twitter in the middle of a snow storm but Smart had to put out some fires down the stretch and he wrapped that up earlier than expected.”
Go back two recruiting cycles and Smart was again pulling out top prospects out of impossible odds with Norcross (Ga.) five-star athlete Alvin Kamara and Auburn High School five-star linebacker Rueben Foster. Kamara was a top target of Georgia while Foster had sealed a previous commitment to Auburn with a tattoo of the Tigers' emblem on his forearm.
“All of these prospects make up a special list of recruits. You are talking about a five-star linebacker and a top 100 running back when Alabama already had 3 committed,” Watts said. “Kamara ended up transferring but he was named JUCO player of the year in 2014 and is a talented back. And we all know the roller coast of Foster’s recruitment. It had many twists and turns.”
Smart is the primary recruiter this cycle for Alabama commitments Adonis Thomas, Brandon Kennedy, Mekhi Brown and Anfernee Jennings. Smart is currently ranked the nation’s 16th best recruiter by the 247Sports Composite Recruiter Ranking for 2015 after finishing third for his efforts in 2014. Pulling either Jefferson or Godwin down the stretch and that ranking is sure to rise.
LINK
1
Posted on 2/3/15 at 3:57 pm to Taskrj
How are recruiting rankings determined? ESPN, Rivals, Scout and 247 break out the process
Few things get college football fans as fired up as recruiting rankings.
There is a Wizard of Oz feel to the whole process.
Game film versus in-person evaluations
Each service uses its own set of criteria, and thus, no set of rankings is ever exactly the same. Recruiting rankings are inherently an inexact science so each talent evaluator is going to have differing opinions about certain players and their long-term potential.
The biggest factor, according to the experts, is a prospect's game film. This is where the experts can get the best feel for a player's actual ability in the flow of a game. For the majority of the recruiting experts, this is preferred to combines and camps. However, one potential downside is with the rise of Hudl and xOS, recruiting analysts now have to wade through more game film and highlight tape than ever before.
"It's always the film; the film doesn't lie," says Brandon Huffman, the director of scouting at Scout.com. "I want to see what a kid is doing Friday nights between the lines."
At Scout.com, the film is far and away the biggest priority.
247Sports has a similar mentality. JC Shurburtt, a national recruiting analyst for the network, estimates that game film equates to 60 percent of a prospect's total grade. He uses those camps as a way to confirm what he's already seen on film and gives him a chance to see if a player's measurables actually match up to what he claims.
ESPN reviews the game film and then breaks it down to a "hit tape," which according to national recruiting director Tom Luginbill, culls from three to four games and is "comprised of really good plays, really poor plays and mediocre plays." Luginbill then use that information to put together the most comprehensive evaluation for each recruit out of the major services.
Rivals.com puts the most emphasis on camps and combines out of the four major recruiting services. It's not hard to see why given the company has made a major investment in developing its Rivals camp series and Rivals Five-Star Challenge. Detractors of the camp and combine circuit derisively refer to them as underwear camps, but Rivals' national recruiting director Mike Farrell believes those camps, along with the all-star games, are "the best you can get" for senior evaluations.
Do scholarship offers matter?
Out of the four recruiting experts, Shurburtt is the only one who says offers factor in at all and he gives it only 10 percent of the total equation. One thing 247Sports does is look at the track record of college programs putting players into the NFL, especially lower-rated prospects. If a school is known for turning two and three-star prospects into NFL players, the analysts might give the school the benefit of the doubt when they offer a similarly rated player.
The other issue with factoring in scholarship offers, according to the analysts, is that not only do they not tell the full story, but they might not even exist. Recruits make up scholarship offers in order to get more attention. It would be incredibly difficult to personally verify every single offer that 2000 or more recruits claim to have.
Says Luginbill: "Some are manufactured by the kids and you don't know if he even has an offer or not. Other offers might be predicated on stipulations of coming to a camp or an official visit."
He additionally notes that offers don't reflect priority on a program's board. With schools offering more and more kids, a player could get a prestigious offer but behind the scenes he is the 10th best receiver on the board and the program only plans on taking two.
LINK
Few things get college football fans as fired up as recruiting rankings.
There is a Wizard of Oz feel to the whole process.
Game film versus in-person evaluations
Each service uses its own set of criteria, and thus, no set of rankings is ever exactly the same. Recruiting rankings are inherently an inexact science so each talent evaluator is going to have differing opinions about certain players and their long-term potential.
The biggest factor, according to the experts, is a prospect's game film. This is where the experts can get the best feel for a player's actual ability in the flow of a game. For the majority of the recruiting experts, this is preferred to combines and camps. However, one potential downside is with the rise of Hudl and xOS, recruiting analysts now have to wade through more game film and highlight tape than ever before.
"It's always the film; the film doesn't lie," says Brandon Huffman, the director of scouting at Scout.com. "I want to see what a kid is doing Friday nights between the lines."
At Scout.com, the film is far and away the biggest priority.
247Sports has a similar mentality. JC Shurburtt, a national recruiting analyst for the network, estimates that game film equates to 60 percent of a prospect's total grade. He uses those camps as a way to confirm what he's already seen on film and gives him a chance to see if a player's measurables actually match up to what he claims.
ESPN reviews the game film and then breaks it down to a "hit tape," which according to national recruiting director Tom Luginbill, culls from three to four games and is "comprised of really good plays, really poor plays and mediocre plays." Luginbill then use that information to put together the most comprehensive evaluation for each recruit out of the major services.
Rivals.com puts the most emphasis on camps and combines out of the four major recruiting services. It's not hard to see why given the company has made a major investment in developing its Rivals camp series and Rivals Five-Star Challenge. Detractors of the camp and combine circuit derisively refer to them as underwear camps, but Rivals' national recruiting director Mike Farrell believes those camps, along with the all-star games, are "the best you can get" for senior evaluations.
Do scholarship offers matter?
Out of the four recruiting experts, Shurburtt is the only one who says offers factor in at all and he gives it only 10 percent of the total equation. One thing 247Sports does is look at the track record of college programs putting players into the NFL, especially lower-rated prospects. If a school is known for turning two and three-star prospects into NFL players, the analysts might give the school the benefit of the doubt when they offer a similarly rated player.
The other issue with factoring in scholarship offers, according to the analysts, is that not only do they not tell the full story, but they might not even exist. Recruits make up scholarship offers in order to get more attention. It would be incredibly difficult to personally verify every single offer that 2000 or more recruits claim to have.
Says Luginbill: "Some are manufactured by the kids and you don't know if he even has an offer or not. Other offers might be predicated on stipulations of coming to a camp or an official visit."
He additionally notes that offers don't reflect priority on a program's board. With schools offering more and more kids, a player could get a prestigious offer but behind the scenes he is the 10th best receiver on the board and the program only plans on taking two.
LINK
Page 1 of 1
Latest Alabama News
Popular
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News