Recruiting Review

We spend so much time looking at our recruiting classes when they are coming in that we sometimes forget that the best time to evaluate them is when they are going OUT. Of course, that's about recruiting and coaching, but if a bunch of guys don't make it to the end of their career, then I guess that tells you something, right?

We have to wait five years to evaluate most classes, so four year guys (like Sheehan) will be evaluated based on their incoming class.

This was Brandon's first class as a head coach when he had control of the entire process. (The previous year had found Urban bolting in December). I just think it is real clear when we look back that there were problems being seeded right from the start, even if we couldn't see it yet. Let's look.

With that in mind, let's look. Below is the classification system I developed.

2005 Recruiting Class (Brandon II)

STAR--ALL MAC, top flight starter and producer, etc.
Starter--player in starting lineup consistently at some point in career.
Role Player--Corn McGrady type. #4 WR or special teams player. You get the idea.
Finished, no footprints. Completed eligibility without doing much.
Washed out--Did not finish career.

STAR (3)
Freddie Barnes QB
Jimmy Scheidler TE
Antonio Smith CB

Starter (6)
Chris Bullock RB
Cody Basler LB
Brady Minturn DL
Ruben Ruiz + TE
Shane Steffy OL
Chris Wright CB
 
Role Player (1)
Aaron Davis

Washed out (15)
Luke Alexander + WR
Jarrett Buckosh OL
Trevor Frericks DL
Jacob Hardwick DL
Thomas James DL
Nick Lawrence LB
Rhett Magner WR
Kevin Mahoney OL
Phillip Pollard OL
Michael Ream DL
Richard Solak OL
Bobby Thomas DB
Cordelle Thompson LB
Stephon Thompson CB
Guy Williamson OL

May get another year--Calvin Wiley DB

So, in a class with 25 players, 15 of them failed to finish their careers.  There are a couple of arrests tossed in their.  Given this, it is remarkable that BG was 7-5 this season, it would seem to me like a recruiting class like this would be a year killer in most programs.

Now, some washouts are to be expected, but I wonder how our classes really look lately as it relates to this--and the ability to generate stars and starters.  Using the same standards, I look at the four classes that are completed from the Meyer/Brandon years.  On each row, the bottom two lines are Meyer years and the top two are Brandon years.

So what do we see here?  First, the Brandon years definitely have more players who just don't make it through, and the second year is worse than the first, which is odd, since Brandon I was supposed to be weaker with Meyer leaving in December.

Now, where does the difference go?  There are more stars, to be sure, but the difference is not as dramatic as on starters, where the Meyer years clearly outpaced the Brandon years.

To me, the conclusion is inescapable.  BG football recruiting took a hit in the first two years of Brandon's run, and there was a trend not toward getting bad players but getting players who, for whatever reason, could not stick.  I don't know what was going on (compromises, etc), but I do know what the results are.