Clarification on * rankings -- Ledbetter example

[Mike_e]

With a JUCO guy count the number of top 30 schools (currently) that offered him and divide by two then look at his video and consider his positiion.

JL is about a 4 star.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

It's no different than the other services, they just use a 100 pts. system. You have 89 rated 3* and 80 rated 3*.

And that's my whole point Rice, and while I think looking at those ratings is a better analysis of the level of athlete that they consider him to be, as we all know, the recruiting services miss at times as well. Examples...JJ Watt, Korliss Marshall and there are others obviously.

[redeye]

And that's my whole point Rice, and while I think looking at those ratings is a better analysis of the level of athlete that they consider him to be, as we all know, the recruiting services miss at times as well. Examples...JJ Watt, Korliss Marshall and there are others obviously.

.
I agreed with your point.  The stars are whimsical and not very worthy, imo.  The difference between stars and ratings is analogous to a 5 point scale versus a 20, or by however many numbers ratings vary.  Obviously, the more graduations you have, the more accurate the scale.  This is why I've never understood why people care about stars.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

Whenever you see a rating on a recruit that you're not sure about, just ask yourself "How does he compare to Vin Ascolese?"   

You mean this guy, who signed with TCU and now has 4 years of eligibility remaining at LB after having been an academic casualty with us? Everybody likes to make fun of this kid, but he may turn out to be a real good player.

http://www.chatsports.com/tcu-horned-frogs/a/Meet-the-Commits-Vin-Ascolese-2-9471410#

[greenie]

You mean this guy, who signed with TCU and now has 4 years of eligibility remaining at LB after having been an academic casualty with us? Everybody likes to make fun of this kid, but he may turn out to be a real good player.

http://www.chatsports.com/tcu-horned-frogs/a/Meet-the-Commits-Vin-Ascolese-2-9471410#

Whoa...I wasn't making fun of this kid.  I was making fun of the way his reputation spun up here on hogville during the time of his recruiting.  He may very well turn out to be a force at LB for TCU.  I don't know the entire story about the trouble he had with the ClearingHouse.    I wish him the best.

[MFG]

You mean this guy, who signed with TCU and now has 4 years of eligibility remaining at LB after having been an academic casualty with us? Everybody likes to make fun of this kid, but he may turn out to be a real good player.

http://www.chatsports.com/tcu-horned-frogs/a/Meet-the-Commits-Vin-Ascolese-2-9471410#

He never even showed up on campus.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/08/04/6018541/tcu-football-notes-fields-meeting.html

• Linebacker Vinny Ascolese did not report, but Patterson said that was expected.

Nor is he even on the official roster

http://www.gofrogs.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/tcu-m-footbl-mtt.html

[Oklahawg]

Welcome to the joy, and frustration, of following recruiting.

We have never dived in deeply enough to figure out what positions the services evaluated the best/worst. I would bet there are some biases within that dataset, when dissected nationally for sure.

Notice that Ledbetter is listed as a DT and a DE. That changes things also - the relative strength of the positions.

Many HS athletes who are obviously not going to qualify get overlooked by some services. JUCO is the great leveling opportunity...but then you get different comparisons (JUCO teams vary in talent from league to league, for example, and a single great DL in KS might look a lot better than they look in TX, in one "for instance").

Ledetter looks like the real deal, a big-time contributor for next year.

Final point to note: Mount Cody was a critical part of Bama's NC run a few years ago, but was a 3-star (concensus) recruit.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

He never even showed up on campus.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/08/04/6018541/tcu-football-notes-fields-meeting.html

Nor is he even on the official roster

http://www.gofrogs.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/tcu-m-footbl-mtt.html

Well I'll be doggone. Nice find. From what I quoted it looked like he was committed and signed. Wonder where he wound up or if he is playing at all?

[redeye]

Final point to note: Mount Cody was a critical part of Bama's NC run a few years ago, but was a 3-star (concensus) recruit.

Mount Cody was also a JUCO.

[MemphisBossHog]

Popcorn, I was thinking the same.... good question. However, if he is ranked 4* by any service, he is called a 4*. That's generally what I assume. He is either ranked 4* somewhere or was. You will probably get a more informed response.

Many times you will see a player and the rankings by the 4 services. Of course they can change, but that shows the scoop without having to look up each one.

what you have to watch out for this also--if Ark is recruiting a player and he is rated say a 3* prospect and then Bama or Fla or Auburn or LSU show interest in him, amazingly that prospect will sometimes get another star just based on who is recruiting him. That way the big boys "star count" becomes inflated at times.  If Ark is recruiting against say Western Kentucky or Southern Miss--the same player as before but Bama et al havent seen him or arent recruiting him, he will stay a 3 star. 

[Mr. Barnett (rbarnet424)]

Well I'll be doggone. Nice find. From what I quoted it looked like he was committed and signed. Wonder where he wound up or if he is playing at all?

If he shows up signing with another team in 2015 im gonna start to think he doesn't really exist and was made up to troll fanbases (as a legend)

[redeye]

what you have to watch out for this also--if Ark is recruiting a player and he is rated say a 3* prospect and then Bama or Fla or Auburn or LSU show interest in him, amazingly that prospect will sometimes get another star just based on who is recruiting him. That way the big boys "star count" becomes inflated at times.  If Ark is recruiting against say Western Kentucky or Southern Miss--the same player as before but Bama et al havent seen him or arent recruiting him, he will stay a 3 star.

I'm sure some people don't believe that, but certain recruiting service employees have even admitted that ratings are partially based on who has offered.  At the same time, however, we've all seen lower rated players with outstanding offer lists, so it works both ways.  What I find the most suspicious is when a player's rating jumps soon after committing to a school like Alabama, which may just be coincidence, but it does happen.

[Oklahawg]

Mount Cody was also a JUCO.

My point exactly. Thanks for helping me clarify!

[Ray Piggers]

Personally I like to look at the Rivals ranking number as opposed to the "stars" rating. There are low and high three and four star players. The Rivals ranking number is a better indicator of the recruiting site's evaluation of the player.

As an example: A kid with a 5.8 rating is a 4 star player but a low 4, while a kid with a 6.07 rating is still a 4 star, but just a hair from being a 5 star.

And by the way, if you look at our committments for 2015 and check out the averaged Rivals Rating, you'll find that the overall quality of the players that we are recruiting and getting commits from, are better than many of our SEC counterparts.

In fact, prior to the committment of Ledbetter, if you sort by the team Rivals Ranking average, which indicates the overall average of talent in the class (drilling down further than just the stars) we come in at #13 nationally.

Average star rating on Rivals is 12th in the nation IIRC 

[fakebobholt]

honestly, you can tell how good the kid by his offers. That alone should tell you what the real evaluators think of him

[redeye]

My point exactly. Thanks for helping me clarify!

lol... I figured it was, and I should have acknowledged it, because it was a good one.

[OneTuskOverTheLine™]

I see. Is rivals the one that "we" (this board generally) go by?

Rivals is yahoo, right?

We go by the one that has the highest rating.... Usually has been 24/7, but not in this case...

[redeye]

We go by the one that has the highest rating.... Usually has been 24/7, but not in this case...

I go by 247 because it's the best site.  I rarely even look at Scout or ESPN, although the latter does offer some good tidbits.  I only use Rivals to peruse old information before 247 existed and if I need access to technical functions the other sites don't have.  I don't have a subscription, or receive privileged information, to any of them, because I already spend too much time following recruiting and past experience taught me it wasn't worth it.