espn.com's Ted Miller has a revealing look back to the recruiting rankings of the players from his 2010 All-PAC-10 team. Based on their high school recruiting grades, the Oregon all-league selections could all be classified as overachievers:
RB LaMichael James, So., Oregon: Grade: 80. Ranked 24th among RBs.
WR Jeff Maehl, Sr., Oregon: Grade: 40. Unranked among CBs.
OL Bo Thran, Sr., Oregon: Grade: 40. Unranked among OLs.
DL Brandon Bair, Sr., Oregon : Grade: 40. Unranked among TEs.
LB Casey Matthews, Sr., Oregon: Grade: 78. Ranked 14th among ILB.
DB Talmadge Jackson, Sr., Oregon: Grade: 74. Ranked 92nd among RBs.
DB John Boyett, So., Oregon: Grade: 72. Ranked 85th among Ss.
Interesting to note when they signed their letter of intent three players who became stars for the Ducks were unranked as high school players. Only James achieved an 80 rating, ESPN's equivalent of 4-star status. Three of the players, Maehl, Bair and Jackson, made position switches. Jackson and Boyett were ranked low enough to be considered projects rather prospects.
Clearly it's a good thing the Oregon coaches do their own research and evaluation, and they're pretty good at it. These players, together with their teammates, won the last two PAC-10 championships.
Signing Day is a college football fan's equivalent of the circus coming to town, the ice cream man playing "The Entertainer" two houses down, and a bb-gun shaped package under the Christmas tree, but a lot of coaching, training and hard work goes in to shaping a championship team. The recruiting hullabaloo and hoopla is only the beginning.
ESPN is the worse of the recruiting services. They dont even have Colt in their top 150. De'Anthony Thomas is listed as a four-star, even though every other services has him as the top athlete on their charts.
ReplyDelete