Super Bowl Thoughts and Recruiting

Hello again. Before we get to my recruiting thoughts, I want to take a minute to talk about the Super Bowl. First of all, I was quite impressed with the game, the telecast, Madden and Michaels, and The Boss was awesome for a halftime show, but I’m a Springsteen fan, so probably no surprise there. And by the way, his 12 minute halftime show was infinitely better than the three hour disaster he gave here in St Louis in October, but I digress. There was one thing that really bugged me about the game, though: The officiating was horrid, and for the greatest sports league in the greatest country in the world, that’s a problem. Would full time refs help? Maybe, maybe not. I’m still not convinced having guys on the payroll all year long are going to make a difference. I mean, do you want them breaking down their performances in March? How does that make them better? No, what makes them better is fines or termination for continually sloppy officiating.

I didn’t really have any particular dog in the fight; I tend to cheer for the underdog in games that I have no vested interest, and I really like Kurt Warner. There’s still a lot of warm feelings for him in the Land of the Arch, and it’s kind of rubbed off on me. That said, with former Vikings Defensive Coordinator Mike Tomlin and former Buckeye Santonio Holmes on the Steelers sideline, I wasn’t at all upset to see them holding the Lombardi at the end of the game. Thanks, Santonio, for making Buckeye Nation so proud! Brought back fond memories of the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and the 2005 version of The Game up in Ann Arbor.

Okay, let’s talk recruiting. I’ve made disclaimers in the past that for the most part, I don’t know beans about recruiting, and after doing some anecdotal research that I’m going to share in just a minute, I don’t think most experts do, either. Ranking recruiting classes before the ink dries on the letter of intent has become the college equivalent of handing out draft grades less than 24 hours after Mr. Irrelevant gets his 15 minutes of fame. I’m going to use Scout.com’s draft rankings and look at the past few Ohio State classes to try and substantiate my argument. My point is to not say that one player was terrible and/or over-rated and another is under-rated, but simply to say it’s asinine to rack and stack 17 and 18 year old kids and proclaim them to be either this or that before they play a game in college.

In 2002, the Ohio State recruiting class was 24 strong, and was considered by many to be Jim Tressel’s best class prior to this 2009 class that is about to sign. Among the 24 recruits were 3 5-star recruits, 13 4-star recruits, and 4 3-star recruits. The three five star recruits were Maurice Clarett, Mike Kudla, and Mike D’Andrea. Clarett, well…tragic story of epic proportions, and had it not ended the way it did, was well on his way to becoming an all-time great. The Buckeyes were just a different team, with a different attitude, when he was in there. Sigh. Mike D’Andrea never panned out, battling numerous knee injuries before ending his playing career in 2006. Mike Kudla had a good senior season after overcoming injuries, a position change from LB to DE, and a bizarre, life-threatening disease that nearly killed him in 2003. So out of those three “can’t miss” guys, Clarett was a horrid miss, D’Andrea was a miss, and Kudla ended on a very respectable note, but didn’t do it for his whole career. Most of the four star guys were pretty good, among them the aforementioned Holmes, Bobby Carpenter, Nate Salley, and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith. But for every Smith there’s a Justin Zwick, a guy that never seemed to get comfortable playing in the harsh spotlight that is Ohio State football. Then there’s one star recruit Nick Mangold, who went on to become one of the better centers in recent memory, a first round draft pick, and will be going to the Pro Bowl.

2003 had one five star guy, Donte Whittner. Yeah, that seemed about right. Whittner had a very good career in Columbus and was a first round pick of the Buffalo Bills. 4 star recruit Luis Irizrry, however, couldn’t saty out of trouble and is in 1-AA. Ashton Youbouty and Kirk Barton were only three star prospects, but sere solid starters and contributors their entire careers.

2005 had a 2 star WR in Brian Robiskie and a 3 star LB in James Laurinaitis turn out to be pretty outstanding, and both ended up playing at least one star above what they were ranked. Maurice Wells was considered one of the hot 4 star RB prospects when recruited, but could never crack the starting lineup, even given every opportunity to do so.

And the list goes on. And it just isn’t Ohio State, this happens with every recruiting class at every school. Except, of course, Notre Dame. Their prospects are all the greatest ever, because they play in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus. And don’t give Charlie Weiss a month to gameplan, because he’ll give up 600 yards of total offense in the Fiesta Bowl.

So just keep things in perspective when the 'experts' sdtart proclaiming one thing or the other about a particular recruiting class. Unless, of course, they sing the praises of Ohio State and how gifted, talented, athletic, and fast everyone is.

That will all be true. Enjoy national signing day.