trey's picks
College football thoughts of the week: The losers of recruiting season
Around the college football world:
- Three Alabama football players are barred from campus for being violent thieving jerks, and a fourth is suspended (along with first three) for using a stolen debt card taken from one of the robbery victims. Do you guys realize who your coach is? He might literally kill all four of you.
- Or worse, maybe he turns one of the lady Sabans loose on you.
- Lots of talk about whether or not Jadaveon Clowney should skip his junior season to avoid injury since he’s likely the first pick in the 2014 NFL draft. That talk is stupid.
- Miami is about to get nailed to the wall nailed to the wall.
- Manti Te’o wants to be graded on his game, not his off-the-field train wreck. Ironic since his off-the-field sideshow was the very reason most of America even knows who Mani Te’o is.
I wonder if there are other Manti Te’os out there? Or Jadaveon Clowneys? Surely yes. Last week we talked about the teams that cleaned up in recruiting this year. This week let’s take a look at the teams that did the opposite of that.
My one qualifier is to make this list you have to be a solid, established program. The UTSAs and Texas States that are new to Division I are obviously not going to make this list since they are brand new. No, this list is reserved for those schools that could have done better, but did not. Let’s do this!
Definitely not the winners
I will not call them “losers” of recruiting season because at this point ever class is just a theory. Obviously every single one of these guys in every class is a terrific player that has made a dream come true: to be a scholarshipped college football player. Life ain’t so bad for any of these guys; still, the teams they signed with should have done much better.
Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets played for the ACC Title and won their bowl game, but it wasn’t enough to attract big time talent. That 7-7 record (yes, they petitioned the NCAA to get into a bowl game and won) screams mediocrity and they finished with the 84th best class in the Rivals.com rankings of all 122 Division I football teams. The team from a BCS conference lower than the Ramblin’ Wreck was fellow ACC member Boston College. The Eagles were 2-10 and finished just two spots and 30 points behind Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech is a very, very, very good school and the entrance requirements are tough. With the new rules about athletes having to progress to stay in school each year, it’s even harder at places like Georgia Tech. But still, Duke isn’t a community college and they finished nearly 20 spots higher? You need talent to compete with the Clemsons and Florida States of the ACC and Georgia Tech just isn’t getting enough. But who wouldn’t want to play for this guy?
Kansas State
Coming off a Big 12 Title with a Heisman candidate at quarterback I thought this was the year Bill Snyder would rake in the blue chips. No. Kansas State finished with a class averaging (from 1 to 5) 2.72 stars per man. Normally I wouldn’t think twice about that because K-State dives into the junior college ranks, and many times those guys are just rated very highly because they are off the radar. But this year they only signed five, meaning the other 14 members of the class or high school kids. It wasn’t terrible, but it sure could have, and should have, been better.
Bill Snyder has shown he can do wonders with underrated guys and players others looked over. He’s going to get his chance to prove that with this class.
Iowa
Did you know that Kirk Ferentz is the 6th highest paid coach in all of college football? He’s behind Lord Saban, Mack Brown, Stoops, Urban Meyer and Les Miles. In the last 14 years, Iowa has been to the BCS twice and won the Big Ten in 2004. In the last two years, however, Iowa is a combined 11-14 and failed to go bowling last year. Ferentz has to laugh at the Texas and LSU fans angry with their coaches… I digress. The play on the field is definitely reflected in recruiting, where the Hawkeyes just aren’t pulling in the stars like they were seven or so years ago.
This class is solid, I suppose, with lots of kids that should be contributors… But when your coach is the sixth highest paid coach in the sport, your recruiting needs to be better to compete. South Florida, Houston and Kansas finished higher than Iowa. Kansas? Kansas??? They don’t even like football.
Garrett Gilbert
Okay, hold on. I am not a GG hater. AT ALL. I mean that. I am not calling him any names and I wish nothing but the best for the guy and while his dream was crashing around him in Austin, he never once complained or blamed anyone else. He was as stand up as the come. He transferred to SMU to start over and was the starter and winner of their bowl game last year. He returns for his senior season… But his qb rating was the sixth worst in all of college football (105.5) and he was tied for third most interceptions (15) in the land.
AND NOW, after all that, he has to compete with Myles Cosby, an incoming qb recruit for SMU. If you don’t know who Myles Cosby is, read this.
Gilbert can’t catch a break. Focus, GG. Focus! I'm rooting for you.
That’s it for this week. Back next week with some more of something.
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Email Trey here or follow him on Twitter @TreyMcLean.