2020 Recruiting Thread

[FearlessF]

the huskers in the 80s and 90s with Osborne's offense got good backs, but not the recruiting level of Oklahoma

I.M. Hipp (walkon), Roger Craig (Davenport, IA), Mike Rozier (JUCO), Calvin Jones (Omaha), Keith Jones (Omaha), Ahman Green (Omaha)

like Wisconsin, farther north and not the big recruiting name for the program

just have to get lucky with some local kids flying under the recruiting radar and develop talent

[EastAthens]

Wisconsin has had an unbelievable run with RB's since the late 90s until now.

5* RB's aren't always what they're cracked out to be. Trust me. I've seen plenty at Michigan flop in the 2000's alone. 5* Justin Fargas was like THE top HS player in the country back in the day in '99 before the internet sites. He was a big deal, hot-shot recruit, as big as they come. Fargas was moved to free safety in 2000, was pissed about it then transferred back home to Cali to USC. Just a couple years later was 5* Kelly Baraka- freakish athlete, broke the state of Michigan 100m record that was set by Charles Rogers and Tyrone Wheatley. Got kicked out of school for pot before he ever did anything. 5* David Underwood was suppose to be the next big thing from Texas. Little 3* Mike Hart arrived just a year later and won that job as a true frosh and never looked back. 5* Kevin Grady came in the year after Mike Hart, was suppose to be the thunder to Hart's lightning. He never did jackshit. 5* Derrick Green was suppose to be the savior. Saved nothing. Busted out of the program in two years. 5* Ty Isaac transferred from USC to be closer to his mother who had a serious health issue. Isaac was a solid rotational back who had some nice moments, but he was a FAR cry from a 5* stud, impact type player that you'd have expected.

Tell ya what, I kinda wish Michigan had had some of those Wisconsin 3* backs.

Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and D'andre Swift say hello.

[847badgerfan]

James White, Melvin Gordon, Corey Clement and Jonathon Taylor say hi right back.

[MaximumSam]

big-time pick up. gives OSU a big shot in the arm in the recruit rag rankings and in terms of buzz on the trail to help them lock up other top kids. Top players want to play with each other. The more of those you have in a class, the easier it is to get more.

I do have my doubts about just how good he is though. He's obviously very good. But he's rated as a top 5 player in the entire nation. And he "only" ran a laser timed 4.64 in the 40 at that Nike Opening combine thingy. He has good game speed on his HS tape but it's not blow you out of the water, top 5 player in the entire nation speed.

I don't know. All I'm saying- if a WR is gonna be ranked that high in HS- for me- he better damn well look and run like Julio Jones.

I've long since stopped trying to project high schoolers, so who knows. Michael Thomas was a Hell of a receiver despite average 40 times. In any event, OSU on a heck of a run for receivers.

[Mdot21]

I've long since stopped trying to project high schoolers, so who knows. Michael Thomas was a Hell of a receiver despite average 40 times. In any event, OSU on a heck of a run for receivers.

Yeah, OSU has been on a nice run for WRs for sure. 

I think that that will only expand with Brian Hartline as the WRs coach there now and with Ryan Day running a scheme that’s more geared toward the passing game than Urban Meyer ran. 

Yeah, it’s a crapshoot, who the hell knows. Just getting a big recruiting fish like Fleming is a win simply because of the buzz it creates on the trail with other top recruits. Makes OSU that more attractive to other top kids. 

I wasn’t trying to knock Fleming, just saying I wonder is all. Fleming lives in butt f Egypt in a town of like 1,400 people and the school he goes to might have 300 kids total. He’s playing really poor competition and his verified times aren’t great. He could very well wind up a heckuva WR like Michael Thomas. But all I’m saying- to me- top 5 HS recruit in the entire nation as a WR better look like Charles Rogers or Julio Jones. I think he’s a clear step below those types of guys. 

[bayareabadger]

Yes. Out of the blue. Very weird.

Especially when the head coach of his HS is now the running backs coach at Maryland, and despite the speculation, is very well-liked and respected by the football players, so him abandoning his head coach over a weekend that quick is very odd.

Muschamp must be into that SEC "stuff".

They'd been hard after him for a ling while, right? I know they can sell him as being the de facto starter. They have three senior RBs at the head of the room right now.

Also probably slinging a lil cash. UA has to step up I suppose. 

[bayareabadger]

There has to be a solid reason the "elite" kids never look to Madison. The last 5* to commit was Ron Dayne, and he was rated as a fullback.

Didn't UW have to bend every academic standard it had to get the last elite back it got? (Clay)

Guessing it's a geography thing in part. Most elite backs are from warmer places, and getting them to go somewhere as cold as UW is hard. A lot go from one warm power region (Texas/Ca/South East) to another or stay put. Then you have the OSU/UM brand issues. Ohio five-stars say home, same for Michigan. The most confusing part is Michigan pulling five-star back after five-star back. UW has been a little inconsistent in offering that kind of talent (I'd need to double check if the Chryst or Anderson staff got a little more into it).

So the best bet, outside one coming up in Wi., is to get them from NJ or St. Louis, and Michigan seems way more sunk in in NJ. 

UW has gotten marvelous at IDing off-the-beaten path types. Ball was oddly shaped and not really a burner, but just had that factor on the college level. James White was a speed back who blossomed. Gordon was a stud who a lot of folks just missed on (his junior year I think was limited as well). Clement was basically a top-150 recruit, whose career might've been a tad short of that. Lotta good evals. 

[847badgerfan]

There were a lot of things that happened to get Clay admitted. Nebraska was ready to take him if Wisconsin couldn't.


He would not be admitted today. Not a chance.

[FearlessF]

Clay would still be taken by Nebraska today

desperation

[847badgerfan]

Jordan Stevenson was a UNL take, so yeah, probably so. I wish that would change and that all the schools had the same admissions process - whatever that is. I'd like to see exceptions for athletes simply go away.

[FearlessF]

UNL's admissions standards aren't too high for the common student - I was accepted

I don't think the standard for athletes is much different

the NCAA has a standard, I'm not sure it needs to be raised.  If so, just a bit to a level the P5 conferences can tolerate.

Not sure why a conference like the PAC or the B1G need something more.  Or why Stanford or Wisconsin feel the need to require more than other members of their conference.

this is regarding athletes...........

but, each University has it's own goals and ambitions

[Cincydawg]

The difference between the scholastic metrics of athletes and the general student population is often massive.

https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/paper-trail/2008/12/30/athletes-show-huge-gaps-in-sat-scores

• Football players average 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates. Men's basketball was 227 points lower.

• University of Florida won the prize for biggest gap between football players and the student body, with players scoring 346 points lower than their peers.

• Georgia Tech had the nation's best average SAT score for football players, 1028 of a possible 1600, and best average high school GPA, 3.39 of a possible 4.0. But because its student body is apparently very smart, Tech's football players still scored 315 SAT points lower than their classmates.

• UCLA, which has won more NCAA championships in all sports than any other school, had the biggest gap between the average SAT scores of athletes in all sports and its overall student body, at 247 points.

Some "universal truths," according to the Journal-Constitution:

Quote All 53 schools for which football SAT scores were available had at least an 88-point gap between team members' average score and the average for the student body.
Schools with the highest admissions standards, such as Georgia Tech, the University of Virginia, the University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of North Carolina, had the biggest gaps between the SAT averages for athletes and the overall student body.
Football players performed 115 points worse on the SAT than male athletes in other sports.
The differences between athletes' and non-athletes' SAT scores were less than half as big for women (73 points) as for men (170).
Many schools routinely used a special admissions process to admit athletes who did not meet the normal entrance requirements. More than half of scholarship athletes at the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin, Clemson University, UCLA, Rutgers University, Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University were special admits. . . At Georgia, for instance, 73.5 percent of athletes were special admits compared with 6.6 percent of the student body as a whole.

At a glance, here are the top 10 highest and lowest schools based on the average SAT scores of football players (out of a maximum 1600 score):
FOOTBALL SAT SCORES:
THE TOP 10
School, Average

• Georgia Tech, 1028
• Oregon State, 997
• Michigan, 997
• Virginia, 993
• Purdue, 974
• Indiana, 973
• Hawaii, 968
• California, 967
• Colorado, 966
• Iowa, 964

THE BOTTOM 10

• School, Average
• Oklahoma State, 878
• Louisville, 878
• Memphis, 890
• Florida, 890
• Texas Tech, 901
• Arkansas, 910
• Texas A&M, 911
• Mississippi State, 911
• Washington State, 916
• Michigan State, 917

[FearlessF]

T
FOOTBALL SAT SCORES:
THE TOP 10
School, Average

• Georgia Tech, 1028
• Oregon State, 997
• Michigan, 997
• Virginia, 993
• Purdue, 974
• Indiana, 973
• Hawaii, 968
• California, 967
• Colorado, 966
• Iowa, 964

I expected to see Wisconsin here
the Big Ten is represented

[Cincydawg]

Hey, the SEC is well represented as well!!!

• School, Average
• Oklahoma State, 878
• Louisville, 878
• Memphis, 890
• Florida, 890
• Texas Tech, 901
• Arkansas, 910
• Texas A&M, 911
• Mississippi State, 911
• Washington State, 916
• Michigan State, 917