11th on Rivals 14th on 247

#27
#27
volbound1700 said:
True but we are in the upper mix. Not all of the 4-5 stars pan out correctly. If you look at our scores, we are pretty competitive against anyone in the SEC except Alabama, Georgia, and Texas A&M who still appear to be on their own playing field.

Also on rivals were are #5 in the SEC so depends on what source. The sources cannot quite agree on how good these players are so you can only buy so much into rankings. Pruitt's teams ranked very high but did not show it on the field.
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We play Alabama and Georgia every year though, and until we are recruiting talent that enables us to compete with them, where we are at in reference to anyone else is somewhat irrelevant.
 
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#28
#28
volbound1700 said:
I am still lost that three 4 star players in the state of Tennessee signed with Kentucky. What made them think Kentucky was a better fit based on this past year?

Another interesting tidbit, Rivals thinks we may end up landing Walter Nolen even though he is connected to A&M. Reference Future Forecast:

Walter Nolen, 2022 Defensive tackle - Rivals.com
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Probably not sure if this season was a fluke and KY had a little more stability
 
#29
#29
Someone please explain to me how the investigation is holding us back. I can't come up with a single reason. Keep us going from a meaningless bowl? No chance of an sec championship much less national. So please explain to me how. To me it seems to be more of a scapegoat excuse
 
#30
#30
#33
#33
Mtnvol80 said:
Someone please explain to me how the investigation is holding us back. I can't come up with a single reason. Keep us going from a meaningless bowl? No chance of an sec championship much less national. So please explain to me how. To me it seems to be more of a scapegoat excuse
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Meaningless? Feel free to turn the channel and wait for the championship farce.
 
#34
#34
I, for one, like what our coaching staff has done in our recruiting. All the knashing of teeth and wringing of hands over the ratings, which are determined by some guys who sitting behind a desk and are being influenced by what they have heard about a player.

I will remind everyone of the opinions about Coach Heupel not being the coach we needed; not proven; etc. He came in with the entire deck stacked against him, but he and his staff developed a team which became one of the most exciting teams in the country, even though they had so much against them.

I will also remind everyone of the players who were actually developed in a very short period of time into being very good players. They have proven to me that they can evaluate and utilize player talents effectively. 4 & 5 stars may look good on paper, but I want players to play like 5 stars even though they are rated as 2 or 3 stars by the "experts".

If we can keep our staff together, we will be more than ok.
 
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#36
#36
BeardedVol said:
Our conference ranking is more important than our national ranking at the moment.

Currently 247 has us at 7th in the SEC.
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To further break it down it is

Alabama, Georgia, Texas A & M

Then a dead heat for 4th in the conference -
Tenn, Ky, Miss, Aub, SC

Not a bad place to be - vs where we were last year with a 3 win team.
We need to slide in right behind the big 3 next year in recruiting and ahead of the middle of the pack crew.
 
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#37
#37
BeardedVol said:
We play Alabama and Georgia every year though, and until we are recruiting talent that enables us to compete with them, where we are at in reference to anyone else is somewhat irrelevant.
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You just stated that the conference ranking is what’s important.

Alabama and Georgia aren’t the only teams in the conference.

As it stands Tennessee is only 10.1 points from being 4th in the SEC……..still with NCAA uncertainty.

Kentucky just had their second best season in many folks lifetime, they’ve had a steady coach and no NCAA uncertainty……….yet Tennessee (as of now) is only 10 points behind them.

Tennessee is not on the level of Bama and Georgia and their not going to be out recruiting them or even at their level right now……everyone knows this………..it “might” be a good thing to recruit at the level of the “other” upper level SEC teams, have some success, win games, go to bowls, keep a coach (as long as their getting it done)………and “then” maybe Tennessee can recruit say top 5 or 7 or so (in the country), in order to become more competitive with the Georgia’s and Bama’s.

Hard to complain about that right now.
 
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#38
#38
jim43 said:
I, for one, like what our coaching staff has done in our recruiting. All the knashing of teeth and wringing of hands over the ratings, which are determined by some guys who sitting behind a desk and are being influenced by what they have heard about a player.

I will remind everyone of the opinions about Coach Heupel not being the coach we needed; not proven; etc. He came in with the entire deck stacked against him, but he and his staff developed a team which became one of the most exciting teams in the country, even though they had so much against them.

I will also remind everyone of the players who were actually developed in a very short period of time into being very good players. They have proven to me that they can evaluate and utilize player talents effectively. 4 & 5 stars may look good on paper, but I want players to play like 5 stars even though they are rated as 2 or 3 stars by the "experts".

If we can keep our staff together, we will be more than ok.
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I agree with you and I also think Heupel and Co. can coach up a three-star player and get them to play like a four or a five. But there's more to it than that. The "stars" are more an indication of how ready the player is to perform in top-level college football right now. It's also a measure of their ceiling as players; the fours and fives are much more likely to have high ceilings. There are plenty of two-stars and three-stars coming out of high school, and even lower, who have improved in college and are now stars in the NFL. And there are fives that were complete busts. UT has had some.

It takes a few years to coach up a two or three-star, and not all of them pan out that way. Some of them are going to hang around for five years just taking up a scholarship and never do a thing to help you win an SEC game. Others are going to be playing for someone like ETSU or Carson-Newman in two years, and all Tennessee will have done is given the Bucs or Eagles some well-trained players who will excel at those levels.

But if you're consistently hitting fours and fives, like Bama or Jawja, you won't have nearly so many players just using up scholarships or not panning out. You will have more quality depth. Look at what happened between UT and Bama this season. We were competitive until the fourth quarter. But they have studs on their second and even third teams, and we had 71 scholarship players and not much SEC-caliber talent outside of our starting elevens. Hell, we even took it to Jawja for a while--but it's the same thing. Kirby Smart could go to his bench and Josh Heupel couldn't, unless he wanted to get his ass beat right away.

Heupel can coach and he can develop players. But if Nick Saban starts out with better raw material, Heup can never catch him, or beat him unless Bama just plays poorly that day. To consistently play with the Tide or the Dawgs, we will have to beat them at least occasionally in recruiting battles.
 
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#39
#39
JoAllan said:
You just stated that the conference ranking is what’s important.

Alabama and Georgia aren’t the only teams in the conference.

As it stands Tennessee is only 10.1 points from being 4th in the SEC……..still with NCAA uncertainty.

Kentucky just had their second best season in many folks lifetime, they’ve had a steady coach and no NCAA uncertainty……….yet Tennessee (as of now) is only 10 points behind them.

Tennessee is not on the level of Bama and Georgia and their not going to be out recruiting them or even at their level right now……everyone knows this………..it “might” be a good thing to recruit at the level of the “other” upper level SEC teams, have some success, win games, go to bowls, keep a coach (as long as their getting it done)………and “then” maybe Tennessee can recruit say top 5 or 7 or so (in the country), in order to become more competitive with the Georgia’s and Bama’s.

Hard to complain about that right now.
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Will it make you feel better if I mention that A&M is having a good recruiting cycle? We don't play them every year though, but we do Alabama and Georgia, so that's why they are more relevant to us in terms of ranking, and at the moment, there's a gulf between them and us that's wider than Tallulah Gorge.

You don't stop being a middling SEC team, until you have players better than the rest of the middling SEC teams, and until we do that, having a national ranking in the top 15 doesn't really matter if we are still dead center in the conference at the end of the day.
 
#43
#43
Just my opinion but signing day rankings will begin to have less and less significance in the next couple of years. The Portal is going to allow schools to sign what could be upwards of 20% of starters just from the portal. If a school can get 5 starters out of their 22 starters the HS signees have less impact. This also allows 3* players to develop into starters by maturing and learning the O & D with fewer mistakes.
I have said for several years, that the stars are assigned based on players probability of supplying meaningful playing time in college. Not their talent ceiling. 5*s should contribute immediately, 4* within 1 year, and 3* within 2 or 3 years. If a team can get to a point they are starting a majority of upper class men, they will be successful. This is how Missouri had back to back East championships. This is how Kentucky has been better than a decade ago. Stoops can keep the players on campus and continually play jr and sir’s.
Either way the portal and 1 time transfer is changing signing day status.
 
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#45
#45
Mtnvol80 said:
Someone please explain to me how the investigation is holding us back. I can't come up with a single reason. Keep us going from a meaningless bowl? No chance of an sec championship much less national. So please explain to me how. To me it seems to be more of a scapegoat excuse
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Reduction in scholarships ........ cant give what you will not have
 
#47
#47
Mtnvol80 said:
Someone please explain to me how the investigation is holding us back. I can't come up with a single reason. Keep us going from a meaningless bowl? No chance of an sec championship much less national. So please explain to me how. To me it seems to be more of a scapegoat excuse
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I can answer your question with one word: uncertainty

That's what's so bad about where we are. Other programs can put all kinds of thoughts into these recruits head. This uncertainty is worse than an actual ruling, no matter the ruling
 
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#48
#48
BeardedVol said:
We play Alabama and Georgia every year though, and until we are recruiting talent that enables us to compete with them, where we are at in reference to anyone else is somewhat irrelevant.
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The SEC Championship game kinda showed us that Alabama and Georgia are not on the same level. There's still a big gap.
 
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