TriedAndTrueVOL
UT VOL Connoisseur
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2009
- Messages
- 6,085
- Likes
- 2,578
Stars definitely matter. I cant believe people are even arguing that point when you see who have won the previous national championships and then look at how they've recruited.
Everyone has a lot of "busts" it's just magnified at a school like TN when they don't land enough top end talent. In the 90's TN had a lot of busts, but they recruited so well consistently that the 10-20 guys who were highly rated who didn't work out didn't make much of a difference.
Those lists of TN "busts" don't mean anything as far as the recruiting rankings argument goes. If they were pulling Top 5-10 classes every year like they used to, those guys not working out wouldn't even be remembered by anyone. Problem is the other option lately has been a bunch of middle of the road "diamond in the rough" types to fill the void thus all the losing season. I could name just as many 4 and 5-star busts from 1994-1999 as this list. Difference is back then for every Brian Darden you had a Jamal Lewis or Travis Henry to step in for him.
+1...busts don't hurt near as much when the rest of your class is filled with top talent. Every class, every year experiences busts or guys not working out for whatever reason. It's the talent left in those classes after those guys are gone that matters.