VolunteerHillbilly
Spike Drinks, Not Trees
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- Sep 26, 2005
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For those with slightly longer memories, a couple of Fulmer's last classes were completely laden with highly rated talent but it did not translate for whatever reason. The 05 and 07 classes were particularly sick with elite talent and a lot of those guys were ballers but it just wasn't enough to win at the high level to which we were then accustomed.I imagine that LWS would have as authoritative an answer to this question as anyone. I have only two thoughts on the matter: (1) Yes, stars matter, but recruiting rankings are more of an art than a science. Kids can, and still do, wind up being undervalued due to lack of exposure or the caliber of competition that they play locally. (2) Like everybody else, I want as many 5-star blue chip athletes as we can possibly sign. However, they often come with a price tag, in terms of ego. We have had particularly bad luck, in terms of retention, in recent years with elite prospects. My memory is a little foggy, with respect to whether the following players were rated high 4-star or 5-star prospects, but Bryce Brown, David Oku, Janzen Jackson and Darick Rogers all failed to have the kind of long-term impact as star players that we would have hoped to experience. And, no, I dont consider one All-SEC caliber season, in Rogers case, as long-term.
edit: I'm also going to add that the only way I see this team getting more than maybe six wins this year is if they land a stud RB who can come in and run between the tackles or get around the edge on SEC defenses. That's going to take a high 4 or 5 star commit IMO.
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