The Bodda Getta

YES

PM had a column today stating the Arky under Former HCBP never had a top 15 recruiting class and many years not even top 25. But since I don't follow Hog recruiting, maybe a top 25 class is a lofty perch for them.

I'll take a no-name, unranked, overachieving, blue collar Auburn team that finishes in the top 10 every year and wins a few more MNCs over an Auburn team that has a top five recruiting class every year but finishes as an every-year also ran every time.

There are a number of savvy folks around the country making a lot of money off of the now all-year-round recruiting mania but all I really care about is the success of our team on the field during the Fall.

Recruitng certainly plays a significant role in the the consistent success of a program but, as many have pointed out, rankings and stars aren't necessarily a prerequisite for a top program.

I, for one, will not sneer at the lack of recruiting success of a team that has beaten us 3 of the last 4 years and almost always gives us all we can handle on a Saturday afternoon once a year.

I don't think they are morons. I do know that the vast majority of them have never seen most the kids they rank actually play a game. It's a "herd" mentality. Even if one could actually see every kid live, there's still so much more that goes into what makes some players great, successful or wash outs. Coach Jordan said one time something to the effect of "if I could see into their hearts I could let you take your pick and them I could pick a team and beat you every time" (I gotta go in the basement and dig out my Shug Jordan biography by Clyde Bolton. It's got that quote plus CJ's "7 Ds of Success" Again, something along the lines of drive, determination, discipline something something something and the last one is damn it all just do it anyway!

One of my uncles was a professional baseball scout and spent his life watching prospects playing live game after game. I asked hime one time "what do you look for?" He said "quick feet". That was probably his stock answer, I was just a 10 or 11 year old at the time. He worked for KC for years and signed Blue Moon Odom among many others who made it to the bigs and became part of the great teams of KC (then they moved to Oakland) back in the late '60s and '70s. My point bringing him up is that he also told me his goal was always that 50% of his signees made on the team. I seriously doubt that anyone could do better by copying the names of players that other services have already identified.

The real truth is probably something close to this:
- There are guys with the so-called recruiting services who have connections with the recruiting coordinators of many schools across the country.
- They find out who these teams are recruiting, develop their list from that info and rank the players on those lists according to who and how many teams are recruiting them.
- That's why a guy that somehow fell through the cracks suddenly pops up prominently on some list when al starts to recruit him and might move up even higher if he commits to al. It's a two-way street. The recruiting gurus can't or won't spend the time it would take to do their own analysis based on personal knowledge geaned from actually scouting a guy so they have to get the names from someone.
- And the recruiting guru wants to make the school giving him info to look good so they're happy and will continue the flow of information.
- I will say this: These days there is no doubt college coaches have much more accurate knowledge and information on many of the players they recruit because of all the summer camps being conducted on college campuses across the country every summer. How they figured out how to get this by the NCAA with no impact on recruiting is beyond me but it's also good for the players and coaches so I'm glad they do it.