Recruiting presser tidbit

Coach Petersen mentioned something in his presser on Wednesday that I think is truly amazing and has become almost legendary here in Boise. In reference to the Q&A on the business of star ratings for recruits and how some 2 or 3-star recruits would probably be higher rated if the recruiting process was different, Petersen mentioned a recruiting class he had years ago when he and his BSU staff signed only eight(8) recruits on LOI day....... and all eight of those players are in the NFL! It's not about Mountain West versus Pac-12 caliber football playing athletes, it's always been about the coaches as recruiters and mentors signing the athletes they know or believe can be developed into a team that wins at the level they compete in. Obviously, the higher the level of competition, the higher the recruits will be rated as defined by conference strength and from that comes most of the consideration for how many stars a recruit receives.

The recruiting experts know which athletes the coaches are most interested in by the time the kids are juniors in high school or before and assign the recruit rating stars accordingly. The more talented and athletic the recruit, the more they are sought by the big schools with the best coaching and the habit of always being in the Top-10 or Top-25. It's the mass of average recruits with 3-star or lower rating where the recruiting experts are mostly guessing and on which the best recruiters work the hardest to eliminate guess work. The coaches who most every year recruit the best classes cannot guess and typically rely on their own evaluations. If Petersen is the head football coach we think he is, Husky Football can only get better in the win column and I expect his recruiting classes will be higher rated starting next year. This will not just be the result of better athletes with greater potential wanting to be Huskies, but also because UW recruits will be more esteemed by the recruiting experts simply because they've been offered by Petersen. The rise in Husky Football will more directly lift the star-ratings for local in-state recruits as UW once again becomes what we should of always been...... a football power on the west coast and nationally.

For those who are hung up on star-ratings for recruits and the fact that the more stars a recruiting class accumulates the higher it must be rated by the recruiting experts,....... the reality is that any class can be better or worse than expected in terms of future contribution depending on how it's members develop as football playing athletes in the 3-5 years before graduation. The experts who assign a 5 thru 2-star or no-star rating to each recruit actually don't know enough about football or what makes a football player good, great, or otherwise to predict how well recruits might turn out as they develop from prep teenagers into collegiate men. But the good coaches do know because their livelyhood depends on it and that's the true relevance of OKGs.