Peterman and Recruiting

What are recruiting rankings anyway? Are they representative of how dominant a kid is as an 18 year old? How do those rankings help said player when they are a 21 or 22 year old senior?

The only thing that really matters in recruiting at least IMO is whether or not the prospect has the tools necessary to turn into a player. For football, that starts with does he have the height/weight/speed capabilities for the position that you're recruiting him for. But for everything else, it's trying to figure out how much growth there is over the next 3-5 years.

An OL/DL prospect will be highly dependent upon the quality of effort that they put into the weight room with the training staff as well as the quality of their OL/DL coach. A QB can get by on physical skills to a certain degree at the HS level. At the college level do they have the ability to lead players, read defenses, and become a student of the game on top of the physical skills. For RBs, this may be the position where just being a freak athlete can get you to where you want to be ... however, RBs need to learn to forego the big play for making the consistent play (i.e. tucking it up in for 3-5 yards to keep the chains moving versus trying to get the big play every carry), pass protection, and becoming a receiving option. WR/TE need to be able to understand the nuances of being consistent in their route running while having the discipline to understanding that a key block is as valuable as a catch. A LB prospect needs to have the ability to understand the running game as well as the passing game. And DBs not only have to have the physical gifts, but they need to have the mental strength to be able to understand what the offense is doing well before it happens so that they can read and react instead of just reacting.

That entire previous paragraph you don't learn about a kid on the HS football field. You learn that by talking to them. You learn that by talking to their coaches. You learn that by studying what they do not only on the field, but more importantly off the field.

The thing about Sark and why I'm personally so happy he's at USC is because while he might be able to get talented 18 year olds into his program, he's shown an inability to get those kids to show significant growth by the time they are 21 or 22 at which point they get beat by players/teams that are able to develop. When USC is the most dangerous it is when they have a coach in place that can not only identify the talented players, but also find the players that he can develop into even better players into the future.

The reason Alabama is so good right now is that for the first time probably since Bear Bryant have they been able to identify a coach that has the ability to get the best of the best out of HS but then to also make them that much better during their time in college.

The TL,DR version is simply that development matters.