A Few Stats on the Recruiting Class

The_Undertaker said:

I'm not sure you can compare average star per recruit year to year like this. 3.26 average would have been ranked
#25 class in 2015
#21 in 2014
#20 in 2013
#18 in 2012
#18 in 2011
#15 in 2010
#17 in 2009
I may be wrong but it looks like scout is just increasing the number of highly rated guys, and so average ratings are going up across the board.

Nope, you're right.

I wrote about this last year, but Scout is inflating the rankings of kids each and every year.

Over the years, Scout has drastically inflated their star system, either as a means to appraise the kids they talk to "oh, they value me more than other sites" or to drive interest in their site because "oh hey, look, this kid is a 3*, that's AWESOME!".

If you look back during the Gilby and Ty years, Scout ranked the top 50 as 5*s, top 300 as 4*s and top 1000 as 3*s. Now, you have a metric ton more 4*s and 3*s. For example, Isaiah Renfro and Chico McClatcher, our 4* WR recruits, aren't listed in the top 300 for Scout. The last ranked S in the Top 300 is the #23 S. Renfro is #29. Under their old system, he'd be a 3*. The last ranked WR in the Top 300 is the #40 WR. McClatcher is #45. Under their old system, he'd be a 3*. But now, because Scout wants us to be excited for the kids, they're both a 4*.

What's even worse are all the 3*s now. The top 1700+ HS kids are ranked 3* by Scout. That's right. 1700 3*s. What's the point? They inflated the ranks to add 700 new 3*s. The used to be only 700 3*s, now there's almost 1400+ of them in Scout's database. Is there really no measurable difference between kid #500 and kid #1100 and kid #1700? How is the 225th best WR in the country a 3*? Or the 153th best DE? Or 138th best OLB? If you take these numbers and go back to Sark's 2010 class, all those 2*s would be 3*s now. Yes, Atoe would've been a 3* if he were a recruit this year.

Again, this goes back to the tired argument that stars are useless and the best way to gauge ability is to look at what the team needs and how the kid fits into the system. Or look at BCS offers. Who knows?

Either way, Petersen knows what he's doing and the most important thing is that he has a staff that knows his system and knows what type of kids to recruit. Stars are meaningless and I don't care about stars. At all. Unless we get a 5* recruit. Then that'd be AWESOME!

HeretoBeatmyChest said:

Average Stars/Recruit is currently 3.26 which is tied with the 2013 class which was our best class since Neuheisel era.

We are currently ranked 25th in that category but there are 7 schools above us with fewer 4&5* guys.

Add another 4* and thats the best class outright since Neu era. If not it will probably drop a tiny bit.

If Scout had any sense whatsoever, they would just hire a grad student in machine learning to put together a dynamic algorithm that rates kids based on offers. The idea that Scott Kennedy and Brandon "Danny Shelton takes plays off at Auburn High so I'm downgrading him to a 3-star" HuffandPuff have more scouting expertise than the TOTAL KNOWLEDGE off all the staffs on the West Coast (which is what goes into cumulative offers) is LAKE LUCERNE insane.

For these butt-hats to be self-fellating enough to think they should be ranking players requires a smorgasbord of clown logic that they are doubtlessly engaging both randomly and furiously:

1) No offer algorithm could ever account for things like early commitments or hidden gems!
2) What's an alog-rhythm? Huh?
3) y = mx + SUCK IT! I CAN EVALUATE!
4) I took algebra once and got a D, so yeah, we won't be doing any of that nerd-ball stuff!
5) Football is about toughness not numbers!
6) I know enough about agloroddems to know that it's not a straight line relationship. Additive, transitive... wait, ...? Never mind. When's the next 7-on-7?
7) YOU CAN'T KNOW HOW GOOD SOMEONE IS BY SIMPLY COUNTING OFFERS!!! WHAT ABOUT EXCEPTIONS!?!?!
8) My eyes are as good as @GrandpaSankey's!
9) That would be hard.
10) How do I meet people that went to grad school when I got this job after being a tire salesman?
11) That would invalidate our amazing ability to tell a 4-star from a 5-star!
12) We are so smart.
13) Even if we didn't have coach offers to tell us who to scout, we would still know which players are awesome!
14) 7-on-7s matter DANG IT!
15) Technology can't replace intuition! Humans are right about stuff! Especially moron-humans that get a job doing TBS for a living!