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Regardless of what happens in the Fall (I predict 9-10 wins and that we lose Morris to a P5 job), Team Morris is recruiting at/near the level it should be.

2018 Recruiting Class: Rivals
Overall Rank: #36 - This figure is misleading as schools like Florida are currently ranked below us b/c of low numbers. Once they fill out their class, they will jump us)
AAC Rank: #2 - This figure is probably not misleading. Even after schools like USF, UCF, Cinci and Memphis fill in their class with numbers, our Average Stars number will be very competitive.

Scout uses a different system, but we should easily end up in the Top 5 when everything is signed.

And I do trust Morris and team evaluate well. That is even more important when it comes to 3* kids.

I'll be interested in the Sunday Update here:
http://www.rankbyoffers.com/2018fbteams/

Right now, there are some sample size issues, but it looks like we're behind Cincinnati and right ahead of Houston.

-CoS

Sunday update:
http://www.rankbyoffers.com/2018fbteams/

Ranked by average recruit ranking:
#51 Cinci
#54 USF
#59 UH
#67 SMU
#70 UCF

Other TX Schools:
#5 UT
#24 TCU (3rd in Big 12...OU at #19)
#96 UTSA
#102 TX State
#112 UNT
UTEP none

UH has 20 commitments vs. 7 for USF and 15 for SMU. What would it take for USF to fall five spots to match UH? Avg player rating 24% below current (or just above SMU's avg). What would it take for SMU to rise eight spots to match UH? Avg player rating 58% above current (or equal to Cinci's avg).

Not impressive.

Doesn't impress me either, though I'd love to hear what Stallion and others might have to say. Seems to me we'll see the true recruiting bump to the next level when we post a winning season this coming year. I'm still on board as Morris and team are doing everything right in building this from grassroots from the moment he inked the contract with us.

ponyboy wrote:Doesn't impress me either, though I'd love to hear what Stallion and others might have to say. Seems to me we'll see the true recruiting bump to the next level when we post a winning season this coming year. I'm still on board as Morris and team are doing everything right in building this from grassroots from the moment he inked the contract with us.

We will not see a significant improvement in recruiting until we manage to get into a P5 conference. Until that happens, we should expect:
1) To be at or near the top of the G5 in terms of recruiting - we are getting there.
2) To convince kids from taking scholarships to mediocre/poor P5 schools - we are starting to see that.
3) Occasionally pick off kids with offers from Elite P5 schools. We came very close last year with both Brewers.

I think we have the No 3 ranked non-P5 class on Rivals behind UH and BYU. Both Rivals and Scout have some head-scratchers. Michael Woods is a 2 star on Scout and Kemon Smith is a 2 star on Rivals. I think they are both easily 3 stars.

I just like the fact that we have skill players (SMU seems to always be able to attract skill players), but more importantly we are developing depth on the OL with what appears to be pretty good talent. Defense is catching up to a point that we are just 2 or 3 linebackers from being ok. Those LBs are big issues right now but hopefully that can get corrected. I like our progress.

Another head scratcher:
#81 Memphis (avg recruit ranking) -- behind South Alabama, Rice and Toledo and ahead of UAB, Bowling Green and ECU (?).

Stallion wrote:I think we have the No 3 ranked non-P5 class on Rivals behind UH and BYU. Both Rivals and Scout have some head-scratchers. Michael Woods is a 2 star on Scout and Kemon Smith is a 2 star on Rivals. I think they are both easily 3 stars.

Because I know that Team Morris does an lot of work identifying and recruiting talent, I look at his recruiting classes from this perspective - they want who they want and (a) work hard to keep them and (b) will turn away guys with more "stars" in favor of their guy.

Lets look at current OL Commit Max Yarbrough:
- no stars
- his best offers are from Academies. His other offers are from bad G5 teams.

If Junesus had recruited him, I would have lost my mind. Why? June would land him 1 months before signing day and try to convince everyone he is a great sign.

Bottom Line: With Team Morris, I know they really wanted "that guy." With 2 3-Star and 1 2-star OL committed and plenty of time until signing day, desperation clearly wasn't a factor. They wanted Yarbrough and I am good with that.

right-most of these kids have been to 3-4 SMU camps over 2-3 years after scouting them and evaluating them for 3 years at their high school-they aren't taking a shot in the dark like in the past. Seems like about 2/3rds though are recognized solid recruits and some that are maybe unrated 8 months before signing date. BTW 0 stars just means he hasn't been evaluated yet

How do sites like Rivals and Scout work? How do these sites select the kids that get rated? Case in point Max Yarbrough. Did he just look like a D3 prospect his Junior year or perhaps, did he not sign up for a rivals/scout page until after Spring Football (and they haven't gotten to him yet)?

Giving the staff 100% benefit of the doubt that the kid can play. How does any kid, who receives even a FCS offer, not have any rating? It's not like Friendswood, Texas is the hinterlands of New Hampshire.

Does anyone have insight into how these sites actually work?

camps, combines, 7x7 Tournaments and videos that 98% of recruits have posted. A new development is close contacts between coaches and the numerous personal trainers like former Aggy QB Kevin Murray and SMU alumnus Cameron Nwosu. Hundreds of top Texas recruits now utilize these personal trainers-its become commonplace and they play a big role in tipping off coaches. There have been plenty of kids that get 8-10 offers immediately upon putting out a particularly impressive video late. I've seen a number of kids get 20 offers shortly after a top performance at a camp, combine or tournament. The good recruiters have done their homework with the high school coaches and hopefully already have identified the sleeper athletes before they blow up. Often, a bunch of offers will follow shortly after a big performance at camps and combines too. Kayce Medlock last year ran a electronically timed 4.4 at an ET Combine and immediately picked up several new offers. It really has nothing to do with whether a recruit is a subscriber but they are well advised to do everything they can to promote themselves and compete at events top scouts attend. But the top recruiting analysts like a E.J. Holland have attended literally hundreds of days of combines, camps, 7x7 tournaments, practices, spring games and then go see about 50-60 high school games a year

I hadn't looked really closely at the Rank By Offers site before and didn't realize that each school's offer carries a different weight based on head to head matchups for recruits, etc. SMU is ranked #60 right now, ahead of Boulder, Boise, Illinois Iowa and a few other P5's,.

Check it out here: http://www.rankbyoffers.com/teamweightings/