DMN Top Recruiting Lists and SMU

[Sam I Am]

Have you noticed how many or rather how few top players on the DMN top recruiting lists have expressed a commitment or preference for SMU? We have some names in the Dallas area top 100, about one name in the state top 100, and none of the nationally ranked 100 players. Where do we stand relative to Bennett's previous recruiting classes?
:hmm:

[Charleston Pony]

we have commitments from 3 state top 100 guys and 5 area top 100's (3 overlap). Looks like there are a few more on that area list who might be interested in SMU. I'd say coming off 0-12 that's not too bad. Looks to me like the same level of interest we had last year.

At this point, we have more commitments off those lists than TCU or UNT, which is pretty remarkable given the difference in the successes our programs have enjoyed in recent years. My guess is that is we were coming off a 10 win season, Bennett and his staff would really be turning some heads...and of course our friends at Texa$ and A$M would make sure the NCAA came sniffing around again!

[1411]

They just dropped Henderson and Martin outside the state Top 100 :thumbdown: on their updated list.

[PortlandPonys]

They dropped Lobo as well.

[Ponymon]

SMU probably didn't pay them enough money to keep them on the list. BTW the DMN is one of the major reasons we received the death penalty in the first place. They have always had a hard-on for the program!

[KnuckleStang]

I could be wrong, but my gut feeling is, when a player commits to SMU, his "stock" drops accordingly. "If he's signing with SMU, he must not really be all that good." Wouldn't surprise me.

[Mustangs35SMU]

Originally posted by Charleston Pony:
I'd say coming off 0-12 that's not too bad.

Not be bad?!? Thats excellent from coming off the season we had.

[Stallion]

these players were reevaluated based upon the visits and offers they received during the recruiting season which is a perfectly acceptable way of evaluating a recruit-since it is based on the analysis of the coaching staffs. BTW DeMyron Martin was never previously on the DMN Top 100 and in fact he was added to the Area Top 100 and his rating went up. Martin was injured as a Junior. Last year we had at least 3 players rise in the ratings once the services became more aware of the recruit and the teams pursuing them. Lobo's revaluation is based I'm sure on the fact that several schools Lobo was looking at backed off him in the last few weeks of recruiting. So there maybe some prejudice for the BCS schools and against the non-BCS schools but truly it is more typically a situation where a school like SMU gets a recruit who does not receive expected offers from BCS schools and the recruiting services rate the player down because he lacked other options.

<small>[ 01-25-2004, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

[Stampede]

That is total Peruna (horse) [deleted] Stallion. The DMN never has jockeyed the line up in the past. It is simply prejudice against the Stangs, plain and simple.

Can you tell us with facts if the Star Telegram or Austin Stateman jockey their lists to favor or totally drop a kid because the Aggies are the only BCS school recruiting him? Certainly if TCU is recruiting a player, or better yet, has a commitment from a player in their top 100, the Star Telgram does not drop the player form their list. The same in Austin if the Tea-sips recruit 'em Give me a break...It is unprecedented BS by the DMN and ...
By the way OU is STILL talking to Jesse Henderson as the DMN takes him out of the top 100. Welcome Jesse...you'll love SMU and take us to the top!!

[GoRedGoBlue]

Originally posted by Stampede:
That is total Peruna (horse) [deleted] Stallion. The DMN never has jockeyed the line up in the past. It is simply prejudice against the Stangs, plain and simple.

Can you tell us with facts if the Star Telegram or Austin Stateman jockey their lists to favor or totally drop a kid because the Aggies are the only BCS school recruiting him? Certainly if TCU is recruiting a player, or better yet, has a commitment from a player in their top 100, the Star Telgram does not drop the player form their list. The same in Austin if the Tea-sips recruit 'em Give me a break...It is unprecedented BS by the DMN and ...
By the way OU is STILL talking to Jesse Henderson as the DMN takes him out of the top 100. Welcome Jesse...you'll love SMU and take us to the top!!

HERE'S MY TAKE: A LOT of evaluation of players is dependent upon which teams are recruiting the players at the time. So, if Vincent Chase all of a sudden never had anyone but SMU recruiting him, his rating would have been negatively affected.

There are some players that have solid commitments to lesser schools, and those commitments can SOMETIMES necessarily diffuse other schools' interests with that player, thus devaluing their ranking.

I don't think the extent of this is vast, but it could affect a few players here or there.

IT's sort of like saying that the Big10 out of conference record is good versus non-BCS...and that the WACs OOC being poor against BCS teams. It is very true that the Big10 is better than the non-BCS teams, and that the WAC is not as good as the BCS teams on average...

However, the difference is not as wide as the OOC records would indicate, because there is a built in bias in those records...the NON-BCS teams play at the BCS homefields by a margin of 6 to 1 -- which has a tremendous amount to do with who wins or loses.

Yeah, Michigan is always going to smoke Rice...but, let's see what would happen if the mid-Big10 teams played at the mid-non-BCS teams' home field...the OOC records wouldn't be like they are now.

My point: because some teams have quit recruiting our recruits (some) their ranking is also affected.

[gostangs]

To speak directly to the point - only a fool would expect national top 100 at SMU - TCU has 5 great seasons in a row and they got nothin on the top 100. We are doing great relative to last years on field performance. If we will let this program get some air by letting up on the schedule a bit, Bennett can work wonders - as it is we are doing very well this year related to what any reasonable person would expect.

[Stallion]

quite frankly I wasn't talking about Henderson who has been on most lists all year. He's a great great athlete by all accounts-but you know he didn't exactly tear it up in 3A this year-it may have been supporting cast. Arguably DeMyron Martin had a better year in 5A. The kid I'm talking about is Lobo-not to take anything away from him because he got some nice visits and at one time has some good offers including Arizona but several schools backed off. He's a nice recruit for SMU and I wouldn't be surprised to see him be a 3 year starter at SMU. It may not be fair but the Lists that are truly inaccurate are the ones that DO NOT change to reflect what is actually going on in the recruiting process-some kids stock goes up like Martin(who was hurt as a Junior) and last year some kids stock goes down-and usually there is a pretty good reason for it. Didn't seem to see many SMU fans complain when we had at least 3 recruits upgraded to 3 stars last year. SMU's Fred Turner wasn't even a prospect until his senior year because of a junior year injury but his stock rose as did Martin's because of a great senior year.

<small>[ 01-25-2004, 07:10 PM: Message edited by: Stallion ]</small>

[Frog81]

Originally posted by Stampede:
That is total Peruna (horse) [deleted] Stallion. The DMN never has jockeyed the line up in the past. It is simply prejudice against the Stangs, plain and simple.

Can you tell us with facts if the Star Telegram or Austin Stateman jockey their lists to favor or totally drop a kid because the Aggies are the only BCS school recruiting him? Certainly if TCU is recruiting a player, or better yet, has a commitment from a player in their top 100, the Star Telgram does not drop the player form their list. The same in Austin if the Tea-sips recruit 'em Give me a break...It is unprecedented BS by the DMN and ...
By the way OU is STILL talking to Jesse Henderson as the DMN takes him out of the top 100. Welcome Jesse...you'll love SMU and take us to the top!!

Recruiting lists are great to talk about, but they really don't mean anything. Bottom line is that other than the top 15 or 20 classes, and the worst classes, everyone is fairly equal. What matters is what you do with the recruits once you get them. DEVELOPEMENT is what matters.

[91Stang]

It hurts me down to my soul to agree with a Frog (just kidding, F81), but our man from TCU is exactly right. Lists are great to talk about over a beer, but come August, those lists and numbers of "stars" are irrelevant.

[PerunaPunch]

To add on to what Stallion said, out of the hundreds if not thousands of kids who get evaluated by the recruiting services every year, I imagine the difference between the #100 kid and the #101 kid is not only pretty slim, but it's also highly subjective.

Also, as Stallion mentioned, these recruiting services don't necessarily know about all the behind the scenes machinations that occurs in these recruiting battles. I'm sure Rivals would be very interested to know the Jesse Henderson is still being pursued by OU, but Jesse is a country boy who lives in Paris, TX and is IMPOSSIBLE to get on the phone. So I bet Rivals hasn't had much success getting the scoop from him (thus his ratings might suffer, because much of the info the recruiting services base their ratings on comes from the kids themselves).

Finally and most significantly, recruiting services base their ratings on a variety of factors, most predominant of which is offers and interest from prominent football programs. Not to beat this particular example into the ground, but that's why Euless Trinity's Ofa Mohetau was a National Top 100 5-star recruit, guaranteed NFL lock, etc. while SMU's Justin Boren wasn't even listed in the Area Top 100 – when Boren was the top rated guard in the district OVER Mohetau playing the exact same competition. Why? Because Boren committed early and wouldn't talk to other schools (therefore getting relatively few offers - because after all, what school is going to hold a scholarship for a player they have zero chance of getting?) while Mohetau played the recruiting game and entertained offers from everyone, so his stock rose and rose.

But still, I think there's a lot of valuable information to be gleaned from the recruiting services, and again, even though it's certainly not comparing apples to apples, it's a good way of judging the quality of your class compared to years prior and compared to your competition. IMHO.

<small>[ 01-26-2004, 07:03 AM: Message edited by: PerunaPunch ]</small>