TCU and Baylor continue to dominate SMU in recruiting

[LA_Mustang]

According to Rivals’ Texas Top 100:

SMU:
2007: 0 commitments and we are not on the list of any of the uncommitted players
2006: 1 (#93 Burley)
2005: 0
2004: 2 (#50 Chase and #93 Henderson)

TCU:
2007: 2 (#33 and #55) commitments and TCU is on the list of seven uncommitted players
2006: 3 (#44, #52 and #98)
2005: 3 (#29, #44 and #56)
2004: 2 (#35 and #37)

Baylor:
2007: 7 commitments (#53, #58, #69, #77, #81, #83 and #86) and Baylor is on the list of 6 uncommitted players
2006: 2 (#48 and #90)
2005: 3 (#60, #77 and #91)
2004: 1 (#76)

[WorldStang]

sweet.. more stats to look at.. I love stats!!!!!

[Billy Joe]

You forgot to mention Tulsa who has cleaned up in our own backyard the last few seasons. Bennett's recruiting momentum has come to a crawl. Hopefully, a bowl game this year will change that...stay tuned.

[Stallion]

well I'd say Baylor is obliterating us and TCU is beating us with upside potential. TCU is much better positioned but they really haven't capitalized on the momentum they had coming into October with the Nations longest winning streak. Of course, TCU is one school that claims that they don't encourage recruits to publicize their commitments and in fact they have finished stronger than just about any program in Texas in recent years-which lends some credibilty to that theory. 66% of the LSR Top 100 released today have already committed 3 1/2 months before signing date. This would be 2 out of 3 years SMU was shutout of a single Top 100 Commitment. I'm not sure if SMU has ever been in a position where not a single Texas Top 100 player was even considering the school in October. SMU is also just about done with the Top 30 in BB recruiting. 26 of the Top 30 have already committed prior to the EARLY signing date. SMU has two off that list Ryan Harp and Alex Malone who first committed to Tubbs and then recommitted under Doherty.

[The Falcon]

What percent of oral commitments actually sign with the school
to which the commitment was made?

Do we have any wiggle room where one or a few could change their
minds?

What are rules about recruiting a player that has already made an oral
commitment?

[Stallion]

about 90% honor their commitment but that number has dropped without question since early commitments began. I really don't know of a single Top 100 recruits who might be a surprise SMU commitment. Maybe someone else knows-are we holding out hope for any remaining players on these lists? I bet we stay in touch with the Allen kids-QB Nathan [deleted] who committed to Rice and Opestiyian who committed to Tulsa. I know some BCS schools have [deleted] still on their list and I believbe he has at least talked to a couple.

[Corso]

You're right. Let's see if we can get rid of Justin Willis, Emmanuel Sanders, Columbus Givens, Zac Thomas, Bryce Hudman, etc. They didn't make the top 100, so they must not be as good as Ricky Joe Meeks and Richuel Massey.

[Stallion]

I think a better way to gauge a CUSA team is go down to about the 5.4 rating (generally somewhere between the Top 160-200 in Texas based on past years) in Rivals because most of these kids have multiple mid-major offers. Analyzing recruiting like that you get: commitment/remaining interest:

1. UTEP 6/40
2. UH 3/26
3. TCU 4/23
4. Tulsa 2/11
5. SMU 2/10
6. Rice 1/8
7. Tulane 0/8

[Stallion]

Willis was a 3 star(5.5), Givens was a 3 star (5.5), Sanders received a 4.9 rating which in fact is no rating at all since it means not one of their analysts knew enough or saw tape on him enough to even rate him. Happens sometimes when you get to the 3A or 2A level. However, he did receive about 3-4 offers I believe by Division 1A universities which I say is the best barometer of all. If they could have rated him after seeing him at the THSCA All Star Game I'm fairly certain he would have received at least a 5.5 or 5.6 and a three star rating.

[Ponymon]

According to Rivals’ Texas Top 100:

SMU:
2007: 0 commitments and we are not on the list of any of the uncommitted players
2006: 1 (#93 Burley)
2005: 0
2004: 2 (#50 Chase and #93 Henderson)

TCU:
2007: 2 (#33 and #55) commitments and TCU is on the list of seven uncommitted players
2006: 3 (#44, #52 and #98)
2005: 3 (#29, #44 and #56)
2004: 2 (#35 and #37)

Baylor:
2007: 7 commitments (#53, #58, #69, #77, #81, #83 and #86) and Baylor is on the list of 6 uncommitted players
2006: 2 (#48 and #90)
2005: 3 (#60, #77 and #91)
2004: 1 (#76)

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this. Bennett usually runs these recruits off fairly early in the process anyway. And TCU and Baylor usually pick up nonqualifiers (Ben Gay) or potential criminals (see yesterday's DMN for the Top 10 area DT recruit from McKinney) that was just arrested.

[mustangfan01]

We don't beat TCU, except last year, and we don't beat Baylor. Baylor is in the Big 12 and TCU has been a top 10-25 team in the national spotlight for enough time now.

Sorry guys, but we are ranked in the 3rd/4th quartile of football teams in America. Meanwhile, coaches at Baylor tell their kids they will play in front of 40-90,000 people a game...depending on if the game is home and away.

TCU is telling their recruits they are a perennial bowl team who beats down Big 12 teams.

SMU is telling their recruits to expect to soon be a perennial bowl team, and we will keep trying to beat Big 12 teams in front of 15,000.


Until we are better than TCU and Baylor on a consistent basis, and people don't shrug us off, then we can complain about how bad our recruiting is.


Crybabies. I will take Justin Willis over Blake Syzmanski and Andy Dalton anyday...so would Stallion.

[Big10Ponyfan]

Willis was a 3 star(5.5), Givens was a 3 star (5.5), Sanders received a 4.9 rating which in fact is no rating at all since it means not one of their analysts knew enough or saw tape on him enough to even rate him. Happens sometimes when you get to the 3A or 2A level. However, he did receive about 3-4 offers I believe by Division 1A universities which I say is the best barometer of all. If they could have rated him after seeing him at the THSCA All Star Game I'm fairly certain he would have received at least a 5.5 or 5.6 and a three star rating.

All this coming from someone who last month ripped one of their analysts and claimed they were only doing to kiss up to SMU/Texas/Missouri...etc. fans.

Just once, I'd like to know if the poster actually believes in the Rivals process or doesn't. I guess that might be asking too much.

[Stallion]

I tend to believe what I read from quotes taken from the mouths of the recruits themselves or close family members about actual offers of scholarships and visits documented in Rivals or other sources confirmed by actual on campus visits and coaching visits. That's what I trust. I have said hundreds of times that actual offers from Division 1A head coaches are the best indicators of a recruit's ability since they are the best judges of Division 1A talent. Give me players with the best and most offers and my 85 will beat your best 85 80% of the time even assuming a particular coach may be an excellent evaluator of talent. I believe there is a reason why the Top 20 recruiting schools have between 45-20 players in the NFL and SMU has zero. Rivals is an information source that documents really quite amazingly exactly what these players are thinking. If you are among the Top 250 or so in Texas there will be 5-30 + stories in which you can quite clearly see what these kids are thinking and how well a particular schools is doing in recruiting its top players. The Rivals rating system is fun but not exact. But you don't want me to spend them time to actually calculate how many qulity offers say Baylor recruits this year or TCU erecruits last year got in comparison to SMU. It would be really quite humiliating to an SMU fan. So its fun to get a snapshot from the ratings which hopefully should reflect that information. I don't trust a Rivals employee to actually judge a recruits Division 1A talent except what is obvious on their extensive video library and what they hear in confidential communications with coaches.

[Stallion]

another total misconception about these recruiting rankings is that they completely overlook UH signing 9 Division 1A transfers from BCS schools most of which had excellent offers out of high school. Same with UTEP who have signed bushels of Parade All-Americans, 5 star transfers and other quality BCS transfers. Same with TCU who have had All-Conference candidate after All-Conference candidate transfer to that school. So just remember that when you see SMU competing with UTEP, TCU, Tulsa, UH etc in a particular year-that ain't the big picture since these schools beat you with these transfers too who are not counted and not reflected in the school's recruiting rank on Rivals. Rivals simply doesn't track Division 1A transfers in its ratings.

[Col. Nathan R. Jessep]

another total misconception about these recruiting rankings is that they completely overlook UH signing 9 Division 1A transfers from BCS schools most of which had excellent offers out of high school. Same with UTEP who have signed bushels of Parade All-Americans, 5 star transfers and other quality BCS transfers. Same with TCU who have had All-Conference candidate after All-Conference candidate transfer to that school. So just remember that when you see SMU competing with UTEP, TCU, Tulsa, UH etc in a particular year-that ain't the big picture since these schools beat you with these transfers too who are not counted and not reflected in the school's recruiting rank on Rivals. Rivals simply doesn't track Division 1A transfers in its ratings.

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You're right, our numbers don't rank with many of the others on signing day.

But, we will never (nor should we want to) recruit the dumbasses who are on the verge of flunking out of their 1st universities. UTEP can have 'em-- we've won 1, lost 1 against UTEP with all their glorious transfers.

As to missing out on these transfers-- some (NOT ALL) of these guys were over-rated & signed above their level & now bring attitudes to the next program.

All these great transfers have NOT turned BU & UH into winners, yet.

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