SMU is currently #44 on rivals 2016 recruiting ranks

[ender3]

I'm really not clear here... is the complaining because some people are a little TOO rosy in their assessment, or that we don't have the #1 G5 class?

The former is silly to complain about, because you're not going to change them.
The latter is silly, because we were as close as you could possibly come to finishing 0-12 last year, without actually doing so. The sales job to get quality kids to come to Dallas done by this staff seems pretty incredible to me.

This class is almost indisputably an upgrade from previous classes (going back at least 9-10 years, and possibly much further). With a little success on the field, next years class should be another upgrade. If we manage to put butts in seats, improvement may come faster.

I'm not really here to say "can't we all just get along?" because I know we can't. But the things that people are choosing to complain about seem to make very little sense.

[Pony Boss]

Being lazy and looking at that "average" gives you the wrong picture. Put in the work and compare the offers that our kids have with those "soon to be better than SMU G5 classes" in similar positions. You will see SMU has a player that has better offers and will have size/speed of a true athlete. In Quarterbacks alone, SMU's commit is better than any other in the AAC, by number and quality of offers. And many of these Texas 2 stars would be considered 3 star or higher if they were in another state such as North Carolina, Ohio or Connecticut.(again Stallion repeats this all the time). You cannot convince me Texas high school football isn't at another level (superior) compared to other states. Our players are of better quality even if their ratings aren't reflective. Look at # of offers as well as quality. Hell I have seen West Virginia and Ohio kids get 3 stars and only have 1 or 2 fbs offers or a few FCS offers. Do the research and you will see why the media is raving about what CM and Staff are doing here.

[StallionsModelT]

I officially give up. Some of you are either lazy or stupid when making these threads.

The best and clearest example of why you can't simply go off of stars is comparing San Diego State's class to ours. Collectively, SDSU commits (10 total) consists of 2 recruits with P5 offers with one of the two having one P5 offer. The other commit has several. Let's look at some of their 3 star recruits and their offers:

Rayshawn Boyce (JUCO) 5.5 3 star - zero offers aside from SDSU

Donnell Green - 5.5 3 star - zero offers aside from SDSU

Parker Houston - 5.6 3 star - offers from SDSU, Toledo, and Idaho

Jonathon Lenard - 5.5 3 star - offers from Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Arizona, SJSU, UNLV, Wyoming

Dionte Sykes (JUCO) - 5.5 3 star - offers from SDSU and Utah State


Now certainly things are not apples to apples here, but of the 18 SMU commits, 11 have verified P5 offers and only one commit (Myles Duke) has SMU as his only offer. 10 of the 18 SMU commits hold double digit offers. Two SDSU recruits can say that.

I'm done trying to explain recruiting to people who only look at "stars".

[Stallion]

And Myles Duke has the highest Sparq rating of the bunch. Great athlete who projects to DB rather than his High School QB position

just this weekend prominent recruiting observers at the 7x7 tournament had some rave reviews of two other lesser rated recruits Joshua Shelmire and Michael Clark. Clark didn't play last year due to transfer and Shelmire attends a small private school. Probably first time these analysts has seen them play

[Lebanese4Life]

what recruiting site are u looking at to get this data?

[Stallion]

Jason Howell, Matt Stepp and Gabe Brooks-don't think I'm allowed to promote recruiting services

[Pony Boss]

You have to look at all sites and compare.

[East Coast Mustang]

Good point SMT. And the average stars ranking is a pretty bogus indicator to use, too. They'll give a 5.2 2-star ranking to any random kid who commits to a school; whereas guys like Christian Davis and Todora who have multiple P5 offers are 5.4 2-stars, but by the average star ranking they're calculated the same the same way as the random crappy kid.

Bottom line- coming off a 1-11 season we will have one of the best SMU recruiting classes since the DP, and I'll predict definitely a top ten G5 class and potentially a top five G5 class.

[StallionsModelT]

SMU has among G5 programs as of July 13th:

-The most total commitments
-The most total, collective offers among commits
-The most P5 offers among commits excluding Houston (Oliver has about 40 offers)


The bottom line is that right now the only G5 class I'd take over ours is Houston's. That is flat out remarkable considering we are coming off a 1-11 season with an entirely new staff. We also have a real shot at landing 6-7 other quality prospects with multiple P5 offers. If we are able to finish strong we will have a class that will have about 15-20 kids with P5 offers. I will wager right now there won't be 5 other G5 schools with that kind of class. What more do you honestly expect?

[East Coast Mustang]

I also think there's a distinct advantage to filling up your class early- gives you more time to focus on keeping your commits solid and not flipping to other schools. Also lets you get a jump on the c/o 2017.

[Puckhead48E]

I'm very disappointed that we haven't won a bowl game yet since HCCM was hired. What are all of these '15 and '16 recruits doing if not winning us a bowl game. This is serious and we need to fix this momentum now.

[SoCal_Pony]

Well I've been following SMU fb for some 45 years and the only coaching staff I remember being as excited about was Ron Meyer.

But there's also nothing wrong with putting some perspective on all this.

USF has not had a winning season since 2010 and no real fb tradition, so the argument that 'we stink, therefore it hinders our recruiting' certainly doesn't apply to USF. They are currently ranked #60 on Rivals while SMU is ranked #39.

SMU has 18 commits, USF has 9.

On average, each USF commit has 8 other offers besides their USF offer.

In total, USF commits have 21 P5 offers. This includes offers from Miami FL (2 players), Nebraska (their QB), Wisconsin, Florida, Missouri and LSU. Remember, we have twice as many commits so for SMU to be on par with P5 offers, our commits would need to currently have 42 P5 offers in total.

And one of their 5.4 ranked players has offers from Miami FL and Pitt.

Again, this is no criticism of CM, I think he's going to be great. Just comparing us to our real competition, those schools like us who are G5 teams serious about moving up to P5.

[StallionsModelT]

I think USF will have a very similar class to ours b/c they too have a coaching staff that prioritizes recruiting. They had a nice class last year despite being awful on the field.

SMU 2 stars with P5 offers:

Kadarius Smith - Texas Tech
Michael Clark - Kansas
Christian Davis - Illinois, Northwestern
Jacob Todora - Illinois, Kansas
Joshua Shelmire - Northwestern
Mikial Onu - Northwestern, Duke
Demerick Gary - UVA


Give me those two stars over the 3 stars committed to schools like SDSU with zero other options. Simply put, the ratings system is incredibly flawed and holds little if any real tangible value.

[smusic 00]

Stallion makes my football pants go crazy.

[couch 'em]

I'm going to have to go back to mustangmaniacs to get away from all the hopeless sunshiners on PF like Stallion.

What a bizarro alternate universe we have entered.

I'm afraid to accept it as reality.