"SMU fans shouldn’t be concerned ... "

[Stallion]

Scout does a lot of crazy [deleted]. Clark wasn't a 4 star on Rivals which is usually what I'm talking about.

pardon me-it was Rivals that gave a 4 star-but again that was JUCO evaluation which is another area I have pointed out in the past there seems to be no consistency. Sometimes it appears that 90% of JUCOs are automatic 3 stars. May be a different analyst

[ponyfan8]

You guys load up an entire team with all June Jones-selected 2 stars and 3 stars, and I'll load up an entire team of 5 stars, and let's see who has the better team.

I agree. I have faith that JJ nows who he wants to fill out his team and I think we all should.

[ponyfan8]

I love when people yap on about things they obviously don't know a thing about.

As much as I hate agreeing with Stallion, he's 100% right. These examiner.com people obviously know very little about collegiate football, recruiting and even less about SMU. They're just hack bloggers trying to generate traffic for their sites. This is the web equivalent of getting spam email.

Although I don't agree 100% with the article, why is it that some of your posts have been calling out and talking down to people who try to promote SMU Sports.

I used to defend SMU when people said we were stuck up punks, but now I see where they get it. Whether I agree with them or not there is someone out there promoting SMU sports. Isn't that what we want?

[Dooby]

This article lost me at "The parody in college sports today is at an all time high."

[PerunaPunch]

I used to defend SMU when people said we were stuck up punks, but now I see where they get it. Whether I agree with them or not there is someone out there promoting SMU sports. Isn't that what we want?

First of all, neither you nor your alter ego went to SMU. So don't give me the "I used to defend SMU BS." Don't get me wrong, we're delighted people are jumping on the bandwagon – the more the merrier. But this site has been around for at least a decade if not longer... If you're such the SMU fan, where have you been?

Secondly, if you're a newbie who wants to be welcomed here, don't call regular posters "stuck up punks".

Third, you and your alter ego are on here primarily to support your own blog. If you want to do that, buy an ad. Hijacking a web forum for your own commercial purposes is generally frowned upon and considered to be very poor form.

Fourth, if you want to express an opinion, these message boards are the right place to do it. If you want to write a news story, do your homework and try interviewing a coach or a player (heck, you can even do both to make a really good story) so that you don't write erroneous information.

[ponyfan8]

Yea for the last time Im not him. Im in my 50s. But its ok, I don't think this site is for me. I am glad to find theres so much interest in SMU sports again, but Im not really into the way people talk to each other on here so I'll probably just stick to ponystampede.

Take care everybody. And go Stangs! Can't wait for the season!

[ponyscott]

Simmer down Stallion....just repeating what the coaches have said, including JJ.

You don't think that Scout and Rivals are driven by memberships and shere volume of money generated in the house? Yeah the athletes ratings are influenced by a lot of things but you don't think that if a player is a 2 or 3 and has offers from UT or TAMU that they don't get alot of grief from their members to move up the rating for the players like we do on Ponystampede or Ponypride? Except there is thousands of them VS maybe tens or hundreds (?) of SMU fans. If a player is a marginal rating that could move up and gets offers from UT, TAMU and OU and creates interest from fans that want to read the whole story at those major schools ,don't you think that could drive the athletes ratings up just a bit so that Scout/Rivals now can get some new additional premium members that want to read ALL about their potential new 4 Star haul?
SMU doesnt drive any real pressure to Rivals or Scout. I would think that our RB Fields if he had ommitted to OU instead of SMU, he would have maybe, just maybe garnered a 4 Star rating?

We have just now arrived at this recruiting position where we are now smack in the middle of 2-3 Stars that could be moved up but may never be because the thousands of paid premium members at the Major colleges driving the boat just a little bit. We don't have that influence with the scouting rating services.

Its all about the money, don't kid yourself.

[ponyscott]

Simmer down Stallion....just repeating what the cosches have said, including JJ.

You don't think that Scout and Rivals are driven by memberships and shere volume of money generated in the house? Yeah the athletes ratings are influenced by a lot of things but you don't think that if a player is a 2 or 3 and has offers from UT or TAMU that they don't get alot of grief from their members to move up the rating for the players like we do on Ponystampede or Ponypride? Except there is thousands of them VS maybe tens or hundreds (?) of SMU fans. If a player is a marginal rating that could move up and gets offers from UT, TAMU and OU and creates interst from fans that want to read the whole story ,that is doesn't drive the athletes ratings up just a bit so that Scout/Rivals now can get some new additional premium members that want to upgrade to be able to read ALL about their potential new 4 Star haul at their alma mater?

The Major schools recruiting budgets, recruiting coordinators budgets and the Coaching staff in general are all affected by the ratings big time and you don't think those guys have heavy influence on Rivals and Scout to pump up the volume?

SMU doesnt drive any real pressure to Rivals or Scout. I would think that our star recruit RB Fields if he had ommitted to OU instead of SMU, he would have maybe, just maybe garnered a 4 Star rating?

We have just now arrived at this recruiting position where we are now smack in the middle of 2-3 Stars that could maybe moved up but may never be, because the thousands of paid premium members at the Major colleges driveing the ratings boat just a little bit. We unfortunatly don't have that influence with the scouting rating services.

Its all about the money back to the premium rating services, don't kid yourself.

[BUS]

Ditto:

[Alaric]

The fact is there is no player SMU has signed in recent years that truly has the offers to establish they are true 4 or 5 stars.

Ryan Clark 4 stars DB Corsicana, TX, Navarro J.C. 6'1" 195 4.5 4 stars 5.8.

Tech dropped him when it become apparent he would have great difficulty qualifying. We signed him and he didn't qualify. His signing, however, renders your statement untrue. Other than Ryan Clark, I think you're right. Come on guys, JJ would love to load up his team with 4 & 5 star guys.

I seem to recall a couple people over on Rivals stating that the four star rating really wasn't warranted...that a player like Darryl Fields had a much better case for being a legitimate four star than Ryan Clark did.

Huh...never heard any talk that he wasn't a legit 4 star. I heard the Tech coaches thought he was very talented but that they didn't think he'd become eligible and that he didn't want to even try CB which is where they were projecting him.

[No Quarter]

One thing above I'd agree with. JJ has done well identifying players who fit his system and could contribute to it and who were interested in / willing to attend the school where he coached. I don't know how much time he's spent going after players who obviously had a different program in mind or how many minds he has changed. That he has developed players and formulated a successful system there is no doubt.

Stallion wrote:

I love when people yap on about things they obviously don't know a thing about. I don't know the EXACT number but I guarantee SMU had in the neighborhood of 8 players last year alone (and many more in prior years) whose ratings were upgraded thereby exposing his argument as complete an utter [deleted]. As to all those 4-5 stars that are allegedly upgraded unwarrantedly for schools like Texas-care to give me an example because they all have 10 to 20 to 30 to 40 offers. The fact is there is no player SMU has signed in recent years that truly has the offers to establish they are true 4 or 5 stars.

I suppose this has been computed and published before. What is the AVERAGE number of offers AT THE TIME THE OFFER WAS MADE for a player with one star, two stars and so on?

[Stallion]

Ryan Clark got demoted during his last year at JUCO-then his ratings dropped

As for Texas recruits-go through their commitment list and pull up their offers. Some have so many offers they don't even list them all even though many committed on the very first weekend of the 2011 recruiting season. Is there a Texas commitment whose rating is not supported by his offers? Might be 1 or 2-but generally the idea their players are overrated is complete [deleted]. Now compare the kids UT signs who are 4-5 stars and find an SMU player who was not a 4 star but had comparable quantity and QUALITY of offers. Have fun. Don't spend all day looking. Again -there are a lot of people making comments that are not supported by the facts.

[Alaric]

[quote="Stallion"]Ryan Clark got demoted during his last year at JUCO-then his ratings dropped[quote]

He was rated a 4 star, 5.8 on the day he signed, I was really just trying to kid you but now that you bring it up, I've looked and don't see anything saying he was demoted in his 2nd year at Navarro. He had some issues (grades and possibly attitude) but I don't think talent was one of them...I'd love a link because I obviously missed that it

[Stallion]

Navarro counters with a young but very effective secondary. When preseason All-American safety and Texas Tech commit Ryan Clark missed four games mid-year, redshirt freshman Trevor Drayton stepped in and promptly intercepted a team-high five passes. Fellow safety Kory Smith has three picks

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Now Ryan Clark of Navarro Junior College finds himself without an offer from Texas Tech, the school he had previously committed to.

According to Coach Nick Bobeck, head coach at Navarro, grades are probably the reason the Red Raiders pulled its offer to the talented defensive back.

“He was supposed to graduate in December and be able to transfer to Tech in January,” Bobeck told PonyStampede.com. “When it was apparent that wasn’t going to happen, Tech went a different direction. He may be pushing it to graduate in May at this point; it could be later in the summer.”

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According to Coach Bobeck, Clark is a 6-foo-1 athlete that weighs close to 200 pounds. He runs a high 4.5 to 4.6 forty.

“He played safety for us both years,” Bobeck said. “He had a better freshman year than he did this past season for us. He was slowed by an ankle injury

[Stallion]

In conclusion there was a solid basis for giving him 4 stars early as a Preseason JUCO All-American and probably a decent reason for taking a star away later because of 1) injury 2) grades 3) he didn't play as well in 2nd season 4) few schools offered him a scholarship after the 2nd year. Pretty solid basis for taking a star away rather than a conspiracy against SMU. I think its great they change star ratings based on circumstances of recruitment-otherwise the whole system is garbage.