Rating Players

[Monarch History]

As ODU is just starting up their football program, an interesting question was brought up on our boards (CAAzone.com), " if a player is rated 2 stars by Rivals. Not being familiar with 1AA recruiting, is that high, low or about average for 1AA teams? I would suspect most of the 3-5 star guys go FBS."

[Ronbo]

Getting a 1 star is average. Getting a 2 star is very good for a FCS school. If you check Rivals or Scout 60-70% of 2 stars still go FBS. 3 stars happen but are very rare as freshmen. I read that Armanti Edwards was a 3 star and went to ASU because he would play QB there. 3-5 star guys at FCS are usually transfers. Montana has a DE that transferred from Arizona that was a 4 star, ranked #16 in the nation at DE, and had offers from Arizona, Cal, and Oregon State. Quinn was a 4 star and Bomar at SHSU was a 5 star. We had QB Craig Ochs a couple years back he was a 5 star out of HS.

[McNeese_beat]

As ODU is just starting up their football program, an interesting question was brought up on our boards (CAAzone.com), " if a player is rated 2 stars by Rivals. Not being familiar with 1AA recruiting, is that high, low or about average for 1AA teams? I would suspect most of the 3-5 star guys go FBS."

I don't care for the recruiting ratings services because much of it is self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, who recruits a kid dictates how highly he's rated. If an FBS program offers a kid, to the recruiting services, that makes him better than kids who are only getting FCS offers, even though at most levels, the FCS and FBS recruits are similar.

As a result, it's very difficult for a McNeese to have a "bettter" recruiting class than a ULL or ULM. But somehow when those inferior classes are put on the field, all of a sudden McNeese's recruits look a lot better...

[Ronbo]

Boy that's true, athletes even drop. We had a TE that was a 3 star commit to Montana and the next time I checked Scout they had dropped him to a 2 star. xconfusedx

[McNeese_beat]

Boy that's true, athletes even drop. We had a TE that was a 3 star commit to Montana and the next time I checked Scout they had dropped him to a 2 star. xconfusedx

If Notre Dame had come in and offered the kid he would have become a four-star overnight...xlolx xlolx xlolx

[Ronbo]

Then you have players that ride under the radar completely. Here in Montana we have kids that don't even make the ranking services that UM and MSU load their rosters with. They are in essence 0 star players that aren't even listed. Take these same kids to Southern California to play HS football and many of them would be 2 and 3 star recruits.xlolx

[Tribe4SF]

Rivals and Scouts are fun to follow, but they offer little insight into the quality of most FCS classes. There are simply too many high school players for the services to follow our level with any accuracy. Some players help their own cause by doing a good marketing job for themselves (or have coaches who do that).

Scouts.com is the best source of an individual players potential IF he's one they have actually evaluated. Most players on their list have not had an in person or film evaluation.

ODU's first commitment is a good prospect. I know that not only because of Rivals and his offers, but because he's from my area. Like the rest of FCS, most ODU recruits will not have any Rivals stars. There are no one-star Rivals listings, by the way. Their ratings start with two-stars. Most in the Rivals data base have no rating, and many are there because they have submitted data themselves.

[DetroitFlyer]

It almost seems as though the top talent is going to be recruited by FBS schools regardless of what Scout or Rivals have to say.... I think that many times, kids, parents or coaches provide background to Rivals and Scout, ( and other services ), in an effort to improve the athletes prospects. On the other hand, if Scout or Rivals finds out a kid is being looked at by USC, tOSU, Notre Dame, etc. a few more stars get tacked on....

The last two star recruit Dayton landed decided to quit playing football alltogether after his freshman season. He did not transfer mind you, he just quit playing football....

Rivals and Scout are fun to follow and maybe even brag about, ( kind of like polls ), but it seems as though the most successful FCS programs just know how to recruit kids that fit their program to begin with, and then to develop those kids into a winning team.

[carney2]

As ODU is just starting up their football program, an interesting question was brought up on our boards (CAAzone.com), " if a player is rated 2 stars by Rivals. Not being familiar with 1AA recruiting, is that high, low or about average for 1AA teams? I would suspect most of the 3-5 star guys go FBS."

I went thru this in detail with the Patriot League this past recruiting season. As someone has already pointed out, Rivals is suspect. They seem to give a star to anyone and everyone who gets his name in the newspaper - even if it is based on a letter from his mother. I overstate, but I hope you get the point. Anyway, here's what I surmise based on my Patriot League experience:

2 stars is pretty much the top of the heap. 3s are few and far between.

A star from Scout should be taken more seriously than a star from Rivals.

Many of the top FCS teams (UMass comes immediately to mind) cannot be evaluated by looking at the Scout and Rivals ratings because they tend to recruit a "minimum" of high school seniors while loading up on misfits and malcontent transfers from FBS schools.

As pointed out to me many times, "you'll know for sure in four years."

[Ronbo]

Well Montana does get transfers but I wouldn't say we don't recruit HS seniors. We have 9 transfers on a 90 man roster. That's 81 HS kids to 9 transfers, or about 1.8 transfers a year over a 5 year period. In our case it's tough for the Coache's to completely ignore all the FBS players that contact us. I think they consider ones that fill a need immediately. I read once that we get about 100 contacts a year from FBS players thinking of transferring.

[walliver]

I am always suspect about the star ratings on FCS recruits.

4 or 5 years ago, an Elon poster calculated that Elon had the best recruiting class based on star rating (that didn't pan out, Elon's current success has comefrom later recruits). Chattanooga routinely has the best recruiting classes in the SoCon based on these ratings, but has had no recent success.

I suspect two forces are at work:

1) Poorer coaches tend to recruit based on star ratings, not on an assessment of the individual players and their ability to fit into the team's system.

2) Some of the rated players were likely over-rated by the scouting services, and other recruiters realized this.

Many good rated players choose, for any number of reasons, to play I-AA/FCS; but, I believe great caution should be used when using these ratings to evaluate a recruiting class.

[Mr. C]

I wouldn't put ANY value on the amount of stars some rating service puts on someone. Some of these highly-touted players don't produce as much as guys who come into FCS schools flying totally under the radar. Ever hear of Ricky Santos? Kevin Richardson? Eric Sanders? Those were all guys who had ZERO stars, but now are among the best players in FCS. There are many more examples, too.

[Umass74]

Many of the top FCS teams (UMass comes immediately to mind) cannot be evaluated by looking at the Scout and Rivals ratings because they tend to recruit a "minimum" of high school seniors while loading up on misfits and malcontent transfers from FBS schools.

That's not remotely true. UMass recruits and retains the majority of its players.

Starting for UMass against Boston College.

Offense: Both WRs and the TE (Moore, Rancher and Jorgensen) were all UMass recruits. Four of the five OL (Ducasse, Austin, Hopkins and Calicchio) were UMass recruits, Nick Diana was a JUCO.

QB Liam Coen as well as his backup Scott Woodard are both UMass recruits. TB Matt Lawrence is a transfer from UConn. FB Breyone Evans is a transfer from Syracuse.

Totals: eight (or nine depending on how you want to count the JUCO) out of 11 offensive starters are UMass recruits

Defense: All four DL (Hanson, Collier, Harrington and Burris) are UMass recruits. All three LB (Hatchell, Walker and Byrd) are UMass recruits.

In the defensive back field UMass recruit Brandon Freeman received a one game suspension for violation of team rules, so UConn transfer Robinson started in his place. The other corner Smalls is a UMass recruit. FS Meggett is a transfer from West Virginia and SS Miles is a transfer from Navy.

Totals: 8 (ordinarily 9) of of 11 defensive starters are UMass recruits. Lots of the BCS transfers contribute, but it's UMass recruits that have been starting.

[strike00]

Watching the rankings are fun, but they realy don't mean much. Like Mr. C said look at all the people who are ignored by the ratings.

Also look at UNI, Whitney Lewis, a Transfer from USC, Was not only a 5 star recruit but the Top WR in the 2003 class by both Scout and Rivals. He was the 3rd ranked overall prospect by Rivals also. He is currently the Panthers number three/four wide reciever.

Like Its been said, fun to look at but don't get caught up in ratings.

[Monarch History]

Being an Old Dominion fan and new to the college football scene, all the responses in this thread have given me a different prospective on FCS recruiting. Thanks!