Is the tail wagging the dog?

The Senator asks a question I've been wondering about myself.

Ten years ago, players committed and de-committed in the relative obscurity of message board only access to information. Now, we have writers who dedicate their lives to access, evaluate and present information about recruits and websites to present that information to the masses.

In my mind, it would be like ESPN being fully in charge of ranking football teams.

Do not get me wrong, these guys are the hardest working men in the Internet College Football Landscape. They provide a valuable resource that obviously the market demands. It is compelling information, and we all want MOAR!!!! of it. However, I think we should have some perspective about this process and our single minded devotion to going apeshit when someone we thought was coming to Georgia doesn't.

Seth Emmerson wrote an article I saw a post (can't remember where, so if you wrote it or have a link let me know) about the recruiting services being a little more accurate in their predictions when awarding stars in the past few years. This is a good thing as it allows fans a little better glimpse into what a team might see in making an offer or moving on to another player. The same article also pointed out the 'busts' that happen to.  I'd posit that you can't be a bust just because someone else thought you'd be great, but you weren't.

There are very few 18 year old football players who have any size on them that don't honest to God believe they could play Division I football next year. We know from experience that a very small percentage of those players actually go on to do so, and even fewer pan out. The key is to have more of those guys pan out than don't. There is not amount of stars that will ever be able to tell who will for certain pan out.

Now, if we want to talk about player development once they get to campus? That is a different thing altogether.

TD

Tweet