Wednesday, February 05, 2014

The ratings game

Since the final letter of intent was received and UConn officially announced its incoming freshman class Twitter has been abuzz with mentions of how poorly this class is rated. A few years down the line perhaps those "experts" will prove to be correct in their opinions but recent history will indicate that the people putting out this information are pretty much clueless.

I don't get worked up on whether a person is a three-star recruit or only received two stars because I doubt these national recruiting analysts have even stepped foot in Connecticut. Just for the heck of it I went onto the rivals.com site because they do have an archive of previous recruiting classes. Just out of curiosity I wanted to see where some of the UConn products currently in the NFL were rated coming out of high school.

Here are some of the players who received two-star ratings
Kendall Reyes, starting defensive lineman for San Diego Chargers
Anthony Sherman, who received the No. 1 blocking rating among all NFL fullbacks by the Pro Football Focus site in his first season with Kansas City
Sio Moore, third-round pick of Oakland Raiders and member of NFL All-Rookie team
Jordan Todman, RB who ran for 256 yards and two touchdowns with Jacksonville Jaguars
Blidi Wreh-Wilson, a third-round pick of Tennessee Titans
Trevardo Williams, a fourth-round pick of Houston Texans
Ryan Griffin, sixth-round pick of Houston Texans
Nick Williams, WR with Washington Redskins
Will Beatty, starting LT for New York Giants
Tyvon Branch, starting safety for Oakland Raiders
Robert McClain, DB with Atlanta Falcons
Darius Butler, DB with Indianapolis Colts
Zach Hurd, Scott Lutrus, Lawrence Wilson, have all been on NFL rosters
John Delahunt, fullback in CFL
Michael Smith, WR who had strong showing in Houston Texans camp
Adam Masters and Jory Johnson, former UConn captains
Shamar Stephen and Jesse Joseph, two of top draft prospects for UConn this year

During a conference call with the media Diaco gave his thoughts on the importance of recruiting ratings.

"I have nothing really disparaging to say about recruiting services," Diaco said. "There are some guys who have a handle on how to evaluate players and some guys who don’t. There are some guys who are just trying to make a buck and there are some services that if you as a recruit engage the service, your rating goes up and if you are a recruit who doesn’t engage the service and services then your rating doesn’t go up so it has very little to do with your prowess on the field and a whole lot more of you wanting to be a part of the recruiting world. If that is the case and that is what is prevalent, how are they credible anyway? Not a thought on who has what (star rating), who has what stars and who we should recruit based on that."

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