ESPN is absurd on their rankings

[NRHorn]

I was surprised to see ESPN currently has Texas as 13, yep 13, in this years rankings…also at the lower than I expected ‘scores’ for some players.
I went back and looked at a previous signed class and I see why.
They consistently are wrong as compared to other services.
I understand a few misses, but Bijan was an 88 4 star?

 

[horninchicago]

You had me at "ESPN Is Absurd".

 

[FWHORN]

aggy will tell you ESPN is in the tank for Texas, Michigan claims same thing about Ohio State, everyone claims same thing about Notre Dame; Recruiting rankings are closer to a crap shoot then they are to a science and the line between stars is so subjective its hard sometimes to truly differentiate a low 5 star and high 4 star or low 4 and high 3 etc. Recruiting matters and the rankings help but there are always high profile misses and a class can be much better or much worse than its paper ranking from ESPN or rivals or whoever.

 

[horninchicago]

aggy will tell you ESPN is in the tank for Texas, Michigan claims same thing about Ohio State, everyone claims same thing about Notre Dame; Recruiting rankings are closer to a crap shoot then they are to a science and the line between stars is so subjective its hard sometimes to truly differentiate a low 5 star and high 4 star or low 4 and high 3 etc. Recruiting matters and the rankings help but there are always high profile misses and a class can be much better or much worse than its paper ranking from ESPN or rivals or whoever.

So...they aren't absurd?

 

[NRHorn]

aggy will tell you ESPN is in the tank for Texas, Michigan claims same thing about Ohio State, everyone claims same thing about Notre Dame; Recruiting rankings are closer to a crap shoot then they are to a science and the line between stars is so subjective its hard sometimes to truly differentiate a low 5 star and high 4 star or low 4 and high 3 etc. Recruiting matters and the rankings help but there are always high profile misses and a class can be much better or much worse than its paper ranking from ESPN or rivals or whoever.

I agree 101% on recruiting being a crapshoot, but what I noticed is that ESPN is consistently lower than other rankings.
There were more players, but I quickly noticed 2 that stood out from 2020.
How can Texas be #3 as an average, yet 13 with ESPN?
ESPN not ranking Bijan a 5 star is unreal out of high school.

That’s what I seen.

Someone at ESPN needs replaced.

 

[horninchicago]

I agree 101% on recruiting being a crapshoot, but what I noticed is that ESPN is consistently lower than other rankings.
There were more players, but I quickly noticed 2 that stood out from 2020.
How can Texas be #3 as an average, yet 13 with ESPN?
ESPN not ranking Bijan a 5 star is unreal out of high school.

That’s what I seen.

Someone at ESPN needs replaced.

I seen what you done there.

 

[SabreHorn]

Ease up on ESPN. Those people have to work in an environment fraught with whitewash. It probably clouds their vision.

 

[hornde68]

Very few television programs have ever been high enough to fall as far as ESPN. Entertainment Sports Programming Network. Somewhere along the line, the powers to be decided we needed yet another network for Politics. Well, not so much. Back out airport traffic (counted as viewership since you might look over walking to a flight) and they have lost 90% of highest rating. I got enough partisanship force fed every day already.

 

[LonghornDave]

You had me at "ESPN Is Absurd".

I understand it is an art not a science but ESPn ranks Arkansas, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Kentucky and KENT STATE, Nebraska and NC State ahead of the Horns and one slot above a floundering aggie. At some point you should just "link" someone else's stuff and save money on thecrew who came up with this absurdity.

 

[DCW]

I would actually like to know the amount of employees that ESPN are dedicated to visiting the camps, the 7 v 7 tournaments, HS practices and games compared to the other services. I just don't see it that amount of info and relationships that are built by the others compared with ESPN. Correct me if I am wrong? I just don't rely on ESPN for College Football Recruiting or rankings.

 

[hornde68]

Few things in college football are more meaningless than ‘star ratings’ for recruits. Coaches, at least the good ones, measure things that are virtually unmeasurable. Team-work, off-side play finishes, downfield effort, etc. literally no position is more difficult to rate than OL. There aren’t tackles to count, they almost never play against quick 300# players. There is no team needed in bull-dozing smaller DL. Year in and out Wisconsin has the top OL with mainly 3* players. Large feet with high arches, along with thick collar bones don’t show up on OL recruit ratings. Hire a solid OL coach, recruit to full mature projected capability and ignore know nothings like us on message boards. What could possibly more meaningless than aTm’s class rating for 2022?

 

[hornde68]

I know what’s more meaningless. ESPN, in its entirety

 

[DCW]

Few things in college football are more meaningless than ‘star ratings’ for recruits. Coaches, at least the good ones, measure things that are virtually unmeasurable. Team-work, off-side play finishes, downfield effort, etc. literally no position is more difficult to rate than OL. There aren’t tackles to count, they almost never play against quick 300# players. There is no team needed in bull-dozing smaller DL. Year in and out Wisconsin has the top OL with mainly 3* players. Large feet with high arches, along with thick collar bones don’t show up on OL recruit ratings. Hire a solid OL coach, recruit to full mature projected capability and ignore know nothings like us on message boards. What could possibly more meaningless than aTm’s class rating for 2022?

A lot of the ratings and Coaches evaluations are from camps. That's why it is so essential that these players go to camps while in High School and as early as possible. Wisconsin has a nice pipeline with local kids.

 

[Vol Horn 4 Life]

Few things in college football are more meaningless than ‘star ratings’ for recruits. Coaches, at least the good ones, measure things that are virtually unmeasurable. Team-work, off-side play finishes, downfield effort, etc. literally no position is more difficult to rate than OL. There aren’t tackles to count, they almost never play against quick 300# players. There is no team needed in bull-dozing smaller DL. Year in and out Wisconsin has the top OL with mainly 3* players. Large feet with high arches, along with thick collar bones don’t show up on OL recruit ratings. Hire a solid OL coach, recruit to full mature projected capability and ignore know nothings like us on message boards. What could possibly more meaningless than aTm’s class rating for 2022?

To an extent I disagree with you but at the same time agree. Star ratings matter when it comes to the overall talent of an individual. That does not take into account the other personal attributes you describe like drive and desire. There's a reason big schools loaded with 4 & 5 stars win lots of games, they just out talent the other schools. There's a reason teams like TCU win a lot of games loaded with 3 star talent and that's with a desire to learn and a chip on their shoulder out to prove everyone wrong about them.

The great coaches find players that fit their needs and work perfectly in their system. Most of them will never pan out past college. I'll give you Mike Leach as an example. He knew in Lubbock he couldn't compete for 5 star QB talent so he decided he only needed two attributes in a QB to be successful in his system....they have to be smart with quick decision making ability and be accurate. That's it. He took a bunch of for the most part unknown QB's and turned them in the all conference players throwing for 3,000 yds+ per season.

My point being is if you find the 5 star talent with the drive and desire they are significantly more likely to be successful than the 3 star guy. I use Nick Saban as the ultimate definition of this. He pulls in all the talent and he sifts out the riff raff every year. Year in and year out he is loaded with a bunch of highly rated players and every year he only keeps the ones with the drive. There's a reason year in and year out a team like TCU normally wouldn't even have a chance against a fully functioning Nick Saban led Alabama team.

 

[txhorn_et]

I thought maybe Mensa ‘Winning Is Hard’ Tom Herman would’ve gone to work for ESP.
What?
Oh, y’all are talking about espn. My bad!