So in light of a new coach and a little bit of controversy over his recruiting style, I've decided two re-post two blog posts I wrote last year. I think they are still relevant in giving us some perspective on football recruiting. This is part 2.

In order to analyze the recruiting classes, I took a look at the 2002, 2003, and 2004 top 25 recruiting class rankings. Then, I looked at the final AP rankings for the years of 2006, 2007, 2008 (the senior years of the class) to see how they correlated. Obviously, this is not perfect because there are plenty of starters that are not seniors and there are transfers and such to factor in, but this gives us a good general look at recruiting classes. To do this, I calculated the average change in rankings between the recruiting class and the correlating final 25 AP rankings. For example, I compared the #1 recruiting class ranking of Texas in 2002 with their final AP ranking of #13. So, in that case, they moved -12 spots. I then did that for all of the teams and got the average disparity between the two over the course of 3 years. On a side note, if a team dropped out of the top 25, I determined they moved -25 spots, even if they were #24 recruiting class and ended up out of the rankings 4 years later. This isn't perfect but it is the best way to reflect overall movement.

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So in light of a new coach and a little bit of controversy over his recruiting style, I've decided two re-post two blog posts I wrote last year. I think they are still relevant in giving us some perspective on football recruiting. This is part 1.

I decided to take a look through some past Rivals 100 lists to see just how accurate recruiting websites are at predicting the success of college football players. To do that I looked at a random year (2002) to see how well the top 20 recruits fared. Then a took a look at a random All-America Team (2005) to see how many were 5 star, 4 star, and 3 star recruits.

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Change can come suddenly, violently, and without warning. The news of Ralph Friedgen's potential firing has hit the Maryland community hard. Some are excited, others believe the entire situation is a huge clusterf*ck. But one thing is certain, change has come to the University of Maryland Football program.

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          Kenny Powers once graced us with these words of wisdom and I think that they hold great merit when looking at the current Maryland Terrapins football team. Maryland has never had trouble finding quality skill position players: DHB, Vernon Davis, EJ Henderson, Josh Wilson, etc. But there has been a bit of a lack of talent, especially in recent years, on the offensive and defensive lines. Jared Gaither showed promise, but soon fell by the wayside as his grades plummeted. The offensive line was the main culprit of the team's overall woes last year.

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         Over the course of the Friedgen era, Maryland has had a surprising amount of success with getting offensive players drafted in the first round. Vernon Davis and Darius Heyward-Bey are the first players that come to mind. Yet, before the combine, Davis was viewed as a very good tight end, but a top 10 pick? That was doubtful. Granted he was a finalist for the Mackey award but it was rare for tight ends to go that high. For DHB, he was not even viewed as a first round pick before the combine. But all that changed once they hit the combine. For Davis, it was his 4.38 speed and his insane bench press numbers. For DHB, it was his 4.29 40 yard dash time.

via rodonline.typepad.com

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College athletics is quite a bit like pro sports. The players are extremely competitive and their number one job (much to the chagrin of some professors) is to play football. However, there are subtle differences in the handling of players. Ralph Friedgen has always been a stickler for seniority. We all remember the Jordan Steffy experiment in 2008; almost everyone on the sun knew that he was a great practice quarterback but a lousy game-day quarterback. Yet even so, because he was a senior and Friedgen had a special affinity for him, he sent Steffy out to start against Delaware and almost cost Maryland the game until Ralph finally decided to pull him for Chris Turner.

via dcsportsbox.com

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I was incredibly excited when Maryland landed Tate in 2008; even though they were deep at WR then (and still are) I was excited to be able to land a local game with his combination of size and speed. I thought that he would be able to make an impact, regardless of the plethora of talent at the position.

via media.scout.com

Now, here we are in 2010 and I'm wondering why Tate is floundering in mediocrity. Surely we all remember the accolades from Fridge prior to last year.

"When we recruited you, you told me you wanted to be an impact player," Friedgen told Tate. "Right now you are an impact player. Keep playing the way you are playing. You are a force."

"We're saying all this, we haven't played a game yet," Friedgen acknowledged. "But I'll tell you what: If he does in the games what he is doing now, he'll get a lot of honors."

"We can't block him," Friedgen gushed.

Well Ralph, your line couldn't block anyone last year either. Maybe you should have recruited more heavily along the offensive line in 2005-06, but I digress...

In any case, Tate has not lived up to the expectations set by his Rivals ranking and by Ralph himself. He accounted for only one interception last year, and although he is a strong safety, judging by Ralph's gushing I assumed that Tate's season was considered an underachievement. 

One reason for his lack of production, in my eyes, comes from Don Brown's misuse of Tate. Often, Tate was lined up as a blitzing linebacker in order to attempt to get pressure on the QB. However, he hardly ever managed to get to the quarterback and was often blocked out of the play or rendered ineffective. Part of this is understandable, Tate played WR throughout his high school career, so obviously, he never developed the correct technique for rushing the passer. But if it is this obvious to me, why didn't Don Brown figure it out over the course of the season? Tate logged only a single sack in all of 2009 and none in 2008, when he was often used in the same role.

When watching Tate, it seems to me that he lacks the defensive instincts to really excel at the position. However, I think he is not helped by the fact that he is often played out of position. I think it is a much smarter idea to use Tate (who has 4.4 closing speed) in zone coverage or almost as a center-fielder position so he can utilize his size, speed, and physicality to punish receivers and catch interceptions.

That being said, I am still left wondering whether or not Tate is simply being played out of position. Sure, the coaches gush over him but it has yet to translate into production on the field. There is still a part of me that thinks he would be better suited at wide receiver. The position is rather stacked, but right now, the likely number 2 receiver is Adrian Cannon. I have a hard time believing that Tate would lose out in a position battle to Cannon. With Torrey Smith and Kenny Tate on the field at the same time, we would have a very dangerous combination of speed and size with both of our receivers.

Tate has the athleticism to succeed at strong safety, I just hope his mental game picks up and he can develop the instinctual abilities that will make him a top safety.

I started writing this still a little hungover from that heartbreaking loss. This has got me (inevitably) thinking about the future and what MD basketball means to myself and the community at large. Let us begin with our fears and uncertainties about the next two (and my last two) years of Maryland basketball. We won't ever have another Vasquez but we can have new great ones that we will talk about for years and years after. What is the future of Maryland basketball and which players can take us to the level they failed to attain this year? Let's take a look.

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As a follow up to my post analyzing 5 star recruits, one of the posters suggested an analysis of recruiting class rankings and how they relate to actual success on the football field. Much like 5 star recruits, the results were very intriguing.

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I decided to take a look through some past Rivals 100 lists to see just how accurate recruiting websites are at predicting the success of college football players. To do that I looked at a random year (2002) to see how well the top 20 recruits fared. Then a took a look at a random All-America Team (2005) to see how many were 5 star, 4 star, and 3 star recruits.

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