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Recruiting Rankings are Garbage

Number1CanesFan

Number1CanesFan

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We all know how Miami recruits seem to be given rankings well below their ability and talent. Guys rated 3 stars, but have 10+ offers in which half are from elite schools. In my opinion, ESPN is the worst at ranking players. Like CMR said, "there are so many talented players in South Florida that a 3-star could be a 5-star anywhere else in the country." Translation: There are so many talented kids we can't give them all 4 and 5 stars.

Case in point, WDE Jahfari Harvey (Miami recruit) is rated as a 3-star prospect, 463rd best player, and 35th (247 Sports) at his position and NOT even listed in the top 100 DEs on ESPN''s recruiting website. Yet, he is the 59th best player in Florida. His 247 Composite ranking 652 nationally, 48th WDE, and 88th best in Florida. Wait a minute. That doesn't add up. Let's assume that each position on offense and defense takes up a spot in the rankings. That would mean in the state of Florida, of the 66 best players ( (11-Offense + 11-Defense) x 3 = 66), Harris would be the 3rd best WDE in Florida. Even as the 88th best player in Florida, he would be the 4th best WDE in the state of Florida. Your telling me that the 3rd or 4th best WDE in the whole state of Florida is a 3-star recruit? Worse yet, the 3rd best WDE in Florida is the 48th best WDE in the country? He has 19 D-1 offers including Miami, Georgia, Michigan, NC State, etc. I cry bull****!!!

Your thoughts on recruiting ranking in general? What players do you feel are underrated?
 
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He could still get a bump, judge the rankings at the end of the year, not the start of summer.
 
kutz said:
He could still get a bump, judge the rankings at the end of the year, not the start of summer.
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True., but he should be much higher right now. You can't be the 3rd or 4th best in the state of Florida at your position and be 45th best nationally. Is the 3rd or 4th best WDE in Florida a 3-star? Makes no sense.
 
Number1CanesFan said:
True., but he should be much higher right now. You can't be the 3rd or 4th best in the state of Florida at your position and be 45th best nationally. Is the 3rd or 4th best WDE in Florida a 3-star? Makes no sense.
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It’s possible. We don’t really breed great d linemen compared to other states. If he was a corner or receiver then it’s different. I do agree that he’s ranked low and many have admitted that already and I expect him to get a bump on almost all sites.
 
This is bull****. The star rankings is pretty accurate, but not perfect. Just look at the statistics of 5 stars getting drafted high, vs 4 stars, vs 3 stars. In addition they don't have a limit of number of 4 and 5 stars by state. They don't say well Florida has to many 4 stars so we will give him 3 stars.
 
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I mean kids just fly under the radar i mean look at wisconsin lol they live off of that also Espn is not good for high school rankings
 
1) There is no clear evidence of anti-Miami ratings. Lots o'confirmation bias on that though.

2) Lots of players fall through the cracks. Simple staffing makes the issue. How many recruiting people are there at Rivals/ESPN compared to the combined efforts of Power 5 schools? Miller is a case in point.

3) As someone said above, the general trend is, more stars = better player.
 
If those star ratings were actually that accurate, there wouldn't be any need for good talent evaluating coaches. Good programs value evaluation, showing that the rankings are not all that useful. That said, I think of star ratings as a guess at the players talent/potential success. A 5* has a very high chance to be pretty **** good. 4*s are likely to be good, but that is not guaranteed and they can be busts. 3* crooting to me, is a complete crapshoot where I'd prefer to have faith in our coaches' abilities to evaluate talent.

Stars just give us average Joes something to ***** about when it comes to the players our teams recruit. If you regularly get 5* and 4* players you are talked about by the media more and it's likely your team will be talented, but I think the whole reason for good talent evaluators is to find those 3* gems like Rousseau that these national ranking people miss because they don't know the talent areas, and especially Florida, well.
 
OriginalGatorHater said:
This is bull****. The star rankings is pretty accurate, but not perfect. Just look at the statistics of 5 stars getting drafted high, vs 4 stars, vs 3 stars. In addition they don't have a limit of number of 4 and 5 stars by state. They don't say well Florida has to many 4 stars so we will give him 3 stars.
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Tell that to Johnathon Garvin.
 
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OriginalGatorHater said:
This is bull****. The star rankings is pretty accurate, but not perfect. Just look at the statistics of 5 stars getting drafted high, vs 4 stars, vs 3 stars. In addition they don't have a limit of number of 4 and 5 stars by state. They don't say well Florida has to many 4 stars so we will give him 3 stars.
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Tell that to CMR dude. I'm sure they don't set a fixed number. But based on the population of Florida, and the quality of football being played, that is exactly what happens. Open your eyes.
 
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The rankings aren't the problem, the problem is the fans.

Not all rankings sum up what a player is or will be, some 5-stars bust & some 3-stars outplay their ranking. Just because a player isn't ranked a 4-star doesn't mean he sucks & just because a prospect is ranked a 4-star doesn't mean he's good.

There are things that no recruiting site can predict about a player, like heart, desire to be great & work ethic. Your best bet is to stop worshipping rankings & trust your own eyes.

Not saying they don't matter, but people just set themselves up when they put too much stock in rankings.
 
Number1CanesFan said:
He has 3's and 4's, but his rating at 4 was the lowest possible 4.
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He was a composite 4 star which is the most important of the rankings. That is bull****. Why doesn't Georgia, Texas, California, etc. get affected by this? Why don't the trash states like Connecticut get the reverse situation happening and they get a bunch of over ranked 5 stars?
 
Number1CanesFan said:
Then why would we be recruiting these guys and they have lots of offers. It doesn't match
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Because only schools like Bama and UGA can load up teams with straight 4 and 5 stars. 3 stars nationally have a 7.4% chance of getting drafted. Florida 3 stars have a 7.2% chance so if anything they are over ranked according to the stats.
 
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It is well known that those recruiting sites cater to their larger subscription pools (i.e. SEC, FSU, Clemson, etc...)
 
Number1CanesFan said:
We all know how Miami recruits seem to be given rankings well below their ability and talent. Guys rated 3 stars, but have 10+ offers in which half are from elite schools. In my opinion, ESPN is the worst at ranking players. Like CMR said, "there are so many talented players in South Florida that a 3-star could be a 5-star anywhere else in the country." Translation: There are so many talented kids we can't give them all 4 and 5 stars.

Case in point, WDE Jahfari Harvey (Miami recruit) is rated as a 3-star prospect, 463rd best player, and 35th (247 Sports) at his position and NOT even listed in the top 100 DEs on ESPN''s recruiting website. Yet, he is the 59th best player in Florida. His 247 Composite ranking 652 nationally, 48th WDE, and 88th best in Florida. Wait a minute. That doesn't add up. Let's assume that each position on offense and defense takes up a spot in the rankings. That would mean in the state of Florida, of the 66 best players ( (11-Offense + 11-Defense) x 3 = 66), Harris would be the 3rd best WDE in Florida. Even as the 88th best player in Florida, he would be the 4th best WDE in the state of Florida. Your telling me that the 3rd or 4th best WDE in the whole state of Florida is a 3-star recruit? Worse yet, the 3rd best WDE in Florida is the 48th best WDE in the country? He has 19 D-1 offers including Miami, Georgia, Michigan, NC State, etc. I cry bull****!!!

Your thoughts on recruiting ranking in general? What players do you feel are underrated?
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Proves the point, TRUST THE COAHCES
 
I have long taken recruiting rankings with a grain of salt. A number of years ago I read an article reranking the ratings of the 1998 class which was largely the basis of the 2001 UM championship team. The Canes were originally ranked a composite 10th with Notre Dame and Texas at the top if my memory is correct. What actually happens to those classes on the field is what counts and it usually takes a few years to fully appreciate how good any class is.
 
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