I got this from the dad of an OSU recruit from the last three years, and I thought it was very much worth sharing because it’s a perspective not a lot of us have. I changed the schools and some of the info because he wanted to remain anonymous, but the spirit of the thing remains. Hope you enjoy.
Hi Kyle – I enjoy your podcasts, listen to every one of them.
I was recently listening to one on recruiting and wanted to give you my perspective on it from my son’s process. He had five programs he was really interested in - Cal, Iowa, Wake Forest, Boise and OSU (not in that order). A blueblood Big Ten school came in late and tried to flip him up to sign. He loves OSU’s coaches and Gundy so he was locked in, but if he did flip my guess is the rating guys bump him up. That would have given him 17 offers and now a blueblood. It seems like a catch-22.
From our perspective, we love the program and compared it to Cal, Iowa, Wake Forest, and Boise (ed. note: again, I changed the schools but these are facsimiles of the actual ones). Boise was the closest to OSU. One of the other schools is a financial mess now and another Big 10 school tried to flip him up to signing too. One was upset because they thought they had him – they did until he met OSU’s coaches and Gundy.
I realize it will be harder to get the 4- and 5-star guys there in Stillwater but also realize some of those ratings are based purely on if a blueblood offered or not. I have seen my son compete against some of the best players in the country, and some of those guys don’t deserve their 4- or 5-star ratings.
Anyway, we are excited and glad he chose OSU. Play or not play, it has a superior culture to most programs we visited. Now trust me he wants to play at some point and started Glass’s program before he eventually left for OSU. I found a local private trainer here to implement it. He loves the game so he will compete.
The recruiting process in general was interesting. Some schools measured his knees his head etc. They said there was science behind it. It was fun journey overall and very happy with his choice. OSU has a special culture like few in the country. His position coach is great. His trainers both knew him and said he is a great coach but even a better man!
The anti-recruiting rankings folks will see : “if he did flip my guess is the rating guys bump him up. That would have given him 17 offers and now a blueblood.” and say "See! They are pointless!
The pro-recruiting rankings folks will see the same thing and say "the dude said “MY GUESS…”
The Gundy defenders will see this post and say “See? Rankings are rigged, Gundy recruits just fine.”
The Gundy haters will see this post and say “Well, if that’s true, then he’s getting high caliber dudes and still not winning B12 championships so he’s a bad coach. Which one is it?”
Did I just have an argument with myself? Did I win?
Thanks for summarizing the post-thread debate in a single post. Saved us all a lot of time! For me, it is just further evidence that the ratings are so subjective. If “who offers” is a major determining factor in the star count/score, then they will ALWAYS be skewed to the blue bloods. It just cannot change.
Well to be fair to the ‘ratings are bunk’ crowd one of the arguments there is that when one of those blue bloods offers, that players ranking shoots up, so of course your top teams will be filled with top classes.
I’m not 100% in that boat (I do have about two toes in there however), but just explaining where they are coming from.
I do think stars matter but to me it is a starting point for staff evaluations. I am also fine with oSu evaluating players and going after who they feel meets their needs.
However, what I don’t like is not closing on recruits that are prioritized. Selling the program is part of your job and others are doing that better than the oSu staff too often. I don’t mind staff not offering the RB that signed with Nebraska. I do mind coaches felt the need to pull offers on both guys they targeted for months if not longer.
I think you have to acknowledge that to some degree though. If Alabama believes a kid can help them continue winning then obviously there is something to that. There are thousands of high school players and no way to watch every second of film and grading them with 100% accuracy. Soo when a team with a history of winning offers, maybe that just moves the rankers to give a more in depth look into the player thus grading higher. There is too much data to support teams winning championships and having top recruiting classes, it is honestly not even an argument. Of course coaching and development are also big factors that lead to overall success. I would say OSU has 1.5 out of 3 when it comes to coaching, development, recruiting.
I am certainly not arguing that recruiting doesn’t matter. I am just saying that the combined recruiting grade for a school’s class will always be skewed to blue bloods if this is how the process works.
Good point. I hate the term as well even though I use it a lot. I think the dynamic is real, and hyper important in the college revenue sports world more than anywhere else. Certainly not in pro sports, where major market and small market distinctions have some influence, but not as much as the blue blood dynamic in college.
For me, it is just further evidence that the ratings are so subjective. If “who offers” is a major determining factor in the star count/score, then they will ALWAYS be skewed to the blue bloods. It just cannot change.
