The Rivals recruit ratings are accurate for only those kids Rivals knew about in the early stages. A lot of these kids were already pegged in their sophmore and junior years by scouting groups and everyone on the planet that kept up the buzz. Once the game is on it begins to feed itself enormously. The kids that already have notoriety start slapping on more layers of star power once the BCS schools start calling on them, and that was already in formation due to scouting reports (hence a closed loop). Once the top 40 to 50 schools make their choices known, that just about locks up the 4 and 5 star tags. Do you think a kid that just gets his 2 star only because of a D1A "lower tier" offer, then somehow ends up on a top 40 team, jumps up a star or 2... really improved in a day? BS. It is an enormously self-feeding system. Rivals, by design, is not going to reward anyone that they did not sniff out from the beginning or does not match up to a top 40 to 50 school... it is much harder to climb that hill later, than to fall down that hill once they hooked you with 4 to 5 stars and all the kings came calling.
Many highschool kids are not a perfectly proven commodity. They are a raw form of their future selves. BCS schools don't generally look for a "prospect"... they are getting way too many calls and attention from so-said "proven commodoties".
Rivals accuracy is lacking badly past the top 40 to 50 schools on the list. Rivals is damn good at calling an ace an ace when they've had him in their face over and over... but have no idea about an ace they have not seen, or seen or heard about much. There are some seriously good kids that our coaches can see, test, question, get to know and be overwhelmed with. As drumroll put it, we are looking for sleepers. They are all over the place.
When you cannot pick up the prototypical heralded kid... you look at the kid that is a little undersized (right now), a kid who couldn't star because he was right in back of a superstar on the depth chart, a kid who was great at a smaller school, and so on. That is what UL has to do... for now. I am going to only judge our coaches on Saturdays, and our admin Sunday thru Friday... never the kids. YOU COME TO UL... YOU ARE OUR STAR. <=== put that statement on our bash... I'm kind of liking it.
We need to stop bellyaching about Rivals and stars. If any of our recruits wants more stars when he gets in our program, I am going to run down to the school supplies store and pick up some star stickers for him.