Recruits

[CajunEXPRESS]

We shall agree to disagree.

I love to follow recruiting, as well as dissecting film of individual recruits. And after doing so for many years, I can tell you that it's nothing but a "crap shoot" until three or four years are done.

Anyone who claims he/she can accurately discern how good or bad a 17 or 18-year old will be before the youngsters complete three or four years against top flight college competition physically, mentally and emotionally is at best, prophetic, or at worst, a damn fool.

I do not know what you are disagreeing with. My point was so vague it was neither valid nor invalid.

But now to your point, clearly it is not a crap shoot. Somebody clearly knows who is talented and who is not. There is a reason LSU, BAMA, and such always wins these crap games. The game may be fixed but they know who the players are. Clearly somebody is not simply guessing. How many LSU recruits to the pros in the last two years, and another nine this year sounds like somebody is getting it right and not simply guessing.

[basinbear]

I would call it an educated guess....evaluating the talent is not hard....sometimes you can't tell if what is inside of the chest will hold up

[Boomer]

I would call it an educated guess....evaluating the talent is not hard....sometimes you can't tell if what is inside of the chest will hold up

----I was never a really into evaluating guys---I loved the Xes and Os part but I guess my A D D kinda took over ---just asked the position guys who they wanted----The HS coaches that you didn't know too well would try and peddle their guys that couldn't play off on you and only the ones you got close to would level but sometimes their love of a kid shaded their opinions!!! And the worst part is having kids that you can't win with---ouch!!!

[Boomer]

I know it was meant for Boomer, but how many ***? You must provide the star count for Boomer!!1

-----Speaking of stars --Tulane has 14 guys with 3 stars listed---Now this is including all ageencies as some have a 3 star and some have not----We do have them 6-4 on Scout and T can tell us more about that!!!

[basinbear]

-----Speaking of stars --Tulane has 14 guys with 3 stars listed---Now this is including all ageencies as some have a 3 star and some have not----We do have them 6-4 on Scout and T can tell us more about that!!!

Pull trigger......

[Gueydanmayor]

I do not know what you are disagreeing with. My point was so vague it was neither valid nor invalid.

But now to your point, clearly it is not a crap shoot. Somebody clearly knows who is talented and who is not. There is a reason LSU, BAMA, and such always wins these crap games. The game may be fixed but they know who the players are. Clearly somebody is not simply guessing. How many LSU recruits to the pros in the last two years, and another nine this year sounds like somebody is getting it right and not simply guessing.

Of course Alabama, La. A&M@Baton Rouge, Notre Dame, etc. have better classes because they are on a different level than we are in recruiting. Since they can "cherry pick" just about their entire class, their odds of having a better recruiting class and individual stars increase dramatically over what schools like UL recruits to fill their rosters.

Has nothing to do with my point. I am saying that writers are only guessing when they rate individual state's classes as good, average or poor before any of these youngsters ever take the field in college. That is only conjecture on their part. The complete, finished group product can only be rated after the kids finish their senior years.

I remember one year when La. A&M @ Baton Rouge signed the top four running backs in the country and everyone had them rated #1 in the nation. Three of those kids contributed either nothing or almost nothing while the fourth was only average. That year writers said was the "top year for running backs in the nation". Just another example of inept prognosticating. Educated guessing, as BB said, is about as good as it gets with an unfinished, raw and immature product in the world of recruiting.

Oh, every once in a while we can steal a few recruits that slip through the cracks of the big schools' classes or even find a gem that eludes the entire elite football college teams' talent searches. Kids like Elijah McGuire are very rare gets for the ULs of the world. In the meantime, all we can do is try to improve our program and keep on winning to possibly improve our chances of obtaining those "big school products."

[billbeck451]

good discussions on this topic, can't wait till signing day to see the whole class

[moorecajun]

16 days to go!

[zephyr]

I do not know what you are disagreeing with. My point was so vague it was neither valid nor invalid.

But now to your point, clearly it is not a crap shoot. Somebody clearly knows who is talented and who is not. There is a reason LSU, BAMA, and such always wins these crap games. The game may be fixed but they know who the players are. Clearly somebody is not simply guessing. How many LSU recruits to the pros in the last two years, and another nine this year sounds like somebody is getting it right and not simply guessing.

You are using the best programs in the country to make your point. While you are correct, at least for a good majority of the kids that go to these programs, you also have to remember how many kids no ranked very highly at all become great contributors to these programs while some of the higher profile guys do little. Russell Shephard? Sometimes its the lower level guys that these big programs fall back on right before signing day that end up being great players.

Also, your point doesn't really hit all athletes or mid level programs. All of the services tend to focus their time and energy on the high profile athletes and programs. They don't tend to really be interested in ranking 2 and 3 star kids out of various areas, especially if they don't have much interest from the big schools. Some of these kids don't make it to the summer camps due to various reasons and therefore they are overlooked and underranked. While it is a science, its an inexact science at that. This is why it is so tough to nail down a guy's true worth to your program until some years later.

[Jeaux]

Ironic that you brought up Shepard. I remember him being all hyped up as the savior to the tigers Qb problems. One drunken night an @BR alumn friend and I got into a debate of Mr. Shepherd's abilities. I had enough after the diatribe and finally said " UL's third string is a better QB than Shepard". Of course he thought I was crazy but we all know what Blaine did for this program and I haven't heard anything about that other guy.