Sunbelt recruiting rankings...

[DestinCajun]

Rk Team Commits
78. Troy 33
82. Louisiana-Monroe 27
86. MTSU 23
88. FIU 23
110. North Texas 21
112. University of Louisiana 17
117. Arkansas State 20
118. FAU 27

Does anyone with more than a passing interest in recruiting and college football really believe Howard Schnellenberger at FAU was outrecruited by 117 other programs? Get real!

[CajunNation]

Does anyone with more than a passing interest in recruiting and college football really believe Howard Schnellenberger at FAU was outrecruited by 117 other programs? Get real!

Their lack of a stadium is starting to effect them. FIU is making major strides with their new stadium and new staff.

[cajun4life]

If you go off of the Scout rankings our average star rating is 2.00 which is tied for 2nd in the Belt.

[MetryCajun]

_ Teams don't win games because of how many stars their recruits have. Those recruits have to get out there, develop and produce.

The Cajuns finished second in the Sun Belt last season with a 5-2 mark with 11 starters that were one-star recruits by Scout.com. That included the Sun Belt player of the year and offensive player of the year.

Anyone who looks too much into these recruiting rankings don't know much about football. These recruiting classes are ranked based on what they are right now, not in two or three years. That's how much time it will take for most of these players to make a true impact because most of the returning players are better, bigger and stronger right now and will get most of the playing time. _

I agree to a point, we can all point to 5 star busts and 1 star successes. Afterall we are dealing with young men that are still developing physically and mentally. But guys are graded in HS much more rigorously than they were 20 years ago. There is some rational to the ratings.
Case in point SMiss. They have a different caliber of athlete than the Cajuns have. Their DL is a little bigger. Their LB and CB are a little faster. Their OL and WR a little more athletic. This happens because they consistently get 3 star recruits. Now if they do not develop the talent they have, we could still beat them, but if all things are equal they will beat us 90% of the time. The reason is because they are recruiting better athletes.

[CajunZ1]

_ If you go off of the Scout rankings our average star rating is 2.00 which is tied for 2nd in the Belt. _

Our average star ranking is 2 because all of our 1 star recruits became 2 star recruits once they gave us verbals (that happens any time a 1* gets an offer from a FBS school).

So we need to make a decision... do stars matter? The answer is yes and no. For our purposes, it "doesn't matter" because we are not getting high stars. To put stock in them would be depressing. And it's easy to point out the flaws (fenroy, des etc). And it's easy to find the flopped 3 stars.

But I'll guarantee you far more 3 stars work out well than those that don't.

So for CajunNation, R90, HoustonCajun etc... your points are well taken. We are not where we need to be. I think even the most wide-eyed cajun fan knows that deep down. And it sucks to see schools that were once our equal making moves.

But for right now, this 1-2 star laden recruiting class are ours. Lets embrace the fact that they are the ones that will bring us to the next level. And as I've said before, we only need one season of on the field success and you will see a big difference in those rankings ya'll speak of all the time.

Good attendence+great atmosphere+good football=Class of the sunbelt.

I think we all know which variable is needed here^, and last year proved we're another step closer.

[billbeck451]

usm can get some 3 star recruits only because mississippi's pie isn't cut up as much as louisianas. Not only does louisiana have a trillion schools competing for the same atheletes, almost every other major college in the nation is also recruiting louisiana atheletes.

[Just1More]

_ Teams don't win games because of how many stars their recruits have. Those recruits have to get out there, develop and produce.

The Cajuns finished second in the Sun Belt last season with a 5-2 mark with 11 starters that were one-star recruits by Scout.com. That included the Sun Belt player of the year and offensive player of the year.

Anyone who looks too much into these recruiting rankings don't know much about football. These recruiting classes are ranked based on what they are right now, not in two or three years. That's how much time it will take for most of these players to make a true impact because most of the returning players are better, bigger and stronger right now and will get most of the playing time. _

The biggest thing that the star system does is display to the world, as if we didn't know, which programs are the most popular. The system isn't pure. It is the best we can probably do... but it has a self-fulfilling nature that is impure. Once an athlete starts getting popular and gets looks from major programs as a result... that results in an increase in his rating.

I asked a guy who used to work a lot with the Pelican Digest on ranking Louisiana HS athletes about how he judged HS talent. He said that he focused on players he was assigned to go watch on the field in Friday night games, based on the fuss about them. He said that 3 out of 4 times he was more impressed with some other player on that team or the opponent that wasn't even being noticed by the general media.

He also said something kind of funny... he said that rating players that are D1 athletes in the star system was a little like judging girls in beauty contests. He said that D1 athletes are like girls who rank between a 9 and 10 on the hotness scale. I don't know about you, but making a distinction between a 9.1 and a 9.4 was always kind of tough... as I proudly walked out the door with a 6.8 fixer-upper.

I'll throw one more funny in there... a friend of mine whose wife had a huge crush on Saban once told me that any school that didn't hire some handsome charismatic guy to run around the recruiting trail was a fool. Many a mama has a say-so these days in where her son goes to play ball. I believe that is why we have a hard time letting Bustle go... (smiley face right here with a slight grin, a little smirk, rolling of eyes, with a hint of acid reflux making its way northward)

[MetryCajun]

_ usm can get some 3 star recruits only because mississippi's pie isn't cut up as much as louisianas. Not only does louisiana have a trillion schools competing for the same atheletes, almost every other major college in the nation is also recruiting louisiana atheletes. _

So are you saying Tulsa will go after a LA 3 star, but not a MS 3 star?
The point I am trying to make is these star rankings have some merit. The play on the field bears that out.

[Damon]

If we got a 5* recruit, our heads would explode. It goes both ways.

What's more important to me is the kind of student-athlete that is being recruited. We do not have a lot of discipline problems (last year was the first I know of under RB). We now are getting our position needs met. We are fulfilling all scholarship slots (used to not be able to the first few years of RB's time). I think RB has a definite plan about how to build this program that he has followed since day one. It hasn't worked fast enough for some of us (especially 2007 ), but at least we don't see stories of our football players "making it rain", as the kids say.

It isn't sexy, but it does seem to be working.

[CajunT]

_ Our average star ranking is 2 because all of our 1 star recruits became 2 star recruits once they gave us verbals (that happens any time a 1* gets an offer from a FBS school).

So we need to make a decision... do stars matter? The answer is yes and no. For our purposes, it "doesn't matter" because we are not getting high stars. To put stock in them would be depressing. And it's easy to point out the flaws (fenroy, des etc). And it's easy to find the flopped 3 stars.

But I'll guarantee you far more 3 stars work out well than those that don't.

So for CajunNation, R90, HoustonCajun etc... your points are well taken. We are not where we need to be. I think even the most wide-eyed cajun fan knows that deep down. And it sucks to see schools that were once our equal making moves.

But for right now, this 1-2 star laden recruiting class are ours. Lets embrace the fact that they are the ones that will bring us to the next level. And as I've said before, we only need one season of on the field success and you will see a big difference in those rankings ya'll speak of all the time.

Good attendence+great atmosphere+good football=Class of the sunbelt.

I think we all know which variable is needed here^, and last year proved we're another step closer. _

The point is well taken if the comparison is fair. We are not Tulsa, USM or Houston for that matter, so let's be realistic. Louisiana Tech's recruiting class is better on paper, but how much better? That question can only be answered in the next few seasons. One important point to remember is, all the programs mentioned above are bowl teams. So some people continue to compare these programs with the Cajuns and repetitiously spout this what we should be recruiting. The reality is, we are not better then these programs.

Until we start winning consistently, appear in bowl games and improve facilities, we will not sign a greater number of 3-star athletes. We have to continue recruiting good athletes and develop them within the system to contribute in a few years.