Blue Chip ratio among teams that have won national championships.

So he was Top 5 NFL draft pick because he "talent around him"???

Dude did you watch him play!?

My God....
He didn't throw it to himself did he? He didn't block for himself did he? Of COURSE the talent around him helped get him to that draft status! I'd say the OC had a little to do with it as well. Nobody succeeds without help along the way!
 
In football, you always have some 4/5 star busts and some 2-3 stars that end up being 4/5 star level but the trend shows that overall, the recruiting rankings matter.

Sure Texas A&M flopped but Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and others have NOT. Generally tends buck the trend when they are not in that top 5 recruiting class.

I will say that Heupel's program fits the bill of a 2010 Auburn or 2019 LSU in that we have the potential to buck the trend and got close in 2022 but to win consistently, you need to recruit better.

That being said, Heupel is recruiting BETTER and it is showing. Also, we had sanctions Heupel's first few years that his staff has had to deal with.
 
The one area that makes Heupel's recruiting unique is the level of elite QBs he is bringing in. Elite QBs were always the fly in the ointment that could sometimes overcome talent gap. Great examples include:

Johnny Manziel
Cam Newton
Joe Burrow
 
He didn't throw it to himself did he? He didn't block for himself did he? Of COURSE the talent around him helped get him to that draft status! I'd say the OC had a little to do with it as well. Nobody succeeds without help along the way!
Oh really so why didn't Tommy Frazier get drafted from the super talented Nebraska team?
Scott Frost later?
Ken Dorsey and that super talented Miami team?

Hmm??

Because they weren't elite QBs 😐.
Like a Top 5 pick is!

Why does this need be explained to you??

Joe Burrow was a 3 star QB.
That got drafted because he could read a defense- ran. 4.5 and could make all the throws in the NFL.
 
In football, you always have some 4/5 star busts and some 2-3 stars that end up being 4/5 star level but the trend shows that overall, the recruiting rankings matter.

Sure Texas A&M flopped but Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and others have NOT. Generally tends buck the trend when they are not in that top 5 recruiting class.

I will say that Heupel's program fits the bill of a 2010 Auburn or 2019 LSU in that we have the potential to buck the trend and got close in 2022 but to win consistently, you need to recruit better.

That being said, Heupel is recruiting BETTER and it is showing. Also, we had sanctions Heupel's first few years that his staff has had to deal with.
 
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So 2022 we went 11-2
In 2023 we went 9-4

Yet...our "Blue Chip" percentage was higher in 2023

By golly how is that possible 🤪🤪🤪🤪
 
Agree but this maybe the last season that Tennessee is under 46%. Heupel is starting to pick up the players. I would still love for him to grab a 5 star in our secondary or a 5 star Running back. I feel like the secondary and runningback core could use a stud.
Fine volbound. I’ll go ahead and commit since you’re twisting my arm. Oh wait, you meant a stud DB or RB, not just a general stud. My bad.

Now that I think of it, none of it applies. Oh well, back to reality. I swear that stud finder always beeps when used on me. My wife says I’m the one beeping but I don’t believe her.
 
Yeah clearly we should just give up. We shouldn’t ever be any out team to sign elite classes to compete for championships. Yeah that’s what everyone is thinking. Good grief.

Could Heupel be the coach that breaks the trend? Absolutely. The likelihood of that is slim. The bottom line is we have to recruit better.
The bottom line is we ARE recruiting better. Have you seen the 2025 class? The turnaround of this program couldn’t be going better/faster. We’re lucky to have the staff we have, and they’re attracting great players.
 
Fine volbound. I’ll go ahead and commit since you’re twisting my arm. Oh wait, you meant a stud DB or RB, not just a general stud. My bad.

Now that I think of it, none of it applies. Oh well, back to reality. I swear that stud finder always beeps when used on me. My wife says I’m the one beeping but I don’t believe her.

😄
 
2013 Florida State had a similar talent profile with 2015 and 2016 Clemson. All 3 were around 50% in the blue chip ratio and they each had a generational QB.

We're in a similar position. If Nico is a #1 overall pick caliber QB then we definitely fit the bill of a team that could bust this trend. Also I think our roster is more talented than the recruiting rankings suggest. Especially our 2022 class which wasn't highly ranked by the services but if you look at that class you'll see a lot of guys exceeded expectations. For example, James Pearce was a composite 4-star rated as the 173rd ranked player in his class by 247. He's now projected to go #1 overall in the draft. Squirrel White was a composite 3-star and Dylan Sampson was a low 4-star outside the top 300. I would argue both of them have performed at a borderline 5-star/high 4-star level as freshman and sophomores. And then you have other composite 3-stars like Jayson Jenkins and Chas Nimrod who have been excelling this off-season and are expected to be big time contributors this fall. The only player in the 2022 class that has not lived up to expectations is Addison Nichols. I would argue that our 2022 class despite being ranked 17th overall by 247Sports is probably better than Texas A&M's class that was ranked 1st overall that year on a freshmen and sophomore year production basis and projected contributions in 2024.

I personally wouldn't trade our roster of anyone else's in the country. I think we're closer to 2013 Florida State and 2015 Clemson on a talent basis than every other team in the country this year.
Always remember that those combined recruiting rankings said there was 15 better defense ends than James Pearce, 30 running backs better than Dylan Sampson, and 62 wide receivers better than Squirrel White in 2022.
Probably the greatest talent evaluation by a Tennessee staff in decades…

At this point, I trust Heupel over Charles Power any day of the week.
 
Always remember that those combined recruiting rankings said there was 15 better defense ends than James Pearce, 30 running backs better than Dylan Sampson, and 62 wide receivers better than Squirrel White in 2022.
Probably the greatest talent evaluation by a Tennessee staff in decades…

At this point, I trust Heupel over Charles Power any day of the week.

Yeah. Recruiting rankings are cool as a forward looking metric for classes that haven't been on the field yet. But once guys get on campus and start playing it stop mattering as much as the on field evaluations. For example our 2022 class has thus far performed way better than their rankings. So that #17 rank might not exactly be indicative of how good that class really is.
 

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