‘23 FL RB Mark Fletcher (OSU Decommit)

[SSVol]

I try not to ignore, but I may have to start.

It's refreshing.

 

[BondJamesBond]

Sure and any convo about the playoffs is interesting. For instance, did you know TCU has the 32nd most talented roster (according to 247). Their opponents this season:

Colorado - 63rd
Tarleton St - ? (1 millionth, idk)
SMU - 56th
OU - 9th
Kansas - 71st
OK St - 40th
K State - 70th
WVU - 43rd
Texas Tech - 45th
Texas - 6th

Vols (19th most talented) have played 4 teams in the top 12 of these rankings, including UGA and Bama (1 & 2). After this weekend, will have played 5 within the top 20, 6 within the top 26, 7 within the top 31

Great stats. Thanks.

 

[peaygolf]

I try not to ignore, but I may have to start.

It's ok. Heat went out in the basement, or his Atari is on the fritz.

 

[KptVFL]

I try not to ignore, but I may have to start.

Understand. I only have a handful. I don't even remember the guy/gal, so thinking it goes back to when I 1st joined VN.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

lmao

Are you trolling? I am sorry to laugh if you're trolling.

Nope, just stating real facts about the distribution of draft picks by stars. I wonder how many people are impressed that 63% of the no-brainer 5 stars get drafted. Notice you did not provide the percentage of next in line to no-brainers 4* that got drafted, and what difference does it make what the percentage of the rest of the free world got drafted?

But to finish the factual statements 26 5 stars got drafted. Add them to the 93 4 stars for a total of 118, while 126 of the less star blessed rounded out the draft. Accurately pegging players based on their HS performance is a tough gig. Some of the no-brainers will consume a good deal of the early rounds and should, but draft facts are draft facts. Hoping Nico and our other 4&5 stars are part of the real deal from the git-go and that our staff's evaluations on which lessor star guys are accurate. We won't know that for 3-5 years.

 

[LittleVol]

Anyone saying stars don't matter: did you watch the UGA game?

If you watched that game and you still say stars don't matter, you know nothing about football.

Stars DONT MATTER.

GOOD PLAYERS THAT ARE WELL COACHED do.

Have you seen 3-7 Texas A&M!? They're the 2nd most talented roster in the SEC according to recruiting rankings

 

[LittleVol]

I have watched every game. UGA had six sacks against us; we had none. They converted seven out of twelve third downs; we converted two out of fourteen. The difference in talent just between their DL and our DL decided the game.

Alabama has even higher rated talent acoras their D-line than UGA. So does Clemson.

But are they (UGA) better? Yup...

So there goes that argument right there.

 

[jeff1vol]

I worked on the strip in the 90s. So kill it with the back in my day routine. And sorry hard to take your evaluation of our RBs seriously when those same backs have ran all over the place against SEC competition. You must be on of those in the legion of the miserables that Majors talked about

Do we have a Travis Henry, Jamal Lewis, Charlie Garner, James Stewart, Travis Stephens on campus right now??? Hell... We don't have a Cedric Houston or Arian Foster either. "Ran all over the place?" Have they been productive? Yes! But there have been multiple times this season and last that our lack of speed and explosion at the position has cost us possible points. There were 2 situations just last week that an upper level SEC back would've taken it to the house. BOTH times our runners looked like he was in mud and was run down pretty effortlessly. An upgrade at RB is needed.

 

[lifeisdeep]

What I have seen is there are 250 to 300 4-5 stars which means if they were dead on nearly zero lessor stars would be drafted. But what I recall is 2-3 stars had more drafted than the 4-5 in the 250+ draft picks. IS THAT NOT TRUE. On the road with limited google access at the moment. Await your clarification.

See the post immediately below yours. You couldn't be more wrong.

 

[lifeisdeep]

How about hard numbers not statistical mambo jumbo. My notes indicate…..

93 4 stars drafted
126 3 stars drafted

Are you that dense? There are between 250 and 300 four-stars each year; 40% of those get drafted. There are over 2,000 three-stars each year; 5% of those get drafted.

If you can't understand that this proves the star rankings matter, greatly, you're not capable of intelligent discourse.

 

[lifeisdeep]

Stars DONT MATTER.

GOOD PLAYERS THAT ARE WELL COACHED do.

Have you seen 3-7 Texas A&M!? They're the 2nd most talented roster in the SEC according to recruiting rankings

This is as shoddy as argument can possibly be. Just because there's one coach that is squandering a lot of talent does not mean talent doesn't matter.

There are articles online, and on this forum, that break down national champions both for the BCS era and the playoff era. Not one of the teams that won it all in either of those eras wasn't consistently at or near the top in recruiting for multiple years prior to winning their championship(s). Not one.
And every time the committee throws a pity party and lets a lesser-talented team with an inferior strength of schedule into the playoff, like they did with Cincinnati last year, they get run out of the stadium by the four- and five-stars.

The level of ignorance in this thread is astounding.

 

[lifeisdeep]

Alabama has even higher rated talent acoras their D-line than UGA. So does Clemson.

But are they (UGA) better? Yup...

So there goes that argument right there.

List the star rankings for both DLs. I doubt seriously there's a substantive difference, if any at all.

Also, you do realize that when there's that much talent on a team, one less five-star makes a negligible difference? This is a really silly argument.

 

[T2P_Priceless]

The people that say stars don’t matter are always cherry picking a few examples even when the overwhelming amount of datas shows they do matter

 

[lifeisdeep]

The people that say stars don’t matter are always cherry picking a few examples even when the overwhelming amount of datas shows they do matter

It's basic common sense, and inarguable. The teams that get the most four- and five-stars are the teams that are winning championships. They're the only teams that are winning championships. And that's why it's not okay for us to not be recruiting any better now than we were when we were going 5-7 under Dooley.

 

[SweetasSoda]

The people that say stars don’t matter are always cherry picking a few examples even when the overwhelming amount of datas shows they do matter

We have been over this a hundred million times….

It matters as far as having a higher ranked class gives you better odds of players working out. But there are players that are not highly ranked that end up being stars…like Tillman. There are 5*s that fail miserably. The better the coaches are at identifying and developing talent the better your team will be. We have those coaches now!!!! Our success is going to lead to better and better talent. Nothing to worry about!!!

 

[T2P_Priceless]

We have been over this a hundred million times….

It matters as far as having a higher ranked class gives you better odds of players working out. But there are players that are not highly ranked that end up being stars…like Tillman. There are 5*s that fail miserably. The better the coaches are at identifying and developing talent the better your team will be. We have those coaches now!!!! Our success is going to lead to better and better talent. Nothing to worry about!!!

You’re right, it’s the total class. But here’s the issue. Every time we sign a 3 star people want to argue they’re the exception. Maybe they are but you can’t say that for every one of them.

 

[BruisedOrange]

... The level of ignorance in this thread is astounding.

I just saw an opportunity for me to weigh in.

Thank you.

 

[SweetasSoda]

You’re right, it’s the total class. But here’s the issue. Every time we sign a 3 star people want to argue they’re the exception. Maybe they are but you can’t say that for every one of them.

Thing is we won’t know until we know. People want to talk about what is promising about them. Others want to freak because they are only a 3*. Then we get into the argument about stars all over again.

 

[CAVPUT]

We have been over this a hundred million times….

It matters as far as having a higher ranked class gives you better odds of players working out. But there are players that are not highly ranked that end up being stars…like Tillman. There are 5*s that fail miserably. The better the coaches are at identifying and developing talent the better your team will be. We have those coaches now!!!! Our success is going to lead to better and better talent. Nothing to worry about!!!

Yep. A perfect example of this is TCU. Given their level of recruiting, there's just no way they should be where they are right now. They clearly can identify talent and develop it. I'm anxious to see if we really do have that kind of staff. Early signs are promising, but I'll be very interested to see how we handle this recruiting class and how we perform in the portal. Such a different world now that the NIL and portal are considerations.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Nope, just stating real facts about the distribution of draft picks by stars. I wonder how many people are impressed that 63% of the no-brainer 5 stars get drafted. Notice you did not provide the percentage of next in line to no-brainers 4* that got drafted, and what difference does it make what the percentage of the rest of the free world got drafted?

But to finish the factual statements 26 5 stars got drafted. Add them to the 93 4 stars for a total of 118, while 126 of the less star blessed rounded out the draft. Accurately pegging players based on their HS performance is a tough gig. Some of the no-brainers will consume a good deal of the early rounds and should, but draft facts are draft facts. Hoping Nico and our other 4&5 stars are part of the real deal from the git-go and that our staff's evaluations on which lessor star guys are accurate. We won't know that for 3-5 years.

Can’t use star rankings when talking about draft picks. That’s a flawed argument.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Are you that dense? There are between 250 and 300 four-stars each year; 40% of those get drafted. There are over 2,000 three-stars each year; 5% of those get drafted.

If you can't understand that this proves the star rankings matter, greatly, you're not capable of intelligent discourse.

So define the reliability of the stars when there up to 300 4 stars and only 93 get drafted while well over 100 NON 4-5 star do get drafted. Repeating..... more less than 4 star guys get drafted than the combination of 4 and 5 stars. Are you saying this in not the case?

No argument the 5 stars and the upper reaches of the 4 star group, those I call no-brainers that developed early and played where they could easily be evaluated, are high probability NFL talent, BUT BUT BUT more than 100 3 star and below guys develop through their college careers and get drafted while on average 150 to 200 4 stars do not. Lots of them do so at way down the NCAA food chain schools but are found by NFL scouts and play on Sundays. It is not like our staff is throwing darts at the 3 star pool to make their offers. They are trying to mine the service misses in that pool while avoiding over valued or bad fit 4 stars per their evaluations.

It is not the number of 4 stars AL and GA sign each year that give them the leg up, it is which 4 stars and the mix that they sign.

 

[CAVPUT]

Nope, just stating real facts about the distribution of draft picks by stars. I wonder how many people are impressed that 63% of the no-brainer 5 stars get drafted. Notice you did not provide the percentage of next in line to no-brainers 4* that got drafted, and what difference does it make what the percentage of the rest of the free world got drafted?

But to finish the factual statements 26 5 stars got drafted. Add them to the 93 4 stars for a total of 118, while 126 of the less star blessed rounded out the draft. Accurately pegging players based on their HS performance is a tough gig. Some of the no-brainers will consume a good deal of the early rounds and should, but draft facts are draft facts. Hoping Nico and our other 4&5 stars are part of the real deal from the git-go and that our staff's evaluations on which lessor star guys are accurate. We won't know that for 3-5 years.

Truly an inexact science, but that's why having a staff that can see and evaluate and develop is such a critical thing. I'll take the "eye test" over a recruiting service star rating any day. While I hope Khalifa Keith chooses us, if I had to pick between the two, I really like Fletcher's tape...what I've found on him....much better.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

We have been over this a hundred million times….

It matters as far as having a higher ranked class gives you better odds of players working out. But there are players that are not highly ranked that end up being stars…like Tillman. There are 5*s that fail miserably. The better the coaches are at identifying and developing talent the better your team will be. We have those coaches now!!!! Our success is going to lead to better and better talent. Nothing to worry about!!!

Why is it then that most on here get excited when we might land a huge 5*? Take Mauigoa. Why was everyone on here head over heels when it looked like we were going to land him? Same with guys like Carnell Tate. Why is it when Nico committed most of us were excited about all of the 5*s that were gonna follow him here?

I get it with the coaching evals. Seems like Heupel and this staffs evals are almost right in line with Saban, Smart, Day and Dabo. Coincidence? I think not. The fact is all these big time coaches want the same players. Almost any coach worth their salt is gonna want as many 5* as possible. Why? Because they know that those are the players you need.

 

[SSVol]

You’re right, it’s the total class. But here’s the issue. Every time we sign a 3 star people want to argue they’re the exception. Maybe they are but you can’t say that for every one of them.

When Heupel ceases to put a quality team on the field, and it is clear that he cannot because he recruits poorly, then let's all worry. In the meantime, can we not just enjoy where we are and trust that Heupel knows how to build a quality team?

 

[Vol8188]

Stars DONT MATTER.

GOOD PLAYERS THAT ARE WELL COACHED do.

Have you seen 3-7 Texas A&M!? They're the 2nd most talented roster in the SEC according to recruiting rankings

That's the exception, not the rule.