“If I went into a meeting and said, ‘Hey, this guy is five stars,’ I’d be fired.”

If even Tom Lemming says something like this,

“Take everything with a grain of salt and just enjoy it,’’ Lemming said. “It’s not an exact science.”

… maybe we should all take a deep breath as we head to signing day.

I would hope that coaches aren’t slavish devotees to the recruiting services, even as some fans are.  But let’s not act as if the recruiting rankings are totally without meaning.  Note that even in this Jon Solomon piece that tries to diminish the accuracy of ranking systems, he still winds up noting that,

Nine of the last 13 teams to finish No. 1 in Rivals.com’s rankings played for the national title within three years; seven went on to win the championship. The only exceptions, teams that did not go on to play for the title within three years of a No. 1 ranking, were USC in 2006 and 2010.

Alabama remains within a three-year window from its No. 1 recruiting rankings of 2013 and 2014. The Crimson Tide did reach the four-team College Football Playoff this past season and in the old BCS world would have played for the national title.

From 2011-14, Alabama, Ohio State and Florida State had the three best recruiting classes, according to Rivals. These are the teams that made the CFP last year: Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State and Oregon (No. 17 Rivals class). OSU just won the national title thanks to significant help from its second-ranked class of 2013.

Advertisement

Friday morning buffet

There’s always something tasty in the world of college football.

• Paul Myerberg notes that there may be one weekend that proves to be the exception to the adage that you don’t plan a wedding in the South on a fall weekend:  “… Nov. 17, when the [SEC] will feature more than twice as many games against F.C.S. competition, seven, as it does actual conference games, three.”
• For those who thought Tommy Tuberville would be a step up from Mike Leach in the recruiting department, it turns out that Texas Tech brought in seven JUCO early enrollees with its most recent class.
• Something to keep an eye on, playoff fans:  pay options begin to creep back into viewing March Madness.
• And Texas asks for patience with the Longhorn Network.
• Sally Jenkins’ Captain Queeg analogy for Randy Edsall is pretty awesome.  (Although I wish she could have worked the strawberries in there, somehow.)
• Will Dorial Green-Beckham be a bigger challenge for Georgia now?
• This comes as absolutely no surprise to me:  “When he secured a coveted spot on an all-star game roster reportedly assembled by “the (2006) U.S. Army All-American Bowl Selection Team made up of Tom Lemming of CSTV and representatives of Scout.com“, Adam James had no Division I scholarship offers and 14 receptions in 10 games as a tight end playing in the state’s second-lowest (2A) Texas high school football classification.”

Lemming and Weis, together again

This recruiting blurb is so chock full of teh awesome that I hardly know where to begin.

But lemme try, anyway:  Charlie Weis, “known mostly for his recruiting prowess”, has picked up his first commitment at Kansas, a seventy-inch tall, 160-pound receiver whose dad coached for Weis at Notre Dame and whose high school coach is joining Weis’ Jayhawk staff.  Sounds like Charlie really had to break a sweat to sway this kid to switch his commitment from… Northern Illinois.

That’s not the best part, though.  Here’s the cherry on top of the sundae.

“He runs tremendous routes, shows terrific hands and blazing speed,” analyst Tom Lemming said of Parmalee. “In fact, coaches at Bishop Miege said he has the best hands and ran the best routes they’ve ever seen at the high school level.”

Just like old times!  Get a room, you two.

“We don’t sell a scouting service.”

Two classic reactions to the NCAA’s crackdown, such as it is, on recruiting services.

First, there’s Scout’s Scott Kennedy’s righteous indignation:

“This more of the NCAA trying to justify more of their bloated overpaid existence by trying to regulate the stoplight traffic regulations in the middle of a drug war,” Kennedy said. “Are they seriously going to check the coaches’ wives credit cards to see if their wives subscribe? It’s absolutely ludicrous.”

Then you’ve got Tom Lemming’s moral support, tinged with self-interest:

“I think they’re trying to make sure isn’t like basketball, to do something before it gets out of hand,” Lemming said. “I think it’s good that the NCAA does stuff. I think it should do even more, as long as it doesn’t affect me.”

In both cases, it’s about what you’d expect.

The most disturbing thing you’ll read today about Georgia’s recruiting.

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting a bullish Tom Lemming:

“If they get those guys they will finish somewhere like third, fourth or fifth, maybe higher,” said Lemming, who has Drew and Rome No. 1 at their respective positions and Crowell number four. “Alabama, who is already No. 1, is going to be tough to beat, especially if they end up getting Jadeveon Clowney. Texas already has a great class, even though they recently lost their best player to Auburn. Florida State and LSU have good classes. Then there’s USC, who was supposed to be limited with 15 scholarships but is loading up because of their NCAA appeal. But Georgia’s going to be in that mix.”

The Bulldogs’ class currently ranks No. 8 by Scout.com, No. 9 by Rivals and 11 by ESPNU/Scouts Inc.

“A lot of it has to do with Mark Richt,” Lemming said. “He probably doesn’t get enough credit for being a great recruiter. And it’s Georgia itself. It’s the state school. I’ve been driving through there for 32 years and kids grow up wanting to be Bulldogs, no matter what the situation is.”

Back from the week that was…

and it sure was nice doing nothing.

Well, that’s not entirely accurate, as I did a lot of reading.  And there were a few football related items that caught my eye during the week.

Start with this Q&A from Bruce Feldman’s chat:

Pat (Chicago)

Whenever I watch the NFL I see names from smaller colleges making it big. That seems to me that it’s player development versus star rankings. What’s your take? What do college coaches really think of all the recruiting gurus?

Bruce

(4:22 PM)

Different players develop at different stages. Plus, lots of kids who get annointed as 5-star guys get their heads messed up and egos get out of whack, while the unheralded guys get hungrier. Most coaches don’t put much stock in the evaluations. They sometimes use the lists to back-check who they might also need to get game film on. They also like the sites and evaluations because it often ties into contract bonuses if their team rankings hit a certain slot. [Emphasis added.]

I confess that it never dawned on me that there are athletic directors out there dumb enough to base a portion of a coach’s compensation on how a recruiting site ranks his class.  But after thinking about it, I’m almost willing to bet that such a clause was in Junior’s contract at UT.  Anybody know for sure?

While we’re on the subject of head coaches and Tennessee, Derek Dooley is turning out to be a little on the strange side.  Not because he refused to give Bryce Brown a release – it’s pretty obvious at this point that Dooley is sending a message to his players that he’s not going to make it easy to leave the program – but because of this:

…  Arthur Brown said reports that Bryce has not met with Dooley recently are inaccurate.”Bryce met with Coach Dooley on Saturday for about 30 minutes and Dooley asked him not to tell anyone they talked,” Arthur Brown said. “I’m really not sure why.”

Dooley acknowleged he met with Brown on Saturday but said he was not asked for a release.

Arthur Brown also said his son, one of the nation’s top recruits entering last season, did not ask Dooley for a release at that meeting. This week Dooley said that the reason Bryce has not been released is because he “has not come to me, looked me in the eye and said, ‘I want a release.'”

Arthur Brown said that’s because he has repeatedly told Dooley since April that he has wanted his son released from his scholarship.

“I’ve tried to cooperate with Coach Dooley’s request not to divulge information in the media,” Arthur Brown said. “But I have told Coach Dooley since April, every time we’ve talked, that we want Bryce taken out of Tennessee. This is our family decision.”

Bryce Brown has been criticized for not meeting with Dooley again before leaving Knoxville. Arthur Brown said he purchased an airline ticket for Bryce to return to Knoxville this Thursday but that Dooley texted, “No need to come back out here.”

Dooley said that was accurate.

That some weird stuff there, particularly because, as Matt Hinton notes, Dooley and the UT brass allowed the media to paint a very different picture of Brown’s departure from the program.  And I can’t really come up with a good reason for it.  Is there something about putting on that orange jacket that makes Tennessee head coaches act strangely?  Or is it something about being the son of a famous coach?

Moving on, I hate to pick on Team Speed Kills, because the guys there did an exemplary job previewing Georgia last week, but after reading this comment tossed out almost as an aside in the Arkansas preview – “It won’t be difficult to keep Georgia out of the end zone early in the season” – I have to ask:  how much is Aaron Murray going to suck this season?  Because other than Murray, this is the offense that gutted Arkansas’ defense last season to the tune of 52 points and 530 yards, despite being minus-2 in turnover margin.  Forget about Joe Cox’ career day; it was also Richard Samuel’s career day.  It was the only SEC game in which a Georgia running back gained over 100 yards rushing.  Samuel lost his job and switched to defense in the offseason, remember.  But he still managed to light up the Hogs.

So, despite deploying a better set of running backs, a deeper receiving corps (thanks to the development at the tight end position) and a line that got itself sorted out over the last quarter of the ’09 season, not to mention playing the game in Athens, the Dawgs are going to struggle to score against the Arkansas defense because of the newbie QB.  It seems to me that Murray is going to have to be monumentally untalented, or play a Coxian game (think Florida or Kentucky) for Arkansas to shut down Georgia’s offense.  I’m not saying that can’t happen, but I sure don’t see why it’s a given.

You’ve all probably read Chris Low’s interview with Todd Grantham.  Just like every other time he’s been invited to comment, it’s entertaining, but I continue to be struck by how confident he sounds in his approach to running a defense.  Let’s hope that translates over to his players.

Make sure you read the post at Shakin the Southland about Clemson’s worst game of the oughts:  Georgia 2003.  It’s an enjoyable read if you’re the enemy, although I think he understates the heat, if anything (the idiots running the concessions ran out of ice midway through the first half).  He also failed to mention Clemson’s center throwing up during play, which at the time I took as a metaphor for the Tigers’ playcalling.

Finally, some things never, ever change.

Glad to be back.  By the way, any barbeque aficionados who find yourselves in northeast Georgia on a weekend should check out Tomlin’s BBQ on Highway 441 about halfway between Clayton and Dillard.  You won’t be sorry.

Monday morning buffet

Grab that plate and go:

• Mike Hamilton’s management genius continues to shine:  ” … in fiscal 2008-09 UT’s athletics department reported a loss of nearly $3.2 million. The loss was the first for UT’s athletic program since 2005, school officials said.”
• Brian Cook has some thoughts on the (relative) rash of minority head coach hires this offseason.  My feeling is that the fact that we’re not seeing anyone parading around asking for praise for that is the best sign of all.
• This may be the first semi-witty post I’ve ever read on Bleacher Report.
• Of course, with Coach O, truth can be more humorous than fiction.
• Jakar Hamilton does not lack for self-confidence.
• Tom Lemming tells us he’s coming around to the idea that kids commit to coaches, not programs.
• Al Groh scores his first recruit for Georgia Tech.  Recruit describes his commitment as a “business decision”.  Enjoy the CFA Bowl, kid.

Hookin’ up

When you stop to think about it, this was practically inevitable.

“I had a chance to visit Lane Kiffin’s staff recently, and that group is unbelievable,” Lemming said of the Vols’ first-year head coach. “It’s a relentless group, and they’ve raised the bar in terms of what other SEC schools are doing with throwing money at top recruiters.”

Tom Lemming and Junior.  Ugh.  I get the shivers just thinking about it.

Coaches’ corner

They come, they go…

• Speaking of the latter, be still my heart:  Tuberville and Fulmer, fresh off of being canned, will offer their best second guessing over every working coach’s recruiting class.  Fulmer’s appearance should be the most entertaining, only because CBS is teaming him up with Tom Lemming.  It’ll be interesting to see how Fulmer does with Lemming’s head in his lap.
• Is there a coach who’s gotten more mileage out of irritating his peers (using the term loosely) in a short period of time than Lane Kiffin?  I’ve got to admit it’s a great sales job – nobody’s talking about that 5-15 record as a head coach, that’s for sure.
• On the other hand, I would assume that the typical Vol fan would see this as a complete vindication for the hire, so Kiffin’s got that going for him.

Two peas in a pod

Lately, I haven’t had much to say about every Notre Dame fan’s favorite recruiting guru, but I did come across a classic “pot meet kettle” comment in this post-Signing Day chat transcript:

Los Angeles, CA: Notre Dame had the Scout and Rival No. 1 rated team for most of the 2008 recruiting period, but ended up with the No. 9 rated team on ESPN. Do Scout, Rival and ESPN use different player rating systems and can there be that much difference among them? Which is better?

Tom Lemming: ESPN has a different set of rankings. A lot of it is based on favoring players that play in their All-Star Game…

Gosh, it’s not like Lemming wouldn’t know anything about that.

I guess that’s what you’d call professional jealousy – depending on your definition of the word “professional”.