Five Star Follies: Part III

This is the third article in the on-going series of features evaluating the Rivals.com five-star recruits over the last five years...

The college football recruiting recruiting class of 2008 may go down as one of the best in recent time.

Unless of course you are a Miami Hurricanes fan.

Many of the National experts determined that in 2008 the University of Miami was to have landed the #1 recruiting class. But in the end it was simply not to be for various reasons and issues.

That was due to players like five-star DL Marcus Forston (seen above with OcalaCane and his wife) who's career was plagued by injury and five-star LB Aurthur Brown (seen below with Cat5 Cane) who could never break into the starting lineup and would later transfer to Kansas State.

What had looked so promising and good coming in to Coral Gables on National Signing Day in 2008 did not appear as successful or productive coming out on 2011. So goes the the game of love and war known as college football recruiting.

According to Rivals.com there were 30 five star players in the class of 2008. At least 10 of them would go on to be major impact players. Two of them were Hurricanes (DT Forston, LB Brown).

Yet both five star recruits for UM in 2008 were soon to be surpassed by another lesser-known and lower ranked player named Sean Spence (seen below with Aldarius Johnson, Brandon Harris and Blake Ayles).

Here are the 2008 five star impact players by rank, school and performance:

Rivals Class of 2008 Five Star Player Quick Facts:

• Total Players: 30
• Number of Impact players: 10
• Percentage of Impact Players: 30%
• Number of Players Who Transferred: 5
• Number of Injured Players: 5

The 10 impact players and their rankings from the 2008 class were:

• (1) QB; Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State
• (2) DE DeQuan Bowers, Clemson
• (4) WR Julio Jones, Alabama
• (5) CB Patrick Peterson, LSU
• (9) WR A.J Green, Georgia
• (11) OL Matt Kalil, USC
• (14) QB Blaine Gabbert, Missouri
• (15) OL Tyron Smith, USC
• (26) WR Jonathan Baldwin, Pitt
• (27) WR Michael Floyd, ND

The 5 players who transferred from their original LOI to another school:

• (6) RB Darrell Scott (from Colorado to USF)
• (19) RB Jermie Calhoun (from Oklahoma to FCS school Angelo State)
• (23) LB Authur Brown (From Miami to Kansas State)
• (25) QB Dayne Christ (Notre Dame to Kansas)
• (28) ATH Burton Scott (Alabama to South Alabama)

The 5 players who were impacted by major injuries:

• DT Marcus Forston, Miami
• OL Matt Patchan, Florida
• WR Deandre Brown, Southern Miss
• ATH Richard Samuel, Georgia
• OL Tyler Love, Alabama

In summary the 2008 class was above average in terms of impact players (10). The class was also average in the number of transfers (5) and in players who were impacted by major injury (5).

Comments

[j.w.]

Very interesting, Ohio. Soup, the $$ figures per round should be different with the new CBA, and should be lower per round. In the NBA when they did something similar it had a counter-intuitive effect- more people left early because they wanted to get the initial contact signed, get past it, then sign the big contract. I thought it would encourage kids to stay in school since they wouldn't be signing the mega-contacts.

[Texascane]

...and that only 38% of all five star recruits are drafted at all...three or four years later...

[Ohio_Cane]

Golden transcript from Dan Sileo show:

http://sportsradiointerviews.com/2012/01/24/al-golden-joe-paterno-death-penn-state/

[SOUP]

Better get that degree boys...

Posted by: Texascane | January 24, 2012 at 01:08 PM

There IT is right there.

[Ohio_Cane]

Canes Baseball ranked #18 by Baseball America heading into the season.

[UMike]

Just a word of advice...NEVER do a website for your wife's business!!! lol

[herbieibis]

It just goes to show, that if you play in a gimmick offense, most times it will affect your draft status. Yes in a spread, if you are a WR, you can make a name for yourself but being a running back or even a QB, you generally struggle with consistency once you go pro. The same could be said if you are a cb in the big 12, with all the opportunities you have to defend the pass, you could make a name for yourself. The USC's & the other teams that run a pro-style offense, prepare you better for the pro game. In our case, even though we have been a pipeline to the pros for the last 25 or so years, we had stopped developing our talent like we used to. We stopped recuiting pro-style QB's, which in my opinion has crippled our ability to remain relevent. We stopped developing our DT's, which in turn has crippled our run & pass defense. We also stopped developing marquee LB's. We've had depth problems at certain positions the last 5 or 6 years and that has hurt our ability to reshirt kids that need to get bigger & stronger. Golden is trying to change this & will but it will take a couple more years of recruitng and getting the depth we need at CB, DT & LB, to get us up to par. We also need to get a few more quality players that are difference makers. In some ways stars do matter. In general the teams that are at the top of the heap, have remained there because of the quality of recruits they are bringing in. The flip side of not bringing in a bunch of 4 & 5 star players is Va, Tech. They're coaching staff, for the most part, has been together over 15 years and they develop talent. Teams rise & fall, they all go through that at one point in time or another, but coaching is the key. I doubt Ala. would be where they are today, if they hadn't hired Saban. Winning breeds excitement and makes it a little easier to recruit the big dogs. You also have to have quality assistants who can recruit.
Shannon & Dopey, had some talent but they just got lazy and the end result is they both are gone and Golden has to face the reprocutions of their lameness, not to mention impending sanctions. I like this class, I'm not in love with it but if he continues the course he will develop what we have and getting us back to 8 or 9 wins regularly for a couple years straight, will go a long way on bring Saint Bernards back to play for us instead of Bassett Hounds.

[calGary Cane]

I read somewhere 9 EE's is the max that can count towards last years class. Then anyone more that you have count toward the current yr's class.

Posted by: Texcane | January 24, 2012 at 12:03 PM

Just read the NCAA bylaws...15.5.6.3...

Seems to indicate that 25 is the magic number...

In particular 15.5.6.3.2 Recruited Student-Athelete Entering After Fall term, Aided in First Year seems to be the section pertaining to EEs.

"shall be an initial counter for either the current academic year (if the institution's annual limit has not been reached) or the next academic year".

[Hassan]

Is this thing working?

[Ohio_Cane]

Can someone tell me why Tyriq McCord committed to UM on Jan 7th, is taking an OV to USC on Jan 27th, but is announcing his college choice on Jan 26th?

Am I missing something?

[Texcane]

Mini vacation???

[UMike]

Ohio...prolly for some attention..a free trip..cant really blame a kid for that..from all his twitter stuff he seems pretty solid to Miami

[SOUP]

Hassan...I was having problems with Typepad also. had to close my browser and restart my computer to get it to work again.

[Ohio_Cane]

I understand it's a trip out West, and he should take that visit. I'm just curious as to why he's announcing twice, and why wouldn't he wait till after the USC visit to announce? Seems odd.

[UMike]

I agree its odd, normally only uncommitted players have an announcement date lol

[herbieibis]

Same could be said for Darius Hamliton. He has Florida & Rutgers as his final 2 then why visit Miami? Why, it's a mini vacation on our dime. I mean what kid wouldn't want to come down here and visit?

[SOUP]

TEST: So only 4 out of 10 five star recruits wind up being drafted and on average they go in the third round?

[Texascane]

TEST: So only 4 out of 10 five star recruits wind up being drafted and on average they go in the third round?

Posted by: SOUP | January 24, 2012 at 02:54 PM

Amazing...huh?

[Ohio_Cane]

Same could be said for Darius Hamliton. He has Florida & Rutgers as his final 2 then why visit Miami? Why, it's a mini vacation on our dime. I mean what kid wouldn't want to come down here and visit?

Posted by: herbieibis | January 24, 2012 at 02:51 PM
-------------------------------------

I understand that. I guess what I'm trying to say is why have 2 different announcements? One at the Army game, then one on TV?

[herbieibis]

Ohio,
It's look at me time & this one makes it official.

[SOUP]

Texas...yes, it is amazing! Thanks for finding that and sharing the info here on the blog.

If everyone here scoured all 6 of the Internets (LOL) and found just ONE nugget of info like that per day for the blog then that would REALLY be great.

I'm jus sayin...

[Ohio_Cane]

Duke Johnson said he'd give up #3 to Tracy Howard if he comes to Miami.

[Hassan]

I hate typepad lol it never works no matter what i do

[Canesteeler]

Great article!

[LB]

It does seem a little odd about McCord, free trip or not. I'll bet Chickillo is consistently in his ear.

The more I hear about Duke, the more I love. Unselfish. A really nice guy. Family-oriented. Diehard.

[LB]

Tracy Howard would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath. UM has had one really good corner since Jennings graduated in 2005 (Harris). It would be nice to get another.

[Texascane]

Posted by: SOUP | January 24, 2012 at 03:19 PM

Thanks...here's one more as of last Sunday...in case you were wondering...notice...no SEC teams...

"There are a combined 11 former Hurricanes playing for New England, Baltimore, San Francisco and the New York Giants, followed by five colleges represented by seven players each: Ohio State, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Texas." CBS Sports

[Texascane]

LB...problem is that evidently we had some pretty good corners (NFL starter quality)...we just didn't know it...Shields and DVD...

[CGNC]

Texascane - nice touch from the lonestar state with all the stars - LOL

[herbieibis]

LB,

Think how long it's been since we had a great D-lineman (Wilfork) & LB (Vilma & Williams. It's been along time for a lot of things!

[Sean Spence is a Beast!!!]

New photo is up with Spence, AJ#4, BH#1 and Blake Ayles from the UAAA game in 2008.

Posted by: SOUP | January 24, 2012 at 10:18 AM

So blake has always liked Miami, you can never under estimate the power of playing close to home, USC was the hometown team.

This is why i'm confident Tyriq is staying put and Howard will sign with us in the end.

[j.w.]

LB,

Think how long it's been since we had a great D-lineman (Wilfork) & LB (Vilma & Williams. It's been along time for a lot of things!

Posted by: herbieibis
You answered your own question, herbie. Unless you consider Bailey and Spence to both have been great last year.

[Sean Spence is a Beast!!!]

LB,

Think how long it's been since we had a great D-lineman (Wilfork) & LB (Vilma & Williams. It's been along time for a lot of things!

Posted by: herbieibis | January 24, 2012 at 04:59 PM

Spence is a great LB, he just happened to be in a bad canes team. lol

[Sean Spence is a Beast!!!]

Duke giving up no.3 is very selfless, i wish this kid all the success in life and i'm not just talking about football.

[herbieibis]

Well J.W. Bailey didn't play for us this year & Spence, the judgement will be determined later on. I'm talking A-A quality and Spence did play close to that.
If we don't land Howard or any of the the other big dogs left, who will we get with those 2 or 3 ships we have left?

[CoCane]

Good question Herbie

[j.w.]

Understand that herbie, that's why I said Last Year (should have made it more clear I was talking about 2010). FWIW, I didn't think either of them were great last year, I would say Spence was this year.

[loucane]

Everyone that has facebook write something on Tracy Howards wall! Canes are murdering his wall! Let's keep it going!

[CoCane]

As long as they are athletic & have a relentless work ethic, I don't give a f**k if they're a 5* or 1*. Bring'em to the "U"...

[Brevardcane]

Manny has a new article up on Kirby

[Brevardcane]

^He asked his coach his height and weight and said Kirby is more 6-2 220

[herbieibis]

I just got to thinking about next year but aside from Chick, who in the hell can we rely up front to stop anybody. That's a scary thought. I know Porter, Robinson, Pierre & Grimble plus King. You have 2 coming off injury, who haven't played a whole lot (Porter & Robinson) 2 former DE's (Pierre & Grimble) who played some as true freshmen & King, who I don't think played at all. Ricardo Williams will be a redshirt freshman. Our LB's better be good.

[LB]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I like Porter. See the difference he made when returning from injury.

[CoCane]

Darius Smith looked good last year. I think he'll start at DT along with Porter...

[SOUP]

Herbie...write it down and repeat after me:

Worry is like a rocking chair.

It keeps U busy, but gets U nowhere.

[Ohio_Cane]

UM sent 3 coaches to Miramar today, including Golden, to talk to Malcolm Lewis and Tracy Howard

[LB]

Nice.

[Six]

Why is anyone sweating what McCord is doing

Also, why is anyone really sweating what these 17 or 18 year old kids are doing

They're going to do what they do

Don't worry about a lot of them, believe me. Esp. the kids from Tampa Bay area

[Ohio_Cane]

I, for one, am not sweating or worrying what they're doing. Just thought it was odd and don't remember anyone having 2 separate live announcements.

[mi@mic@ne]

I was hoping by now to hear they had to order extra weights because the kids were maxing in their lifts ... lol