Couldn't disagree more
A lot of respect for you T4S, but this is one of the few times I'll disagree.
that had Benardrick McKinney rated a two star for the longest time, Chris Jones as a three star, and had Templeton Hardy a four star? Or at least his network did, and if he knew better then he should have changed it.
Not that I'm a Scout apologist, but 247 does update their rankings faster than Scout. Rosebowl noted that CJ was ranked too low. Actually, we all knew CJ was better than his summer ranking and I'm glad the lid was kept on until the Under-Armour game. 247 didn't give CJ real attention until well into December. We both know that Rosebowl isn't the only person responsible for ranking recruits on Scout.
This quote will do for McKinney: McKinney, who is not ranked at his position in any of the major recruiting services and also plays quarterback for Rosa Fort High School, is the 16th commitment in the 2011 recruiting class
What did you expect them to rank Hardy? He played in the Under-Armour game.
I trust Dan more than Rosebowl when it comes to talent evaluation any and every day, and for him to suggest that we need to "set our sites higher"- when he can't evaluate what we've got as accurately as our coaches is laughable at best.
Let's not act like *** recruits "accurately". He has done well finding some jewels, but lets not act like he's passed over better talent to take these lower-ranked players. He's just done a better job at preparing them to play.
By the way, it's "set our sights higher".
Also for him to suggest that we recruit players knowing that they won't help us beat Alabama is equally as absurd as well. Does he think we are sand bagging it or something?
I don't know the context but this could go many different directions. One possibility is if our goal is to beat the Bama scheme, we can't be recruiting just to stop the run-n-gun offenses. "Beat Bama" is the thesis statement. Any other information puts you off track. He could have easily said something abstract like winning an SEC or national championship. Bama makes it personal. Another possibility is that he is saying not to rely on the recruiting rankings. Recruit the best fit for your scheme, not the (best) available athlete.
And I may be in the minority, but as far as our current recruiting class there isn't one WTF guy in it.
When you sign primarily 2-3 star athletes, is there ever a WTF in the crowd? We've just learned to trust the process. Do you see one "this is the next WT17 CJ/BM/JBanks/DSlay/CoxorCox" in this class?
The point is that both the coaches and players have to think that we can compete with Bama on and off the field. If we do that, it will start to show up in both areas. In order to win, we first have to start closing the gap.