Recruiting rankings are the bee's knees

I RECOGNIZE THIS POST WAS UP AT 10AM THIS MORNING.  WHOOPS, MEANT TO BE 5PM.  When you think about the history of college athletics, there are certain inventions that have revolutionized the game and how us fans follow it.  Here would be my top 1: 1) Recruiting rankings: The creation of sites like scout.com, rivals.com, and the like has made fanhood take on a whole new level of craziness.  We now know which players are supposed to be great (5-star) and which players to not expect much from (2-star).  And despite the fact that MANY times these rankings are about as accurate as a weatherman, it still gives us fans a better HOPE of what to look for in the future.  So, as I often like to do, I browsed the scout.com football recruiting database to not only look at who the Cats have coming in, but compare it to what they have brought home in the past.  Class of 2010 (24 recruits): Zero 5-star, One 4-star, Eleven 3-star, Eleven 2-star, One 1-star Class of 2009 (30 recruits): Zero 5-star, Four 4-star, Fifteen 3-star, Eleven 2-star, Zero 1-star  Class of 2008 (20 recruits): Zero 5-star, Two 4-star, Seven 3-star, Eleven 2-star, Zero 1-star Class of 2007 (26 recruits): Zero 5-star, Zero 4-star, Eight 3-star, Seventeen 2-star, One 1-star Class of 2006 (30 recruits): One 5-star, Two 4-star, Ten 3-star, Seventeen 2-star, Zero 1-star Class of 2005 (26 recruits): Zero 5-star, Zero 4-star, Four 3-star, Twenty two 2-star, Zero 1-star Combined (156 recruits): One 5-star, Nine 4-star, Fifty five 3-star, Eight seven 2-star, Two 1-star Now, the question I have is, just how accurate are these rankings?  When you look at this year's team, and it can be argued this was Brooks best team, how many of the major players were accuratley ranked coming into UK?  Take a look: RECRUITING RANKINGS OF THE STARTERS FOR THE 2009 UK FOOTBALL TEAM (24 total) 5-STARS (1): Micah Johnson 4-STARS (3): Morgan Newton, Winston Guy, Dequin Evans 3-STARS (4): Chris Matthews, Stuart Hines, Paul Warford, Corey Peters 2-STARS (14): Randall Cobb, Justin Jeffries, Jorge Gonzalez, Christian Johnson, Zipp Duncan, Ross Bogue, Taylor Wyndham, Trevard Lindley, Randall Burden, Calvin Harrison, Sam Maxwell, Lones Seiber, Ricky Lumpkin, Ryan Tydlacka NO RANKING (2): Derrick Locke, John Conner So, a team comprised of mostly 2-star players had a legit shot at 2nd place in the SEC East.  Keep that in mind when you look at the recruiting rankings, and the thought creeps in your mind that UK is not bringing in top talent.  Southern Cal has brought in a total of 75 four or five star recruits since 2005.  In that same time, UK has brought in a total of 9.  This season, USC won 8 games, UK won 7 games.