Mizzou Football Signings

Forget About The Stars In Recruiting
Commentary Exclusive to Mizzou OSR
by Todd Donoho
Columbia, MO. - By all accounts, it looks like Mizzou got a great football recruiting class.  Recruiting services, like Rivals, rate Mizzou's class in the top 25.  They base that ranking on individual player ratings.  Players get star ratings.  A 5-star player is the highest rated player.  The next best is a 4-star player and on down the list.

The first thing you need to know about recruiting is that you really should forget about the stars.  The star system is great for fans to discuss players and measure recruiting classes against other schools, but it has very little to do with winning football games.

For instance, in most years Notre Dame is in the top five in recruiting classes.  They are loaded with 5-and-4-star recruits.  The Irish won three games last season.

Chase Daniel was rated a 3-star quarterback, meaning he was projected by the rating services to be an average college quarterback.  He just this year finished fourth in the Heisman balloting and led his team to 12 wins.

Tiger wide receiver Danario Alexander was rated 2-stars.  Tiger linebacker Sean Witherspoon was rated 2-stars.  With those ratings they should be relegated to the practice squad.  Instead, they starred on Saturday afternoons for Mizzou.

The player ratings are largely based on how well the players perform at various camps.  They are judged on their times in the 40-yard dash, the shuttle run, bench press reps, standing long jump, height (that's why Chase Daniel was only a 3-star), weight, and a battery of drills depending on their position.  The players are also judged on how well they played in their high school games.  In many cases, the players are rated on how well they played during their junior seasons in high school.  Obviously, some players don't even play as juniors, and don't get invited to camps, and don't make recruiting lists.  We call them sleepers.  They slip through the cracks of the recruiting services, and sometimes the coaches.  Those players don't have many stars after their names, but some of them make great college football players.

The other thing I have come to realize from covering recruiting for a number of years is that certain schools get preferential treatment when it comes to higher rated players.  For instance, if Texas and Missouri are recruiting the same player, if the player goes to Texas the player will be listed as a 4-star player.  If that same player goes to Mizzou, he will be listed as a 3-star player.  After all, Texas is Texas, and the Longhorns are so good they don't take 3-star players.  If Texas takes you, you must be at least a 4-star player.  The same holds true for the other traditional powers like Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, USC, Georgia, Alabama, etc.  This helps explain the inflated rankings of teams like Notre Dame, Nebraska and Alabama in relation to their on-field records.

Where you play your high school football will also affect your player ranking.  From my experience, high school players from states that are perceived to be traditional high school hotbeds, get better rankings.  Those states include Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and California.  A 3-star player from Missouri is a 4-star player in Texas.  There is no objective research on this (since ratings are subjective anyway), but this is what I have observed through the years.

So, how do you rate Missouri's recruiting class?  Well, I think the coaches basically got the players they wanted.  Sure, there are some players the Mizzou coaches wanted that went to other schools, but each player they gave a scholarship to is a player they wanted.  They are players the coaches feel can play in the Missouri system.  They got players at positions where the Tigers need depth, most noticeably the defensive line.

The Tigers are also following a trend of recruiting big wide receivers and pass catching tight ends.  Tight end Andrew Jones (who made a huge hit on special teams in the U.S. Army High School All-Star Game) from Smithville, Mo., stands out.  So does Wes Kemp from DeSmet High School in St. Louis.  Kemp is a 6-4, 225-pound wide receiver who could also play the slot receiver/tight end position in the Tiger offense.

Mizzou is beefing up its offensive line with Dan Hoch, a 6-7, 315- pounder from Iowa.  Let's face it, size on the offensive line is an ingredient of all successful football teams.

And perhaps, the biggest name in the Tiger recruiting class is quarterback Blaine Gabbert from Parkway West High School.  At the U.S. Army High School All-Star Game, Gabbert was rated the quarterback with the strongest arm and second most accurate passer.  In that all-star game he lofted a beautiful fade pass for a touchdown that he threw from his back foot from one side of the field to the other. 

But, if Gabbert is the quarterback that eventually succeeds Chase Daniel, it won't be because of the number of stars before his name.

Tomorrow, I'll have more about the Tigers' 2008 football recruiting class.