re: Mix of Blue Chips- SCrooster

I think that most of these 5 star players aren't just hype. They have physcial attributes/measurables that are usually elite for their age/class and then when you watch them on film and see their stat sheet, they have great highlight reels and have the fundamentals usually down pat.

I think when you're trying to rank and place value on the guys ranked i.e 115 or 165, it becomes really subjective. Outside of that elite 5 star level, there are hundred if not thousands of kids in the US that could develop into high caliber/NFL talent each year. Those kids just need the exposure, training and commitment to go after that goal, and the path usually includes playing for a college team.

I think the most important attribute for any of these 5 star or Blue Chip guys is motor, it's all about how hard they want to go every play or in practice or the weight room, etc....

USC has done a great job of finding these Blue Chip guys who may have not been 5 Star Players, and we've talked about them here an on other boards a lot. Jasper Brinkley, Eric Norwood, Captain Munnerlyn, Connor Shaw, etc....they are the guys that weren't highly ranked, but dominated the college game and gave immense effort every practice/every play. I still think that Norwood single handedly took away any hope Andre Woodson had of the Heisman that year.

I like the point earlier in this thread too about Carrol and So Cal in the mid' 00's. They were super-stacked at every position, and they were bleeding 4 & 5 star transfers. That's a great problem for a program to have, I don't think it's a bad problem for a program. What's the difference b/w a 5 or a 3 star transferring really?

Carrol did it, he "won" some titles (but then had to give 'em back, ) Saban does it, he won 3 titles. I think the magic number for 5 star or Blue Chip players is 85. Honestly, if anyone of us could pick 20 recruits a year for 4 years and they would go to our school, I bet the vast majority would be 5 star players (with some 4's thrown in based on position needs.)

HOWEVER, while having a bunch of 5 Star guys sounds great and history shows, that it does help with hardware, it can also be noted that a team can be successful without them. Look at you mid 00's Boise St story, Kansas St in the late 90's - early 00's (bunch of JUCO's on KSU), and what SC is doing now. We haven't had a Top 10 ranked class since '07, yet for the past 3 years after that class "left" we've been ranked in the Final AP in the Top 10. They had that Rivals-Redo Class ranking for the 2010 classes this past year and our 2010 class was re-ranked #2 in the country. (One of y'all posted the link to that article on here a few weeks ago.)