re: Taylor Hamm & Billy Liucci make SWEET LOVE in 2019 + Football Recruiting Thread

What a solid class.

I’m still soaking it in


And I think they have a few angles that could get the final number to 26 if the right players wanted in

quote:

---

the best part about it is how ho hum our class is being percieved nationally. Shows that the national media accepts a Jimbo powered A&M to be a top dog, which means we won't have the issue Ole Miss had when they tried to break through the recruiting glass ceiling.

---

This is an outstanding point.

What's the deal with the 6 star recruit? What determines the number of stars? I've never followed recruiting very closely and don't understand how the classification works.

Gotcha. So what determines the star rating?

6 Star was people photoshopping the Florida recruit's dad dressed up in the football uniform and making it look like a "6-Star" recruit.

Ranking services determine the stars. I'm not sure if each scout submits a grade and they're averaged or what, but ESPN, 247, and rivals each give a rating for the player. 1.0 being perfect, then ~.95-.99 are 5 Star, ~.90-.94 are 4 star, etc. And I believe they only give out a set amount of 5 stars, but that may be wrong. From what I've seen 247 is the most respected score, and 247 also puts together a composite score that averages all 3 services.

Feel free to hop in and correct whatever

quote:

---

I was asked to create a topic on a reply I made in the Bru thread. This is just some perspective on how we've handles some close recruitments over the past couple of cycles.

Here was the original question:

Hey EJ, I've been busy with finals and haven't been living on the board like some others and so I may be out of focus here, but the key phrases I feel like I've heard with Bru when I'm able to check in are:

- Reasonable confidence of the Texas side

- Genuine interest in Texas (as evidenced by the financial aid paperwork and whatnot)

- Needing a strong close, whether from Mehringer or Herman

- And of course, the ever-present "cautious optimism"

While on the surface these are all good things to hear, what concerns me is that I feel I've also heard those exact phrases next to names like K'Laivon Chaisson, Noah Cain, J.K. Dobbins, NaNa Osafo-Mensah, and others. I applaud Herman & Co. swinging for the fences and constantly going after the players they truly want, and I'm not one of the people who feels like the sky is falling after yesterday – in fact, I'm still really excited about this class. At some point those key phrases do start to sound like platitudes though, even though I know the staff genuinely believes they have their shots at these guys and y'all are doing the best reporting you can.

I guess my question then is do you feel like those phrases in reference to Bru mean the same things they did with the guys I mentioned, or do you sense something different in this recruitment? Is there a different kind of "closing" that needs doing than we did with Walker Little? Is the "cautious optimism" that we have with McCoy the same that the staff had with Chaisson this time a couple years ago? Or has the season and experience they've gained since then really made this a separate affair? Either way I appreciate the excellent coverage, I can tell you've been as busy as I am. Know that your work is much appreciated for those of us needing an escape.

Here was my reply:

Each recruitment is different. For example, I was closer to Walker, Noah and JK than I was NaNa, K'Lavon and Trey. I had dinner with the Little family, I was Noah's post-season award media sponsor, and I talked to JK for an hour on the phone before he picked Ohio State. Walker made up his mind a week in advance, Noah as he was crying by the table and JK the night before — he was committed to Ohio State but was really questioning coming to Texas. Some recruitments come down to the wire. It doesn't mean they were never coming to Texas. They were just torn.

Overall though, these tight recruitments are the same in how we cover them. We can only report what we know. If Texas is in the final two like they were with all the guys above — minus Trey (final four) — then there is going to be optimism. But like I wrote with Noah, it's a toss up. Y'all can't get overexcited because we're reporting Texas has confidence. Y'all need to pay more attention to our overall breakdown. We never went over 40 percent on Trey and never over 50 on Noah. Y'all called The Forty piece pessimistic yet blasted me yesterday for being too optimistic.

With Bru, I'll be honest, I don't know him that well. I've leaned on his mother and some people I know around him as well as the Texas side. I felt good about my Texas CB before they hired Kliff. Now, I think it's a toss up. Just because Texas has confidence doesn't mean I expect him to land at Texas right this second. I think it's a toss up. That's my stance right now. And again, you can't say Bru was never coming if he picks USC. He applied to Texas, wrote the essays filled out the paper work and got accepted. It will just be a loss.

The bottom line is that recruiting is tricky. Unless you see a coffee, it's never a sure bet. I would advise to pay close attention to our percentages and what we write as opposed to only picking out the staff is feeling cautiously optimistic. Again, just because they are, it doesn't mean that they are going to close. We saw that yesterday.

---

lolololololololololololololololol

EJ is just terrible at his job

Yes. That's exactly what hes saying

It’s just a matter of where the numbers ended up getting allocated. We ended up counting Wood and Richardson towards the 2018 class and can this only count one more back to last year’s class. Add that one to the 25 max per class and you have 26.

It’s not nearly as complicated as most think it is. I think it generally comes from the fact that most fans don’t realize there is a hard cap of 25 per class and the only additional numbers come from counting back towards previously unfilled classes. Most worry more about the 85 which is really never something to worry about as that works itself out.