Florida lands #1 prospect...

[bucnut]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/news/story?id=2906782

Dee Finley (Auburn, Ala.) verbally committed to Urban Meyer and the University of Florida on Saturday while on an unofficial visit to the Gainesville campus. Finley, the No. 1 rated defensive prospect on the 2008 ESPN Watch List, had narrowed down his choices to Florida, LSU and Auburn. However, the Gators offered more than just a national championship atmosphere to the hard-hitting safety.

"It was the people and coaches at the school who sold me, not just football," Finley said. "The whole coaching staff is down to earth and seem to care about you as a person." 

[rayfsc07]

I was going to post this last night, but I suspect over the next 6 months we'll be getting so many top prospects it will get a little redundant.  With only having 18 or so spots available this year, I think the staff is going to take their time and make sure they get the best players in.  We won't have a large class this year but I think it will be filled with 4 and 5 star guys.

[bucnut]

I agree Ray.  I hear we might have another verbal today.  I'm wondering who it is....and hoping!

[Runole]

Good recruit.   Is he also  the number #1 ranked Defensive prospect on Rivals?

[rayfsc07]

I don't check rivals but all services have their own scouts and rankings.

Judging by you posting in the thread, I suspect he isn't .  Which makes me wonder why you ask a question you know the answer to?

Bucnut clearly says #1 prospect on ESPN list, so I'm not sure why Rivals comes into play, or Scout.com, or any other service.

ALL rankings are going to change over the next year, afterall they have a senior season to complete!

[Runole]

Scouts has him rated  45th  and Rivals has him rated  79th  Obviously, there is quite a disparity on rating these prospects.

Clearly and inexact rating especially with a senior season to play.   When did ESPN begin rating high school football prospects?

I know there are Parade All Americans and USA Today 1st and 2nd teamers judged at the end of the season

Also Forrest Davis used to have them in the South along with Emfinger, Wallace, and Lemming ( who I believe is the worst!) and a few more.

I have to admit it does appear a bit presumptuous to declare someone the #1 recruit at this conjecture. Also, as with all recruits until they sign the LOI in February, it is quite premature to announce much of anything at this point in time.  FSU has 11 verbals at the moment which is unprecedented for them, but until they sign with FSU they are just good possibilities nothing more or less at this point in time.
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With further review Finley appears to be the # 1 defensive prospect in Alabama from the Scout list:

scout

http://recruiting.scout.com/3/2008_fb_national_300.html


Rivals

http://rivals100.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?SID=880&Year=2008&ra_key=1803

ESPN has used Scouts Inc. for quite some time.

Not sure why anyone cares about rankings, but if you do we all know USC RULES when it comes to recruiting rankings these days.

[Runole]

ESPN has used Scouts Inc. for quite some time.

Not sure why anyone cares about rankings, but if you do we all know USC RULES when it comes to recruiting rankings these days.

Agree high school recruiting rankings are very suspect.  The true measure will be how many get to the next level (NFL) in the next 3,4 or 5 years. I would imagine the success rate is very small no matter what a high school recruit is ranked.

[Feel Real Good]

Agree high school recruiting rankings are very suspect. The true measure will be how many get to the next level (NFL) in the next 3,4 or 5 years. I would imagine the success rate is very small no matter what a high school recruit is ranked.

Bottom line is the more 4 and 5 star kids you have, the better chance some of them are going to be really good. If you have a bunch of 2 and 3 star players, you may get lucky on a few but not much more. You can go back and look at Scout's previous top 100's, you'll see quite a number of future pros, especially the higher you get: 2002, 2003, and 2004.

[Runole]

Agree high school recruiting rankings are very suspect. The true measure will be how many get to the next level (NFL) in the next 3,4 or 5 years. I would imagine the success rate is very small no matter what a high school recruit is ranked.

Bottom line is the more 4 and 5 star kids you have, the better chance some of them are going to be really good. If you have a bunch of 2 and 3 star players, you may get lucky on a few but not much more. You can go back and look at Scout's previous top 100's, you'll see quite a number of future pros, especially the higher you get: 2002, 2003, and 2004.

While I agree that should be certainly true, the 5* athlete has a "coddling"  and "ego" effect that most certainly can be abysmal down the road in terms of success.

JMHO but I believe OL are the hardest to predict in High School especially the huge ones.  Tall skinny ones seem to turn out better.

[Feel Real Good]

JMHO but I believe OL are the hardest to predict in High School especially the huge ones. Tall skinny ones seem to turn out better.

The tall skinny ones play left tackle so they have the highest value. But the recruiting services still had Justin Blalock, Winston Justice, Max Jean-Gilles, and Tony Ugoh amongst their top 100 in 2002 and Joe Thomas, Ryan Harris, Jake Long, and Sam Baker in the 2003 top 100 so OL recruiting rankings mean more than you may give them credit for.

[Runole]

JMHO but I believe OL are the hardest to predict in High School especially the huge ones. Tall skinny ones seem to turn out better.

The tall skinny ones play left tackle so they have the highest value. But the recruiting services still had Justin Blalock, Winston Justice, Max Jean-Gilles, and Tony Ugoh amongst their top 100 in 2002 and Joe Thomas, Ryan Harris, Jake Long, and Sam Baker in the 2003 top 100 so OL recruiting rankings mean more than you may give them credit for.

Perhaps but I would be willing to state that unseen ( I haven't looked) that the highest rated OL by any of these services coming out of high school was not the highest rated when he left college for the NFL.  I would also state that any high school kid that weighed over 325 pounds coming out of high school seldom has amounted to much unless he was over 6' 6". JMO

[Feel Real Good]

Perhaps but I would be willing to state that unseen ( I haven't looked) that the highest rated OL by any of these services coming out of high school was not the highest rated when he left college for the NFL.  I would also state that any high school kid that weighed over 325 pounds coming out of high school seldom has amounted to much unless he was over 6' 6". JMO

Well what do you expect, man? How often do the top 5 players selected in the NFL draft each year end up being the 5 best pro players? It's extremely difficult to predict success even with 20-30 college games with replays and multiple camera angles against known competition. It's that much more difficult to do it off scarce high school tape shot by amateurs against way worse competition when the kids aren't even done growing. I think it's astounding out of roughly 10 offensive line prospects in Scout's 2002 and 2003 top 100, 4 of them each year went on to become or are about to become premium draft picks. But we all know the reason you're doing this is because you're trying to convince yourself and others Rick Trickett is going to make something out of the 2 and 3 star scrubs FSU has on the o-line. Good luck with that.

[Runole]

Perhaps but I would be willing to state that unseen ( I haven't looked) that the highest rated OL by any of these services coming out of high school was not the highest rated when he left college for the NFL.  I would also state that any high school kid that weighed over 325 pounds coming out of high school seldom has amounted to much unless he was over 6' 6". JMO

Well what do you expect, man? How often do the top 5 players selected in the NFL draft each year end up being the 5 best pro players? It's extremely difficult to predict success even with 20-30 college games with replays and multiple camera angles against known competition. It's that much more difficult to do it off scarce high school tape shot by amateurs against way worse competition when the kids aren't even done growing. I think it's astounding out of roughly 10 offensive line prospects in Scout's 2002 and 2003 top 100, 4 of them each year went on to become or are about to become premium draft picks. But we all know the reason you're doing this is because you're trying to convince yourself and others Rick Trickett is going to make something out of the 2 and 3 star scrubs FSU has on the o-line. Good luck with that.

No actually you are wrong in your assertion.  My Gawd!  FSU has been at the top of these recruiting ratings for years and most certainly there is a correlation between the number of 5 stars with overall success and FSU was a perfect poster child for that assertion from 1987- 2000.  JMHO but recruiting services have exploded over the last 10 years and IMO it seems anyone can find a service that will state "THEIR" athlete is the best!   This has made the overall rating system less reliable as far as stating out of highschool that "a certain" player is the best. 


As to Trickett his track record with OL certainly is good and he has made useful players out of the lesser rated talents.   Luck has nothing to do with it. He is an excellent line coach.  Of course that doesn't mean he can turn poop into ice cream.  Everyone knows FSU's OL line play has been soft.  Personally I am more interested in what his recruitment of coming OL players will compare with the recruiting gurus choices.   

That will be most interesting.   I tend to think a great OL coach might just be able to evaluate better than some self- professed recruiting service.  Trickett will now get to recruit from a premier program.  I look forward to seeing what he brings in 2008 as well as those that came on board in 2007 and how they perform.

His desire for leaner OL's  makes sense but we shall see how it all pans out.