Cardinal recruiting

[AACardFan]

I think it's safe to say we still have a long way to go to play with the big dogs. Here is SI's top 100 prospects.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hig...kle/index.html

Of these 100, Louisville has no commitments and is only listed as recruiting one of these players...the very first one. With the nation's top programs also gunning for him, I hardly foresee Louisville landing him.

Don't get me wrong, there are still 100's of quality prospects out there and Louisville can land some of them. Nevertheless, we still lag the upper echelon schools by leaps and bounds when it comes to recruiting.

[Red Alert]

Has Louisville ever done better than lets say........40th in recruiting? We've made the best with what weve had, but yeah we cant compete YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT with the curent level of recruiting.

[HarveyGlass]

I agree, the Cards have a long ways to go. But football recruiting analysis has to be a joke. There are just way too many players and each one has such a minute effect on a team that rankings and stars for football has to be really hit or miss. Basketball recruiting isn't close to being an exact science and there are only five positions on a hoops court and fifteen players on a roster.

Football recruiting means nothing, IMO. Football is more about development and personnel decisions. The most talented player in the world is useless at the wrong position, and a ho-hum recruit can be an all-american at the right place, at the right time.

And it's been said before that a 2-star recruit that is about to commit to UofL becomes a 4-star when he changes his mind and goes to Florida.

[farmdude]

The big dogs are always rated in the top 15. Sometimes their recruits are moved up in rankings simply because of who they signed with. ND has consistently been a Top 10 for what that is worth. VTech is the ONLY school (so far) to make a consistent run at the NC that has never had a class inside the Top 15. I believe their best class ever was an 18 but usually around a 20. Our senior class from 2 years ago was rated 56 (I think) coming in and 6 going out. So that tells you something about recruiting rankings.

[Empire Lindy]

Well, this last season did us no favors in the recruiting wars. I believe if Petrino had stayed, we would seriously be looking at UofL's first Top 25 class. Instead we are signing JUCOs left and right and will be lucky if English and his fellow new coaches can steal a couple of 3-star guys late in the game.

[farmdude]

Yep, we are definitely in a rebuild mode, not a reload mode.

[wkuCardinal]

Our top players and grads now playing in the NFL, with the exception of maybe Michael Bush and Brohm, have always been ranked around 70-100 for their POSITION. It really is about player development.

[AACardFan]

I certainly agree with rankings being overrated. There are entirely too many players to give anything close to accurate rankings. And I also wholeheartedly agree that putting players in position to utilize their talents is what wins games. As a prime example, look at Tim Couch. He was running the option under Bill Curry when he was really a pocket passer.

Nevertheless, while rankings may be too subjective to be accurate, they do allow us to lump players in broad categories: super star, stud, good, needs development, and pass. And with rankings you can easily categorize those players.

In the end, my initial, yet sweeping generalization holds true. Louisville is still on an uphill climb when it comes to recruiting.

[wkuCardinal]

I think what is far more telling when it comes to recruiting is who is recruiting the kid. We may not be hauling in ten 5-star players every year, but we are recruiting with some big schools. That's a very good sign, imo. If all our recruits were won over the likes of WKU, EKU, and Murray State, I'd be very concerned.

[Empire Lindy]

Originally Posted by wkuCardinal

If all our recruits were won over the likes of WKU, EKU, and Murray State, I'd be very concerned.

And that's exactly what concerns me about this class that will be announced in a couple of weeks. The ones who have been committed are very often getting their lone BCS offer from us. That's not a good sign. Even the ones who are getting other BCS offers aren't getting them from any particularly great school (Baylor, Arizona, Ole Miss, Kansas State, Michigan State, NC State). Only the two kids from Cincinnati (RB Darius Ashley got offers from Tennessee and Boston College, TE Stephen Ball got offers from West Virginia and Cincinnati) have competition to sit up and take note of.