Just scanning back though the classes on both Rivals and Scout says that this year's class has the deepest set of talent since the 2003 class, and possibly before then.
While I know scholarship numbers fluctuate year-by-year and recruiting rankings are mostly subjective and not objective grades of talent, there is a lot to be said at the trend analysis of the big picture.
Whichever site you use we have 20 or 21 recruits with a 3-star or higher rating. We haven't had that deep of a talent pool since the year 2003 according to Rivals (23) and only 2003 compares on Scout's historical listing (19). Rivals generally hands out more 3 stars to our players than Scout does but even Scout hands out more for this class than Rivals does.
Anyway, nothing earth shattering but the 2002 season and the 2003 recruiting class was really the last "great" season we've had in CU football. Rather than being on the last peak before the valley begins, we are now climbing back out of that valley and heading back to the heights familiar around these parts.
Talkins never recruited consistently well, and already JE and his staff appear to be way out in front of anything Talkins ever did.
This is untrue. Hawkins had that one class that was very highly rated. Also, at the beginning, he was keeping the elite in state guys at home.Originally Posted by Hugegroove
The good: Under he-who-shall-not-be-named, we did have a #15 ranked class, and we did sign the top Colorado player 4 (?) years in a row.
The bad: The previous regime didn't know what to do with whatever talent they accumulated. The #15 class was pretty much a bust on the field.
The ugly: The last two classes recruited by you-know-who were ranked very poorly, and he basically quit recruiting in his lame duck season.
Pac-12 - The Conference That Can Count
That class pretty much never made it to the field. What did would have been ranked much lower.
The key word on the statement was depth....while HaLk did have a highly ranked class in 2009, it was heavily loaded with some big stars at the top and a lot of gambles/reaches at the bottom....depth wise, this class is loaded with solid 3* guys that will all most likely contribute and won't equate to a lot of the giant hits and swings n' misses like we've seen in the past....
Coaching the players up is the most important cog to it all and Embree described that quite effectively when talking about Wisconsin yesterday
Only time will tell
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We'll see
Beat me to it by mere seconds
This class definitely helps rebuild the depth chart. I thought 2011 was pretty good, too. It's going to be much harder for 2013 recruits and beyond to come in and crack the 2-deep as true freshmen. We're about to the point where most are going to be able to redshirt except for the select guys who are special talents and developmentally ahead of their age.
2007 and 2008 looked really good, like we might be on track to compete again. Too much attrition killed any depth on paper, but I'm more confident because of the staff that's mentoring the current crop of signees. Please come to fruition this time.
Yes, he had a highly ranked class, but as I said, he wasn't consistent with his recruiting efforts year in and year out.
Ultimately time has shown that although there is some validity to the five, four, three star ratings, they are not the final word. Of course they can't completely measure an eighteen year old kid who is still developing, mentally and physically. I saw a few years ago that several years ago Florida, prior to Urban Meyer, had the unquestioned top recruiting class. They cleaned up on five stars. And in the next four years they never won the championship and finished about tenth or so one year. Coaching is significant here as well.
Signing a top class and getting them developed and contributing are two different things.
Confident that unlike 2007, these guys will form the backbone of a rebirth. It won't happen as fast as we want, but they will get us bowling.
Not trying to argue what makes a 3, 4, or 5 stars; or whether or not a "top ranked class" leads to national championships.
The point was that we have not seen this many "quality" recruits in one season in a LONG time. Yes, that is using the recruiting service rankings, but when taken as a whole they are pretty close at measuring a team's talent from a macro view.
One of the biggest issues we have had is depth and quality of backups when injury/attrition/graduation have seen our top end players leave.
We have continued to produce 1st round talent but have failed to win bowl games over the last decade. That tells us that our talent has been found in a few players and not spread across the team.
This class to me indicates a "rising tide" of talent. Not just in individual players, but as a group. If Solis doesn't develop into an All-Conference type DT, then the odds are that either Henington, Tupou, Rasmussen, or Kafovalu have a good shot too. Previously we had all our eggs in one basket, and when that player didn't "hit" we went into a tailspin without having any quality players to step in and take the reins.
We still have some issues at certain positions, but this class was put together really well for immediate impact and future development/depth.
Using the numbers simply illustrates that it has been at least a decade since we have seen CU draw in this quantity of quality recruits in one class. And having that kind of independent verification of the program's direction is encouraging.
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