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'12 TX RB Terrence Crowder (Signed to Colorado)

As long as he is a CU commit I highly doubt that he will be highly rated by the services. There is no way that any of the services have time to thouroughly evaluate even a fraction of the players in the country. As a result much of the rating process is based on who the admitted or claimed offers are from.

The services are also money making enterprises based on subscriptions. Simple fact is that a lot of other schools have larger numbers of fanatics who are willing to dish out a subscription price to hear every little bit of news about their school, the services also know that if they say good things about the recruits who are going to or likely to go to those schools the get more interest and thus more money.

Result, if Crowder had committed to Nebraska or Notre Dame he would be almost a lock to get at least a 3* and they would look for excuses to make him a 4*. On the other hand if he is committed to New Mexico State he could be the best runner in Texas on only get the standard 2* rating.

That all said, I wouldn't be surprised to see him blow up in his senior season. If word gets out that some of the big name schools are trying to turn him then the services are likely to move his grade up.

I would like to see him get a high rating only because if some other kids who we want take a look at our commit list the more highly rated players we have on the list the more moment we look to have and more some of those players may be persuaded to at least give us a look.

On the other hand if he comes in with 2*s and tears up the PAC 12 I will be just as happy.
 
After watching the last vid I did come away impressed. Crowder isn't particularly powerful or fast that's for sure. He is somewhat like Speedy in that he is very good at shifting right before the hit to avoid most of the contact. He didn't really run people over and most of the tackles he broke were arm tackles. Defenders mostly brought him down when they bodied up on him. He does seem to have pretty good vision tho. I like the pick-up but I'm hoping for a homerun with our other RB in this class
 
ESPN has rated Crowder as a 2* (#80 RB) and has the following to say (linked in profile):

Crowder is a college ready back from a physical standpoint and could be falling under the radar at this time with the consistent strength he displays on film. Solid, durable frame with compacted bulk. Very strong and sturdy upper-body. Speed is good for a back with his size as are his feet and in-line quickness. Hits the hole with urgency and squares up quickly. Doesn%u2019t waste much time getting downhill and runs with more than adequate pad level. Deceptively quick and sudden in his cuts for a 200-pound back. Shifty and can make the first defender miss but he does struggle at times to make himself thin through traffic and opens his body up for direct hits. Runs with authority and can break through consistent first contact at the high school level. Would like to see him run lower and more behind his pads and at times his legs go dead on contact. Upper-body appears stronger than lower at this point. Can have difficulty making the extra cut in the second level to spring long runs and shows a bit of hip tightness change direction and cutting back sharp. Speed is more straight-line. Likely limited to downhill, power-running schemes at the next level. Lacks the fluid pick and dart cutting skill and vision of a zone runner. Overall, we still feel like Crowder is falling under the radar and is guy who will continue to pick up steam on the recruiting trail.

Sounds to me like they ranked based on offer list instead of their own evaluation. That's a solid 3* eval.
 
Scout almost has a page on him.

I will worry about position rankings after his senior year starts. The fact that he is in Texas is a huge plus. I don't think we bothered to even try to recruit Texas the last 3 years.

I'm just happy that after 5 years we finally have verbals from players prior to the last week of recruiting.

Welcome to the BnG!
 
I believe the best thing to do is to ignore ESPN rankings or rating system. Rivals is the best in my opinion.
 
I think he looks like a baller and I am damn proud to get him on our squad!

Welcome and have a great career TC!!!
theodore_tc_calvin.jpg
 
The good news about that ESPN eval is that every single complaint they have is a coachable trait. They basically reaffirmed what I thought, very very solid HS RB, and with a RS year being coach by EB I think we see an extremely talented back emerge in our backfield.
 
Just watched his highlight video again and have come away more impressed. Two things stand out to me. YAC and his patience in letting the blocks in front of him get set up. I am much more optimistic about this style of high school runner rather than seeing a highlight video similar to D.Scott. Although that type of athlete can be a game changer, I think it's much more advantageous to get a player who can break tackles and allows the system to work to his advantage. I think that Terrence shows excellent ability and potential to grow in both areas. He has a low center of gravity, allows plays to develop in front of him, has a good initial burst, lowers the pads well to absorb hits, and hell, he delivers a few blows of his own.

Enjoy your senior season and we can't wait to get you to Boulder! Go Buffs!
 
Don't know why I didn't do it earlier, but I just watched his vids. I like the way this guy runs the rock -- he has kind of a no-nonesense approach -- get the ball, get downfield, don't let the first guy tackle you.
 
I think that's selling him short, he deserves a 5.5 rating at least. I am pretty biased, though. Not sure how Rivals can rank the RB UCLA got (Lakalakalakalakalakalaka) a 5.7, but our guy a 5.4
 
I think that's selling him short, he deserves a 5.5 rating at least. I am pretty biased, though. Not sure how Rivals can rank the RB UCLA got (Lakalakalakalakalakalaka) a 5.7, but our guy a 5.4
Its all about the offer list. Haven't you heard anything this summer??
 
Well, actually, it is. I don't believe Rivals or Scout really have the experts in many cases, nor the time to properly rate kids. And even if they did, do you think a top talent evaluator is working for Rivals rather than USC? I don't think so. A couple of the guys are actually pretty good, but the offer list is what they are going by most of the time. When they do look at film it's often the same film we are looking at - highlites only.

It's much easier to evaluate their offer list and assign a rating.

Secondly, the only information they get in terms of who has offers and where they are from is from the kids themselves. Sometimes a HS coach provides information as well.

Helped a local kid's family a few years ago with the recruiting maze and helped them setup his profile with Scout and Rivals. Never submitted film to the services. Told the truth on Height, Weight, and 40-yard dash time. Kid played for a 4A school here in state and didn't get too much recognition in the press. Attended 5 camps and got 4 offers, 2 of which were BCS - never reported them to the services. He went to one of those camps, liked the coaches, and committed. End of recruitment. Rivals and Scout reported none of this, and they only reported the offer from the school he committed to (non-BCS). Yet, somehow, they assigned him 2-stars and a 5.x rating. That's what a kid with 1 offer from a non-BCS D1 school is supposed to get. There is no chance they saw him, knew what he looked like, etc. And the same thing is happening with Clay Norgard. Do you think Rivals has looked at full game tape of Norgard going up against the top OL in Colorado to do an unbiased rating? The resources just aren't there.
 
Well, actually, it is. I don't believe Rivals or Scout really have the experts in many cases, nor the time to properly rate kids. And even if they did, do you think a top talent evaluator is working for Rivals rather than USC? I don't think so. A couple of the guys are actually pretty good, but the offer list is what they are going by most of the time. When they do look at film it's often the same film we are looking at - highlites only.

It's much easier to evaluate their offer list and assign a rating.



Secondly, the only information they get in terms of who has offers and where they are from is from the kids themselves. Sometimes a HS coach provides information as well.

Helped a local kid's family a few years ago with the recruiting maze and helped them setup his profile with Scout and Rivals. Never submitted film to the services. Told the truth on Height, Weight, and 40-yard dash time. Kid played for a 4A school here in state and didn't get too much recognition in the press. Attended 5 camps and got 4 offers, 2 of which were BCS - never reported them to the services. He went to one of those camps, liked the coaches, and committed. End of recruitment. Rivals and Scout reported none of this, and they only reported the offer from the school he committed to (non-BCS). Yet, somehow, they assigned him 2-stars and a 5.x rating. That's what a kid with 1 offer from a non-BCS D1 school is supposed to get. There is no chance they saw him, knew what he looked like, etc. And the same thing is happening with Clay Norgard. Do you think Rivals has looked at full game tape of Norgard going up against the top OL in Colorado to do an unbiased rating? The resources just aren't there.

All of this is true.

You also have to understand that these services are for profit businesses, they make their money based on the number of people willing to pony up a certain amount of money every month to read information about kids who are going or potentially going to their favorite school. The more subscribers, the more money is made, this is why you don't see a lot of interest in CSU specific subscription sites but everybody has one on Notre Dame, Texas, Bama' and Nebraska, these schools have big fan bases who are fanatical enough to pay money every month to have somebody tell them how great they are.

Even though the guys behind the services are guys who have a big interest in college football you can't tell me that they don't understand the dynamics of the paying fan bases. Write that the latest Husker QB recruit is a marginal talent with a bad arm and a lousy attitude and a bunch of Husker fans drop their subscription and go to the service that says he is a high 3* who is raw but has a lot of speed and throws the short routes well. The end result is that kids who are reported to be on the radar for the big fan base schools get looked at favorable where a kid who shuts down the entire process because his dream has always been to follow his uncle to Wyoming may be very talented but only get 2*s.
 
That's a very good point. Check out the number of fans online at 11pm sometime on the Husker site. It will be over 1000. No Pac12 team comes close to this. Pretty much an order of magnitude different. This is a fundamental difference between living in Nebraska and living in San Diego. Probably the only one I can think of...
 
College football fan truism: recruiting rankings/ratings are bull**** unless my team is highly ranked in them.
 
College football fan truism: recruiting rankings/ratings are bull**** unless my team is highly ranked in them.

As much as people try to say they don't care about the ratings, that's simply not true. We'd like to think we don't care about the ratings, but we do. Based on the interest we get for different profiles, the hierarchy is: 1) In-state 4*/5* QB; 2) Other 4*/5* QB; 3) In-state 5* at any other position; 4) Other 5*; 5) In-state 4* at any other position; 6) Other 4*; 5) In-state 3*; 6) Other 3*. The excitement level disparity with 5* guys is so much that when we land one it carries over and influences how people think about different player after they're on the team. For example, we have a lot of people who still maintain that Darrell Scott should have been great and that the fault for his failure doesn't lie with him. Likewise, we have a lot of people who still question whether Speedy Stewart is a legit top RB in the conference. If there had been no star ratings or if it had been reversed with Speedy getting the 5* rating and Scott the 2* rating, I can pretty much guarantee that the general perception of those guys would be different.
 
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