Rivals 2015 position rankings: Campbell and Harris tops
rivals has released the 2015 position rankings. nice to see that campbell and harris are the top wr and rb in the class, respectively. usc soft-commit david sills checks in at #12 (rosen is tops, but most expect him to stay on the west coast).
shaun crawford is the #12 cb, and tyree kinnell is the #8 safety.
December 12th, 2013 at 8:42 PM ^
BUTT it does look bright!
December 12th, 2013 at 8:47 PM ^
December 12th, 2013 at 8:50 PM ^
This is why I'm still 100% comfortable with Hoke. He's rolling in elite classes, now they need time to grow up through the ranks. His classes were only freshman and redshirt freshmen/sophomores this year.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:05 PM ^
I love you moderation system.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:57 PM ^
This exactly..
I saw someone post something on Mlive of all places about our Recruiting classes in comparison to OSU and MSU from 2009 - 2011
We had something like 26 4 and 5 star players, and only 8 are on our team right now..
MSU has 12, and OSU had like 36, 4 and 5 star players still playing on their team.
The talent the last 2 years is light years ahead of what it was during the RR years in terms of how much of an impact the young players are making..
The thing that concerns me is if we can have a consistently called game by Borges once our O-line starts to play better and Gardner isn't running for his life
December 13th, 2013 at 7:03 AM ^
I'm the last guy to ask about the technical aspects of the game, but I've heard people who know say Borges didn't really transform himself between the MSU and Ohio games, for example. The improvement was primarily due to better execution and a defense that was less prepared.
Young players are often inconsistent. That's why you saw some fairly wild fluctuations in our offensive performance. As the guys mature and depth improves, I think you'll see more Ohio/Indiana type performances and less MSU/Nebraska.
December 13th, 2013 at 8:32 AM ^
I agree that player maturation had something to do with it, but I strongly disagree that Borges was the same play caller against MSU as he was against OSU. Strongly.
December 13th, 2013 at 9:28 AM ^
I always thought I knew quite a bit about football, but franky I know very little compared to you or many other participants here. I do question, though, how much gametime play calling should be criticized. I think there is a great deal of randomness in success for a given play or series of plays and the need to build a base to form something where constraints will work is critical. In the end I think sparty jsut has a much better defense that ohio and better playcalling wasn't going to fix that. Thoughts?
December 13th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
It's not necessarily about the gametime play calling. It's the whole play calling philosophy. Against Michigan State, we were still trying to overpower them, run power, drop back from under center, etc. Against Ohio State, we seemed to do a lot more shotgun stuff, ran inside zone "finesse" stuff rather than trying to outmuscle them, and used the bubble/draw. We're not at a point where we can play smashmouth football against smashmouth football teams.
December 13th, 2013 at 11:05 AM ^
Isn't that the kind of thing Hoke is involved in? Someone said he meets with Borges twice a week - I assume they are talking about philosophy, and Hoke would pretty much make that call or at least approve.
December 13th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^
Yes, Hoke would be involved, but it sounds like he's not too overbearing about the offense.
December 12th, 2013 at 10:01 PM ^
well that is the problem, hoke only recruits freshmen. WHY DOESNT HE RECRUIT SENIORS AND JUNIORS!!!111!!!!!1
/s
December 13th, 2013 at 9:44 AM ^
I'm fine with Hoke for a while longer, Borges... no comment. But this idea that we were to young and inexperienced to compete.. it's garbage.
Is Hoke not allowed to develop guys that he did not recruit? Who were the best players on the team? ALL RR recruits. And some of the guys that were torching the Hoke freshmen, sophmore, rs sophmores, and Juniors (yes Hoke did recruit many of those guys too) were also freshmen, RS freshmen, sophmores and Juniors.. but MAC level freshmen, RS freshmen and sophmores.
He came in with an iffy resume, he is delivering about what you would expect with that resume, but his excuses are getting stale. Need to see some serious improvement.
December 12th, 2013 at 8:51 PM ^
Justin Hilliard also the #1 ILB
December 12th, 2013 at 8:56 PM ^
I think it's funny that in his little info section there is no mention of Michigan.
December 12th, 2013 at 8:58 PM ^
What info section? His offer is listed, and he's visited Michigan several times.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:06 PM ^
Gotcha. I didn't see that. The schools mentioned are surprising because it lists Clemson and Penn State, but no Michigan and Iowa; the latter two have been mentioned frequently in the past.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:14 PM ^
Those were exactly my thoughts. I haven't heard of Clemson being in serious contention for him before. I can understand Penn State because Hilliard is likely going to be a B1G player.
December 12th, 2013 at 8:56 PM ^
That kid looks like a beast. He might be the best player out of Ohio since Braxton Miller in 2011, in my opinion.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:03 PM ^
December 13th, 2013 at 12:55 AM ^
December 13th, 2013 at 5:33 AM ^
I think he's a very polished quarterback without a ton of physical talent. He would be a good kid to bring in if you really trust the talent ahead of him, because I think Sills could be a solid backup until he physically matures a little bit and can play as an upperclassman. But he just doesn't have the physical skills to be an elite quarterback, in my opinion.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:10 PM ^
Why isn't he a five star?
December 12th, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^
I don't really know, but he's a 5-star on 247 and in the 247 Composite rankings. Typically, Rivals gives out a few 5-star ratings and then expands the number (from the high teens to around 30) as the recruiting cycle wears on. So he might be a 5-star by the time the cycle wraps in February 2015.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:27 PM ^
December 12th, 2013 at 8:53 PM ^
Damn, two recruits in the top 10 of the class over a year before signing day. I'll take it.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:08 PM ^
here being the best prospect from Ohio since Braxton? Hilliard?
December 12th, 2013 at 9:19 PM ^
December 12th, 2013 at 9:32 PM ^
Someone please make a new thread about this. LMFAO.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:36 PM ^
This is America
December 13th, 2013 at 12:05 AM ^
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
December 12th, 2013 at 9:36 PM ^
They mention how the talent at ILB is pretty shallow; that boggles my mind, simply becuase you'd think there would be at least a couple of athletes at other LB positions you could shift in there.
Regardless, loving how the class is shaping up. Still some time to go on a couple of recruits, but this feels like a solid outfit with some potential to be great.
December 12th, 2013 at 9:48 PM ^
I would agree. It is rather encouraging - even if it is early and a long time until 2015 NSD - to see two five-stars and two four-stars in a group of six. It isn't much for now, but the prospects seem very high for this class so far. People say it often here, but I really do like where this is headed.
December 12th, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^
Yay offensive firepower?
December 13th, 2013 at 4:48 AM ^
December 13th, 2013 at 5:28 AM ^
I doubt you've seen it three times in the past week, since the position rankings were just announced on Thursday. The Rivals 250 and the position rankings are separate deals.
December 13th, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
Interesting to have two OFFENSIVE players ranked so highly already. I wonder if Al is better behind the scenes than we realize.
December 13th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
He's not heavily involved in recruiting, no.