OT: Top 25 for the class of 2006 between the three sites
I figured I would compile the three recruiting sites into one easy to see table. For ease of discussion on accuracy of the sites.
| ESPN | RIVALS | SCOUTS |
|---|---|---|
| Myron Rolle | Percy Harvin | Mitch Mustain |
| Percy Harvin | Andre Smith | Chris Wells |
| Vidal Hazelton | Chris Wells | Videl Hazelton |
| Andre Smith | Gerald McCoy | Nate Byham |
| Matthew Stafford | Sergio Kindle | Andre Smith |
| Demarco Murray | Matthew Stafford | Gerald McCoy |
| Sergio Kindle | Vidal Hazelton | Eddie Jones |
| Taylor Mays | C.J Spiller | Sergio Kindle |
| Micah Johnson | Allen Bradford | Myron Rolle |
| Antwine Perez | Mitch Mustain | Jai Eugene |
| Maurice Evans | Sam Young | Matthew Stafford |
| Mitch Mustain | Myron Rolle | Stafon Johnson |
| Jevan Snead | Brandon Spikes | Percy Harvin |
| Stafon Johnson | Reshad Jones | Konrad Reuland |
| Tim Tebow | Brandon Graham | Sam Young |
| Jai Eugene | Taylor Mays | Al Woods |
| Al Woods | Robert Rose | Ricky Sapp |
| Marcus Ball | Stafon Johnson | Micah Johnson |
| Sam Young | A.J Wallace | Taylor Mays |
| Brandon Warren | Al Woods | Deon Beasley |
| Gerald McCoy | Ricky Sapp | Tim Tebow |
| Eddie Jones | Tim Tebow | Keiland Williams |
| Allen Walker | C.J Gable | Jarred Fayson |
| Carl Johnson | Brandon Warren | Steve Shilling |
| Reshad Jones | Eddie Jones | Callahan Bright |
For those wondering ESPN had Chris Wells at 30 roughly 27 behind the other two sites Scout loved Mitch Mustain which all he has done is well nothing and unless he pulls a rabbit out of his hat i would consider a bust. Roughly I would say scout has the worst rating of the three with mitch mustain so high, percy harvin so low, and Steve Shilling on the list (note im a homer but not that much). But you can see each site has a few random people somewhere who are hit or miss like espn actually having Snead and he's going to be the 2nd best SEC quarterback this year.
...but they're all inaccurate since I don't see Stevie Brown on there anywhere.
And because none of them have Tim Tebow listed #1. No other player should be listed until #8.
I'm not sure that Mitch Mustain is too high on Scout's list -- or, to put it another way, it's impossible to say how good Mustain is/was/will be.
While he's not been a world-beater by any measure, I think his situation at Arkansas (and subsequent transfer) put issues nearly entirely out of his control in between him and his ability to perform on the field, and put insane pressure on him. I mean, the dude went 8-0 as a true freshman starter in the SEC West, and then got benched because of weirdo alumni politics and a ton of crazy/inappropriate abuse and dissimulation by his coaches.
August 6th, 2009 at 12:05 PM ^
Its not that he isnt performing at USC its that he is more of a gunslinger QB that takes chance Pete Carroll wont allow.
The other quarterbacks are playing more conservative and thus beating him out.
I've thought ESPN was the best despite the punishing they take on here for not knowing recruiting. They are a professional scout service that was in existence prior to recruiting not some guys that started out of a garage and then hired guys to scout. This class I think they are the winner with Murray Tebow and Snead higher. If any site is truly a better predictor than the other, I think you need to look and see which site has guys in their top 100 that other guys don't have ranked high as most of the lists are very similar, the differnce between having a guy ranked 11th vs 5th is statistically insignificant when you look at massive amount of guys. It is the outlier that would be the best study. I think of guys like Isiah Bell last year and ESPN was very high on Junior Hemingway. That is an interesting case, he hasn't done much, but has shown flashes of being special so who was right?? If he had never gotten mono or blew out his shoulder would he be our #1 and ESPN right?? Tough call but I think if you took the biggest variance guys over several years you might get something. In individual cases you can easily numerous instances where 1 service whiffed or made a good call. It's like the NFL draft, it's a crapshoot, but after a few years you can determine that Millen was playing with bad dice.
"star rankings" of the services the outlier is surely not as good as the others
I'd almost have to say that ESPN!!!!!! has the best rankings from this year?
Maybe they know what they are doing after all.... Nah
Personally, I think the jury's still out on whether Shilling was rated too highly by Scout. A lot of people seem to think that he was playing out of his natural position at tackle and that he should excel this season as a left guard.
I think mono set him back quite a bit too, add on to that the change of the offense and you have a couple of years where he wasn't as comfortable as he could have been.
This is a great thing to compare the sites.
However, you need to consider that this is just one year, so you can't say XXX is the best/worst recruiting site just based off of that. Would be best to look at results from all years that all 3 have been in operation.
From the list I would have to say ESPN and Rivals look like they nailed it the most. Which is good because the recruiting service I read off of is Rivals.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:58 AM ^
I agree they look pretty good from this year. ESPN's one major whiff on a Michigan player was Junior Hemingway (who they thought was a superstar). I think UM fans have been enraged by low rankings from ESPN for our last few super-recruits (Campbell and Turner last year; now Gardner), but they also have been friendlier than the other sites to some of our guys (e.g. Hawthorne, Emilien). ESPN hearts our receivers this year (look at Jeremy Jackson and D.J. Williamson). And they have Drake as a top 40 RB.
And one observation about Gardner's ranking: while he didn't make the top 100 he actually was their #5 QB (of any type). That is a high rating. It so happens ESPN did not throw all the QBs toward the top in the aggregate rankings (like T. Lemming). But among his position peers ESPN agrees he is outstanding.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:50 AM ^
I don't get emotional over recruiting discussions, but you're being far too hard on Junior Hemmingway. He hasn't had an opportunity to be a "whiff". He had mono his freshman year and was injured his second.
Does anyone know what happened to Vidal Hazelton?
He left USC last year, said he wanted to go somewhere else back east. Not sure where he ended up.
Is he the WR that transfered? If it is I'm almost positive that he transferred to Cincinnati.