I go one step further....the star ratings measure the physical capability in their opinion FOR THE PLAYERS THEY SEE play in person or video. The main knock I have had for years is a lot of this is hype. If a kid doesn't have the money or be invited to go to one of the centralized camps and the services don't get off their butts to do their homework otherwise, the kid gets an automatic 2* or 3* rating. Even if he goes to an LSU camp and lights it up, it depends on if they happen to cover that camp or not that year. And of course the rating of kickers, punters, and snappers is another huge hole in their system. If you are the consensus #1 long snapper in the country like the Ferguson brothers have been their SR HS seasons, you should get an AUTOMATIC 4*...each got a 2*. Signed Morris Claiborne, Tyrann Mathieu, the Fergusons, Brad Wing, and hundreds of others players ignored by the services
I'll take all the five and four star recruits we can muster and the lower ranked guys that our staff loves. We all know that guys like TM, Claiborne, Hester, etc. weren't rated as high, at least initially, but if you keep bringing in a boatload of these highly ranked recruits (who our coaches rate highly too) then you're going tohave a pretty consistently good program. Sure there are many misses, but there are even more misses at the 2 and 3 star levels. Now, if there is a five star that our coaches don't offer and 3 stars that they do then that is fine with me, I trust their judgement more than any of the services.
I don't know . . . 4-star players are predicted to be impact players for their team. As valuable as a good deep-snapper is, he's usually never a game changer, won't make any all-conference teams, and is far more expendable than a 4-star lineman or back. Teams always manage to find a deep snapper among their scholarship centers or a dedicated walk-on. Worse, it is impossible to say who "the number-one deep snapper" is because it is difficult to find any metrics that can be used to rank them. It's a very subjective thing. LSU occasionally offers one a scholarship but not in a year when scholarships are tight.
Disagree with that. Impact can be positive or negative. If a deep snapper does his job well that means the ball doesn't sail 30 yards over the punter's head or roll back to the holder on a FG attempt. Those mistakes can easily change a game and mean a loss. And also this isn't "deep snappers' but certainly punters/PKers can lose game after game. As I said another time, I was driving around S Carolina on a vacation several years back and the SC fans were ready to string up our boy Lou Holtz for having hideous special teams that included 30 yards punts and missed easy FGs. Of course "Doctor Lou" is the one who never believed kickers or snappers should get schlolarships. Probably one reason the clueless one is no longer coaching. Also disagree about not being able to rank the snappers. It actually is very, very easy to measure that. They have specific camps for those guys just like they do placekickers. They have experts in the field....obviously not the recruiting services....who have run these camps for years. For snappers, they keep up with accuracy and also actually time for the ball leaving the snapper's hands to get to the punter. In fact, the younger Ferguson I read has a "snap time" that right now is equal to an NFL snapper. Another example: for punters, they measure time to get the punt away, the distance, and the hang time. So yeah, it is very easy to rank punters, place kickers, and snappers...at least the ones who hit the camp circuits which is just about all of them. Bottom line, I disagree with everything you said come to think of it.
5* long snappers, what will they think of next. Jesus, "hey Jethro, bend over and hike that guy the ball will ya "! Do it right and we will teach you how to read.
Probably not every year there shouldn't be but then again there aren't 5* every year for all 22 offense and defense positions either. But yeah, if you are clearly far above the other long snappers, a 5* might very well be warranted....hmm, maybe a guy who already is snapping as good as some NFL guys doing the exact same thing. And certainly a case could be made that placekickers win and lose games more often than almost any other position on the field. Ask ND that lost like 3 games at the end last season due to missed FGs. But hey, those guys don't count...they just win and lose games. Not to mention punter Brad Wing was LSU's most valuable player in about 3 games during his best season while in college.
Hey there @EyeoftheTiger 2015 I'm almost proud of you. I posted a sarcastic comment and you didn't respond with a shit ton of idiocy. Can still be fine tuned a bit but nicely done. You just may be learning how things work around here.
