travisduncan
Gator Fan
I don't give that much credence to independent recruiting website rankings for a few reasons.
While the availability of game film has been unprecedented in the digital age (as you can tell I rely heavily on YouTube for this column), it's hard to imagine the recruiting services get to see enough players in enough situations to accurately track and grade them.
Others fans don't pay much attention to the rankings because those services can't accurately project how a player will play when they step foot on campus, onto the field in front of an audience sometimes 80 times or more lager than at a given high school game. Intangibles have always been hard to quantify or measure-but it seems those aren't often included by the star-giving websites.
Others don't give a darn about recruiting rankings because they suspect that those rankings are produced, not by coaches, but by guys whose job it is to rank. And in that process if two guys show similar skill and talent and size (or maybe say 10 guys)-there are no 1 a's 1bs- it's either 1 or 2 and so on. Whereas a coach for a team might simply look at the player and what they can do for a program irregardless of where they are ranked.
Can he play or not, does he fit our system?
Still others, who might be prone more to the BCS automatic qualifier debate and the many advantages the AQ schools have, might point out that the big schools i.e. Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Texas, benefit most from recruiting rankings.
Fans from Non-AQ schools, or schools which have teams consistently at the bottom of the conference standings, don't take a look at recruiting rankings as much consistently or pin their hopes on recruiting. They simply want to know if the team has a shot to compete for the first time in the in a long time.
For the top non-AQ schools, the Central Florida's of the world, they may indulge in the recruiting rankings briefly, but want to know if a few recruits made the list.
Whereas the big boys automatically can satisfy the fans who pay the bills by signing so called 4 or 5-star recruits. Eventually that will wear thin, if losing takes over, but signing a recruiting class or two has saved more than one coaches' job who ultimately could not win games on the field.
A small part of the extended honeymoon period for Mr. Will Muschamp is because of the fact-UF has a solid recruiting class in 2012 and looks as though it could even get better. Add to that his obvious experience and enthusiasm and a great coaching staff that he has assembled and rightfully that honeymoon period lingers.
But make no mistake about it, Muschamp's efforts to keep some of Urb's recruits, and the 10 verbals for 2012 help a lot, especially given the fact that three players have left the program before Muschamp has coached his first game and the three arrests which have come to light since he was hired.
All that being said, Matt Jones is ranked as about a Top 150 recruit in the Class of 2012 by those recruiting websites. But he he has offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Michigan, Notre Dame, USC and Wisconsin have made him offers.
That tells you the kid can play regardless of the rankings.
He's out of Armwood High School in Seffner, Florida. For Armwood's spring game last Friday night he totaled 57 yards on 10 carries, with a long run of 17-yards.
In 2009, he Rushed for 1,447 yards and 25 touchdowns and was a second team all-area selection.
He's a big back, 6"2 200lbs (though some give him 6"3) and of course very fast, but he can bang and bruise which of course is what we think a prototypical Muschamp-Weis back should be able to do.
Upon committing to the Gators he told the Orlando Sentinel:
“I just like Coach (Will) Muschamp. He’s a great guy and so is Coach Charlie Weis. They walked me through everything, me and my mom, and it was all great."
“I like that pro style offense that they’ll be running up there. They said they don’t have a back like me.”
His coach, Sean Callahan recently told the Tampa Tribune "We want to be able to run Matt Jones where we want, when we want. We just need to be Armwood. We just need to be physical."
Take a look at the videos below, do you think he can play?
While the availability of game film has been unprecedented in the digital age (as you can tell I rely heavily on YouTube for this column), it's hard to imagine the recruiting services get to see enough players in enough situations to accurately track and grade them.
Others fans don't pay much attention to the rankings because those services can't accurately project how a player will play when they step foot on campus, onto the field in front of an audience sometimes 80 times or more lager than at a given high school game. Intangibles have always been hard to quantify or measure-but it seems those aren't often included by the star-giving websites.
Others don't give a darn about recruiting rankings because they suspect that those rankings are produced, not by coaches, but by guys whose job it is to rank. And in that process if two guys show similar skill and talent and size (or maybe say 10 guys)-there are no 1 a's 1bs- it's either 1 or 2 and so on. Whereas a coach for a team might simply look at the player and what they can do for a program irregardless of where they are ranked.
Can he play or not, does he fit our system?
Still others, who might be prone more to the BCS automatic qualifier debate and the many advantages the AQ schools have, might point out that the big schools i.e. Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Texas, benefit most from recruiting rankings.
Fans from Non-AQ schools, or schools which have teams consistently at the bottom of the conference standings, don't take a look at recruiting rankings as much consistently or pin their hopes on recruiting. They simply want to know if the team has a shot to compete for the first time in the in a long time.
For the top non-AQ schools, the Central Florida's of the world, they may indulge in the recruiting rankings briefly, but want to know if a few recruits made the list.
Whereas the big boys automatically can satisfy the fans who pay the bills by signing so called 4 or 5-star recruits. Eventually that will wear thin, if losing takes over, but signing a recruiting class or two has saved more than one coaches' job who ultimately could not win games on the field.
A small part of the extended honeymoon period for Mr. Will Muschamp is because of the fact-UF has a solid recruiting class in 2012 and looks as though it could even get better. Add to that his obvious experience and enthusiasm and a great coaching staff that he has assembled and rightfully that honeymoon period lingers.
But make no mistake about it, Muschamp's efforts to keep some of Urb's recruits, and the 10 verbals for 2012 help a lot, especially given the fact that three players have left the program before Muschamp has coached his first game and the three arrests which have come to light since he was hired.
All that being said, Matt Jones is ranked as about a Top 150 recruit in the Class of 2012 by those recruiting websites. But he he has offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Michigan, Notre Dame, USC and Wisconsin have made him offers.
That tells you the kid can play regardless of the rankings.
He's out of Armwood High School in Seffner, Florida. For Armwood's spring game last Friday night he totaled 57 yards on 10 carries, with a long run of 17-yards.
In 2009, he Rushed for 1,447 yards and 25 touchdowns and was a second team all-area selection.
He's a big back, 6"2 200lbs (though some give him 6"3) and of course very fast, but he can bang and bruise which of course is what we think a prototypical Muschamp-Weis back should be able to do.
Upon committing to the Gators he told the Orlando Sentinel:
“I just like Coach (Will) Muschamp. He’s a great guy and so is Coach Charlie Weis. They walked me through everything, me and my mom, and it was all great."
“I like that pro style offense that they’ll be running up there. They said they don’t have a back like me.”
His coach, Sean Callahan recently told the Tampa Tribune "We want to be able to run Matt Jones where we want, when we want. We just need to be Armwood. We just need to be physical."
Take a look at the videos below, do you think he can play?
