Dancing with Mannequins

Today was College Football Signing Day.

Awesome.

I love the idea that this gets so much pub. The media is saying "if you suck next year, you should fire the coach because the players are so good!". Notre Dame had a top 10 recruiting class for 2 straight years, which means a lot since they went 6-6 for 20 straight years. I'm gonna run down the top 10, just so we can learn something.

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Alabama
4. Auburn
5. Oklahoma
6. Florida State
7. LSU
8. USC
9. Tennessee
10. Penn State

This list has zero shocks on it. I saw this information and said "sweet, looks like the last 10 years lists." My favorite college team is Clemson, and their recruiting class always seems to be in the top 15. Oddly enough, this only seems to show me a bunch of 8-4 seasons. That's great consistency, really it is, but this is no different than the NFL draft.

How often do these players actually pan out the way they're projected? Why do we hear the phrase "came out of nowhere" so often? Isn't that like saying "we were so off on this guy, that we're openly insulting ourselves"?

I remember hearing stories about Dion Lewis from Pittsburgh. "This guy was recruited by no one, now he leads the country in rushing!" Doesn't that mean that the guy who recruited an injury prone running back should be fired? How many question marks can be used in just a few paragraphs?

Quick little tidbit for Va Tech fans out there. They never have a top 20 recruiting class, but always end up in the Top 10 of the College Football polls. As far as I can remember, Ohio State has had one well known recruit in the last few years(Terrelle Pryor), but always remain in the National Championship race.

I'd compare this information to the NFL, where the good teams have been good for a few years now but pick near the bottom all the time. This reigns true in any form of competition, Coaching always makes the difference in team sports.

Just ask Brad "The Stalker" Childress and Norv "The Fortune" Turner.