Ranking the 2010 Sac St recruits

[Will_C_Holden]

Hey there Hornet fans. My name is Will Holden and I'm the MSU beat writer for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. I'm ranking all the 2010 recruiting in the Big Sky and I just finished up with Sacramento State: http://bozeman-www2.bozemandailychronicle.com/bobcat-blog/?p=3532

While I'm not as impressed with Sperbeck's 2010 crew as I was with the one from 2009, which I ranked tops in the conference (http://bozeman-www2.bozemandailychronicle.com/bobcat-blog/?p=1066), I gave this year's class a solid rating of 7.5 out of 10.

 

[SactoHornetAlum]

Who knows how the recruits are going to turn out until 2-3 years from now. I think it's better to rank a recruiting class after their sophomore year. Ranking a class coming in is nothing more than shooting in the dark and a cheap way to generate news, IMHO.

 

[SpecialOlympicBear]

Will,

That is an absolutely AMAZING rundown on Sac State's recruiting. You should be writing for ESPN and other high-profile national sites. I am very, very impressed! Thank you!

 

[Will_C_Holden]

Who knows how the recruits are going to turn out until 2-3 years from now. I think it's better to rank a recruiting class after their sophomore year. Ranking a class coming in is nothing more than shooting in the dark and a cheap way to generate news, IMHO.

You're probably right, Sacto. But I'm in the business of speculation and the vast majority of my readers seem to enjoy these rankings, so I keep cranking them out. It's probably also worth mentioning that I draw the lists up after talking with several assistant coaches from across the conference (one of which is from Sac) to help clear up the whole "shot in the dark" problem. Most of the coaches were pretty impressed with Sac's class for the second year in a row.

 

[SactoHornetAlum]

It was a good read though, better than anything the major Sacrament newspaper sports editor will allow.

 

[SDHornet]

Good write-up Will. I think this recruit class review is an excellent idea and I don't know of anyone doing something like this for other FCS conferences. I will say that I am not akin to linking a recruits skill with the success of their HS team. Some parts of the write-ups seemed to knock the players ability because they played on a losing team. I am not sure that I agree with that assessment. Regardless it was still a solid review and keep up the good work.

 

[Will_C_Holden]

Good write-up Will. I think this recruit class review is an excellent idea and I don't know of anyone doing something like this for other FCS conferences. I will say that I am not akin to linking a recruits skill with the success of their HS team. Some parts of the write-ups seemed to knock the players ability because they played on a losing team. I am not sure that I agree with that assessment. Regardless it was still a solid review and keep up the good work.

That's a good point you bring up SD, because I too had never thought the success of a prospect's high school team would be heavily evaluated by coaches when breaking down a recruit. But from talking to several assisstants around the conference, it is. One of the most universally accepted ideas seems to be that coming from a winning or losing team can make a big difference when it comes to a kid's phyche. One coach told something akin to this: "It's a lot easier to motivate a kid who expects to win than one who's had to become used to losing."

And considering I'm a bit of a sabermetrics nerd, I honestly believe you can also draw some conclusions on stats based on whether they're put up on a winning or losing team, but that might just be me