Do Recruiting Rankings Equal Success in College Football?

Don’t look now, but that’s the same Vandy team that sits atop the SEC East Standings this week. This is the same Vanderbilt that welcomes ESPN’s College GameDay to their campus this weekend in Nashville. That same Commodore squad since ’05 has one four-star player and no five-star players.

If you’re keeping score up top, that’s USC 65, Vandy one.

How’s that for wacky?

Auburn brings their 42 to take on Vandy’s one this Saturday night. Is Auburn going to be 42 times better than the Commodores Saturday night?

If they were, you wouldn’t be watching.

I’m not trying to minimize the relevance of recruiting. If you go down the list of National Champions in the past 10 years, most are represented on the above list. But how many Jacob Hesters you have on a team counts for so much. How many two and three-stars you turn into four and five-star guys on the field says a lot about a coach and a program.

Recruiting is getting to be bigger and more of a spectacle than ever for the fans, but for teams and coaches they know that these highly talented high school prospects must pan out on the field in order for a program to have success.

So as we enjoy the season that’s already underway, fear not—when January arrives, you can still follow your team’s success on the recruiting trail.

After all, it’s the reason I’ll be drinking beer and eating jambalaya and hot freshly made cracklins at 8 am on some random Wednesday in February.

Ain’t college football great?

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