Dont look too much at stars as oppose to other schools that have offered.

Also, take into account that this early in the recruiting game, if you hold offers from pac 10 schools, you are a pretty decent prospect.

Do you guys have any idea how ridiculously difficult it is to find quality DT’s coming out of high school?

Don’t get too picky. Expecting Rick to just pull any 4-5 star DT who happens to weigh 300 lbs is really reaching.

These kids do grow you know

People forget these recruits still have their Sr year to improve. Let’s see where things stand in February.

BRUIN NC and Lavsmousse and others:

Listen, I don’t care how much recruits develop over their Senior year. This is a clear detraction from our previously stated strategy of waiting until guys develop, before offering or going after them hard. I don’t care what you say. The odds are not in your favor that all, or that a majority of your 3 star recruits will develop. The fact of the matter is, the more 3 Star recruits you have, the harder it will be to put immediate performers on the field.

I know some of you will say Stars don’t matter. That’s a bunch of Hogwash. Stars aren’t the only factor, but they are a MAJOR factor. The SC’s, Florida’s, and Texas’s of the world don’t win with a majority of 3 star recruits. We didn’t win 20 games in a row with 3 Star recruits. You never know how these kids are going to develop, but it is a FACT that 3 Star recruits are overall a higher risk than the 4 and 5 star recruits.

Show me one school that is a consistent contender with only 2 and 3 Star recruits?

Most of your guy’s contention on here is that this staff is a master at discovering underrated talent. I don’t think so.

andismaclow:

I said consistent contenders. One season does not make you consistent.

They also have a majority of players who are essentially 6th and 7th year player. Guys who have taken missions and are 24-25 year olds who have matured physically and mentally. How many NFL talents will you have off that team? Exactly?

I probably could have been pretty good too, if I was a 22, 23 or 24 year old competing with 18-20 year olds. Think about it. These guys are men playing against boys out there sometimes.

You guys do realize that services like Scout and Rivals haven’t yet evaluated most of these players, right? The summer combines are where this all happens, so rankings/stars of these players prior to that are basically worthless. You do know that, right?

Boise State contends every year with 2 and 3 star players

lavsmousse has got it right.

Also, 4 and 5 star kids have to agree to play for you. They don’t just drop out of no where. At some point you have to get the best talent you can and make it work. Then you get 3 and 4 stars…and then you do better and get 4 and 5 stars. Its a process BruinFaithful.

I’m with Dohn in that star rankings aren’t always the best indicator but obviously a team of 2 to 3 stars isn’t preferred.

Look at Aundre Dean, 5stars***** on his high school helmet and he couldn’t even crack the 4-deep at UCLA.

At this point, coming off 4 wins last year, beggars can’t be choosers.

Agree with Mr Anonymous…the stars are only a rough indication of a kid’s potential. Each recruit requires close in-person, on the field scrutiny and evaluation. I believe our current coaching staff can best determine who’s right for our system.

“We didn’t win 20 games in a row with 3 Star recruits…”

bruinfaithful, how many stars did McNown have? How ’bout Skip Hicks? Danny Farmer? The planets were aligned just right for Bob Toledo when the Bruins ran off 20 consecutive wins and didn’t hurt that the OL was pretty good those two years (I don’t remember Kris Faris having more than 3 stars at Rancho Santa Margarita HS).

Using a basketball analogy, it seems that Steve Lavin had the #1 recruiting class in the country one year (Gadzuric, Barnes, Moiso, Hines, Young) and what happened? That’s right…nothing. So it’s not who you pick up, it’s what you do with the talent.

Amm:

On the surface, this would seen like a good choice. Don’t get me wrong, I love what Chris Peterson does and what he has done up there. Nobody does more with less than him. He is an incredible schemer.

He was actually my first choice for UCLA coach. I think we should have rolled the carpet out for him. However, I said consistent contender. That means playing in BCS and/ or close to BCS games year in and out. Which is where we want to be, right? They have not achieved this and one Great, yet very fortunate, win against Oklahoma does not change this. They play in an EXTREMELY weak conference, which keeps them very healthy at season’s end. This year they play powerhouses such as:

’08 record
Miami, of Ohio 2-10
Fresno State 7-6
Bowling Green 6-6
UC Davis 5-7 in Division 1-AA
Tulsa 11-3(Another Boise State type team,
great record in a weak Div.
They also lost to Houston 70-
30)
Hawaii 7-7
San Jose St. 6-6
Louis. Tech 8-5
Idaho 2-10
Utah St. 3-9
Nevada 7-6
NM State 3-9

Are you kidding me? I would take this schedule anyday. The only decent team they play is Oregon 10-3, which they barely beat last year 37-32 and they play at home this year. Their opponents have a combined record of 77-87, and only thanks to Tulsa and Oregon.

Over the last 7 years they have only beaten 4 ranked teams. #10 Oregon in ’08 37-32, #21 Oregon St. in ’06 42-14, #11 Oklahoma ’06 43-42, and TCU ’03 34-31. Hardly dominating or considered consistent contenders. Any team that wins 11-12 games in a seasons is going to be ranked at the end of the year, regardless of conference. NO WAY they do this in a Major Conference.

Still waiting on that alimony check, TruBruin…

Mario DiLeo:

What are you talking about those 1997 and 1998 teams were loaded with talent and highly rated recruits? Cade McKnown and Brock Huard were considered the best QB’s in the West and amongst the best in the country. Skip Hicks was also one of the top RB’s in the country coming out of HS. Then we got Deshaun Foster in 1998, who was considered the best RB in the country.

Dear Bruinfaithful:

You have alot of great valid pts. Obviously the coaching staff cannot comment on the verbal commits, but I’m sure they have very good reasons for offering these guys.

One key factor that u r missing is academic ability. Of course we want all 5 and 4 star recruits, if we could! Let’s b realistic, a majority of these guys probably have a “C” average. Now if UCLA came recruiting u and said, “Son we would love to have u, but you need to raise your grades!! For your senior year you need to get a B average in your core academic classes. Or the alternative of Florida, Ohio St, Texas and SC recruiting you and saying “all ya gotta do is maintain a “C” average in your senior year and you’ll have no problem getting u in. Where do u think that 5 star recruit is going?

It’s very refreshing to hear the we r getting a 4.0 GPA quarterback. It probably allows us to get some of those guys with 2.5 GPA’s on board, that r special admits. Bruinfaithful – I’m sure your highschool GPA was probably 3.75 or above to be admitted to UCLA and u should know that admissions does not like to admit kids with GPA’s below 3.0 in their core academics.

Let’s have some faith that the coaching staff knows what they r doing and the balancing act they must have to follow vs across town.

Rick goes to admissions – You know I just recruited 2 kids wit 4.0 and 3.5 GPA. Now I want u to special admit this kid with a 2.75 GPA. Would u pls consider it.

Pete – u know I got this running back with a 2.0 GPA, that is probably going to win a Heisman and take us to a $National Championship$. Admissions folks (aka Mike Garret) no problem just get me more 4 and 5 star recruits. BTY what’s a GPA?

Look Rick has to bring in somebody, he doesn’t have the luxury of waiting. He needs bodies, if they don’t work out he can just run them off next year.

This is really a pointless discussion. 300lb DTs often don’t have the speed to be effective on the D-Line. As such, many make the move to the O-Line (e.g., Darius Savage). For those that remember Miami in the 80s, they made a habit out of recruiting athletic DEs to play DT.

I’d also suggest looking at the H.S. weights of recent recruits. You’ll see that the top DTs in college tend to come in in the 250-270lb range. Per Scout, future Bruins Brigham Harwell was 6-1, 250 lbs and Brian Price, 6-3, 270lbs. Across town, Sedrick Ellis was 6-3, 265 lbs out of high school. On usc’s 2002 roster, Shaun Cody was listed at 6-5, 270lbs. Out of HS, I believe he was listed at 6-5, 250.

My thought would be to at least wait for Scout/Rivals to finish their evaluations before expressing disappointment.

Why recruit a 5* guy just to have a 5* guy? It makes more sense to recruit the type of player that fits best into the system. I imagine the coaches have enough experience between them to know who would fit and who would not. If they like what they see in these recruits (i.e. talent, potential, academics, and character), it makes sense to go ahead and offer them rather than risk them getting antsy and deciding to go somewhere else.

Many offers have been made to four and five star players. Most will probably come down to signing week in February. If we are shut out during signing week, we will have some solid three star performers to fill in. Good strategy.

First of all, I am pleased with these two most recent commitments. I believe (and hope) they will develop into contributing players. When I assess players, I much rather base it on the offers they’ve received rather than on solely on the star system. However, I think Bruinfaithful makes some valid points and am in disbelief that most people on this board are not willing to recognize it.

TruBruin:

I have faith in the staff and Rick Neuheisel. I think he is a GREAT, impassioned, and dedicated recruiter. We did have great classes the last 2 years. We need to continue to do so.

I was merely trying to stimulate a deep meaningful dialogue. This kid Wesley seems like a great kid. I saw his video on Scout. He has a 3.7 GPA. Perfect. I just don’t think we are going to get it done at a serious position of need with undersized DT’s with 3 Stars who are ranked #31 and #72 at their positions. Especially, when this was supposed to be a DEEP year for DT’s on the West. A more important question would be, how many DT’s we plan to bring in this year? I hope it is 4-5 and the strategy is to lock in lower ranked DT’s to be safe and then go after the BIGS.

VB’s Cat, I would be VERY happy with those 5 DT’s coming in.