Good morning West Texans and all you good, fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were . . .
Forget about the stars already
I‘m not talking about the Dallas Stars ( seems like most folks in the metroplex already have forgotten about them ) I’m talking about recruiting rankings. Don’t worry about them. Most coaches don’t. Far too many fans do as evidenced once again by the reaction to the oral commitment over the weekend by Arkansas Monticello linebacker Joe Carmical.
It seems some fans think they know a better fit and a better player than guys like James Willis and Tommy Tuberville. Never mind that those guys have coached linebackers for over a combined 30 years or so, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the recruiting services didn’t have Carmical ranked high at LB, that other schools hadn’t shown enough interest in him. He wasn’t sexy enough for some fans.
Of course these were probably the same fans that didn’t think Tech should have offered low-starred offensive linemen like Daniel Loper and Dylan Gandy a few years back. Never mind that they get paid to play on Sundays, they obviously weren’t highly thought of enough to be 4 or 5 star recruits so how could they end up being solid guys at Tech and in the NFL?
The Carmical commit reminds me of some of the guys Mike Leach and his crew brought in over the years. Leach and his staff didn’t care about rankings they cared about getting the right guys in that fit what they needed done on the field. The right guy for Mike might have been the wrong guy for Mack, but it worked for Mike. I kinda put the same trust in Tuberville when it comes to a position like LB.
Tech is in transition period right now going to the 3-4 look and needs all the LB’s they can get. With Carmical having spent most of his time as a QB and very little at the position he’ll play at Tech it shows me that he’s an athlete and that he can run. Speed always wins. They project him inside but I wouldn’t be surprised if doesn’t turn out to be athletic enough to go outside as well, depending on how he progresses in the program.
Bottom line is that fans need to quit relying on recruiting services and for ALL of their information and insight and they also need to quit trying to make value-judgements on players during the recruiting process. It can’t be done and it only leads to frustration on the part of the fan. Sign ‘em up, coach ‘em up and then call me in two to three years. Then we’ll talk about how good a class was or wasn’t. Until then, Worry about the guys you got on your 2-deep right now, they’re the ones that’ll matter this year.
MORE LATER
HYATT
AMEN and AMEN!!! was welker a 5 star or even a 2? hmmm…