Value of Recruiting Rankings

Tomorrow is signing day for NCAA football and Tyrone Willingham appears to have put together a great recruiting class. I'm just as excited about it as anyone, but does it really mean anything? Just like scouting college talent for the pros, judging how teenagers make the jump to the D-1 level can be a total crap shoot. Sure, there will be those five-star recruits that turn our to be stars and go on to the NFL as first round picks. But there will be plenty of those same big time recruits who are total busts, for a whole slew of different reasons. There are also plenty of stories of kids who didn't get recruited much and went on to become stars. Steve Entman being the name that most refer to as an example.

Let's play a game. I'll give the description of a recent Husky recruit and try to guess who it might be.

This 4-star recruit was the 2003 player of the year for the state of Washington. He was ranked the #10 safety in the nation by Scout.com and was name to the Parade All-America team.

Answer: Keauntea Bankhead. Bankhead never qualified academically for UW and went on to play at Dixie State College in Utah. He signed to play at Central Washington for the 2007, but wasn't on the roster and I couldn't find anything else about what he is currently doing.

This QB was Scout.com's #23 QB in tha nation coming out of high school. "Very accurate passer and can scramble for yardage when needed," as described by Scout.com and won two Washington state championships.

Answer: None other than Carl Bonnell. Bonnell just graduated from UW after serving last season as Jake Locker's back up. Bonnell had a career completion percentage below 50% and threw 10 touchdowns to 15 interceptions in his time at UW.

This should be an easy one. This current Husky was a 4-star recruit and rated the #21 running back in the nation by Scout.com. He won four state championships and set a state record with 50 touchdowns in one season.

Answer: J.R. Hasty. What's to even say? Red shirted his first season at UW, then became academically ineligible his second. Played sparingly last season before quitting the team and the returning days later. Still has two years of eligibility and a chance to turn himself into the player most thought he would be.

Just a few examples of how meaningless rankings can be this time of year. Sometimes players just don't live up to expectations or sometimes there are other factors like academics. Not to mention bad luck, such as star QB's Matt Tuiasosopo and Grady Sizemore signing LOI's only to take their money and run to the MLB after being drafted.