Recruiting Ratings are interesting

[Phil C]

but you can't always tell how a team will do no matter how high or low it is ranked. It was several years ago when Tennessee was the top rated team and by the time that class reached their senior year they won the NC. At the same time a few years ago UCLA had the top rated class and even though they had good years they never did reach the level that everyone expected. Only the future will tell for sure.

[Phil C]

What I mean is that future results on the football field are what count.

[big daddy russ]

This is the first time since the early 90's that Auburn's had a recruiting class ranked in the top 10. Even after that undefeated season a couple of years ago they only had a top-20 class (13 or 14 in most scouting services).

Thing is, three years down the road the coaching staff looks like geniuses. All those two- or three-star players that everyone else overlooked are suddenly studs.

Perfect example: Karlos Dansby was a two-star prospect out of Birmingham, and as a SS at that. His sophomore year at Auburn, Tuberville saw that he could use Dansby's size, nose for the ball, and speed to round out a great LB corps. Two years later, Dansby was a Butkus Award Finalist and a first round NFL draft pick.

Tuberville has an eye for the talent that fits in his coordinator's systems, plain and simple, and also gives his coordinators the leeway to go out and pick a few of "their guys." It's worked out well for them so far.

I think Mack's started doing that, too. Last year, three-star Henry Melton was pretty heavily recruited by the Longhorn coaching staff but not by many other name brand colleges. He wound up contributing as a true freshman on a national championship squad.

Also last year, everyone in Texas knew about Jamaal Charles because he was the top back in our neck of the woods, but there were actually six or seven RBs (depending on the scouting service... Rivals had him ranked seventh) ranked ahead of him. UT probably had shots at all of them but they wanted Charles.

Seems like Mack is getting to that point where he zones in on the real talents and the guys that would fit in his system and recruits them the hardest. I have a feeling that even though this recruiting class wasn't ranked top-5 at the end of the day, in five years everyone will look at it in a different light.