I had a bit of extra time with the break and have been wondering about how balanced our recruiting classes have been between O and D the last few years. Below is a table of O and D along with their ratings over the last five years with a few comments. The raw numbers weren't as skewed as expected, but the top end talent was telling.
Observations:
2019 - High end offense, only one D above 5.8
2020 - Balanced, min high end. Only one O and one D above 5.8. Only 4x 4-stars on D
2021 - Balanced with high end talent, limited numbers with only 16 in the class
2022 - Tough year to measure given what happened, still managed 8x 4-stars on O and 7x 4-stars on D
2023 - Balanced with high end talent. Highest overall number in the last 5 years. The only year other than 2021 with more D 4-stars than O 4 stars, and in 2021 we only had 6 total O players recruited.
Comments:
It would be interesting to also take a look at lineman vs skill players. 2021 is a case where we had a splashy class with Caleb Williams and Mario Williams, but only 4 other O players in the class. It is extremely difficult to build depth and competition with a class like that.
It is apparent we started to drop off after 2019 with our recruiting.
This years class looks even better after taking a look at it as compared to the last few years, especially the balance of top end talend tlong with the overall numbers.
Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas!!!
2023 | 2023 | 2022 | 2022 | 2021 | 2021 | 2020 | 2020 | 2019 | 2019 | ||
Off | Def | Off | Def | Off | Def | Off | Def | Off | Def | ||
5-star | 6.1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||
4-star | 6.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
4-star | 5.9 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
4-star | 5.8 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
3-star | 5.7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||
3-star | 5.6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
3-star | 5.5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
sub-total | 11 | 14 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 13 | |
TOTAL | 25 | 21 | 16 | 23 | | 24 |
Observations:
2019 - High end offense, only one D above 5.8
2020 - Balanced, min high end. Only one O and one D above 5.8. Only 4x 4-stars on D
2021 - Balanced with high end talent, limited numbers with only 16 in the class
2022 - Tough year to measure given what happened, still managed 8x 4-stars on O and 7x 4-stars on D
2023 - Balanced with high end talent. Highest overall number in the last 5 years. The only year other than 2021 with more D 4-stars than O 4 stars, and in 2021 we only had 6 total O players recruited.
Comments:
It would be interesting to also take a look at lineman vs skill players. 2021 is a case where we had a splashy class with Caleb Williams and Mario Williams, but only 4 other O players in the class. It is extremely difficult to build depth and competition with a class like that.
It is apparent we started to drop off after 2019 with our recruiting.
This years class looks even better after taking a look at it as compared to the last few years, especially the balance of top end talend tlong with the overall numbers.
Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas!!!