College football fans know there are four segments of the game they love.
In order, there’s the regular season, followed by the postseason,which precedes the recruiting season, and culminates with spring practice.
Those outside the game — not players, coaches or administrators — tend to make a considerable amount of money on recruiting. The recruiting services seem to proliferate every season.
It’s often perceived as the time when the rich (colleges) get richer.
LSU and Southern California — at least under Pete Carroll — are near or at the top rung when all the begging is calculated.
The same can be said for Oklahoma under Bob Stoops.
Ohio State rarely is out of the top 10.
Texas and Georgia have been very strong over the years, and the three Florida schools, Florida, Florida State and Miami, are perennially formidable. Nick Saban’s haul at Alabama is even more stunning than last season.
You could argue that North Carolina had the greatest recruiting year in school history.
Just about all sources had the Heels in the top 10 and number one in the ACC. Butch Davis went after the cream of the crop signing a dozen players who were rated four stars or better.
Tom O’Brien landed just one marquee player for N.C. State, but bet that he’s going to convince every two-star commitment he’s a three, and every three-star that he deserved to be a four.
David Cutcliffe got the best defensive tackle in Georgia for Duke and corralled the premiere running back in the state in Durham Hillside’s Desmond Scott.
Skip Holtz’s latest class included tight end Korey Reynolds from storied Hoover High School in Alabama.
Every one here will be watching the progress of Rocky Mount High offensive linemanWhit Barnes at Wake Forest.
One player I’m fascinated by is a kid from California. Tyler Gaffney is a running back from Cathedral Catholic in San Diego. He was named the California Player of the Year.
He entertained the prospect of going to one of three schools; USC, Notre Dame or Stanford.
The problem with the Trojans was that Pete Carroll wanted him to move to fullback. Gaffney, who can cruise 40 yards in 4.44 seconds, is intent on continuing his playing career at tailback
Tyler opted to stay closer to home, and he will play for Jim Harbaugh in Palo Alto.Conventional wisdom says you can’t determine the worth of a recruiting class for at least a couple of years.
So much transpires, beginning with each player’s freshman campaign. The best classes on paper sometimes end up being the least accomplished, while the least heralded groups coalesce into something special.
Quite often it just turns out to be a role of the dice, but those four-and five-star acquisitions sure look good in the showroom.
