Recruiting 101.........or is it 151?

I'm still waiting for my offer


Ok, so I'm a month behind, but crap like this interests me, so you've gotta suffer through it too.

I was looking through some recruiting numbers and noticed that UGA offered 60 scholarships this year and signed 23. That made me a little curious to see how many scholly's were offered by other schools. Quite an eye-opening experience. Before long, I had poured through the top 25 recruiting classes as listed by Scout.com and found a very wide range from top to bottom.

The most shocking number was the 151 offers made by Florida while signing 23. Are you kiddin' me? Talk about putting out feelers. If a kid has a pulse, he has a UF scholly offer. I'm a little pissed that I didn't get one.

On the flip side, Texas offered only 33 while signing 20. UT definitely has a lock on the State of Texas.

This is not a list that ranks the recruiting classes. It simply shows how many scholarships that the schools offered this year. Also, there's a couple that are not top 25 classes (i.e. North Avenue Trade School & "the other USC"), I was just curious.

1. Florida............................151
2. Nebraska.......................145
3. LSU................................137
4. Tennessee......................125
5. South Carolina...............120
6. Alabama.........................119
7. Auburn...........................113
8. Michigan........................111
9. Oregon...........................110
10. Clemson.......................106
11. Arizona State................104
12. FSU..............................100
13. Miami............................95
13. Arkansas........................95
15. Illinois............................91
16. Georgia Tech.................88
16. Oklahoma......................88
18. Boston College.............. 84
19. Virginia Tech.................68
19. Washington....................68
19. Texas A&M.....................68
22. Georgia...........................60
23. UCLA..............................59
24. PITT...............................58
25. USC................................55
26. Notre Dame................... 53
26. Ohio State......................53
28. Texas..............................33

Looking at the numbers, it seems that there's alot of competition for recruits in the southeast (go figure), with the SEC taking 6 of the top 7 spots. However, it also shows that there is more than one successful recruiting philosophy.

The Florida approach - Throw out a huge net and see what we catch. I don't prefer that method because it seems like they aren't targeting specific needs. However, it seems to be successful for them.

The Texas approach - Identify your needs, interview the prospects, decide their level of interest, make the offer. This method requires an excellent eye for talent by the coaches, and again, has been successful.

The USC method - #### it, we're USC. Make the offer, they will come. Very successful.

The Notre Dame method - Magic. There's no other explanation for a recruit wanting to play there at this point in time.

The Auburn method - Lower your standards because Saban grabbed all of the top local talent. Preach to the media that recruiting services don't know what kind of heart your recruits have.

Different strokes for different folks. There's no 1 "right" way to recruit. The proof is 3-5 years down the road.