“I can't wait to see Michigan State in about three years, once Mark has a chance to recruit his kind of players." – Kirk Herbstreit in November 2006
It's not quite two years since he made that statement, but I wanted to compare Mark Dantonio's successes so far in recruiting to John L using the rankings from rivals.com. John L took the stance that we can't compete for recruits with Michigan and OSU, so we have to go further out and find "diamonds in the rough". Sometimes this worked well (SirDarean Adams, Jonal Saint Dic) and other times it didn't. He didn't develop good relationships with key High School coaches in Detroit, Flint, etc. Mark Dantonio has took the opposite strategy - get what you can from Michigan and Ohio and develop them. He has rebuilt a lot of relationships with area coaches and almost every recruit comes from the two states. Let's look at their accomplishments by year.
Year .5
John L started at MSU in late 2002 while Mark Dantonio started in late 2006. Each had a few months to try and salvage whatever they could out of their respective recruiting classes.
John L's 2003 class - Only 1 four-star player - The class did boast Kaleb Thornhill and Jehuu Caulcrick
Dantonio's 2007 class - 3 four-star players - These players are really John L's boys, including Mark Dell and Antonio Jeremiah
Year 1
This is where things start to pick up a little. The coaches had one full year to recruit these players, but we all know the true recruiting begins way before they become seniors.
John L's 2004 class - 6 four-star players - This was by far John L's best class and comes after he was awarded the Big 10 Coach of the Year award. Key players: SirDarean Adams, Kellen Davis, Domata Peko, Brian Hoyer
Dantonio's 2008 class - Only 1 four-star player - The class fills a lot of needs defensively - he only took 4 skilled position players.
Year 2
This is where things start to turn. John L's 2005 class only included 2 four-star players - the biggest names now are Jonal Saint Dic and Javon Ringer. Mark Dantonio's 2009 class won't be official until Signing Day in February, but he has already received commitments from 6 four-star players. Now, this doesn't even compare to U-M (7 four-star, 1 five-star) or OSU (16 four-star, 1 five-star), but we won't ever win recruiting battles with them. The great news is that we have the same number of 4-star player commitments as Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa and Minnesota - COMBINED! We also have twice as many as Penn State.
I know rankings only mean so much. After all, Izzo's recruiting classes are rarely top in the country, but he is so damn good at coaching the players to reach their potential. However, I believe these recrutiting classes show Dantonio is really taking the program in the right direction and I am excited to capitalize on U-M's blunders.
5 comments:
"Dantonio is really taking the program in the right direction and I am excited to capitalize on U-M's blunders."
Agree completely and whole-heartedly. I like Dantonio and hope he stays for a long time. I want him to be a name people associate themselves with MSU football, like Izzo and basketball. I want recruits to feel like, "Yeah, this guy will be here for all four of my years."
And for the first time in forever...I think our program is perceived as being more solid than U of M's, based just on the fact we're stable and have had little to no offseason turmoil. Of course that might change in a year (or two months), but I'll enjoy the refreshing change.
As far as the recruits, I'm not buying into the numbers as much. I'm like you- I like to read all about them and see how they are rated, but unless they produce W's on the field, I don't care so much.
VERY INTERESTING stat about the number of 4-star recruits we have this year compared to the rest of the Big Ten. Do you think that's more of an indication of Dantonio's recruiting abilities, or the poor state of the Big Ten? Both?
I think it's partially because he is a good recruiter and has had a lot of success early. I think Wisco and Illinois may catch up. Penn State is having difficulty recruiting because Paterno is starting to turn into a lame duck - we all know he's leaving very soon and Pitt is starting to take recruits away from them. Also, OSU is TAKING OVER.
8 four-star and 1 five-star in 05,
8 four-star and 2 five-star in 06,
12 four-star in 07,
9 four-star and 4 five star in 08,
16 four-star and 1 five star in 09
To compare, here are other teams' 09 performance:
LSU - 6 four-star, 1 five-star
USC - 9 four-star, 4 five-star
Texas - 11 four-star, 1 five-star
Teams less than MSU's commits
Florida - 5 four-star
Oklahoma - 4 four-star
Wow, Florida and Oklahoma have less than us! That shocks me too. Although I wonder if that's just because they have a lot of talent in place already and that steered a lot of recruits to different schools.
OSU is the Big Ten right now...without them we are conference would just be laughed at continuously (more so than it currently is). And who's really surprised? With Carr the last five years in Michigan the program was on the decline, and you're absolutely right about Paterno, he's a lame duck. OSU is by far the most attractive option in the Big Ten.
Love the stats by the way, as always.
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