The numbers don't lie. Yes it is that much better. Now they just need to develop those players. CMC's biggest challenge will be keeping his staff together when they start becoming successful.
Their class is off the charts for KU standards maybe.That's a bit scary IMO. We don't want KU to start ramping up and improving too much. They are putting 300 million into their stadium too. Their recruiting for 2018 is off the charts.
The average ranking has been a bit better, and comparing offers for each player is night and day different.I was going to get excited about perceived improvement in the recruiting however I came to my senses after going back over the last five years. Looking back over the past 5 years (13-17) classes based on 247 5 stars, 4 stars and 3 stars the breakdown is:
Alabama 5* 27 4* 73
LSU 5* 9 4* 72
Ohio State 5* 9 4* 79
Fl State 5* 13 4* 57
Oklahoma 5* 2 4* 52
Texas 5* 2 4* 52
West Virg 5* 0 4* 9
Iowa 5* 1 4* 2
Iowa State 5* 0 4* 2
In addition the average ranking of the players has not changed greatly. I have resigned myself to another "Iowa State" season unless the staff can create football players.
I think his first two classes were good. They were a handful of decommits/"almosts" from being very good.
Beaty down at Kansas has put together a class to be envious about. Not sure what he's telling those kids.
That list can expand with some others Campbell and staff have brought in also.Going by 247 national rankings it is
Campbell
2017 - 53
2016 - 55
Rhoads
2015 - 64
2014 - 59
2013 - 63
It isn't a huge difference when looking at that, but it seems like we're getting more guys that have offers from good programs.
Chase Allen: Michigan, Nebraska, Florida State
JaQuan Bailey: Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Florida, Louisville, Miami
Deshaunte Jones: West Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisville
Josh Johnson: Notre Dame, Oklahoma State
Ray Lima: Oregon, Colorado, TCU
There are others, but I don't remember as many Rhoads recruits with these types of offers lists.
Recruiting highly evaluated players (4&5 stars) is important, but IMO that only happens after extended success on the field AND equally important, a school is located in a state that produces a high number of elite level D1 recruits.
IMO the realistic best ISU can expect from recruiting classes would be 3 star kids making up 75% of a class and 4 star kids 25%. I only see that happening if ISU has a five year run of winning 8+ games.
If Campbell is going to have success at ISU it will be with 3 star kids that the staff can develop into All-Big12 players. It is also going to critical for 60-70%+ of recruits to play as seniors at ISU. No coach can have succes at ISU by recruiting 25 kids and only 8-10 recruits stay the entire 4 or 5 years.
Couldn't get much worse than Rhoads.
Sorry, I think you a looking at this way wrong.... Big 12 recruiting has been way down, with the relevance of Texas falling off and the two OK schools hitting a plateau and dropping back a bit, Baylor was on a climb a few years back but the black eye that they have going has hurt them as well. I think this current recruiting class, with the young bloods leading a lot of the recruiting game, the Big 12 is getting back to relevance in recruiting. With that in mind I would rather see the overall ranking higher it just means more as the conference standards is starting to improve as well, also as long as there is not a noticeable gap in conference recruiting, which right now there deceivingly is with the KU and above top 35 national(Texas, OU, OSU, Baylor, TCU and KU) seem to be separating from the rest. But our class is going to small and I feel like the remainder will be pretty picking on committals....I guess this is where I was headed with this thread from the start. Everyone says we're doing so much better with recruiting, yet even the last 2 years, our classes are like 8th still, and only better than KU usually. I understand they are ranked higher overall, just not better than anyone else in the conference still.
IMO, the only way we climb higher in the conference is if our 8th ranked classes end up playing like the 5th best classes 3 or 4 years from now. I see this staff doing a good job so far in the skill positions, but still lacking in the trenches, just like Rhoads. I see some hopeful signs at the DE position with Bailey and Uwazurike, but the OL still looks like it needs a talent infusion one of these years.
IMO, we might have a very similar ranked class as another 20-30 or so other P5 programs in the country (for example, KU, TT, KSU, WV, etc) on paper, but the difference will be not on how they are on paper, but how they end up playing on the field and developing.
I think Rhoads was right when he said something to the affect of "It's not the recruits we don't get, it's the recruits we get that don't end up staying or panning out".
We could bring in a class of 20 players, and TT could bring in an identically ranked class of 20 players, but the difference will end up being on how well we scouted and judged our 20 guys and therefore on how many end up panning out, staying, and developing into contributing players.
I know this is all obvious stuff, I'm just trying to say, better recruiting classes on paper do not always equal better results on the field. It's being able to find the 3 star kids that end up playing like 4 or 5 star players, and not that end up playing like 2 star kids or end up leaving the program.
Sorry, I think you a looking at this way wrong.... Big 12 recruiting has been way down, with the relevance of Texas falling off and the two OK schools hitting a plateau and dropping back a bit, Baylor was on a climb a few years back but the black eye that they have going has hurt them as well. I think this current recruiting class, with the young bloods leading a lot of the recruiting game, the Big 12 is getting back to relevance in recruiting. With that in mind I would rather see the overall ranking higher it just means more as the conference standards is starting to improve as well, also as long as there is not a noticeable gap in conference recruiting, which right now there deceivingly is with the KU and above top 35 national(Texas, OU, OSU, Baylor, TCU and KU) seem to be separating from the rest. But our class is going to small and I feel like the remainder will be pretty picking on committals....