No question Scooby and Nate were great finds, as well as a few others. Grant and Bondo immediately come to mind. Nevertheless, there is still an endless debate here about RR's recruiting vs. star ratings. Now that All American lists are in, most prominently the AP list, and the four playoff teams have been named, it would be interesting to know those players' high school star ratings.azpenguin wrote:Nate Phillips comes to mind as well.dc4azcats wrote:Agree.whatisee wrote:Two star Scooby just scoffed at youMerkin wrote:Do you have the rating stars Ang?
Class so far seems underwhelming to say the least.
I'm curious what else it is that RR and his staff have to prove to Arizona fans as far as recruiting goes? That they recruit the player "they want" instead of what a recruiter thinks and are right way more times than the so called recruiter is? They took a QB in Denker that had no business playing QB in the Pac 12 and helped him lead us to 8 wins and a bowl victory. Said this numerous times but that alone is one of the single greatest coaching jobs ever. There aren't 5 other coaches in the country who could've done what RR and company did with Denker LY. Period.
Scooby Wright, no need to go over the fact that a bunch of Pac 12 schools passed on him while Arizona offered the next day after watching his film. Then flew a private jet a couple of months later just to visit him and make sure his commitment was solid. That's all old news at this point and I'm guessing a bunch of pac 12 schools have similar stories with 2 star recruits?
It's a skill to be able to not only judge talent but to project where that talent will be once you get them on campus. Arizona's coaching staff as proven that they have that skill and it's a skill that trumps most if not all of the staffs in the Pac 12. If that's not the case then maybe somebody can explain why no other school in the Pac 12 offered Scooby a scholi? Not one. He sent tape to every school in the Pac 12 yet only one offered a scholi and he wins 3 national awards as the best defensive player in the country. I'm sure our recruiting will stay "underwhelming" as far as the so called recruiters go. RR and company run rings around those guys.
Personally, I think star ratings are completely valid, and that RR would love to have more 4 stars, and 5 stars if he could get them. The few we have are stars (no pun intended) or stars to be. I also think RR and staff are exceptional developers of talent (or lack thereof - Denker), which is the major reason they are winning with their "diamonds in the rough".
