Four star, whatever?

Read in the Toledo Blade this morning about a young man at Anthony Wayne High School who has committed to Iowa to play football. He grew up a Buckeye, but they had not offered him, so he chose the Hawkeyes. Good move. I know the Buckeyes liked him in camp, but wanted to see more of him this fall. By the way, that speaks volumes for the Buckeyes.(I am not a big early offer guy).

In this article, he was rated a 4-Star, by Rivals, something else by Scout, and something else from a service in Ohio. For you young football players, I beg you not to get caught in this nonsense about a Rivals rating, a Scout rating, or being ranked by any internet service in Ohio. These services feed "internet recruiting junkies." Their job(some make good money) is to give a small cult of recruiting people something to read and to go on chat rooms and chat about.

Do not let where they rank you, better yet, if they did not rank you, mess up your mind. Just play football. Let the people that matter(college coaches) rank you on their boards. That they do for sure. Parents are often as guilty as anybody about getting caught up in these rankings. I could tell you war story after war story about football recruiting and the lack of integrity that goes on.

One big name recruiting "expert" on the West Coast, a few years ago told a QB from Maryland that if he did not give him inside "stuff," he would not rate him high in his magazine. Of course, that happens alot. Years ago one college's boosters group bought 13,000 dollars worth of magazine subscriptions. That school's recruiting class was rated 8th in the country that winter by that magazine.

As college coaches know, if I have not seen a prospect, I do not rate him. Not fair to the kid. Of course and obviously, we do not always agree. For example, NO ONE, except Western Michigan, was willing to take a chance on Tim Hiller, former QB at Orrville. MSR rated him the 2nd best QB in Ohio that year. Enough said. Justin Swick, and I really like Justin, was highly over rated coming out of Massillon and I said that. I am not blowing my own horn. Just saying that a high school player should not get caught up in ratings.

Even at the professional level this occurs. A few years ago, Houston surprised the Mel Kiper's of the world by skipping over the QB from Texas and the RB from USC to take a DE from North Carolina. Kiper and the draft experts ripped the Houston GM. Now, look who is really contributing to each's own pro team.


I could tell you how the ratings are constructed, but that is not really the purpose of this blog entry. Just-- please do not get caught up in all this ratings stuff. Play hard and enjoy your high school football days. Everything will take care of itself.

Getting ready for Centerville-Moeller and Butler-Springfield.