Football Recruiting

[TwoDukeTattoos]

Several weeks ago I visited ESPN's college football recruiting page and noticed that Duke had a couple of "ESPNU 150 Watch List Player" players in the 2009 class. When I visit the link now (included below) there are no such players in the '09 class. Is this because the rankings of the recruits have been adjusted? Or did we lose any recruits (I haven't seen any articles regarding this)? At the very least, I know we landed a top-10 QB. Does anyone have insight?

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recru...schoolId%3d150

[CameronBornAndBred]

The QB you are talking about, Sean Renfree, is on the team already. Cut was able to get some recruits in for this year's class thanks to his timely hire. In fact, I think one of the recruits who decomitted after Roof was fired recomitted to Cutcliffe. I think the '09 list is correct.

[jafarr1]

During ESPN's first pass through the football recruits, they rate the players on a scale from 60-77. Everybody who merits a higher rating (78+) gets lumped into the "ESPN 150 Watch List". I'm not sure how many players get thrown onto that list, but I know it far exceeds 150 players.

Midway through the summer, ESPN completed its ratings and decided who are their top 150 players. The very top players end up with ratings in the 90's, but the ratings quickly drop down to the low 80's.

If memory serves, Desmond Scott ended up with a rating of 80, John Drew at 79, and Sean Schroeder at 78. I think the ESPN 150 ended up being cut off amidst players rated 82.

ESPN will re-evaluate each of these players (as well as many other Duke recruits) at least once during their senior years.

There are three things to note about this recruiting class:
(1) Lots of speed. Tons of it. Cutcliffe is living up to his word to implement an SEC philosophy of speed first, and he was really successful with it at Ole Miss.
(2) Cutcliffe is getting good players to commit early, which is impressive for a program with Duke's recent track record, especially since Cutcliffe started recruiting later than most other head coaches because of the job change.
(3) Big-time focus on local players. Previous coaches essentially gave up on NC for recruiting, while Cutcliffe made it a priority. There are ten or so NC recruits, and only two commits come from outside the southeast (one from Maryland, one from California). The local players - and the coaches - are really buying into Cutcliffe and his ability to improve the Duke program.

It's a really positive first class for Cutcliffe, and it's not complete. There are a couple of bigger fish who are holding off to see what Duke does this season, so if Duke gets off to a good start, we might see some strong final additions to complete the class.

[TwoDukeTattoos]

During ESPN's first pass through the football recruits, they rate the players on a scale from 60-77. Everybody who merits a higher rating (78+) gets lumped into the "ESPN 150 Watch List". I'm not sure how many players get thrown onto that list, but I know it far exceeds 150 players.

Midway through the summer, ESPN completed its ratings and decided who are their top 150 players. The very top players end up with ratings in the 90's, but the ratings quickly drop down to the low 80's.

If memory serves, Desmond Scott ended up with a rating of 80, John Drew at 79, and Sean Schroeder at 78. I think the ESPN 150 ended up being cut off amidst players rated 82.

ESPN will re-evaluate each of these players (as well as many other Duke recruits) at least once during their senior years.

There are three things to note about this recruiting class:
(1) Lots of speed. Tons of it. Cutcliffe is living up to his word to implement an SEC philosophy of speed first, and he was really successful with it at Ole Miss.
(2) Cutcliffe is getting good players to commit early, which is impressive for a program with Duke's recent track record, especially since Cutcliffe started recruiting later than most other head coaches because of the job change.
(3) Big-time focus on local players. Previous coaches essentially gave up on NC for recruiting, while Cutcliffe made it a priority. There are ten or so NC recruits, and only two commits come from outside the southeast (one from Maryland, one from California). The local players - and the coaches - are really buying into Cutcliffe and his ability to improve the Duke program.

It's a really positive first class for Cutcliffe, and it's not complete. There are a couple of bigger fish who are holding off to see what Duke does this season, so if Duke gets off to a good start, we might see some strong final additions to complete the class.

Or, if Duke ends up winning only one or two games again (which I don't think will happen), then some of them may decommit.