Notion that its "all about recruiting"

And that we are struggling on the recruiting end is a bunch of crap. First off, these rankings and player evals always overrate guys and miss out on guys. And there is something called coaching and player development, which you could argue is more important than where you finish in recruiting (IMO it is).

Recruiting rankings and average player rating since 2009:
-2009- 1st; .9024
-2010- 8th; .8904
-2011- 8th, .9037
-2012- 14th; .8817
-2013- 6th; .9103
-2014- 2nd; .9049

Average class ranking since 2009: 6.5 in the nation. Going off of class ranking, our best finish in recruiting was in 2009 and our worst was in 2012.

2009 Class
Notable players from 2009: Russell Shepard, Reuban Randle, Craig Loston, Chris Davenport, Chris Faulk, Michael Ford, Sam Montgomery, Mingo, Minter, Brockers, Mo Claiborne, Lamin Barrow, and Bennie Logan.

2012 Class
Notable players from 2012: Kwon, Vadal Alexander, Danielle Hunter, Dwayne Thomas, Lamar Louis, Hawkins, Travin Dural, Debo, Mills, and Jeremy Hill.

A lot of our highly rated players in 2009 were overrated or underperformed and the lesser named and rated recruits were extremely underrated and outperformed their ranking(Mo Claiborne, Barrow, and Logan). While with the 2012 class, I dont think any of those guys were overrated or underperformed and that most of them outperformed their ranking as a recruit. And that the lesser names recruits were def underrated (Hawkins, Dural, Mills, Debo).

These recruiting sites and rankings get a lot wrong. And its impossible to know how a player will develop and what he will be like in 2-3 years. Player development, IMO, is more important than where you finish in recruiting each year. Some of our best players werent highly ranked players and they turned into studs (TM, Alfred Blue, Mo Claiborne, Barrow, Bennie Logan, Dural, Mills, Hawkins, etc.).

And people are sitting here saying that "a top 10 finish isnt good enough anymore".... Really? Really? Miss St average class under Mullen since he got there is 12th in the SEC. 12 out of 14. The only schools he recruited better than are Kentucky and Vandy. And they just went 10-2 in the regular season and 6-2 in SEC play. Hes not getting these big time recruits. But he and his staff are finding these guys that other schools dont want and developing them into very good players.

Its way more than just recruiting. Coaching and player development has more to do with it than what they were ranked coming out of high school. Dont be a star gazer and think that a player will only be as good as what his high school ranking is. Because once they get in college, those stars and rankings dont matter at all. And I have faith in our staff to develop these guys into good football players, regardless of their rating out of high school. And that includes Brandon Harris as our QB for the next few years.... (I hope)