My Grade for this Class (Kinda Long but I Think it's Decent haha)

So I posted my abbreviated thoughts in a different thread, but it turned into a big flame, name-calling fest so I figured I'd try again. For anyone who has intelligible critiques, comments or questions please join in. I am always eager and willing to discuss Tiger football. For any who simply wish to sling mud and insults, please stay away. Now on to the thoughts.

Recruiting class grade: A/A-
Recruiting job by the coaches: C+/B-

Seems awful weird to break these into two different categories, but I think it's extremely important and worth discussing. Let's be honest there are simply some states that are easier to recruit to than others. A state like Louisiana where you have a continent-sized amount of talent and studs everywhere plus only one flagship school is basically a recruiting Casino where you're Rainman.

I made the Clemson example in the other thread and I think it still holds plenty of water. South Carolina didn't produce a single 5 star this year whereas Louisiana produced 3. However, a team with a losing record last year signed more 5 stars than us, all out-of-state.

Some were asking if an out-of-state recruit counts for more than an instate recruit. No, this is obviously not true, but what is true is it's significantly more difficult to get someone like Tony Steward to say in front of a packed gym that was doing the Tomahawk chant and waving FSU flags that he was going to their division rival than it was for LSU coaches to get someone like Collins to go to LSU.

The saving graces of this coaching staff when it comes to recruiting are Wilson and Cooper. You can directly attribute the LOIs of Freak and Landry to Wilson. Without him, they don't sign here. And Cooper once again validated his skills as being the best DB evaluator in the nation. Collins, Jenkins and Eugene are all studs who will play in the league with his coaching.

My complaints of the coaching staff are three. First, Chavis simply has got to improve as a recruiter. His developmental skills are second to none, but he really struggles getting the best canvases to work with. I mentioned that this was one of the deepest LB classes in a long time. We really could've added a couple bigtime studs (I think Randle is good but he's still just one).

There were two critiques of this theory. The first was that there are bigtime studs instate next year at LB. First off, I have never EVER been a proponent of the "but we have so-and-so next year" theory. Second, I think the instate crop is somewhat overrated next year; not bad but there are no CJ or Anthony or Stewards in that class.

The second is that we already have plenty of depth at LB. Sure we have quite a few bodies, but we're lacking elite athleticism and playmaking ability IMO. We're also lacking bigtime size. People say we don't need to carry as many LBs because we use so much 4-2-5 personnel, and it is true we have used this personnel quite a lot the past two years.

This was out of necessity not desire IMO and it really hurt our ability to set the edge. Because of this you saw us use under fronts so frequently as well as send Mathieu off the edge so often. The problem with this is you're committing so many bodies to the edge because you're undersized that it really puts pressure on your interior LBS and missed tackles can result in huge gains. An athletic OLB with size like Anthony or Steward would have been monster in this class.

My second critique is our move away from East Texas. I don't know who was supposed to be recruiting this area but they severely dropped the ball this year (and of all the years to do-so). I know there's tons of recruits in Florida but it's so much farther and there's not the LSU contingent like there is in East Texas.

So all in all I think the class is very good but I simply can't give it an A+ or the coaches an A grade when we were out-recruited by Alabama for the 4th year in a row (and by Auburn in 2 out of the 3 sites) in a class that we've been talking up for years. Hell we had three 5 stars committed before the end of the summer and we still couldn't out-do the midget. They also took one less LOI than us so it wasn't our restrictions that hurt us.

That's all. I know many won't read this, but for those who do I'd appreciate any thoughts (looks like we'll all be snowed in too so we have time). Have a good one!