The industry rankings for our past 4 recruiting cycles

2021 classes is pointless as we end of the year with 39 guys in thr squad

21 and 22 were propped up by transfers that are no longer here. The freshman and sophomores are all over the field though.

Looking back over those classes, we've had a lot of defensive busts


2021:

Maason Smith- largely a non factor. Limited playing time as a freshman, lost for the season in game 1 as a sophomore, didn't make much impact coming back from injury as a junior

Sage Ryan- sure he's a multi year starter but certainly hasn't met expectations as a 5 star DB

Damaris McGhee- transferred after 2 seasons


Derrick Davis Jr- moved to RB and transferred


Landon Jackson- transferred after 1 season

Savion Jones- this one worked out

Bryce Langston- transferred after 4 games in 3 seasons

Matthew Langlois- 9 games as a freshman, season ending injury in game 2 2022, missed all of 2023 and medically retired

Zavier Carter- transferred after 2 seasons

Greg Penn- multi year starter


2022:

Harold Perkins- another 5 star, never really consistently pieced it together.

Quency Wiggins- transferred after 2 seasons

LaTerrence Welch- transferred after 2 seasons

Demario Tolab- transferred after 1 season

Jordan Allen- still around, hasn't made into the starting order yet

Jaelyn-Davis Robinson- transferred after 2 seasons

Tygee Hill- transferred after 2 seasons


Should be noted we took a bunch of transfers in this class.. Converse, Brooks, Foucha, Garner, Wingo. Several starters out of that bunch


2023:

It's harder to make judgments here. Guys are only on their 2nd seasons but so far it doesn't look like there's high level impact players ready to come out of this class


DaShawn Womack- 5 star DL that hasn't consistently gotten into the lineup on a thin d-line

Toviano- got into games as a freshman but looks to have wasted his sophomore season coming of his legal issues

Whit Weeks- planted firmly as a starter

Jaxon Howard- transferred after 1 season

Kylin Jackson- been a rotation player early this season.


Ryan Yaites- transferred after 1 season

Christian Braithwaite- transferred after 1 season

Ashton Stamps- season long starter in year 2

Dylan Carpenter- has only played ST

Jeremiah Hughes- transferred after 1 season

Michael Daugherty- transferred after 1 season





I won't go into 2024, it's too early to make declarations on them. But over the previous 3 classes, we've gotten 7 starters.

Maason Smith
Sage Ryan
Savion Jones
Greg Penn
Harold Perkins
Whit Weeks
Ashton Stamps


2021 was particularly bad. A bunch of those guys were 4 stars with a 90+ rating and many didn't work out. I can't tell you what our hit rate is compared to other teams but it feels like we haven't gotten the results relative to the ratings. Even our 5 stars haven't given us quite what you'd want out of 5 star defensive recruits


2021 and 2022 really set us back. 2021 was a bust class and 2022 we didn't take a lot of high school recruits and instead loaded up on transfers to salvage Kellys first class after the coaching change. We got a season out of those transfers and now the guys that should have been juniors and seniors just aren't there for us.

It mainly depends on who is under center. You can have 5 top ranked classes and it wouldn't matter if your QB is garbage.

It isn't about ranking. It is about properly filling out your roster.

Agreed. This also falls on the coaches though

Including 2021 in that list is dumb. Most of that class left after Coach O was fired.

Kelly needs to finish with this recruiting class. If he loses this class and sucks next year then he needs to be shown the door. He has one more year and it would only be fair that he gets it. No more excuses starting next year though.

Ruh roh…

Nuss isn't even in the same stratosphere as Jordan. Nuss is a soft QB who folds under pressure, at least Jordan had heart.