U.C. Football Scores High, #1 High

The Sporting News has an interesting read about college football recruiting. Writer Matt Hayes took the average rankings of BCS recruiting classes over the past 5 years and stacked them up against wins. His conclusion: U.C. is #1 in grabbing under appreciated talent and developing that talent into BCS wins. There are flaws in the rating system. U.S.C. scored first in recruiting classes and first in wins. But the Trojans rank 34th overall in doing the most with the least. Based on the system, if you have the top ranked recruiting class, then you are supposed to have the most wins. What really caught my eye was the ranking of Big East schools. U.C., West Virginia, and Louisville grabbed the top 3 spots. UConn was 8th, Rutgers 11th, and South Florida 12th, giving the Big East 6 in the top twelve. Pitt was tied for 42nd and Syracuse was tied for 46th. Ohio State was 23rd, with a recruiting rank of 9 but a wins ranks of 5. Pretty darned good. Kentucky was 18th, with a recruiting class rank of 55 and a wins rank of 48. U.C.'s recruiting rank over the 5 year period was last in the BCS, 66th, while the win rank was tied for 20th. That is impressive. U.C. also received some love in the current issue from Pitt strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris. He was asked to name his best conditioned opponent, and his answer was "Cincinnati". In response to "player you most enjoyed coaching", TCU strength and conditioning coach Don Sommer answered "Justin Smith". Sommer worked with the former Bengal when they were both at the University of Missouri.