I’ve been big into our recruiting classes for the past couple of years, and wanted to take a look at our past history to see if I could uncover any interesting trends. I wanted to look specifically at the “Star” system that is used to rate players on Rivals and every other recruiting site out there to see what the impact/success rate was for our straight-up WR recruits. I judged players on their overall performance on the field and their impact to helping Tech win football games. Some players were tweeners (see L.A. Reed), but I tried to keep it as tight as possible.

I was only able to scan the recruiting classes back to 2002, and used Rivals as my reference point (so by no means is this a scientific study). Keep in mind that I’m cognizant that there are a number of factors as to why players play and perform well at the collegiate level (making grades, willingness, discipline, health, attitude, etc. etc.), so keep that in consideration when reviewing this as well.

This breakdown covers 2002-2008 recruiting classes. I didn’t want to include 2009 because I figured most of those recruits were either red-shirted or played limited time in 2009.

Note again: These are players that were recruited as WR's not Athletes (hence the omission of Crabtree)

4 STAR
1. Marquis Johnson – WR - Hutchinson, Kansas (JUCO) - 2004

Impact Players (0%)

3 STAR
1. Thomas Backman – WR - Shreveport, LA (Evangel Christian) – 2002
2. Danny Amendola – WR - The Woodlands, TX (The Woodlands) – 2004
3. Chris Cunigan – WR - Wills Point, TX (Wills Point) – 2005
4. Steven Harris – WR - Lewisville, TX (Hebron) – 2006
5. Jacob Amie – WR - Tyler, TX (Tyler Lee) – 2007
6. Jacoby Franks – WR - Orange, TX (West Orange Stark) – 2007
7. Rashad Hawk – WR - Copperas Cove, TX (Copperas Cove) – 2007
8. Detron Lewis – WR - College Station, TX (A&MConsolidated) – 2007
9. Tramain Swindall – WR - Oklahoma City, OK (Millwood) – 2007

Impact Players (33.3%):
1. Danny Amendola
2. Detron Lewis
3. Tramain Swindall

2 STAR
1. Joel Filani – WR – Phoenix, AZ (Paradise Valley) – 2002
2. Jarrett Hicks – WR – Houston, TX (Sharpstown) – 2002
3. L.A. Reed – WR – Conroe, TX (Oak Ridge) – 2004
4. Lyle Leong – WR – Abilene, TX (Abilene) – 2006

Impact Players (75%):
1. Joel Filani
2. Jarrett Hicks
3. Lyle Leong

My conclusion is simple: Don’t pay too much attention to the stars.

4 Star: Not enough players to do an accurate assessment.

3 Star: Was surprised with so few underperformers, but it should be noted that half of the players in this group were listed as “Athlete” coming out of High School which makes them a bit of a wild card where the could end up.

2 Star: Perhaps the 2 star impact players feel that they have more to prove and work harder on the field?