Ok, we're all pissed off. We all can agree this program isn't where we want it. There's a lot of debate on why that is though and I've seen a number of posts claiming the talent gap either is or is not significantly to blame. I for one think it is, many seem to disagree. Some posters have said that the recruiting results from Odom's last couple years were in line with what GP did during his tenure, but we're seeing drastically poorer results. I didn't think that was true (Odom's classes being similar to GPs) but decided to look it up.
I arbitrarily went back to 2008 and pulled together each recruiting class ranking since then:
GP
2008: 25
2009: 40
2010: 21
2011: 48
2012: 31
2013: 41
2014: 34
2015: 27
Avg. 33.4
BO
2016: 47
2017: 49
2018: 39
2019: 34
Avg: 42.3
Purely from a class ranking standpoint, GPs classes during that timeframe were 33.4 while BO's were 42.3. A fairly considerable difference. That said, the argument could be made that BO's recruiting got better in his 4 years, when in 2018 and 2019 he had the 39th and 34th ranked classes, respectively. Not drastically different than GP's 33.4 average but still higher. So, I went back to BO's highest ranked class from 2019. That class had 22 signees and an average star rating of 5.6. Of those 22 in the class, only 12 are still on the roster. Those remaining are:
Jamie Pettway
Darius Robinson
Devin Nocholson
Isaiah McGuire
Niko Hea
Luke Griffen
Jalani Williams
Stacy Brown
Ishmael Burdine
Martez Manuel
Chris Shearin
Connor Bazelak
Those 12 comprise 3 offensive players and 9 defensive players. 7 of the 12 have played in all 7 games this year, but with the exception of Martez Manual I'm not sure you'd consider any of them at an above average player, and that's probably being generous.
So even in Odom's best year of recruiting (as measured in class rank), it is below GP's average class rank over an extended period, it only has 12 players left on the current roster, and really none of them are standouts. There's an argument to be made that part of the reason for that is ED's staff not developing them into what they're capable of being. The more likely scenario though is despite their star rankings, many of these guys just weren't superior talents. I mean no disrespect when saying that, but its confirmed when you go back and look at their other offers when they chose Mizzou.
I very well may just be searching for something to give me optimism, but from the data I see it seems clear we are dreadfully short on talent and we need to be patient here.
I arbitrarily went back to 2008 and pulled together each recruiting class ranking since then:
GP
2008: 25
2009: 40
2010: 21
2011: 48
2012: 31
2013: 41
2014: 34
2015: 27
Avg. 33.4
BO
2016: 47
2017: 49
2018: 39
2019: 34
Avg: 42.3
Purely from a class ranking standpoint, GPs classes during that timeframe were 33.4 while BO's were 42.3. A fairly considerable difference. That said, the argument could be made that BO's recruiting got better in his 4 years, when in 2018 and 2019 he had the 39th and 34th ranked classes, respectively. Not drastically different than GP's 33.4 average but still higher. So, I went back to BO's highest ranked class from 2019. That class had 22 signees and an average star rating of 5.6. Of those 22 in the class, only 12 are still on the roster. Those remaining are:
Jamie Pettway
Darius Robinson
Devin Nocholson
Isaiah McGuire
Niko Hea
Luke Griffen
Jalani Williams
Stacy Brown
Ishmael Burdine
Martez Manuel
Chris Shearin
Connor Bazelak
Those 12 comprise 3 offensive players and 9 defensive players. 7 of the 12 have played in all 7 games this year, but with the exception of Martez Manual I'm not sure you'd consider any of them at an above average player, and that's probably being generous.
So even in Odom's best year of recruiting (as measured in class rank), it is below GP's average class rank over an extended period, it only has 12 players left on the current roster, and really none of them are standouts. There's an argument to be made that part of the reason for that is ED's staff not developing them into what they're capable of being. The more likely scenario though is despite their star rankings, many of these guys just weren't superior talents. I mean no disrespect when saying that, but its confirmed when you go back and look at their other offers when they chose Mizzou.
I very well may just be searching for something to give me optimism, but from the data I see it seems clear we are dreadfully short on talent and we need to be patient here.
