UK vs. UofL Recruiting Rankings by the numbers

[trueblujr2]

On the drive home today all I hear on the radio during the sports segments was UK's dismal class ranked next to last in the SEC, while UofL's great class was middle of the pack in the ACC.

Lets look at some numbers according to the Rivals Recruiting Rankings.

UofL ranked 32, UK tied for 35
6 of the top 10 teams were SEC teams.
2 of the top 10 teams were ACC teams
11 of the top 25 teams were SEC teams
3 of the top 25 teams were ACC teams (FSU and Clemson ranked 3 & 4 Respectively, you had to go all the way to Number 24 to find the next ACC team Virginia Tech)
UofL ranked 6th in the ACC (if they were in the SEC they would have ranked 12th, Just ahead of lowly UK)
UK ranked 13th in the SEC (if they were in the ACC they would have ranked 7th, just behind the Mighty UofL Cardinals)
4 ACC teams finished lower than the lowest ranked SEC team Vandy. (52 Wake Forest, 61 Duke, 62 Syracuse, 72 Pitt)
The 3rd place ACC team Virginia Tech, would have finished 11th in the SEC.

So UofL finished middle of the road in a conference that has all of two teams that can compete with the SEC in recruiting.

The difference between a class ranked #32 and a class ranked #35 is so minimal its hardly noticeable, but if that's what they want to hang their hat on so be it.

 

[vhcat70]

4 out of 5 years UK ought to be able to out-recruit LV. Better facilities, better conference.

 

[AbsoluteCats]

Stoops first year UK ranked 29 UL ranked 53....Stoops second year UK ranked 17 UL ranked 40....this years a push because they are only ranked higher because they signed more players...plus our class does not have any convicted criminals in it....Plus the highest rated UL commit is not likely to qualify...actually they have 3-4 that might not qualify. Let's see where the classes rank in the fall when kids are on campus.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

When you are a school who is willing to take every cast off from any school in the country recruiting HS kids doesnt' carry the same weight it does at programs who don't hand out "second chances" like candy on Halloween. As long as they continue that practice their recruiting ranking will be misleading, it doesn't score former 5* Josh Harvey Clemons or 4* Shaq Wiggins or the kid they just got from TCU who is a former 4* and a proven elite D1 talent.

Now I don't fault the kids for wanting to continue their career, if most of us were elite level athletes with a dream of making the NFL we would probably look for a place to continue that dream. But as a fan I would be embarassed if my school seemed to have a policy of "send us all your misfits, discipline issues and criminals". But they made 3rd and Grantham the highest paid assistant coach in college football, so I guess they don't get embarassed.

 

[Tannerdad]

It is more shocking that UL, which considers itself elite, does not recruit better than it does. They have gone to BCS Bowls, had great records and by some accounts, have the god of coaches on the sidelines. Hell, they even had a known cheater (Hurtt) roaming for a while. And the world's greatest AD to boot (according to many UK and UL fans).

If you believe the hype that is UL, then they should have top 15-20 recruting every year.

 

[BigBlueCatNation]

Who cares? If UK fans keep comparing themselves to UL, UK will NEVER get to where it wants to be. Quite frankly, I get tired of seeing these threads, as I want more from the program. Let's start comparing ourselves to teams that actually matter.

Sorry for the rant, but seeing these threads just gets old QUICK.

 

[bluescat92]

I'm with bigbluecatnation, the more of the bs comparisons with UofLsucksville and Neckbracetrino only gives the looserville haters foder to bash our fans, players, coaches and school. We're in the toughest league in the country and the ACC has only two other schools that can compare and they will jump ship the first chance they get. Let their dimwit, brainless, delusional fans suffer in silence on their own board. Their ship is sinking and in a couple seasons will be rock bottom.

 

[kats23]

And UL finished 9-4 and UK finished 5-7. Win some games and you can put them safely in the rearview mirror.

 

[STEVE!]

Originally posted by BigBlueCatNation:
Who cares? If UK fans keep comparing themselves to UL, UK will NEVER get to where it wants to be. Quite frankly, I get tired of seeing these threads, as I want more from the program. Let's start comparing ourselves to teams that actually matter.

Sorry for the rant, but seeing these threads just gets old QUICK.

Amen, Brother! The number of UL comparison threads here borders on obsession and makes us look like Little Brother. Be more concerned that we are 13th in the conference in which we play eight games, and are barely above Vanderbilt. Why can't we get to the point where we compare our recruiting and overall program to Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, etc.? I've been following and suffering with UK since the John Ray days, and I've always hoped to see the day when we would be the 7th best team in the SEC, not being compared to the 7th best team in a weaker conference.

I also apologize for this rant.

 

[docholiday51]

Originally posted by BigBlueCatNation:
Who cares? If UK fans keep comparing themselves to UL, UK will NEVER get to where it wants to be. Quite frankly, I get tired of seeing these threads, as I want more from the program. Let's start comparing ourselves to teams that actually matter.

Sorry for the rant, but seeing these threads just gets old QUICK.

Glad someone put this out there,sure they are a rival that we dislike and want to beat but we worry about what they are doing way to much.Improving our stock in the SEC should be our first priority.UL is a 2nd rate athletic program that spends a lot of time trying to be something they are not,and even more time and effort trying to convince the rest of the world that they are more than they are.

They finally made it to a 2nd rate football conference,and will struggle to win there as time goes on.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by AbsoluteCats:
....this years a push because they are only ranked higher because they signed more players..

People have to stop saying this. Rivals ranks the top 20 players in a class. After that it does not matter. So, Louisville could have signed 45 players and their class would be ranked the same as where it is. Same with UK. We both signed at least 20 so rivals has us ranked based upon that fact. Other than that, good post.

 

[gossie21]

It's probably more helpful to look at the recruiting rankings going back 4 years to see how UK and UofL will stack up.

2015:
UofL #32, UK #35

2014:
UofL #40, UK #17

2013:
UofL #52, UK #29

2012:
UofL #42, UK #63

It's a bit of a mixed bag. UofL's 2012 class is far and away better than UK's but still pretty low nationally. UK recruited very well, and much better than UofL in 2013 and 2014. 2015 there really isn't a whole lot of separation.

 

[Comebakatz3]

If someone can help me then I could post some pretty decent information. I compiled a list of the schools that also offered UK and UL signees. That way we can compare their overall offer lists. However, I compiled this in Excel and it won't let me just copy and paste. Anyone know of a way I can post it?

 

[Comebakatz3]

[/URL]Nevermind, I got it. 72 schools offered Kentucky signees adding up to a total of 130 scholarship offers. An average of 6 different offers per recruit.

**Disclaimer... I am horrible at math, and I didn't really double check everything so, don't railroad me if I am wrong. lol

Kentucky:


Akron 3


Alabama


Appalachian St.


Arkansas 3


Auburn


Boston Coll. 3


Bowling Green


Cent. Michigan


Charlotte 2


Cincinnati 6


Clemson


Connecticut 3


Duke 2


East Carolina


East. Michigan


Elon


Florida 4


Florida Atlantic 2


Florida Intl. 3


Georgia Southern


Georgia Tech 4


Idaho


Illinois 7


Indiana 7


Iowa


Iowa


Iowa State 2


Louisville 7


Marshall 5


Maryland 2


Miami (FL) 3


Michigan


Michigan St. 3


Middle Tenn. St. 2


Minnesota 3


Mississippi 3


Mississippi St. 3


Missouri


N.C. State 6


Nebraska 3


Nevada


Notre Dame


Ohio St. 2


Oklahoma


Old Dominion 3


Oregon State


Penn. State 2


Pittsburg 4


Purdue 3


Rutgers 2


South Alabama 2


South Florida 4


Southern Miss


Syracuse 4


Tennessee


Toledo 3


Troy


UAB 2


UCF 4


UCLA


Umass 2


USC


Utah


Virginia 4


Virginia Tech 2


W. Kentucky 3


W. Michigan 4


Wake Forest 7


Washington St. 2


West Virginia 5


Wisconsin

This post was edited on 2/5 4:09 PM by Comebakatz3

 

[Comebakatz3]

The numbers by each one represent the number of scholarships that school offered. Also, I only used Rivals list so it may not be entirely accurate as it would be if I pulled all sources. I think 94 different schools offered Louisville a total of 249 scholarships to their signees. That is about 11 scholarship offers per signee.

Louisville:

Akron 2

Alabama 2

Alabama St.

Alcorn St.

Appalachian St. 3

Arizona St.

Arkansas

Auburn 6

Ball St.

Boston Coll.

Bowling Green

California

Charleston Sou.

Charlotte

Cincinnati 10

Clemson 5

Colorado

Connecticut

Duke

East Carolina 2

Elon

Florida 4

Florida Atlantic 3

Florida Intl. 2

Florida St. 3

Fresno St.

Furman

Georgia

Georgia Southern

Georgia St. 3

Georgia Tech 2

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Iowa St. 3

Jacksonville St. 4

James Madison

Kansas St. 2

Kennesaw St.

Kentucky 6

La. Lafayet. 4

LSU 2

Marshall 4

Maryland

Memphis 5

Miami (FL) 5

Michigan St.

Middle Tenn. St. 6

Minnesota 2

Mississippi 3

Mississippi St. 13

Missouri 4

N. Carolina 3

N.C. Central

N.C. State 3

Nebraska 4

Nevada

Northern Illinois

Ohio St. 2

Oklahoma

Old Dominon

Purdue 4

Rutgers

S. Carolina St.

South Alabama 4

South Carolina 4

South Florida 7

Southern Miss 5

Syracuse 4

Temple

Tennessee 3

Texas

Texas A&M

Texas St.

Toledo

Troy 4

Tulane

UAB 6

UCF 3

USC

Utah

Utah St.

UTSA

Vanderbilt

Virginia

Virginia Tech

W. Kentucky 3

Wake Forest

Washington St.

Washington St.

West Virginia 4

Wisconsin

 

[Comebakatz3]

One thing that I noticed was that rivals did not have our offensive linemen as having many big name offers. That is a little disheartening to me. However, I am mostly just providing this information to discuss, and I am not currently drawing any real conclusions from it.

 

[fuzz77]

Originally posted by gossie21:
It's probably more helpful to look at the recruiting rankings going back 4 years to see how UK and UofL will stack up.

2015:
UofL #32, UK #35

2014:
UofL #40, UK #17

2013:
UofL #52, UK #29

2012:
UofL #42, UK #63

It's a bit of a mixed bag. UofL's 2012 class is far and away better than UK's but still pretty low nationally. UK recruited very well, and much better than UofL in 2013 and 2014. 2015 there really isn't a whole lot of separation.

Actually, this year if you added Hart and Love (the Nebraska xfers) and used their ratings from when they signed with NU, UK would end up bumping UL out of the #32 spot knocking them down to #33.
Of course UL has added several convicts that don't show up in their rankings either...

 

[Global Havok]

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
One thing that I noticed was that rivals did not have our offensive linemen as having many big name offers. That is a little disheartening to me. However, I am mostly just providing this information to discuss, and I am not currently drawing any real conclusions from it.

I'm not sure how accurate this site is, but they rank recruiting classes based on offers. They have an explanation of how points get awarded, but basically every offer a recruit receives is given a point amount based on the success of the program that offered the recruit. For example, an offer from Bama is worth more than an offer from Middle Tennessee State. They won't update the 2015 rankings until 2-08.

Link

 

[Comebakatz3]

Originally posted by Global Havok:

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
One thing that I noticed was that rivals did not have our offensive linemen as having many big name offers. That is a little disheartening to me. However, I am mostly just providing this information to discuss, and I am not currently drawing any real conclusions from it.

I'm not sure how accurate this site is, but they rank recruiting classes based on offers. They have an explanation of how points get awarded, but basically every offer a recruit receives is given a point amount based on the success of the program that offered the recruit. For example, an offer from Bama is worth more than an offer from Middle Tennessee State. They won't update the 2015 rankings until 2-08.

lol, well hell... I took two hours out of my day to do that when I could have clicked a link. Where were you around noon today when I started this?!

Thanks for the link.

 

[jauk11]

Kind of a mixed bag, and the offers for the previous years also, especially the 12 class compared to UL. One thing that makes a big difference is a lot of the OL committed early and seemed faithful, that cuts way down on their offers, no one wants to lose to UK.

Thanks for all the hard work, interesting, don't have time to look at it much right now.

 

[hmt5000]

if the "people who know" really know what they are talking about then i dont care what the rankings say because outside of the jucos.. our staff passed on a few kids that ended up at ul and feel they did better by waiting on other signees. our o-line had all 4 kids commit early and stick. gaa got his rating before he verbaled but the other guys were blue and never took other inquiries. stenberg especially would of been bumped if he had still been out there shopping around. livingston is a project but has all the tools you want for a left tackle... just needs to add weight... a lot of weight.

 

[*Bleedingblue*]

Noticed that UL had a visit by Kentavious Thomas a RB out of Georgia who had originally been committed to miss st. He paid them a visit this past weekend, noticed that he has not committed to anybody and it is projected that he is going to UL by the crystal ball.

 

[jauk11]

Originally posted by *Bleedingblue*:
Noticed that UL had a visit by Kentavious Thomas a RB out of Georgia who had originally been committed to miss st. He paid them a visit this past weekend, noticed that he has not committed to anybody and it is projected that he is going to UL by the crystal ball.

Well, is he a four star, and has he beat up anyone lately? Not everyone qualifies at UL you know. And wouldn't they have to kick someone else out to take him like they did their last recruit?

Oh well, no problem there.

Wait, aren't they catching a little hell over that, finally? Unless he meets their high standards he probably won't get an offer, has to have been in trouble at least once and an upgrade over their lowest rated commit.

 

[*Bleedingblue*]

I think it was an obvious lie that Was told to the South Carolina kid. Saying they needed more db's in the class and tell him to take a hike and all the while they had another guy visiting at the same time who they obviously thought and is a better prospect at the same position.
I think by them telling the kid to look elsewhere backfired on them and they have some major bad pub out if it. Now if they take this kid right now Wow!! I doubt any sane HS coach would let saint bobby set 1 foot in their HS again.
I'm wondering if they let things die down a little and then have this kid come in at the start of summer session so things can go unnoticed and nobody be the wiser.

 

[Blue Decade]

Originally posted by BigBlueCatNation:
Who cares? If UK fans keep comparing themselves to UL, UK will NEVER get to where it wants to be. Quite frankly, I get tired of seeing these threads, as I want more from the program. Let's start comparing ourselves to teams that actually matter.

+1

 

[jte123]

Agree w this. Also Petrino kicked our ass while at western kentucky. UK has to steep it up!

 

[WhiteCityCat1]

Originally posted by ukbob:
It is more shocking that UL, which considers itself elite, does not recruit better than it does. They have gone to BCS Bowls, had great records and by some accounts, have the god of coaches on the sidelines. Hell, they even had a known cheater (Hurtt) roaming for a while. And the world's greatest AD to boot (according to many UK and UL fans).

If you believe the hype that is UL, then they should have top 15-20 recruting every year.

I still wish we had a LIKE button on here , I'd push it now.