Mailbag question: Recruiting services such as Emfinger's

Posted at 4:00pm -- 10/12/09

Mailbag question: Recruiting services such as Emfinger's

I was curious what you thought of the quality of Max Emfinger's ratings. He seems to rank our commitments higher than the other sites (I found 10 in his top 400, if my count is right). Also, are any of the commits planning on coming early? And if so, which ones?

Go Blue, Ben

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Thanks for the question.

We look at all ratings and recruiting services the same, they will get some kids right and miss on others.

All ratings are the opinion of those who rate them. That includes the write-ups we do here that are our opinions and can easily be debated with other’s opinion. Just like us, we probably see more kids from Ohio than anywhere else. So we are probably a little more biased to those kids than say a kid from the west coast.

Max Emfinger has been specializing in recruiting for quite awhile and is known as a Texas and Southwest specialist. He has expanded some to include other southern states in recent years.

We respect all the guys who put the time and effort into these types of rankings and think they make for excellent conversation and debate.

The problem with some of the recruiting services now is they are getting so big and getting television involved in the process, so that means more money and influence is involved.

The problem with the above scene is right now there are two legitimate big time high school All-American games (Army and ESPN) and we know there are a couple more that are not as glittery, but still invite players from big time schools.

So, sites do some showmanship and who goes to what game sways recruiting rankings somewhat, placing the recruits involved in their game in a favorable manner.

Back in the day recruiting services used to just take Tom Lemming's rankings and then switch them around a little bit just to make it not so obvious that they were stealing the list and making their own without putting the time and effort into these rankings. What made it obvious, at least to us, is when 95 out of the 100 kids were all on the same top 100 list

Most of these recruiting services also appear to favor certain kids that go to their camps, their combines, etc. Therefore they miss out on a lot of kids that cannot afford to go to these type of combines or the travel is to far for them, so they get left off the list or set at a lower rating because the kids are not noticeable by attending these type of camps. It used to be that game film mattered, but a lot of times these sites look more at the measurables at combine camps and the potential of a kid more than what a game film shows.

Another point is with recruiting services it depends where they are located at and what players they are trying to push more. Some might be more southern, so they will push the local kid more than somebody out of the area, especially if the kids are close to being equal.

Just like the NFL draft, where some of these teams spend a lot of money scouting, testing, and working these players out in person, the sites have no definitive idea how the recruits will turn out until they arrive on the practice field against other players at that level.

Written by GBMW Staff

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