I've combed through the 247Sports Composite player rankings for every state and picked out RECRUITING CHAMPIONS for each. Which team recruited each state best, going solely off the closest thing we have to consensus player ratings? Here's a map:
This map is not an exhaustive portrait of recruiting. Some teams mostly ignore their own states and thus lose them to lesser recruiting programs. This is just the cost of doing business, and programs that are good enough to recruit nationally can afford being losers on our map.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
Clemson's lack of presence surprises me a little bit. North Carolina's success in this region is concerning. This is a cool map and concept though. Thanks for sharing.
They get theirs in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina but not necessarily at a state champ level. They will rarely out recruit UGA in Georgia, but they could still land half a dozen blue chip recruits from there.
The shocker of the three is how well UNC protected their borders this past cycle. Clemson has probably won NC in the past, and even this cycle they pulled 5 star Will Shipley.
edit: Decided to take a closer look because I had some free time at work just now, and follow up on my point on Clemson's regional approach. I've written a couple long posts about this in the past, how they focus regionally, and in particular they are very opportunistic about capitalizing on other states' schools down years and establish pipelines during those moments.
Here's where Clemson's 17 blue chip recruits came from in their 2021 class: Georgia (4), Florida (3), North Carolina (3), Tennessee (2), Pennsylvania (1), California (1), Texas (1), Maryland (1), Virginia (1).
Here's where Clemson's 17 blue chip recruits came from in their 2020 class: Georgia (4), Florida (3), NC (2), Maryland (1), California (1), Kentucky (1), Alabama (1), DC (1), Texas (1), Virginia (1), Tennessee (1).
Wow super consistent
Ugh, anOSU. That sucks.
I'm a little surprised Clemson only won Tennessee.
Well that sucks, not shocking, but still sucks. Hang this up in the coaches break room.
I don't know if you guys noticed Bernie and Biden in the map but they stood out to me so I had to read the article to find out why they were on there
I lost it laughing when I read this. The comments for Alaska and Maine are pretty great as well.
Haven't read the article yet, but it looks like Cthulhu is the top recruiter in Maine.
Cthulu? Why not Zoidberg?
I'm actually shocked that Montana and Wyoming had at least one rated player, I bet that's not the case in most years. Virginia gives me the sads.
Also, forgot to include this comment:
I listened to Bruce Smith on the hokie hangover and there obviously was a state pride that existed from the 80s to 00s that is lost today. I think there are reasons why mostly originating from the world shrinking these days. But, the tidewater seems to me to be an area that just has a really high opinion of itself (football speaking). For as much as Fuente has been criticised for not having relationships in the 757, it seems to me that it is the recruits/schools that think they are too good for in state schools. I don't know how to fix that.
1000% agree
I don't think recruits are saying 'I'm too good to go to an in state school' - rather, they're saying 'I'm too good to go to the schools that happen to be in my state, because they're all pretty mediocre'
Yeah I am with you. It is like geographical pride has taken a back seat to winning and prestige. Maybe it always has but we were just winning?
At some point, you have to sell a vision - in 1993, Frank Beamer convinced Cornell Brown to join a team that 2-8-1 in the previous season. You need to start somewhere. From there, you can win and build on it.
"For as much as Fuente has been criticised for not having relationships in the 757, it seems to me that it is the recruits/schools that think they are too good for in state schools. I don't know how to fix that."
Think the first step has to be easily winning the games we should easily win. Avoiding the really embarrassing losses like ODU and Wake (as well as the almost as embarrassing wins like Furman). These are happening with disturbing regularity. Games like that will happen now and then, but it's like we are taking 2x the recommended dose of Metamucil lately.
We don't have the talent or coaching to win many really big games*. Again, once in a while may happen (though we have none in the past 5 years), but we should be able to accomplish the no WTF losses or meh-type wins. Do that, then pick up some of these recruits, maybe pull off a big upset somewhere and then try to get the top recruits. Will take time + success.
* Miami, UNC and WVa were pretty good wins, but I don't think we have had a truly big win since OSU.
It takes talent to win though. Yes we should be beating the lesser teams more easily, buy let down games are a reality. Our let down bar has just dropped along with the overall talent level. It is a chicken/egg problem.
Oh yes, very true and totally agree. And as the talent level continues to fall, the level of teams that we should beat easily falls too. But my thought is, first we have to beat whoever they are to really stop digging. Then we can hope to climb out. With the current talent level and current coaching staff that, to me at least, means win all of the following next year by a comfortable margin:
Middle Tennessee State at home
Richmond at home
Syracuse at home
Duke at home
Don't need blow out wins, but not squeakers like Furman either. Do that and also get at least 2-3 wins (and no blow out losses) among WVa, Pitt, BC, GT, UVa and I think that is where the team can establish a bottom to hopefully start climbing out of the hole. Right now, I think we should win each of the individual 4 games above, but I don't have confidence that we will do all 4 as choking due to poor coaching and lackadaisical, unmotivated and undisciplined play in games like that has become common. Have at least this level of success and we have a chance to start moving forward. Lose to Syracuse and get beat 51-14 by Pitt and I don't see much of a way forward.
Kinda sorta agree with you. The kids in Virginia love this state. 2up2down. Repping VA.
They don't have to do it in state, though. Ohio State, Bama, and Clemson have all won nattys with VA kids.
Our coaches need to shift the focus to repping the home state schools. Mike London got top rated VA kids to come to lolUVA, even using 7v7 Thoroughbreds as free advertisement. He couldn't do anything with them in college, but they didn't get to play for VT either. Gotta find that formula.
London had one good year, but Virginia was lost in 2006, Vidal Hazelton and Percy Harvin left and VT and UVA has never been the top recruiting in VA since.
FWIW, here are Top 10 VA recruits that VT has landed from 2003-2020. 2003-2009 rankings are from Rivals. 2010-2020 is from 247:
I forgot about 2012.
2003 and 2008 were pretty good crops
Marshall beat out WVa in WVa? Not that I'm in any way upset about that, but man that was a surprise. So was Oregon State out recruiting Oregon in Oregon. Suggests to me that the state of Oregon did not have many good prospects that year and Oregon just did not want many of them.
The High School talent in WV is pretty sparse - in a good year you may have 5 Power 5 kids. Marshall gets a lot of instate recruits that WVU passes up.
Bryce Biggs is still listed for Marshall for some reason. He's going to WVU. That would give them a definite edge with Wyatt Milum in there too.
We've also expanded our footprint to include Alabama, Texas, Tennessee (with far more regularity than the past), west coast schools, etc.
That's good for us, gives us more opportunities to land quality players. A 3* HS starter from Bama/Tx/TN/GA will be competing week in/out with 4/5* kids going to SEC juggernauts and blue bloods. That's a win win for us. These are competitors with drive that want to succeed, and should be on the top of our list.
Don't know if I believe Arkansas winning Oklahoma
Recruiting is like searching for your first job after graduation.
Job search: Entry level job needs X years experience.
"But how do I get experience without a job."
Recruiting: Recruits want to go where they can win.
"But how do I win without recruits?"
This has been Deep Thoughts with APFOW.
This is silly. One, it's subjective. Two, it doesn't have any relativity - you could not win a single state, but be 2nd in a half dozen states.
To your second point, I could be wrong here, but don't think it was meant to represent recruiting as a whole.
It's almost as if they're saying that you shouldn't look at it through that lens.
Edit: Last I checked not reading the OP wasn't grounds for a downvote. Have a leg.
That's precisely why it's silly - and useless other than for confirmation bias of those whose minds are made up.
Did you actually read the piece? It names Joe Biden as the #1 recruiter in Delaware. It's intended to be silly, or at the very lease mix humor with interesting facts. I'm not sure how it contributes to confirmation bias...