Gameplan: Can Texas still put together a championship class in 2022?
today!
Evaluating a recruiting class is a nuanced art. There are a dozen metrics you can use and each have their shortcomings and oversights.
There are a decent number of Texas fans who’d like to throw out recruiting metrics entirely since the Longhorns are coming off a decade in which they finished in the top 25 top on 247Sports every year with five top-5 finishes and seven top-10 finishes…yet were only 47-37 in Big 12 play with zero conference championships.
The class rankings are measured by sheer talent addition. If you sign lots of players and most of them are ranked high, you score well. A class ranking is theoretically undeterred if all your additions play the same position, or if you have glaring holes. Blue chip ratio is another popular metric. You can measure the percentage of your signees who are “blue chips” defined as being given 4 or 5-stars by the recruiting services. Every national champion we’ve had in the modern era of football since we had these composite rankings has had a roster in which at least 50% of the scholarships had been awarded to blue chip recruits.