Starless in Storrs

Disclaimer: The amount of stars a player receives from recruiting sites is not necessarily indicative of how good he will be. I repeat: the amount of stars a player receives from recruiting sites is not necessarily indicative of how good he will be.

Having said that, let’s face it: we’d all prefer to see a UConn recruit rated with more stars than fewer stars. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We don’t have a ton of information to base our opinions on regarding the players we’re recruiting. Thus, we form our opinions largely based on the information we are given. Much of the information we have about our recruits comes from recruiting sites. So it totally made sense for us to freak out when Randy Edsall brought in a bunch of 2-star or unrated recruits. And it totally makes sense for us to freak out when Bob Diaco brings in… a bunch of 2-star or unrated recruits…

Wait, what? Yeah, it’s true. According to Rivals, five of our eight commits are rated as 2-star players (Tyler Davis, Ben Hartwick, Kevin Murphy, Philippe Okounam, Marshe Terry) and the other three are unrated (Ian Campbell, Connor Freeborn, Aaron McLean). Additionally- again, according to Rivals- our eight recruits combine for a total of zero offers from the five major conferences. And on top of that, only one of our recruits even has an offer from an FBS school (Kevin Murphy).

So what does all of this mean? On one hand, there’s the fact that more often than not 4-star and 5-star players end up being better than 2-star and unrated players. That’s a fact that even recruiting-site bashers shouldn’t deny. Sure, there are many exceptions to the rule, but they’re still just that: exceptions, not the rule. The same goes for players with lots of offers from the five major conferences, and for players with multiple FBS offers. If you’re looking for a reason to be concerned, that’s it right there.

Then there’s the other side of the coin. All of our recruits are huge! There’s no question that size has been a major recruiting focus for the staff thus far. Just like everyone would prefer a 5-star over a 2-star, everyone would love to have a 6’6 receiver instead of a 6’3 receiver. That’s not to suggest that a shorter receiver can’t be better than a taller receiver, but if 6’3 Geremy Davis had a choice of being three inches taller or not, he’d take the three inches.

Another reason to be optimistic is the strength and conditioning program. From everything we’ve heard, it has already yielded substantial results in a pretty short amount of time. Doing blood panels and other cool stuff like that? It can’t hurt and there’s certainly a potential upside. Heck, it even fits UConn’s overall science-leaning as a school.

Then there’s Diaco’s enthusiasm and ability to fire up his followers. His ability to inspire others was clear right from his introductory press conference. His ability to build a sense of community was evident when he brought his players from practice in full pads to welcome home the basketball teams after their triumphs.

So should we be worried about the lack of stars attached to our commits? One could make the argument that we’re all bedazzled by Diaco right now and are overlooking the (possible) lack of talent we have coming in. After all, they’re the ones who are actually going to be on the field…and they lack stars…

We will find out starting August 29th. Let’s go UConn!

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