Putting Players in NFL. UConn Does Well.

[UConnJim]

Now that recruiting is over, I think it is more important to look at how many players from each school gets drafted into the NFL as this is a measure of recruiting and player development. It is my contention that Northeastern football players are not as fully developed as other areas of the country and develop in college.

Here is a look at NFL draft picks from 2007 to 2012 from all BCS conferences, with UConn included to see where we stand. (Why 2007 to 2012? This is the real time frame that UConn was in and recruited at a BCS level, or 2004 freshman.)

ACC

Clemson 22, Miami 21, Virginia Tech 20, UNC 18, Pitt 17, FSU 15, GT 14, Louisville 14, UConn 13, Wake Forest 11, Virginia 11, NC State 10, BC 9, Syracuse 8, Duke 0.

Big 12

Texas 26, Oklahoma 23, TCU 15, UConn 13, West Virginia 11, Baylor 9, Texas Tech 9, Kansas St. 8, Oklahoma St. 8, Kansas 7, Iowa St. 4.

Big 10

Ohio St. 27, Iowa 22, Michigan 20, Penn St. 20, Nebraska 20, Wisconsin 16, UConn 13, Rutgers 13, Illinois 12, Maryland 12, Michigan St. 10, Purdue 10, Indiana 6, Minnesota 4, Northwestern 3.

Pac 12

USC 42, California 20, Oregon 16, Arizona 15, Oregon St. 15, Arizona St. 14, Utah 14, UConn 13, Stanford 10, UCLA 10, Colorado 9, Washington 6, Washington St. 5.

SEC

LSU 30, Florida 27, Georgia 25, Alabama 19, Auburn 19, Tennessee 18, Arkansas 15, South Carolina 14, UConn 13, Missouri 13, Mississippi 11, Kentucky 9, Texas A&M 9, Miss St. 7, Vanderbilt 6.

 

[uconnflyer88]

Are we talking guys getting legit playing time, or just being able to use the facilities?

 

[Dann]

great job jim! and this year we should get anywhere from 3-5 kids drafted i think which will only help the #'s. iowa and kirk is impressive hugh?


-note to football program, print this out and pump it on the trail....

 

[jrazz12]

Quite frankly, wow

 

[Dann]

@uconnjim can i post this elsewhere?

 

[businesslawyer]

What a great post. Unfortunately, there must be a flaw in the research because the only conclusion from your research is that there is not the big talent gap between us and our opponents that the media has told me exists.

What it really says, which we all should have known without this type of empirical data, is how amazing our former coach was at getting NFL talent in the door and developed without having the ability or desire to actually win recruiting battles against big time opposition.

 

[BNich]

PUtting it on paper as you did really makes me smile to see those numbers compared some other "bigger" programs.

 

[BNich]

Are we talking guys getting legit playing time, or just being able to use the facilities?

Kids want to get to the NFL. Uconn can help get them there. Once drafted it is up to them to earn the playing time. Also kids can't choose who they are drafted by. Some are drafted into poor situations, log jams at positions etc. But this still goes back to working hard and earning playing time. Because of that, I would say getting drafted alone is huge, doesn't matter if they earn significant playing time or just use of facilities when comparing draftees.

 

[uconnflyer88]

Kids want to get to the NFL. Uconn can help get them there. Once drafted it is up to them to earn the playing time. Also kids can't choose who they are drafted by. Some are drafted into poor situations, log jams at positions etc. But this still goes back to working hard and earning playing time. Because of that, I would say getting drafted alone is huge, doesn't matter if they earn significant playing time or just use of facilities when comparing draftees.

So then does that number 13 include only draftees or undrafted free agents?

 

[UConnJim]

@uconnjim can i post this elsewhere?

Sure. We need to use this info to show we belong!

 

[UConnJim]

So then does that number 13 include only draftees or undrafted free agents?

Drafted players only.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

What a great post. Unfortunately, there must be a flaw in the research because the only conclusion from your research is that there is not the big talent gap between us and our opponents that the media has told me exists.

What it really says, which we all should have known without this type of empirical data, is how amazing our former coach was at getting NFL talent in the door and developed without having the ability or desire to actually win recruiting battles against big time opposition.

I'm just glad you were able to use this opportunity to start another argument.

It's really compelling because you're using evidence from 2007-2010 to prove that a 2011 had a really talented team with exactly zero good offensive draft prospects.

 

[pj]

What a great post. Unfortunately, there must be a flaw in the research because the only conclusion from your research is that there is not the big talent gap between us and our opponents that the media has told me exists.

What it really says, which we all should have known without this type of empirical data, is how amazing our former coach was at getting NFL talent in the door and developed without having the ability or desire to actually win recruiting battles against big time opposition.

There's no flaw. What it says is: (1) Depth is the key to winning in college football. We have had high-end talent but not depth. (2) The northeast has a lot of excellent but raw athletes who can develop into NFL players with proper grooming. UConn coaches have found these athletes and developed them effectively.

Whether our former coach was amazing, or northeast athletes are under-recruited, is not clear to me. Maybe both.

 

[UConnJim]

There's no flaw. What it says is: (1) Depth is the key to winning in college football. We have had high-end talent but not depth. (2) The northeast has a lot of excellent but raw athletes who can develop into NFL players with proper grooming. UConn coaches have found these athletes and developed them effectively.

Whether our former coach was amazing, or northeast athletes are under-recruited, is not clear to me. Maybe both.

pj -

I think our talent level has been decent, but not to the level of the top BCS schools. I think the lack of solid BCS QBs and a mixed offensive philosophy have been holding back the success.

 

[businesslawyer]

There's no flaw. What it says is: (1) Depth is the key to winning in college football. We have had high-end talent but not depth. (2) The northeast has a lot of excellent but raw athletes who can develop into NFL players with proper grooming. UConn coaches have found these athletes and developed them effectively.

Whether our former coach was amazing, or northeast athletes are under-recruited, is not clear to me. Maybe both.

I do think the Northeast is underrated in terms of judging its recruits. But note that we put more players into the NFL over that period than either BC or Syracuse, and each of those peer schools were, according to the ratings, doing materially better than us in bringing players into their programs..

 

[sportsart]

I'm 100% sure recruits are shown the 13 draft picks from UConn. I would hope they show the comparison with schools we recruit against.

 

[CL82]

..and as our recruiting pool improves those numbers will go up. It would be great if the performance of the bigger schools could be discounted based upon incoming rankings. Sending a low ranked or an unranked kid to the NFL is a much bigger win than sending a five star kid.

 

[Pmurph678]

I wish one of those 13 was a quarterback....

 

[huskymedic]

I wish one of those 13 was a quarterback....

Are we not counting Danny O as a QB or am I missing a joke/slap?

 

[Husky68]

Duke had a nice round number. For all the rumored "Uconn sucks at football" from FSU would think they were a NFL talent factory.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I'm 100% sure recruits are shown the 13 draft picks from UConn. I would hope they show the comparison with schools we recruit against.

I assume you've been inside Burton/Shenkman? If not, go, and check out the main hallway from the Burton building into the Shenkman. It's place designed exactly for this subject of this thread.

 

[Jarhead_1775]

Are we not counting Danny O as a QB or am I missing a joke/slap?

He left out years prior because we came to the end of a full recruiting cycle in the bcs era of our program.

 

[huskymedic]

I wish one of those 13 was a quarterback....

Are we not counting Danny O as a QB or am I missing a joke/slap?

He left out years prior because we came to the end of a full recruiting cycle in the bcs era of our program.

Ah - missed dates, my bad. Thanks!

 

[sdhusky]

What a great post. Unfortunately, there must be a flaw in the research because the only conclusion from your research is that there is not the big talent gap between us and our opponents that the media has told me exists.

What it really says, which we all should have known without this type of empirical data, is how amazing our former coach was at getting NFL talent in the door and developed without having the ability or desire to actually win recruiting battles against big time opposition.

What Edsall did a great job is identifying really, really fast guys who, for whatever reason, didn't get publicity. They were NFL quality athletes the day they arrrived on campus. If there were HS combines, they were have blown out guys with more stars.

I would also say he got lucky with offensive linemen who really had good frames and really developed. Except it happened too many times to be called luck.

 

[Adios]

Our position to be Yale's replacement is secure. Unsurprisingly, Yale still does recruit relatively well across the country.