We move forward in our position recruiting review with the defensive backs. For this exercise, I have lumped the corners, safeties, and general DB's per www.scout.com in the defensive back category. I've placed the criteria for this analysis immediately before this post and will reference it throughout this series. We are overlapping but, in an effort to properly classify the "athletes," we are including them in both this effort and the receivers' effort.
Table I and Figure 1 (below) both illustrate Clemson's ranking based on DB class size since 2006. You will notice that Clemson signed more DB's than any other ACC Atlantic team except Florida State. In fact, other than CU and FSU only NCST averaged more than two DB's per class. If you look at the overall statistics, Clemson recruited almost 0.85 DB's per year more than the average ACC Atlantic team between 2006 and 2011. All of these numbers came despite an extremely slim 2009 class for the Tigers.
Table I: Recruiting Class Size
Figure 1: Recruiting Class Size
Figure 2: Recruiting Class Size Average Comparison
Table II and Figure 3 show the average star-rating per player for each team. Clemson (3.36 stars/player) was the cream of the crop in ACC Atlantic play. Florida State was a close 3.28 stars/player and no one else in the division cracked the 3.0 star average level. When compared to the division average, Clemson was over 0.5 stars better than middle of the road.
Table II: Team Average Player Star Rating
Figure 3: Recruiting Average Player Star Rating
Figure 4: Recruiting Class Average Player Star Rating
When compared to the division at this position, Clemson has again done well on the recruiting trail. Clemson averages the best DB talent in division and trails only FSU in number signed based on our criteria.