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Special Teams Recruiting Analysis: Clemson vs. non-ACC 2006 - Present

Today, we compare Clemson's special teams recruiting to non-ACC teams.  Assumptions made in creating this article can be found here.  I should point out that we strictly used www.scout.com position classifications.  It is possible that some players ended up at a different position ball after they arrived on campus for any of the schools in this article.

We again need to tell you that this analysis is very different from the others because special teams is extremely unique.  Typically, special teams units are largely composed of non-starting position players and walk-ons.  Many specialists, particularly kickers, who play vital roles in the games are preferred walk-ons who are able to earn playing time through special teams.  We'll show the data for special teams recruiting but don't really know how vital all these numbers are based upon the impact of non-starters who play special teams and the large number of walk-ons we see week after week.

Table I and Figure 1 (below) both illustrate Clemson's ranking based on defensive line class size since 2006.  Clemson (at 0.67 players per class) was only bettered by LSU at 0.83 ppc.  Note that Clemson tied UGa, Auburn, and USF for second most signed over this time period.  You'll note that no team in this survey signed more than two players in a single class.

Table I:  Recruiting Class Size

Class Size

Team

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

AVERAGE

Clemson

1

0

2

0

0

1

0.67

Alabama

0

0

1

0

2

0

0.50

Auburn

1

1

0

0

2

0

0.67

Georgia

0

1

1

1

0

1

0.67

LSU

0

2

0

1

1

1

0.83

South Carolina

0

0

1

0

1

0

0.33

South Florida

1

0

2

0

1

0

0.67

Non-Clemson Average

0.2

0.8

0.6

0.4

1.2

0.4

0.60

 

Players_signed_individual_team_graph_clem_vs_nonacc_medium
Figure 1:  Individual Institution Recruiting Class Size

Players_signed_graph_clem_vs_nonacc_medium
Figure 2:  Average non-Clemson vs Clemson Recruiting Class Size 

Table II and Figure 3 show the average star-rating per player for each team, as shown below.  Clemson (2.58 stars/player) tied Auburn narrowly was better than LSU in terms of stars per player for the group.  Clemson was 0.22 stars per player better than the field average overall, as shown in Figure 4.

Again, we have made the effort to list all the special teams' players signed by these teams since 2006.

Table II:  Team Average Player Star Rating

Average Star Rating (per player)

Team

Service

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

AVERAGE

Clemson

Scout

3.00

NA

2.50

NA

NA

3.00

2.83

Rivals

3.00

NA

2.00

NA

NA

2.00

2.33

Average

3.00

NA

2.25

NA

NA

2.50

2.58

Alabama

Scout

NA

NA

2.00

NA

3.50

NA

2.75

Rivals

NA

NA

2.00

NA

2.50

NA

2.25

Average

NA

NA

2.00

NA

3.00

NA

2.50

Auburn

Scout

2.00

3.00

NA

NA

3.00

NA

2.67

Rivals

2.00

3.00

NA

NA

2.50

NA

2.50

Average

2.00

3.00

NA

NA

2.75

NA

2.58

Georgia

Scout

NA

2.00

4.00

2.00

NA

2.00

2.50

Rivals

NA

2.00

3.00

NA

NA

2.00

2.33

Average

NA

2.00

3.50

2.00

NA

2.00

2.42

LSU

Scout

NA

2.50

NA

3.00

2.00

2.00

2.38

Rivals

NA

3.00

NA

3.00

3.00

2.00

2.75

Average

NA

2.75

NA

3.00

2.50

2.00

2.56

South Carolina

Scout

NA

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

Rivals

NA

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

Average

NA

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

South Florida

Scout

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

Rivals

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

Average

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

NA

2.00

Non-Clemson Average

Scout

2.00

2.50

2.50

2.50

2.50

2.00

2.33

Rivals

2.00

2.67

2.25

3.00

2.40

2.00

2.39

Average

2.00

2.58

2.38

2.50

2.45

2.00

2.36

Players_star_rating_individual_team_graph_clem_vs_nonacc_medium


Figure 3:  Schools' Recruiting Average Player Star Rating

Players_star_rating_graph_clem_vs_nonacc_medium

Figure 4:  Average vs Clemson Recruiting Class Average Player Star Rating 

Table III:  Specialists Signed by Clemson/non-ACC Schools

Player

Class

Scout

Rivals

High School

Hometown

HT/WT/40

College

Position

Corey Smith

2008

2

2

Musselman HS

Bunker Hill, WV

6-0/190

Alabama

K

Cade Foster

2010

4

3

Carroll HS

Southlake, TX

6-1/215

Alabama

K

Jay Williams

2010

3

2

Thomasville HS

Thomasville, AL

6-4/220

Alabama

P

Ryan Shoemaker

2006

2

2

Oak Mountain HS

Birmingham, AL

6-0/182

Auburn

K

Wes Byrum

2007

3

3

St. Thomas Aquinas HS

Fort Lauderdale, FL

6-1/200

Auburn

K

Steven Clark

2010

2

2

Park Hill HS

Kansas City, MO

6-6/230

Auburn

P

Cody Parkey

2010

4

3

Jupiter HS

Jupiter, FL

6-1/185

Auburn

K

Richard Jackson

2006

3

3

Riverside HS

Greer, SC

5-11/180/4.70

Clemson

K

Spencer Benton

2008

2

2

Myrtle Beach HS

Myrtle Beach, SC

6-3/190

Clemson

K

Dawson Zimmerman

2008

3

2

Brookwood HS

Snellville, GA

6-2/195

Clemson

P

Ammon Lakip

2011

3

2

Chattahoochee HS

Alpharetta, GA

5-11/175

Clemson

K

Drew Butler

2007

2

2

Peachtree Ridge HS

Suwanee, GA

6-2/200

Georgia

P

Blair Walsh

2008

4

3

Cardinal Gibbons HS

Fort Lauderdale, FL

5-10/175

Georgia

K

Brandon Bogatay

2009

2

N/A

Grossmont

El Cajon, CA

-/-

Georgia

K

Nathan Theus

2011

2

2

The Bolles School

Jacksonville, FL

6-3/252/5.22

Georgia

LS

Andrew Crutchfield

2007

3

3

Northwest Cabarrus HS

Concord, NC

6-0/175

LSU

K

Josh Jasper

2007

2

3

Ridgeway HS

Memphis, TN

6-0/165/4.90

LSU

K

Derek Helton

2009

3

3

Fort Scott

Fort Scott, KS

6-1/180

LSU

P

Brad Wing

2010

2

3

Parkview Baptist School

Baton Rouge, LA

6-3/175

LSU

P

James Hairston

2011

2

2

Jesuit College Prep School

Dallas, TX

6-0/190

LSU

K

Ryan Doerr

2008

2

2

Katy HS

Katy, TX

-/-

South Carolina

P

Patrick Fish

2010

2

2

Burns HS

Lawndale, NC

6-1/165

South Carolina

P

Delbert Alvarado

2006

2

2

Robinson Senior HS

Tampa, FL

6-2/185

South Florida

K

Maikon Bonani

2008

2

2

Lake Wales Senior HS

Lake Wales, FL

5-9/170

South Florida

K

Justin Brockhaus-Kann

2008

2

2

Winter Springs HS

Winter Springs, FL

6-3/230

South Florida

P

Chris Veron

2010

2

2

Forest HS

Ocala, FL

6-1/205

South Florida

K

As we stated in the two previous articles, this is a tough analysis based upon the large number of special teams players who are either walk-ons or play other positions.  We also pointed out that many kickers come to school as preferred walk-ons so their data was not captured in this article.