2011 Clemson vs. Florida State Depth Chart Comparison

The Florida State Seminoles roll into town Saturday with a talented team that was a popular preseason pick to win the conference.  We'll see how this squad's recruited talent compares to our Clemson Tigers. Before we get into the analysis, I'll point out that I have taken the depth charts for both teams DIRECTLY from the Clemson website (www.clemsontigers.com).  A pdf version of this can be found here.  I will go ahead and tell you that because of injuries and Monday depth chart adjustments, some items here are a little out of place (for instance, Chad Morris openly stated Monday that Brandon Thomas would start at LG) but in an effort to maintain consistency, I'll use both teams' depth charts as presented on the official website.

We should not have to tell you this, but some folks debate what to take from these articles.  We expect you, the reader, to form an opinion of your own.  Often we will give you our take on things, but you should independently form your own thoughts based on information out there.  This article shows recruiting data for the depth chart roster as referenced above.  It does not weigh experience nor does it evaluate coaching, preparation, etc...  We think this is an interesting and valuable tool that is useful in overall program evaluation because there is a link between these star ratings and other metrics in both college football and the NFL.

Keep in mind as you look through this data that only players who were officially signed were given a "Star Rating".  Players who were not signed could not be quantitatively assessed a recruiting rating.  Such players get a "NA" rating and were not included in the averaged data.  Again, all data was attained from www.Scout.com and www.Rivals.com.  Players whose Scout/Rivals data was not available but were signed were assigned a "NR".  We picked carefully through the data and believe all is correct.  However, if we've overlooked an item we apologize in advance and ask that you point it out so that we can make the correction in our database.

Figure 1 and Table I both show an average of offensive players, defensive players, and specialist listed on the two-deep roster.   Tables II through IV show the two-deep roster used for analysis along with the recruiting ratings for each player on the roster.  A quick glance shows you Clemson has better quality recruited talent in two of the three facets of the game, as described and illustrated below.

Offensively, Clemson narrowly eclipsed FSU on average.  On defense, the ‘Noles are nearly half a star better than Clemson and clearly have a very, very talented group.  Scout rated FSU at a 3.00 average star level that brought their special teams average down to 3.24 stars per player and allowed Clemson to better the Seminoles by over a tenth of a star per player.  The huge defensive advantage allows the Seminoles an overall 0.15 stars/player advantage.

Figure 1:  Overall Depth Chart Talent Comparison