2011 Clemson vs. Virginia Tech Depth Chart Recruited Talent Analysis

Clemson cruises up to Blacksburg Virginia this weekend to face the Virginia Tech Hokies.   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 may end up a little out of place come gametime.  I won't try to interpret or guess.  In an effort to maintain consistency, I'll use both teams' depth charts as presented on the official Clemson Athletics 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 depth chart. 

The first thing you will notice here is the overall advantage Clemson has in terms of stars per player over Virginia Tech.  Clemson clearly has out recruited the Hokies in terms of high school talent on the two-deep depth chart.  This is also a great example of how great coaching and good fundamental play can overcome talent alone.  Virginia Tech's coaching staff routinely takes teams with lower rated talent and wins conference championships over teams with superior rated recruited talent.

Figure 1:  Overall Depth Chart Talent Comparison