Maryland @ Clemson 2012 Depth Chart Comparison

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. Maryland trails Clemson by just under a third of a star on average against Clemson's offensive average. Defensively, Clemson was the decisive winner, 0.86 stars per player ahead of Maryland. The Special Teams comparison was dominated by Maryland, though you will notice that Clemson has three kickers with 2-3 star ratings included in these averages while none of Maryland's are included. Many great kickers were either not rated or walked on, so I am not so sure how important this one is (though for the record Maryland rolls there). Overall, Clemson holds a 0.44 star per player advantage over the Terps strictly looking at the "experts" ratings of players.

Table I Overall Recruiting Numbers

Figure 1: Recruiting Stars Comparison

And...all the individual player data:

Table II: Offensive Comparison

Table III: Defensive Comparison

Table IV: Special Teams Comparison