2012 Recruiting Cycle: Clemson/Others (Select SEC Teams & FSU)

We compared Clemson's 2012 recruiting class to others in the ACC Atlantic and ACC Coastal previously. We also need to look at a few of our SEC foes to better compare ourselves to those we recruit against. The teams chosen for this examination include Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, and South Carolina. Also because there has been I believe that Clemson and FSU were the two best recruiters in the ACC over the past half-decade, I went ahead and placed Florida State in this comparison as well.

We should not have to tell you this, but some folks debate what to take from these articles and the data presented here. 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 all information available to you. When evaluating a particular player, we encourage you to view film for yourself and form your own opinions about a player. This article shows recruiting data for individual teams. 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. A player whose Scout/Rivals data was not available but was signed was 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.

The Table below shows core data for the 2012 teams within the Atlantic Division of the ACC. The charts that follow give a graphical description of the date featured in this table.

Clemson was on the low end of the number recruited at 20. The average of the other teams was 22.33 players per class, with Clemson taking more players than only Florida State and Georgia (19 each). Alabama led this group with 26 signees followed by SCar at 25 and LSU with 24. Again, these numbers are relative to coaching strategies. Overall, Clemson (average 3.40 stars per player) finished just above South Carolina (average 3.24 stars per player) and LSU (3.39 stars per player) in terms of Rivals/Scout average for stars per player. The Scout/Rivals non-Clemson average is 3.58 stars per player (coincidentally UGa's average). Florida State led the group in the "quality" ratings with the defending National Champions being the highest of the five SEC teams in this grouping.

Overall Clemson held its own with this group of teams. The Tigers' class was a little better than USC's but not quite as good as Georgia's or Auburn's. FSU and Bama clearly outrecruited the other teams. While Clemson may have been below average with this sampling, these teams have performed well on the recruiting trail. Consequently, you cannot be disappointed with the numbers shown above.