Clemson vs Auburn 2012 Depth Chart Comparison

Clemson opens up the season Saturday against the Auburn Tigers in the the Georgia Dome. We'll see how this squad's recruited talent compares to our Clemson Tigers. Before we get into the analysis, I'll begin with the standard housekeeping items. The depth charts for both teams were attained 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 be a little out of place 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 looks to be slightly behind Auburn in recruited talent, particularly if you discount special teams recruiting as you likely should--particularly when you view how most teams present special teams depth.

On average, Clemson trails Auburn both in terms of average offensive talent ratings, with the specialists, and overall. Clemson was ranked higher in terms of defensive talent based on Rivals data yet trailed Auburn by 0.03 stars in the defensive Scout rankings. Overall, the quarter point advantage Auburn has on offense is the biggest item that stands out. I don't pay too much attention to the special teams rankings for many reasons and defensively Clemson appears to have an advantage or, at the very worst, is a talent wash with Auburn based solely on the items shown below.

Table I: Overall Recruiting Information

Table II: Offensive Comparison

Table III: Defensive Comparison

Table IV: Special Teams Comparison