Recruiting rivals can get star-crossed

During the pregame broadcast of last month's Sugar Bowl, former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer made a lot of people — especially in Utah — mad when he said there was no one on Utah's roster that Alabama would have recruited.

Actually, Switzer wasn't that far off if you look at the ratings from top recruiting services.

Last year, Rivals.com ranked Alabama No. 1 in recruiting, followed by Notre Dame and Florida. Alabama had three 5-star recruits, 19 4-star recruits and eight 3-star recruits.

Utah? The Utes were ranked clear back in 60th place behind such powers as Central Florida, Baylor and Southern Mississippi. Utah had one 4-star recruit (David Kruger) and nine 3-stars, which means Alabama might have wanted a handful of Utah's recruits.

Four or five years earlier, they may not have recruited any of the players that Utah used on Jan. 2 to beat them.

Consider the main stars of this past year's 13-0 team. Brian Johnson, Paul Kruger, Sean Smith, Brice McCain, Brent Casteel, Zane Beadles and Louie Sakoda were all listed as 2-star recruits coming out of high school.

Among the 3-star recruits from the 2004 and 2005 classes were Randy Faletoi, Tim Harris, Eugene Oates, Terrance Aptid, Tilifili Liufau, Eric Shyne and Reggie Turner.

How many of them do you remember?

Recruiting has never been considered an exact science, but the star-system used by Rivals.com and Scout.com and others can give a general evaluation of who the top players are coming out of high school and junior colleges. What the players do in college is up to them and their coaches.

Scout.com bases its rankings on "talent, need and balance" of players who have committed to a particular school. Their player evaluations are made by "a team of recruiting experts who attend off-season combines and camps on college campuses, go to hundreds of games, and review miles of game film."

Rivals uses similar experts and awards points for its rankings "through a formula that rewards teams for both the quantity of commitments and the quality of those players."

Prospects with higher star ratings earn more points for the school to which they commit, while prospects that are ranked among the best at their positions and on the Rivals 100 earn more bonus points.