my thinking has evolved over the last five years

by Jay, San Diego, Friday, February 05, 2010, 08:25 (5969 days ago) @ JRT
edited by Jay, Friday, February 05, 2010, 08:31

I think I look at the value of a class now in two modes.

1. short-term "splash." Did your class rank highly for the services? Did you land any big-name guys? Did you get any signing day bonuses? This all goes to mojo. The kwan of the program, if you prefer. You know, fuzzy stuff. On this count we didn't splash much, but we didn't embarrass ourselves either, and we even pulled in a top guy at the wire.

2. longer-term needs. Two years from now, what will the roster look like? Two years from now, will we have enough contenders for spots that a starter and primary backup can emerge? Or will we be playing people out of need due to thinness (Sam Young as a frosh)? So I would project out the roster two years from now, fill out the slots with these guys and see if we got enough to cover us and create some competition. I'm not going to worry too much about specific player potential at this point because players can change and develop so much from freshman year to junior year (although starting with junior year, you can really start to scrutinize and judge if a player is reaching his potential). In terms of longer-term depth, I need to do some roster projection for the next three years and then see if this class is solid or lacking.

This is a little garbled but I hope it makes sense.