Interesting article. They statistically examined the last 10 National Champions (before this year) in 10 categories to figure out what really mattered and what didn't. Here's what they concluded.
5 Realities:
1) You have to stop the run,
2) Both the OL and DL need to be dominant,
3) You must create more turnovers than you allow,
4) You need to have at least one gamebreaker on each side of the ball,
5) You must be lucky (injuries, schedules, lucky bounces - Stoerner mentioned)
5 Myths:
1) You need an explosive offense,
2) You need a star veteran QB,
3) You have to start high in the polls to finish high,
4) Coaching experience matters,
5) You need to have Top 10 recruiting classes
Regarding recruiting, the article looked at SuperPrep's rankings of each team's previous 5 classes, starting with the class they inked before the beginning of their title season. 7 of the 12 teams had average recruiting class rankings outside the Top 10. The average rank for those teams? Around 16th.
I then took out the 2 youngest classes - figuring those kids were probably too young to have manned most starting spots when those teams won it all - and the results were similiar: 7 of 12 teams didn't average Top 10 classes, with their average class rank around 17th.
Here's a table of the previous National Champions and the three classes (as ranked by SuperPrep) that probably provided most of their contributors that year (kids that would have been JRs, SRs, and 5th year SRs), with the most recent of those classes listed first.
Year
Team
Class Rankings
Avg
2000
Oklahoma
20
24
32
25
1995
Nebraska
18
14
28
20
1994
Nebraska
14
28
10
17
1997
Nebraska
8
20
18
15
2003
USC
19
11
14
15
2001
Miami
11
20
13
15
2003
LSU
2
26
9
12
1998
Tennessee
8
18
1
9
2002
Ohio State
8
2
13
8
1996
Florida
14
8
1
8
1999
Florida St.
3
13
3
6
1997
Michigan
7
4
3
5
It was also funny that Mack Brown prompted this little study, to figure out what he was doing wrong, signing all these talented kids but not winning a single conference championship, let alone a national championship.
And their rival, Oklahoma? As their recruiting rankings have gone way up, their performance in conference and national title games has gone down...
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This post was edited on 2/26 4:02 PM by jclampitif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
Full Article
5 Realities:
1) You have to stop the run,
2) Both the OL and DL need to be dominant,
3) You must create more turnovers than you allow,
4) You need to have at least one gamebreaker on each side of the ball,
5) You must be lucky (injuries, schedules, lucky bounces - Stoerner mentioned)
5 Myths:
1) You need an explosive offense,
2) You need a star veteran QB,
3) You have to start high in the polls to finish high,
4) Coaching experience matters,
5) You need to have Top 10 recruiting classes
Regarding recruiting, the article looked at SuperPrep's rankings of each team's previous 5 classes, starting with the class they inked before the beginning of their title season. 7 of the 12 teams had average recruiting class rankings outside the Top 10. The average rank for those teams? Around 16th.
I then took out the 2 youngest classes - figuring those kids were probably too young to have manned most starting spots when those teams won it all - and the results were similiar: 7 of 12 teams didn't average Top 10 classes, with their average class rank around 17th.
Here's a table of the previous National Champions and the three classes (as ranked by SuperPrep) that probably provided most of their contributors that year (kids that would have been JRs, SRs, and 5th year SRs), with the most recent of those classes listed first.
Year
Team
Class Rankings
Avg
2000
Oklahoma
20
24
32
25
1995
Nebraska
18
14
28
20
1994
Nebraska
14
28
10
17
1997
Nebraska
8
20
18
15
2003
USC
19
11
14
15
2001
Miami
11
20
13
15
2003
LSU
2
26
9
12
1998
Tennessee
8
18
1
9
2002
Ohio State
8
2
13
8
1996
Florida
14
8
1
8
1999
Florida St.
3
13
3
6
1997
Michigan
7
4
3
5
It was also funny that Mack Brown prompted this little study, to figure out what he was doing wrong, signing all these talented kids but not winning a single conference championship, let alone a national championship.
And their rival, Oklahoma? As their recruiting rankings have gone way up, their performance in conference and national title games has gone down...
__________
This post was edited on 2/26 4:02 PM by jclampitif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
Full Article
