Quote:
Originally Posted by RB07OSU
Good points, though I would consider Gholston and Whitner stars...both were top 15 picks (top ten?...Whitner at #9?) and had great production their final year.
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I knew those two were going to come into question. I didn't put them into the star category because from my recolection they both had one breakout year but not much outside of that one year. Anyways, the point is kind of moot but that was my reasoning.
I ran out of energy a little bit as I put that together, but it is interesting to note that between the '03 and '04 classes there was 1 DT (Patterson), 2 OL (Rehring and Barton), and 1 DE (Gholston) that made significant impacts on the field and only 1 additional OL (Person) and 1 DT (Abdallah) that even saw the field, but not until very late in their careers.
So between the two classes that is six guys in the trenches... not exactly ideal.
I think that Tressel really began to hit his stride recruiting in '05 like stxbuck said, and now he seems to have it down to a science as evidenced by the '08 and '09 classes. I guess we will have to wait and see how those classes pan out, but they certainly seem like they are destined to do great things.
And to get back to the 'Tressel hasn't done anything even though he has top ten talent' arguement, I'd say Tressel did a pretty damn good job coaching the team to a 33-6 record from '06 through '08 considering the relatively disastarous results from the '03 and '04 classes.
And one final note on the '03 class, Whitner and Youboty both left for the NFL early, meaning that the tiny number of players that did contribute from that class didn't even stay the total amount of time that they could have. Gonzales also only contributed for three years rather than four since he left after his RS Junior season. The '03 class definitely could have turned out better to say the least.