[Stellar]

I don't think you can necessarily draw the conclusion based on this that Tressel has a better system for recruiting now than he did before. A lot of what happened with the 2003 and 2004 classes was just sort of back luck. Those classes had an inordinate number of players that washed out. The attrition in those classes was extremely high. Guys don't pan out at his level for a number of reasons - sometimes its lack of talent, but other factors like lack of work in the classroom, getting in trouble, lack of effort, transfers for lack of playing time, and injuries can prematurely end a players career. A lot of the guys in the 03 and 04 classs had the talent to go all the way, but for one reason or another they weren't able to put it all together and a very large number of them ended up leaving the program prematurely. Of the guys listed as "little or no contributions" most of them only lasted a couple years in the program. Only Mitchum and Patterson on those lists played trough their eligibility. So it wasn't so much that those classes were loaded with guys that weren't good enough as it was that most of them got injured, left, or got kicked out before they had a chance to make an impact on the field.

Hopefully the attrition factors will be lower and the success rate will be higher for the recent and future classes, but it is way too soon to tell - some of the guys that people thing will be stars now will probably end up not panning out for one reason or another. Thats just kind of the way it works with recruiting. Talent evaluation is one thing, but when it comes to guessing if a player is going to take advantage of his opportunities, stay healthy, and put everything tougher its really a crap shoot.