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Originally Posted by LordJeffBuck
1. Clarett was a college star.
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3. Pitcock has potential to be a star (as I mentioned in the article), but he ain't there yet; let's hope that he breaks out in 2005.
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5. ... the others have been spot starters, and it appears that Datish, D'Andrea, and Mitchell (and possibly Everett and Downing) will end their careers as back-ups...
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1. Doesn't matter that Clarett bailed...he was in a class all by himself. His performance in his only year at Ohio State makes the 2002 class that much better.
3. He's as close to being a star as you can be. He was superb in both The Game and the Alamo Bowl. You don't have to "hope" he breaks out in 2005.
5. D'Andrea's not being a starter isn't a result of a lack of talent, but rather injuries. He was starting over Schlegel and was really starting to blossum until he got hurt. As for Everett, who is going to start at safety over him?
In my mind, you judge a class on how well they've turned out compared to their pre-NLOID expectations. Not everyone in a recruiting class can be expected to become a starter, let alone all-conference or even All American. If the 2002 class has 25 players, that alone means that at least 3 can't be starters. To me, a good recruiting class should have about half of them starting as seniors. In the case of the class of 2002, if they have 11 or more of them starting on opening day, then their class is successful. We expected Clarett to become a great RB, which he did, and then bailed. We expected to have an All American LB in that class, and we got one...it just wasn't the guy we expected it to be. We've also had a pleasant surprise in Holmes. The only real "disappointment" so far in my mind is Zwick, and he still has a chance to have a great year or two.