Daily Bull 02.06.18 - You Are The Aggies’ Top 2020 Target

It’s National Signing Day, a day is second only to the opening day of March Madness in terms of how many man hours are wasted by 40 year old professionals pretending to work while frantically checking on the outcome of decisions made by teenage boys. Yes, it has been a magical week of watching the pay board #industry pros preening and presenting their tail feathers in garish attempts to attract the most “subscribers”. Is A&M’s recruiting class going to see a big boost in the final hours? You’ll have to pay to find out, sugar.

Every year on National Signing Day Eve I perform all one of the hours of attention per year that I pay to recruiting. I look up A&M’s class, see how it stacks up against other teams that I love or hate, and then tuck that information away and turn to more worthwhile pursuits like trying to finish all of the levels on Fantastic Contraption without using any powered wheels. Meaningful stuff.

In my research this year I learned that no matter the reality of the situation, all articles about all teams are glowing endorsements of how well things are going. It doesn’t matter that the Aggies are possibly about to turn in their worst recruiting class since joining the SEC. The class is surging under the pure workethicmachismobuyinginsystem of Jimbo Fisher. And dat 2019 class tho!

This is modern sports debate. All facts are in dispute, all statistics can be properly cherry-picked and manipulated to back up any position, all targets are moving, and no winner can ever be determined because the end game can simply be changed. These endless online dick-measuring contests have replaced things like playing your rival on the field because sports have been co-opted by folks who don’t actually like sports as much as they enjoy soap operas. If these debates are your jam, remember that just because you’ve never been wrong doesn’t mean you’ve ever been right.

Oh hey, speaking of cherry-picked and manipulated data, it’s #WednesdayTrendsday. And since it’s also National Signing Wednesday, we’d better rustle up some wild speculation about recruiting classes! Just for grins, let’s look at what Jimbo Fisher has done on the recruiting trail in the last few years...

(Note: I am using 247 rankings because they were the first ones to pop up in a google search. If you have a specific argument on why another site’s rankings are superior please by all means write it down and then read it aloud to yourself in a mirror because I could not give less of a shit.)

The good news is that Jimbo has been crushing it, with a string of top 5 classes followed by what is laughably called a disappointing 6th ranked class in 2017. The bad news is that this year’s class isn’t looking so hot. In fact, I’d say each year’s class is ranked about 5^(x-2015.4)/3+2 if I had to ballpark it. So where does that put us in the next few years?

Ouch.

At his current projected rate, in 2019 Jimbo will turn in a class ranked a disappointing 111th in the nation, which will make the Aggies dreams of a 2020 national championship something of an uphill battle. In fact, his 2020 class will be ranked 549th in the nation, which means that all teams in all of the college football divisions, plus presumably some YMCA and Rec leagues, will land better high school recruits than the Aggies.

But hey, there’s always a good spin. After all, many new head coaches experience a down year or two when coming to a new recruiting territory. And besides, Steve Bergman - head coach of the Bloomington Intermediate Adult Flag Football League Marauders - can recruit all the talent in the world but everyone knows he is terrible at player development. Also he brings Lemon Lime Powerade when everyone knows Artic Blast is the best.

Have a good Wednesday, folks.