UConn Huskies head coach Randy Edsall isn’t a fan of the rankings that the various recruiting services uses. Take what he had to say before any listings were published yesterday.
“It’s all very stupid, in my opinion,” Edsall said. “For anyone to go out and rank classes, and to evaluate thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that are 17 and 18 years old, and think they’re going to watch all this film and put a ranking on them, it’s propaganda. And it’s one of the things that’s ruining the game, in my opinion. … It’s ruining kids, is what it’s doing. I just hope some people come to their senses soon and does something about the recruiting process because we’re in this to help young people and this process isn’t helping young people. It’s hurting them. Until that message gets across, it’s not going to get better, it’s going to get worse.”
Well according to those said pundits, the Huskies recruiting class didn’t rank highly.
Scouts Inc., Rivals.com and Scout.com all ranked the Huskies last in the Big East as far the new recruiting class goes. Scouts.Inc actually gave the Edsall’s recruits an overall grade of D-.
Here’s how the recruiting battle shaped up in the Big East according to those three services.
| Scouts Inc | Rivals.com | Scout.com |
| Pittsburgh | West Virginia | Pittsburgh |
| West Virginia | Pittsburgh | West Virginia |
| Louisville | Louisville | Louisville |
| South Florida | Cincinnati | Rutgers |
| Rutgers | Rutgers | South Florida |
| Cincinnati | South Florida | Syracuse |
| Syracuse | Syracuse | Cincinnati |
| UConn | UConn | UConn |
Here’s what they had to say about the UConn recruits:
The Huskies signed a fairly large class but it lacks any four-star prospects or significant signees. Randal Edsall has been winning in Storrs without them though by developing two- and three-star prospects. Their top prospect is outside linebacker Yawin Smallwood (Worcester, Mass./Doherty Memorial), who can run, has very good physical tools to develop on the perimeter and fits a defensive need. ILB Brandon Steg (Coral Springs, Fla./J.P. Taravella) also helps fill the need at the position.
Nationally, the Huskies ranked in a tie for 83rd with UTEP and Northern Illinois in the Rivals.com rankings. They came in 72nd in the Scout.com rankings.
Given Edsall’s success with his previous recruiting classes, I’m not worried about what the future holds and as a UConn football fan, you shouldn’t be either.
