Cody Green

[stevieray]

Cody Green is mentioned on espn.com....scroll down and look under the title "Under The Radar"

ATH Cody Green, Nebraska

The question is whether he will play quarterback or move to another position. Regardless, Green is the type of athlete who upgrades Nebraska's skill level on offense. He is somewhat of a wild card in this class. Fans have a real interest in him because he's reminiscent of Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor. Nebraska might need him in a role under center as a freshman even if he is not the full-time guy right off the bat. He's big, athletic and can run the spread offense, if need be.

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[KFDM COOP]

Interesting recruiting article

FABULOUS 55

When it comes to high school recruiting, size matters

Colleges, fans must wade through conflicting info on state's top recruits.

By Alan Trubow

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

The reporter on the other end of the phone was excited about the recruit, and all Dayton High School football coach Jerry Stewart could do was shake his head as he readied himself to say something not often heard in the world of recruiting:

The truth.

The topic was Dayton's Cody Green, a 6-foot-4-inch, 220-pound quarterback who had just committed to Nebraska.

The reporter was from Nebraska.

"I just remember this guy was excited and said, 'I heard Green runs a 4.4 (second) 40 (yard dash)," Stewart said. "And I said, 'Yeah, he runs a 4.4, if you're talking about the first 20 yards.'

"I mean, the kid is 6-4, 220 pounds. He's really fast, but he doesn't run a 4.4. I don't know how fast Cody is, probably around 4.6, but I can tell you I've never seen him caught from behind."

Stewart said the reporter got off the phone a little disappointed. It's understandable. A listed speed of 4.6 seconds appears slow when you look at recruiting web sites like Rivals.com, Scout.com, ESPN.com or Texasfootball.com.

There's a reason: The information on players isn't always accurate.

Today is national signing day, and fans across the country will spend it talking about their school's recruits and arguing about who has the best class. Who wins those arguments, however, will differ depending on what Web site or newspaper the information is coming from, because when it comes to recruiting, you'll often find the same player with different numbers listed for heights, weights, speed and strength.

Mansfield Timberview running back Eric Stephens — the No. 36-rated recruit on the Fabulous 55 — is 5-11, 200 pounds and has 4.38 speed on texasfootball.com. On Rivals.com, the Texas Tech-bound Stephens is 5-8 (three inches shorter), 177 pounds (nearly 25 pounds lighter) and, according to the site's analysis, "doesn't have home run speed."

Stephens, insists Timberview coach Terry Cron, is 5-8, 200 pounds and runs about a 4.56.

"I don't know where some of these guys get their numbers from," Cron said. "It seems like they heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy, and that's good enough to report."

Odessa Permian offensive lineman Garrett Porter, who will sign with Texas today, is listed anywhere from 6-3 to 6-6 and weighs somewhere between 271 and 308 pounds, depending on whom you're asking. And Madisonville running back Chris Whaley — another future Longhorn — is listed anywhere from 217 to 249 pounds.

"He's probably around 239 right now," Madisonville coach Greg Morgan said. "But he gains and loses weight a lot. He also runs a legitimate 4.4."

How do these discrepancies happen?

One reason is that the recruiting process now lasts a couple of years, and as recruits grow and get stronger and faster, sometimes Web sites aren't updated.

But more often than not, it's another reason.

"People lie," said Gerry Hamilton of Burntorangebeat.com, Scout.com's Texas site. "You've got high school coaches who are trying to help their kids. You've got kids trying to add an inch or 10 pounds.

"I would say I get wrong or inaccurate information 60 to 70 percent of the time. You hear one thing, and then when you're standing next to the prospect, you can see it's not true."

Some of the information, however, is true.

Rivals.com tries to let people know when information has been confirmed. It often gets statistics for speed, height and weight at recruiting camps that top prospects attend throughout the country.

When Rivals.com gets 40-yard dash times from official camps, it puts a small "r" next to the time on the player's profile page.

However, much of the time, the recruiting site relies on what a player tells its reporters during phone interviews.

"We find the biggest problems come with speed and height," Rivals.com national analyst Jeremy Crabtree said. "For whatever reason, kids seem to stretch how fast and how tall they are. If they don't go to the camps, you have to go by what the coach or player tells you. Sometimes, when you know it's not true, you just don't include the information."

While fans are often left guessing what is accurate and what isn't, college coaches don't take any risks.

"I don't look at any of the sites or even scan rosters for heights and weights," Texas recruiting coordinator Bobby Kennedy said. "Most of the time, you go by the eye test. I know how tall I am and how much I weigh, so I kind of size up our prospects when I'm standing next to them. You watch how they look during their athletic periods and practice. You really don't go by what's reported."

It's hard to believe any of it.

"Numbers, especially when it comes to speed, are getting out of hand," Crabtree said. "In high school, I played against Maurice Greene, who at one point was the world's fastest man. And in high school, I know for a fact, that Greene's fastest time was 4.49."

That means 10 of Rivals.com's top 30 recruits in the country are faster than Greene was when he was in high school.

Dayton's Stewart scoffs at those numbers. But he knows how it works.

His receiver, A.J. Dugat, is headed to the University of Houston and got plenty of attention from college coaches — though it seems they didn't always know about the player they were asking about.

"They listed my receiver anywhere from 5-7 to 6-2 ... 6-2!" Stewart said. "I know that he's 5-10 and weighs 191 pounds. If we had as many 4.3 people as they say we have, we would have been state champions every year. I'll tell you this, I don't put less than 4.6 on many players, because you don't find many players who can run that fast.

"But you see 4.4 all over the place. It's good for newspapers. It's good for recruiting sites. It's good for fans. It's just not good if you're looking for facts."

[bronco1]

You gotta love that guy, ole Coach Stewart he really likes to sugar coat things. ;D

[ame]

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Commentary: For now, it’s much ado about nothing

By JEROME SOLOMON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Feb. 5, 2009, 1:01AM

Melissa Phillip Chronicle

National Signing Day is over-hyped and Jerome Solomon is willing to admit this time it's the media's fault.

Share  Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzWednesday was signing day.

Whoopee.

If you are looking for names of some of the top players or a list of the schools that did the best (who the heck knows?), your eyes have led you to the wrong place.

The day is overhyped. Oh, it’s important to the athletes signing scholarships, to the parents who don’t have to come up with nearly as much money as most for college, and to the schools the players choose to attend.

But for most of us, the school to which Fast Freddie or Roger the Refrigerator faxes a letter of intent means nothing.

Most of these players will never be heard from again. Some of those heard from again will be mentioned only in a negative light.

If you have ever been around a young man torn between Texas and Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M or Texas A&M and Texas Tech, you probably understand my feelings about how we depict the process.

This is the one time I am willing to join the masses and say it’s the media’s fault. We need to do better. Or more accurately, do less.

ESPNU — on a day like this, it’s ESPN Upchuck — ran a shift-and-a-half of signing day info. It was NFL draft-like coverage.

Signing day is not like the NFL draft, and journalists should stop referring to the two as equals.

Signing day is to the NFL draft what an elementary school sack race is to the Olympic 100 meters.

The Texans are competing with 31 NFL teams for draft prospects. When the Texans are on the board, they can choose whomever they like.

The University of Houston and Rice are competing with more than 100 schools for prospects. The Cougars and Owls don’t get to choose. They are required to woo.

College football players who enter the NFL draft are told: “Prepare to impress.â€

Top high school prospects are told: “Prepare to be wooed.â€

The media shouldn’t participate in this as much as we do.

There are legitimate and documented issues with standardized tests. As bad as they are, those tests are a far better indicator of collegiate success than recruiting grades and Top 100 lists.

If a kid is outside the Top 100, does that mean he can’t play? If a kid is on the list, does that mean he will do well?

Leave them in peace

Teenage athletes are under pressure to make life-altering decisions, and we should allow them to make those choices in peace. I know it’s naive to think people will back off, but the fact these so-called recruiting services and a host of no-account Web sites run rampant with this information doesn’t make it major news.

Is it news when we’re told a high school football player has narrowed his college choices from four schools to three? Really?

Come on.

It is bad enough that we put these players on a virtual worship-me pedestal. For the most part, we can’t help that. On-the-field accomplishment deserves recognition on the sports pages.

So when a young man is all-district, All-Greater Houston or all-state, he deserves applause.

Noting accomplishment is different from projecting it.

How do we get away with claiming a player — a high school player we anointed as great before he set foot on a college campus — failed to live up to expectations when he doesn’t lead a college team to a national championship? Whose expectations?

Impossible expectations

Are there repercussions for reporters when the person we tabbed “The Can’t Miss Kid†misses? Many times that’s the kid’s fault, but more often we established a standard that was impossible to reach. (If we ever use the words “Heisman Trophy†near a high school player’s name, we should be ashamed.)

Though it’s better and more accurate than ever, newspaper evaluation of high school athletes bothers me. Let’s debate who had the better season, who did the most for his team, or who deserves to be listed as an all-star.

This isn’t just semantics. I loved covering high school sports. I would put players on my All-Greater Houston teams because they deserved to be there for what they did for their teams, not because some service claimed they would be great college players.

Maybe I’m the one who is nuts, but recruiting rankings mean little to me. I wish there weren’t any.

As for the alleged No. 1, No. 2 and No. 100 recruits? Enroll in school, get a jersey and at least do something at practice. Then we can talk.

All you did Wednesday was prove you can sign your name.

The real scrutiny should begin now.