With national signing day and the Super Bowl in the same week, it would be convenient to track how one leads to the other.
Ten years out, Super Bowl LVI will be filled with the blue-chip athletes who signed letters of intent on Wednesday.
Well, yes and no.
The New York Giants and New England Patriots won't win or lose the Super Bowl on Sunday night with signing-day studs alone.
Certainly, Tom Brady and Eli Manning were elite recruits, although some in 1995 considered Brady a better baseball prospect.
Tennessee's three participants, Shaun Ellis, Jerod Mayo and Deon Grant, were all big-time recruits who had great careers in Neyland Stadium.
But when you evaluate UT's 2012 signing class, don't assume its success will be determined strictly by the blue-chippers. Bill Belichick, for one, would not.
Starting for a Super Bowl team is among the ultimate achievements in football. Other than the Hall of Fame, it's about as good as it gets.
Listen to the stories of some of the guys who will start or play significantly Sunday.
Wes Welker is a household name. He wasn't in 2000 coming out of Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma. He couldn't get a sniff of a scholarship.
On signing day, the story goes, Welker's coach sent faxes to 105 D-I schools reminding them of Welker's availability. Nothing.
A week later, Texas Tech called. Somebody had backed out, leaving an opening, Welker was invited for a try-out. The rest is history.
Manning's hot target, Victor Cruz, was a 1-star prospect in 2004. His best offer was from UMass. He didn't start until his junior season.
Logan Mankins, a New England guard and Pro Bowl pick, walked on at Fresno State. Another Patriots lineman, Dan Connolly, was such a hot prospect he ended up at Southeast Missouri State.
Sebastian Vollmer, yet another New England lineman, flew under the radar. Vollmer, like former Vol Constantin Ritzmann, grew up in Germany. Houston won a recruiting battle with Western Michigan and Louisiana Tech.
Kyle Love, New England defensive tackle, was a two-star prospect out of Atlanta in 2006. He picked
Mississippi State over Memphis.
New England's secondary starters didn't spike any message boards on signing day.
Kyle Arrington was unranked and went to Hofstra. James Ihedigbo walked on at UMass. Pat Chung was a two-star signee at Oregon. Devin McCourty was a two-star Rutgers recruit.
As for the running backs, there are no Trent Richardsons here. Ahmad Bradshaw of the Giants was a three-star recruit. New England's BenJarvus Green-Ellis arrived at Indiana in 2003 with no fanfare and no stars. He later transferred to Ole Miss.
Danny Woodhead, the Patriots' back and return specialist, was a high school hero in Nebraska who went on to rush for 7,900 yards in college — for Chadron State, not the Cornhuskers.
Finally, there is the case of Patriots guard Donald Thomas, who wasn't an overlooked prospect because he wasn't even a prospect.
Thomas never played football in high school and wasn't going to in college. He enrolled at Connecticut and was spotted in a pickup basketball game.
Which proves there are many roads to the Super Bowl and some don't even pass through signing day.
Mike Strange may be reached at strangem@knoxnews.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/strangemike44 and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/strange.
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Softball: Tennessee 2, Georgia 1
Tennessee defeats Georgia 3-2 in…
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Comments » 16
TNVolunteers57 writes:
Great article!
papavol writes:
With all of the "after a season ending loss to Kentucky" articles out there, This has to be the best article that I have seen on this site in a very long time!
BRAVO Mike Strange. BRAVO!
lahvolman2 writes:
Outstanding article Mike.... sure does open ones eyes about recruiting...what a travesty this thing we call recruiting is to football.... now we make them heros and superstars right out of the gate and they have no way to go but down... and a large number of them will never see the field on Saturday afternoon... Can't wait till next year cause you gotta do this same article when the super bowl rolls around....
movol53 writes:
It's called HEART, or DRIVE, or DETERMINATION. And it cannot be measured and put on a stat sheet or written as some number of stars. There are too many, I'm great, look at me out there. A few of them do make it to the top but they are usually surrounded by those who were NOT great in the past; they just worked their way to the top.
Pastorvol writes:
A great reminder than the right attitude, heart, and hard work leads to success.
bigdisbig writes:
Great story. Hard work and dedication pays off and I hope Dooley's recruits read this. We need more articles like this instead of Adams beat downs.
BigVolinCarolina writes:
Well done, Mike. I love articles with this type of theme/angle.
VOLliven2it writes:
Nothing STRANGE about this article. It is spot on. Now the big question is HOW MANY STARS DO WE GIVE MIKE STRANGE FOR THIS ONE GANG?********** GO VOLS!
FanNotSheep writes:
Funny, when I read it I thought it could have been summed up by saying some guys develop in high school while others mature in college.
But I guess it helps folks feel better about losing three or four recruits? Or signing a bunch of 2- and 3-star football and basketball players?
Hell if you read the comments first and then the story, you would have thought Mike had written a prize-winning analysis of the sport.
So if Mr. Strange wants to be further anointed as a hero on this site, maybe he should write a good article about how losing builds character. If that's true and the Vols lose much more some UT fans could become Mother Teresa.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
I have no problem with this article. It is just a reminder to those suffering from "star-fever" that a player's or a team's progress doesn't truly begin or end on signing day. As a poster above said, the true qualities that determine ultimate success cannot be measured by scales or timers. As others have said, the average star-ratings of the top 25 or 30 classes are so close, there IS no statistically-significant difference among them. True, recruiting is the lifeblood of any program, but its success cannot always be measured by its ranking or "star" average. The Vols have acquired the numbers and quality of players they need to compete at a high level in the SEC. Now they need experience and coaching to actually reach that level. We'll see in due time how it all works out.
FanNotSheep writes:
Had no problem with the article either but didn't see what all the somersault comments were about. I think everyone knows that high school careers don't always guarantee you will play in a Super Bowl. Looks like UT signed a decent class to me, given the situation. Everyone wants Dooley gone but I think he has done a great job recruiting. If his clock management and player development on the offensive line were matching his recruiting success so far (in the face of a ton of adversity), UT fans would all be wearing orange pants.
vol64 writes:
A good article. One note: Tom Brady was not a highly rated recruit coming out of high school. He had offers from a few second tier college programs but landed a scholarship at Michigan as a result of his father, who was his high school coach, sending out videos to over 100 schools which landed him the Michigan offer. He started out as the 7th quarterback on the Michigan depth chart but eventually became the starter in his final two years. He was a good but not great college QB. He was drafted 199th by N. Eng. which would put him in the 6th or 7th round of the draft.
Retiredvol writes:
A very good article and there are always gems that are not 4 and 5 stars. UT has had many that play with heart and not their attitude. Look at the USA Olympic team "Miracle on Ice". Hopefully the new coaches will be able to take a 3 star recruit and make some of them 1st round draft picks in the NFL. But first you must believe you can win and some of these players quit after the first half as evidence of this past season. Need 4 quarters from every starter. Mold the athlete and physical stamina is every bit as important as getting to the head.
BigVolFaninSC writes:
Agreed. KNS should be banned from printing that phrase FOREVER! Timely article, too!
govols082859#1369959 writes:
Guys, you know this article pretty much ruined John Adams' weekend. He has to be fuming that someone would take time to research an article and then, OMG, write something we could feel good about. How dare Mike Strange actually do both in one article.
Thank you Mike, as this is just what I need boarding a flight overseas this evening. Thank you very much!
johnlg00#206211 writes:
I think there is general agreement that Dooley has to show some real progress on the field this year. Considering uncontrollable factors like major injuries, I hesitate to suggest specific numbers on this progress, but at a minimum I would expect no utter blowouts like they had at Arkansas, no mighty struggles with second-tier teams, and no lay-down losses like UK.
The biggest reason for hope is the fact that freshmen should only have to play a lot if they can actually offer something special and not because they don't have anybody else to put in. There may still be a few too many young ones as first-line reserves at some key positions for anybody to get too comfortable, but on the whole the personnel trend is up. Let's just hope team morale is better than it seemed to be at the end of last season and that the staff is finally getting ahead of the SEC learning curve. All the new assistants will likely be question marks at least until a few games into the season, but otherwise things seem to be in place to give a reasonable basis for judgment on Dooley's future.
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