seems to me the position group where you get the most bang for the buck is ol...
you often see a hs recruit make an immediate impact their first year but this is much less true for ol. ie. there is a fresh crop of jackrabbits every year but it takes time to grow a redwood.
it also seems to me that ol is the group with the biggest variance on development. since you are largely buying future potential - additional growth, development, "filling out", etc. - there is often a gap between what you think you are getting with that hs senior and what it actually turns into.
another position i think it has an outsized impact on is kickers and punters. not sure why you would recruit another one out of hs again. just get a proven product off the shelf each year and roll with that. don't know the story on what happened but i think we signed the #1 kicker a few years ago (ethan m? out of washington) and i don't think i ever saw him hit the field in a game.
qb is another game changer. not b/c you can't generally identify the top prospects out of hs but now when you miss either due to injury or poor evaluation, you don't have to have that albatross hanging around your neck for 4 years.
the guys whose job got a whole lot tougher through all this are the coaches at the mid-majors. tough to build a sustainable program when the diamonds in the rough you develop go on to an early payday with the money schools.
you often see a hs recruit make an immediate impact their first year but this is much less true for ol. ie. there is a fresh crop of jackrabbits every year but it takes time to grow a redwood.
it also seems to me that ol is the group with the biggest variance on development. since you are largely buying future potential - additional growth, development, "filling out", etc. - there is often a gap between what you think you are getting with that hs senior and what it actually turns into.
another position i think it has an outsized impact on is kickers and punters. not sure why you would recruit another one out of hs again. just get a proven product off the shelf each year and roll with that. don't know the story on what happened but i think we signed the #1 kicker a few years ago (ethan m? out of washington) and i don't think i ever saw him hit the field in a game.
qb is another game changer. not b/c you can't generally identify the top prospects out of hs but now when you miss either due to injury or poor evaluation, you don't have to have that albatross hanging around your neck for 4 years.
the guys whose job got a whole lot tougher through all this are the coaches at the mid-majors. tough to build a sustainable program when the diamonds in the rough you develop go on to an early payday with the money schools.