Ask anyone who has known me for a long time and they can tell you how much I hate recruiting. When I was covering Ohio State football full-time, we had a saying around the office that recruiting was the "bane of our existence." Fruitless phone calls to prospects, rumors that were time-wasters, fans going ballistic when the "can't miss" guy signed with the rival school. It all conspired to make covering recruiting a joyless experience.
There's also the small matter of ranking classes, which is artificial and impossible because no one knows how these kids are going to turn out. The five star recruit can be a bust while the lowest rated player in the class can become a huge star. I've seen it happen, yet year after fans hang their hat on their school getting all of the best guys -- even though we don't really KNOW that they are the best guys.
Don't get me wrong, a school definitely needs to recruit talent. It's always been my belief that coaches know what constitutes talent better than recruiting analysts do, especially since the coaches know just how a kid would fit their program. Not every star is made for every program.
So while it's impossible to truly rate classes immediately after Signing Day, there is one thing that can be rated immediately, and it isn't contingent on players being stars.
The Recruiting All-Name Team.
I'm sure you've seen recruiting sites and newspapers come up with lists of the best and wildest names in a given recruiting cycle. Well, that was my idea. I was doing as far back as 1995, just as recruiting was becoming a cottage industry. Because I cared more about the outcome of the games than about where a player we hadn't seen play was going to school, it hit me that maybe there was one way to make recruiting less of a chore.
I had always been drawn to unique names -- Fair Hooker, I.M. Hipp, Elvis Peacock. Even if a player wasn't good, if he had a cool name he was likely to become a favorite of mine.
Which is why I decided long ago to pore over recruiting lists and come up with a yearly all-name team. Even if these guys never stand out on the field, they will stand out because of their name.
These are my favorite names of the 2021 recruiting cycle -- most stand on their own, but a couple resonate more because of the position played.
OFFENSE
QB Jaxson Dart/USC
QB Shawqi Itraish/Rice
RB Kamarro Edwards/North Carolina
RB Loyal Crawford/Wisconsin
RB Cash Jones/New Mexico State
RB Iverson Celestine/Tulane
WR Majik Rector/Kansas
WR Emeka Egbuka/Ohio State
WR O'Mega Blake/South Carolina
WR Adonai Mitchell/Georgia
TE Shield Taylor/Stanford
OT Brandon Honorable/Pittsburgh
OT Zereoue Williams/Utah
OG Brody Wisecarver/Illinois
OG Dylan Jemtegaard/California
OG Makylan Pounders/Memphis
C Remington Strickland/Texas A&M
DEFENSE
DE ZionAngelo Shockley/Maryland
DE Tunmise Adeleye/Texas A&M
DE O'Tay Baker/Hawaii
DT Ikechukwu Iwunnah/Michigan
DT Tywone Malone/Ole Miss
LB Power Echols/North Carolina
LB Errington Truesdell/Vanderbilt
LB Justice Cross/FAU
LB Chief Borders/Florida
LB Rey'Noi Summersett/Akron
LB DJ Arkansas/Rice
LB Balansama Kamara/Temple
CB Prophet Brown/USC
CB Ga'Quincy McKinstry/Alabama
CB Duce Chestnut/Syracuse
CB Myles Purchase/Iowa State
CB Key'Savalyn Barnes/Louisiana
S Dink Johnson/Ole Miss
S Saint McLeod/West Virginia
S Quentavius Scandrett/Eastern Michigan
ATHLETE
ATH Nykelius Johnson/Virginia Tech
ATH Velltray Jefferson/Utah
ATH Tar'varish Dawson/Auburn
ATH Trinity Bell/Tennessee
WORLD DESTINATIONS
S New Zealand Williams/San Diego State
CB Thailand Baldwin/Ball State
LB Shyhiem Scotland/Charlotte
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