[SamuelMcF]

I've been watching Stanford football religiously since I arrived on campus for undergrad, about 5 years ago. I'm 5'8" 150 pounds and my only experience actually playing was in 5th grade flag football when they put me on the OL because I couldn't throw or catch. For those of you closer to the fold or who understand this stuff better, I have always wondered...

What causes a player to "develop" super well and "overperform" (Blake Martinez, Ben Gardner, Harrison Phillips...) their recruiting ranking? Or, on the flipside, what causes a player to "underperform" (high 4 star Noor Davis, winner of the High School Butkus award, comes to mind)? Does a player just all of a sudden become more superhuman than anticipated in high school? Does play recognition get trained better? Does a player become lazy and lose whatever "spark" they had in high school? I would love some insight because I really don't know how player development works...at all.

Thanks in advance for quenching my preseason thirst.  :)

[SamuelMcF]

I've been watching Stanford football religiously since I arrived on campus for undergrad, about 5 years ago. I'm 5'8" 150 pounds and my only experience actually playing was in 5th grade flag football when they put me on the OL because I couldn't throw or catch. For those of you closer to the fold or who understand this stuff better, I have always wondered...

What causes a player to "develop" super well and "overperform" (Blake Martinez, Ben Gardner, Harrison Phillips...) their recruiting ranking? Or, on the flipside, what causes a player to "underperform" (high 4 star Noor Davis, winner of the High School Butkus award, comes to mind)? Does a player just all of a sudden become more superhuman than anticipated in high school? Does play recognition get trained better? Does a player become lazy and lose whatever "spark" they had in high school? I would love some insight because I really don't know how player development works...at all.

Thanks in advance for quenching my preseason thirst.  :)