[BostonCard]

Here are the recruiting rankings starting in year 2000.  The average rating seems to have changed in 2002, so I wouldn't compare the Willingham years.  Obviously during coaching transitions, the class make-up reflects mostly effort from the departing coach and some from the new coach, but for simplicity I listed the coach when they arrived on campus.  The ratings represent signings, so folks who go on a mission count for their original class (McKee counts for 2018), and players who never came back from their mission (Taysom Hill) still count.

Year	Coach	National rank	Pac-12 (or Pac-10)	Average recruit rank	Number signed
2000	Willingham	11	1	0.761	14
2001	Willingham	14	2	0.750	17
2002	Teevens	32	6	0.838	16
2003	Teevens	26	6	0.826	21
2004	Teevens	60	11	0.827	11
2005	Harris	24	5	0.849	17
2006	Harris	63	12	0.809	16
2007	Harbaugh	51	8	0.822	19
2008	Harbaugh	47	9	0.837	16
2009	Harbaugh	21	3	0.875	23
2010	Harbaugh	25	6	0.874	24
2011	Shaw	22	4	0.878	19
2012	Shaw	7	1	0.905	22
2013	Shaw	52	11	0.878	13
2014	Shaw	13	2	0.894	19
2015	Shaw	24	5	0.870	22
2016	Shaw	16	3	0.873	23
2017	Shaw	14	2	0.926	14
2018	Shaw	40	7	0.880	15
2019	Shaw	21	4	0.882	23
2020 (to date)	Shaw	27	3	0.892	14

Conclusions?
Based on 24/7 rankings, Shaw is... not a bad recruiter.  Excluding the 2011 class that was largely recruited by Harbaugh, he's had 8 full classes.  He's recruited the only class since 2000 to be in the top 10 in the country, half his classes have been in the top 20.  The academic juniors and seniors this year were recruited in classes ranked 16th and 14th in the country.  And though 2018 was a bad year, I think what we are seeing is not the result of quality, but rather of quantity.  We recruited 14 players in 2017 and 15 in 2018, which is why aside from the seniors/redshirt juniors,  we don't have that many younger players.

Looking at the data, I don't see much sign that Shaw is "slowing down", but there is a lot of variability in the data.  His best class, ranked #7, was his first full year (that was the 2012 class that brought us Peat, Murphy, Garnett, and co), but it was followed by the small and weak 2013 class, which was followed by another very good class.  In fact, the stretch between 2014 and 2017 was all top-25 classes.  2018 was another small and poor class, and in my opinion was due to a poor response to the early signing period, but last year's class was big enough and of high enough quality (23 signees whose average recruit rank would have ranked 4th in his eight seasons).  This year's class, to date, looks reasonably good, but a lot of it will depend on how it closes.  It is very lopsided towards the offense, but if we close with ~6 more signees as folks who know better than I have intimated, and they are reasonable quality, the class should again rank around the middle of the Shaw tenure.

BC

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On an unrelated note, have we had a good recruiting class since the one Solly and McCaffrey were in?

By national ranking, the 2017 class with Sarrell (#2 OL; #5 overall), Little (#3 OL, #9 overall), Mills (#1 QB, #15 overall), Parkinson (#1 TE, #36 overall), Adebo (#14 CB, #110 overall) was every bit as good as the 2014 class with McCaffrey and Thomas.  By average recruit ranking, in fact, it was the best class we've had since 2002, but it was a small class, so the 2014 class was ranked 1 spot higher.

BC

[BostonCard]

Here are the recruiting rankings starting in year 2000.  The average rating seems to have changed in 2002, so I wouldn't compare the Willingham years.  Obviously during coaching transitions, the class make-up reflects mostly effort from the departing coach and some from the new coach, but for simplicity I listed the coach when they arrived on campus.  The ratings represent signings, so folks who go on a mission count for their original class (McKee counts for 2018), and players who never came back from their mission (Taysom Hill) still count.

Year	Coach	National rank	Pac-12 (or Pac-10)	Average recruit rank	Number signed
2000	Willingham	11	1	0.761	14
2001	Willingham	14	2	0.750	17
2002	Teevens	32	6	0.838	16
2003	Teevens	26	6	0.826	21
2004	Teevens	60	11	0.827	11
2005	Harris	24	5	0.849	17
2006	Harris	63	12	0.809	16
2007	Harbaugh	51	8	0.822	19
2008	Harbaugh	47	9	0.837	16
2009	Harbaugh	21	3	0.875	23
2010	Harbaugh	25	6	0.874	24
2011	Shaw	22	4	0.878	19
2012	Shaw	7	1	0.905	22
2013	Shaw	52	11	0.878	13
2014	Shaw	13	2	0.894	19
2015	Shaw	24	5	0.870	22
2016	Shaw	16	3	0.873	23
2017	Shaw	14	2	0.926	14
2018	Shaw	40	7	0.880	15
2019	Shaw	21	4	0.882	23
2020 (to date)	Shaw	27	3	0.892	14

Conclusions?
Based on 24/7 rankings, Shaw is... not a bad recruiter.  Excluding the 2011 class that was largely recruited by Harbaugh, he's had 8 full classes.  He's recruited the only class since 2000 to be in the top 10 in the country, half his classes have been in the top 20.  The academic juniors and seniors this year were recruited in classes ranked 16th and 14th in the country.  And though 2018 was a bad year, I think what we are seeing is not the result of quality, but rather of quantity.  We recruited 14 players in 2017 and 15 in 2018, which is why aside from the seniors/redshirt juniors,  we don't have that many younger players.

Looking at the data, I don't see much sign that Shaw is "slowing down", but there is a lot of variability in the data.  His best class, ranked #7, was his first full year (that was the 2012 class that brought us Peat, Murphy, Garnett, and co), but it was followed by the small and weak 2013 class, which was followed by another very good class.  In fact, the stretch between 2014 and 2017 was all top-25 classes.  2018 was another small and poor class, and in my opinion was due to a poor response to the early signing period, but last year's class was big enough and of high enough quality (23 signees whose average recruit rank would have ranked 4th in his eight seasons).  This year's class, to date, looks reasonably good, but a lot of it will depend on how it closes.  It is very lopsided towards the offense, but if we close with ~6 more signees as folks who know better than I have intimated, and they are reasonable quality, the class should again rank around the middle of the Shaw tenure.

BC

---

On an unrelated note, have we had a good recruiting class since the one Solly and McCaffrey were in?

By national ranking, the 2017 class with Sarrell (#2 OL; #5 overall), Little (#3 OL, #9 overall), Mills (#1 QB, #15 overall), Parkinson (#1 TE, #36 overall), Adebo (#14 CB, #110 overall) was every bit as good as the 2014 class with McCaffrey and Thomas.  By average recruit ranking, in fact, it was the best class we've had since 2002, but it was a small class, so the 2014 class was ranked 1 spot higher.

BC