[msqueri]

I would argue that group of LDS missionaries who played at Stanford are above-average. Lloyd, Fanaika, Barton, Reid, Fehoko, Damuni, and McKee all started at least one year. Heimuli was a team captain and got a good number of reps. Only Kaufusi was not a significant contributor. Granted, not all starters are made equally, but that’s still a very good hit rate.

That was my impression too, on seeing the list of names.

Starting one year or getting a good number of reps are not high bars to clear and don't make somebody above-average IMHO, although I agree that the frequency of it happening with LDS missionaries arguably makes LDS missionaries as a group above-average in this respect. I'd want to be comparative about this to make any judgments. My attempt at that:

* Shaw has had 25 of his recruits judged to be superstars, as measured by all-conference recognition, which means that there is about a 20 percent chance of a Shaw recruit becoming a superstar (excluding 2019 and beyond recruits as they still have a chance to make all-conference). Our LDS recruits have definitely been superstars less often than the average as Fehoko is the only one to ever do it for Shaw. If one assumes McKee gets to that level before his Stanford career is done (which, for what it's worth, I'd bet against) and Edwards doesn't, that gets the LDS recruits even with the superstar hit rate generally.

* Looking at it another way, Shaw has had slightly more players make the NFL than reach Pac-12 all-conference level, so if McKee gets to the NFL our LDS recruits are arguably keeping pace with the non-missionaries in this respect but are definitely not ahead of them.

* You are correct that the hit rate on being a starter-level player appears to be pretty good for LDS recruits. Shaw recruits have had about a 60 percent chance of becoming starter-level players and this LDS cohort is at 78 percent.

There are sample size issues for all of these observations that should make us think about this more impressionistically than mathematically. My impression: LDS missionaries perform solidly and may or may not be more reliable than non-missionaries but are certainly not more spectacular. My view is that we get maturity and steadiness from these recruits but it goes too far to say they out-perform their peers.

[msqueri]

I would argue that group of LDS missionaries who played at Stanford are above-average. Lloyd, Fanaika, Barton, Reid, Fehoko, Damuni, and McKee all started at least one year. Heimuli was a team captain and got a good number of reps. Only Kaufusi was not a significant contributor. Granted, not all starters are made equally, but that’s still a very good hit rate.

That was my impression too, on seeing the list of names.

Starting one year or getting a good number of reps are not high bars to clear and don't make somebody above-average IMHO, although I agree that the frequency of it happening with LDS missionaries arguably makes LDS missionaries as a group above-average in this respect. I'd want to be comparative about this to make any judgments. My attempt at that:

* Shaw has had 25 of his recruits judged to be superstars, as measured by all-conference recognition, which means that there is about a 20 percent chance of a Shaw recruit becoming a superstar (excluding 2019 and beyond recruits as they still have a chance to make all-conference). Our LDS recruits have definitely been superstars less often than the average as Fehoko is the only one to ever do it for Shaw. If one assumes McKee gets to that level before his Stanford career is done (which, for what it's worth, I'd bet against) and Edwards doesn't, that gets the LDS recruits even with the superstar hit rate generally.

* Looking at it another way, Shaw has had slightly more players make the NFL than reach Pac-12 all-conference level, so if McKee gets to the NFL our LDS recruits are arguably keeping pace with the non-missionaries in this respect but are definitely not ahead of them.

* You are correct that the hit rate on being a starter-level player appears to be pretty good for LDS recruits. Shaw recruits have had about a 60 percent chance of becoming starter-level players and this LDS cohort is at 78 percent.

There are sample size issues for all of these observations that should make us think about this more impressionistically than mathematically. My impression: LDS missionaries perform solidly and may or may not be more reliable than non-missionaries but are certainly not more spectacular. My view is that we get maturity and steadiness from these recruits but it goes too far to say they out-perform their peers.