[Hulk01]

Actually, the history of recruiting coverage may have started with LW, whose big contribution was to focus on offer lists.  This led me to create the Hulk Offer Theory Score, aptly abbreviated as HOTs:  What guys are hot?  Offers are imperfect indicators--some kids misreport and some offers cannot be committed to--but they are useful in combination with Scout rankings (slightly better than Rivals), Rivals scores, The Opening offers, quality of program and state competition (Texas kids are usually ready to go as freshman), and film and film evaluations (Garry Cobb chimes in on Scout and is good.  Irishguru is very good on LOS guys.)

LW begat Chad.  Chad was a non-grad but a devoted Stanford fans  He had a friend in a high place, coach Dave Tipton, so the Bootleg was wired.  I had years of professional experience assessing prospects' comments and objections and created some links to kids through my business connections all over the country, including a rich vein in the Atlanta area, where slide is on the ground and active.  So he and I started teaming.

Then Dave left.  That left Chad unwired but Bootleg was good at sending reporters out to get clues.  Rivals same deal, and now Andy D at Rivals is the king.  He asks the right questions and has learned to read the clues and cues, even in the prospects' tone.  The Bootleg tried to do it but a lot of recruits wouldn't take their calls.  It wasn't coincidence; the 'leg screwed itself. 

Msqueri came along and obsessed on the subject and I let him go.  He had some skills for the task but reading the prospect's likely decision wasn't one of them.  The ace was tmf, Tom Feldstein, who had both connections and instincts and aced the call on the 2012 class.  He called all final seven guys while msqueri insisted that calling as many as six was ridiculous.  Msqueriu then allowed himself to be diverted by work and a woman, however, so i tried to step back in for this 2014 class.  I probably will cut way back in 2015 except for a handful of key prospects. 

I got to know JH just a little and finally got behind the door, partly because a couple Stanford coaches became certain I already had a mole inside (I didn't.)  At the same time, other Cardboarders and bootleggers had connections and sent me tips and then returned to hiding.  Dave Fleming sent along lots of hot tips but he's increasingly famous and busy with things non-Stanford.

In the end, however, calling the final class always will be difficult because we never will know what admissions will do.  Even they don't know what they will do until they have done it.  I am more confident in assessing a class's potential impact and think this class will contribute more than the 2012 class, and the upside is very high. 

[Hulk01]

Actually, the history of recruiting coverage may have started with LW, whose big contribution was to focus on offer lists.  This led me to create the Hulk Offer Theory Score, aptly abbreviated as HOTs:  What guys are hot?  Offers are imperfect indicators--some kids misreport and some offers cannot be committed to--but they are useful in combination with Scout rankings (slightly better than Rivals), Rivals scores, The Opening offers, quality of program and state competition (Texas kids are usually ready to go as freshman), and film and film evaluations (Garry Cobb chimes in on Scout and is good.  Irishguru is very good on LOS guys.)

LW begat Chad.  Chad was a non-grad but a devoted Stanford fans  He had a friend in a high place, coach Dave Tipton, so the Bootleg was wired.  I had years of professional experience assessing prospects' comments and objections and created some links to kids through my business connections all over the country, including a rich vein in the Atlanta area, where slide is on the ground and active.  So he and I started teaming.

Then Dave left.  That left Chad unwired but Bootleg was good at sending reporters out to get clues.  Rivals same deal, and now Andy D at Rivals is the king.  He asks the right questions and has learned to read the clues and cues, even in the prospects' tone.  The Bootleg tried to do it but a lot of recruits wouldn't take their calls.  It wasn't coincidence; the 'leg screwed itself. 

Msqueri came along and obsessed on the subject and I let him go.  He had some skills for the task but reading the prospect's likely decision wasn't one of them.  The ace was tmf, Tom Feldstein, who had both connections and instincts and aced the call on the 2012 class.  He called all final seven guys while msqueri insisted that calling as many as six was ridiculous.  Msqueriu then allowed himself to be diverted by work and a woman, however, so i tried to step back in for this 2014 class.  I probably will cut way back in 2015 except for a handful of key prospects. 

I got to know JH just a little and finally got behind the door, partly because a couple Stanford coaches became certain I already had a mole inside (I didn't.)  At the same time, other Cardboarders and bootleggers had connections and sent me tips and then returned to hiding.  Dave Fleming sent along lots of hot tips but he's increasingly famous and busy with things non-Stanford.

In the end, however, calling the final class always will be difficult because we never will know what admissions will do.  Even they don't know what they will do until they have done it.  I am more confident in assessing a class's potential impact and think this class will contribute more than the 2012 class, and the upside is very high.