Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/258109
GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 20 • 5 D o recruiting rankings matter? Yeah, they do. While we'll be the first to admit that they're for entertainment pur- poses above all else, they are, for the most part, the result of thorough evalu- ation and product of hard work on many peoples' part. Same way recruiting is for coaches. And as coaches can only hope to be, rankings are right far more than they're wrong. Purdue will hope that in this class, rankings are wrong, because the only re- turns we have to go on right now about Darrell Hazell's first full Boilermaker signing class are rankings that are, well, not so hot. The class that signed on Wednesday, one that absorbed an unprecedented-at- Purdue six decommitments, is generally considered the worst in the Big Ten. Will it be 12, 24, 36 or 48 months from now? Who knows? I'm guessing not, but there's no way to know. But right now it is, not an entirely for- eign position for Purdue to be in, consider- ing how rarely through the years its classes have been ranked particularly favorably. (And check the track records of those that were, if you dare.) But certainly, fans that hoped for a se- rious uptick in recruiting and the buzz that might have come with it probably experi- enced a bit of a buzz-kill on signing day. They hoped for better, the sort of hope that springs eternal any time some- thing is new, as Hazell and his staff techni- cally still are. This is a class Purdue was behind on coming in the door. Coupled with a 1-11 season and the other challenges that come with recruiting in West Lafayette that we just know you love to hear about, it was difficult. Let's see what happens now that Purdue's staff is established and caught up with the 2015-and-beyond classes. And while I'm not going to tell you to ignore rankings — again, they're right more than they're wrong — one must not take them as an air-tight predictor of things to come, either. While classes like Purdue's unheralded 1997 class — translation: Drew Brees — are the extreme exception, not the rule, there is the occasional class that outkicks its coverage, so to speak. When Purdue was built into a winner, it wasn't done on the backs of elite recruits. You can't really expect that, same way you can't really expect the other extreme, for a class' six-feet-under rankings to be validated by time. We'll see. I know that's lame to say, but it's true. You know, recruiting boils down to two things: Not only attracting talent, but identifying it. In scramble-mode last year, Hazell and staff found some apparent steals on the discount rack. I think DeAngelo Yancey, Evan Panfil, Dalyn Dawkins and Dan Mon- teroso — all of them re- cruited in short order last winter — are going to be good players at Purdue, as their first years on campus hinted toward them being. I think that was a cred- it to Purdue's coaches' abil- ity to pinpoint players. This class will be a crit- ical test of that same abil- ity, a true case of, "Time will tell." If Purdue turns out to have unearthed a couple gems last year, then a few more this year, the prod- uct on the field will reflect it. If and when that hap- pens, it can grease the re- cruiting skids. We'll see. But you have to start somewhere. Even if it's the bottom. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com f r o m e d i t o r b r i a n n e u b e r t jury out