FIUGoldenPanthers.com

I would like to continue something I started last year, by putting in comparison the 2018 class with some previous years. Last year I said:



I still stand by that. We saw multiple contributions by freshmen last season. Bryce Singleton, Shermar Thornton, and D'Vonte Price all made solid contributions on offense. The Dames brothers got some solid playing time on defense. Noah Curtis and and Kevin Oliver were significantly involved in the D-line rotation. It was an exciting season for FIU football. And after all that... the 2018 class really is something special. Below are the number of 3-star signees of individual recruiting services since 2010:

247-Sports Composite # of 3-star signees:

2010: 11
2011: 1
2012: 13
2013: 3
2014: 3
2015: 7
2016: 6
2017: 12
2018: 16 (including 2 4-star signings --> Teair Tart-Spencer, Tayland Humphrey)

ESPN # of 3-star signees:

2010: 4 (including 1 4-star --> Willis Wright)
2011: 5
2012: 7
2013: 2
2014: 7
2015: 7
2016: 3
2017: 13
2018: 13 (including 1 4-star --> Tayland Humphrey)

Note that ESPN changed the requirement of a 3-star recruit from a score of 75 to 70 starting in 2013, thus depending how you score it, you could say we had more 3-star recruits in those classes before 2013 (such as in infamous 2012 class). For my tally, I used the scoring of the ESPN system in place at that time (so 75 and above before 2013). I should point out that the average rating of the guys in the 2018 class that have been evaluated by ESPN is significantly larger than last season, with most guys listed as upper 3-star guys.

Rivals # of 3-star signees:

2010: 10
2011: 10
2012: 19
2013: 2
2014: 0
2015: 3
2016: 2
2017: 8
2018: 9 (including 2 4-star signings --> Teair Tart-Spencer, Tayland Humphrey)

Note that Rivals is missing a rating for Demery. Also note that prior to 2013, it seems 3-star labels were given out much more liberally to all schools.

Below is the 247 Sports composite national ranking of FIU's recruiting classes:

2010: 82
2011: 92
2012: 79
2013: 114
2014: 109
2015: 100
2016: 104
2017: 83
2018: 70

As you can see, regardless of recruiting agency, we had our best class since at least 2012. By some agencies, we had our best class ever, as shown in bold (note some don't go back before 2010 anyway). Of course the number of 3-star players is not the only way you can evaluate a class, but I thought it was the simplest. Using 247 Sports national composite rankings, we have never had a national ranking as high as 70 before. You can also see how inferior the recruiting was under the Ron Turner regime. As Butch continues to convert the roster to be most of his guys, we should continue to see an increase in the talent on the field, and hopefully, more W's.

The most exciting part about the 2018 class, in my opinion, is how we recruited guys that can make immediate impacts. The JUCO DTs will likely be instant starters, the LBs we recruited (Georges, Sanders, Jacques-Louis) can compete for the open LB spots. Demery will likely anchor a starting OT spot. And we brought in some nice speed at the WR spot with Underwood, Turner, and Dillard. Once Townsend is healthy, I really think he will be a special player.

Ladies and gentlemen, FIU is only getting better.

Also, not included by any rating agency yet, are the transfers from last year; Woods and CJ Worton; and Morgan and Gaskin in this class.

And no reason why, in our minds at least, Morgan shouldn't be seen as a 4-star recruit. That is what he was coming out of high school, and, who is to say how much his coaching or lack thereof at Bowling Green State Hayfield University screwed up his development. We have never had a recruiting class with this much high-end talent, period. (Furthermore, let us not forget what busts the only previous 4 star recruits--Wright and Pooh Bear--were.) For a lot of reasons this haul may not translate to a whup-ass conference title season next year, but it sure does suggest where the program is headed. D. Wade is back in town and we should have a legit football team on the field next year. I am happy as a clam.

Great summary, Building A Dynasty! Thanks for putting all that info together. It’s evident our program under Butch is in good hands. Jules, great additional points as well, in terms of adding talent via the transfer way that usually is not taken into account for these ratings.

Bottom line is, we are in good hands now. Go Panthers!!

Thanks for the summary. Just a quick update in Cadarius Gaskin, as much of us anticipated he has some qualifying issues he is trying to take care of. If he gets them fixed we’ll see him on campus, if not he will likely end up at a Junior College or Marshall.

Source? I mean those issues crop up, so not unbelievable, just curious where you got it from.

Gaskin would be a huge final piece if we can get this figured out. Hope it all works out for the young man.

All i'll say is that is someone on FIU's payroll.

Either way we had an amazing recruiting class no doubt.

247Sports did update some its database and rankings, where Gaskin is now included as well as some other players with updated rankings. We now take a comfortable lead in 1st Place in their CUSA rankings, and a close second to FAU in terms of average rating per player, even though we have 5 more players commuted/signed.

247 Gave Demery a nice rating of 86 which is about what i expected. Not sure what other rating they are taking into account to give him a composite of .8356 since he is not rated by ESPN and Rivals gave him a 2 star but no number rating yet.

Our class is finally right (though they show Gaskin as signed lol) and it looks very very nice.

Gaskin's composite rating might drop a bit to 0.854 because I don't think they have the right Rivals rating. That's what happened to Rocky Jacques-Louis earlier. I've been keeping my own spreadsheet since I can update the numbers faster than 247 seems to do lol. Regardless, this class is really good.

For some more perspective, according to 247 Sports composite ratings, of the top 10 highest rated recruits FIU has ever signed, 5 have come from the 2018 recruiting class:

https://247sports.com/college/florida-international/Sport/Football/AllTimeRecruits

That's very impressive.

That's a cool list to go thru....

That's really impressive! Can you guys imagine back to back years with recruits of this caliber?