Bama's talent vs. LSU's talent (statistical breakdown via H.S. rankings)

[StoneMtnDew]

Share
 

I've seen a lot of discussion regarding talent among LSU and Bama. LSU fans seem to pretend their best players aren't playing and that Bama isn't that far off in terms of talent while Bama fans tend to realize Bama's talent is lacking while LSU's an upperclass laden team with talent oozing everywhere. Well, I went and looked up the depth charts of each and compared each player's HS ranking according to Rivals.com (represented in stars 1-5 with 5 being the best). I went to Rivals' website to get this depth chart and it might be a teensy bit off, but I think it's a pretty accurate representation of where each program is at this point.

I only went one deep except for when I went two deep for QB and TE and I went three deep for WR and RB. Here's how Bama looks:
Offense
QB - 3 stars for both QBs. 3.0 avg
RB - One 3 star and two 4 star. 3.6 avg.
FB - 2 star
TE - One 3 star and one 2 star. 2.5 avg.
WR - Two 3 star and one 4 star (DJ, KB and MC)
LT - 5 star
LG - 4 star
C - 2 star (Evan Cardwell)
RG - 4 star
RT - 3 star (3.6 average for O-line)
Defense
DEs - Two 3 star. 3.0 avg.
DT - 4 star
LBs - Two 2 star and three 3 star. 2.5 avg.
CBs - One three star (SC) and one four star (KJ). 3.5 avg.
FS - 3 star
SS - 3 star
Source: http://nfldraft.rivals.com/cdepthtex...7&Team=ALABAMA

Conclusion: The offense averaged 3.05 stars and the defense averaged 3.00 stars. The team, as I have it here, is 3.03.

Now let's look at LSU:
Offense
QBs - 4 star and 5 star. 4.5 avg.
RBs - A 5 star, 4 star and 3 star (I used K. Williams. C. Scott and T. Holliday). 4.0 avg.
FB - 2 star (Boy did the guys mess up that one!)
WRs - 5 star, 4 star, 3 star. 4.0 avg.
TE - 4 star and 3 star. 3.5 average.
RG - 4 star
RT - 4 star
C - 3 star
LT - 3 star
LG - 4 star (3.6 avg. for O-line).
Defense
DE - 4 star and 3 star (Jackson and Johnson). 3.5 avg.
DT - Two 4 star. 4.0 avg.
LBs - Two 4 star and a 3 star. 3.6 avg.
CBs - Two 3 star. 3.0 average.
FS - 3 star
SS - 4 star
Source:http://nfldraft.rivals.com/cdepthtex...=12&Defense=15

Conclusion: LSU's offense gets an overall rating of 3.52 and their defense gets and average rating of 3.54. Overall the team gets a 3.53 according to what I did here.

Of course one can argue how meaningless HS rankings are (Hester was a 2 star), but I think it's a good way to measure overall talent and if you look at this it's obvious LSU has much more talent than Bama does. I imagine if you looked at the second string you'd see an even bigger difference. I can't wait for the future.

[GrayTide]

Good post and I think you are absolutely correct that the difference once you get past the starters is scary. This is something to think about next year, will we really have more talent next year and if so will it primarily have to come from CNS first two recruiting classes?