The latest college football rankings, news, scores, live coverage, predictions, picks against the spread, recruiting updates and more from Bleacher Report
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rbr opWe don't know how Knott will pan out as a cornerback in the SEC, but there is no questioning his athleticism. Huge pull out of Mississippi for the Tide. Roll Tide, Nigel. Looking forward to watching you grow.

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Crimson Tide land walk-on long snapper-seccountry

Former Alabama WR Chris Black lands at Missouri

Alabama QB makes unbeatable recruiting pitch to Class of 2016

Power 5 teams (of which there are 65) that consistently recruit Top 20 classes have a 60 percent chance of becoming a Top 20 program and a 35 percent chance of regularly inhabiting the Top 10. By contrast, Power 5 teams that finish outside the Top 20 in recruiting have a lower than 18 percent chance of fielding Top 20 teams and just a 6.7 percent chance of reaching the Top 10. Still think those recruiting rankings are meaningless?
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rbr opRecruiting rankings are far from meaningless, but this is looking at a pretty wide perspective. Sure, you have to be in the top 20 or so in order to contend for anything. That seems like common sense. Is there really an appreciable difference in most cases between the first and fifth ranked players or classes, however?

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How the SEC's top-ranked 2012 recruits panned out-espnbama

"I think this year was a big learning process," Barnett said. "Getting adapted to how the team works, getting to know everyone on the team, the coaching staff and getting familiar with the offense and how everything really works. But I think I got a lot experience even though I was doing mainly scout team. "With that said, you get to go against the No. 1 defense every day and practicing against them and improving my overall game."
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RECRUITING UPDATE FOR NSD EVE-tsk

7 steps to proving recruiting rankings matter-sds

Your Signing Day announcements schedule

And, perhaps not-so-coincidentally, nearly all the teams still trying to grab that top recruiting class this year all live close to where the five-stars are.
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The 2013 cornerback recruit class was amazing

Hint No. 1: Raw talent might matter more on defense. The correlations between recruiting rankings and defensive success were stronger than on offense. Whereas most offensive categories ended up in the 22 to 29 percent range, a majority of defensive categories were between 31 and 42 percent. These are verified to some degree with eyeballing. Of the top five offenses according to Off. S&P+, only one (Stanford's) came from a team that recruits at a top-20 level. The other four were Arkansas (28th in two-year recruiting), Baylor (32nd), Texas Tech (47th), and Western Kentucky (93rd). Meanwhile, four of the top six defenses came from the top end of the talent pool: Alabama (first in two-year recruiting), Michigan (14th), Clemson (12th), and Florida (13th). Boston College (53rd) and Northwestern (40th) bucked that
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rbr opThis makes sense. So many teams are running spread offenses now, which are disproportionately reliant on quarterback play. Wide receivers in those schemes need not be the biggest or fastest since they are generally playing in open space. In fact, it is often smaller, quicker types that don't usually show up at the top of the 247 composite manning those spots. Being that the defenders are often left on an island, things like wing span and closing speed make a huge difference. Up front, elite athletes who are strong enough to hold their ground against the run while agile enough to catch mobile quarterbacks are at a premium.

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Who are five current SEC recruits that nobody is talking about, but should be?

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Report: Arizona St. DL coach leaving for same job at Mizzou-cft