ESPN Bruce Feldman Blog

Lots of FSU talk in this week's mailbag as well as plenty of recruiting stuff:

From Whitney in Dallas: "I am disgusted to hear about the negative recruiting that some of these coaches engage in just to win a player over. Why can't they be more like Mark Richt or a Joe Paterno?"

Feldman: If you don't think every coaching staff uses some form of negative recruiting tactics, you're kidding yourself. Most will say that what they're really doing is just keeping it real or giving the whole picture, but it's still casting another school in a negative light. If it sounds like it's happening more than in the past, it's only because there's so much more attention paid to recruiting coverage today. A while back. I was visiting a top-25 program and the head coach was in his office with a blue-chip recruit and his family. One of that coach's assistants walked by with another recruit and pointed to the player visiting with the head coach and talked about what a great recruit that kid was and goes, "He really likes [blank school]. Wait till he finds out that they don't graduate any of their black players." I almost fell off the couch when I heard that.

From Reggie in Baltimore: "I'm sick of hearing about how bad the ACC supposedly is. How come nobody is talking about how The Basketball League is going to dominate the first round of the NFL draft?"

Feldman: This is an interesting little phenomenon. The ACC schools have produced a ton of the best players in the NFL and while it's been easy to surmise that's because of Miami and FSU, this year shows that's not the case now. My colleague Heather Dinich in her ACC blog points out that three of the top five projected players in April's draft are expected to come from the ACC.

To me, the ACC and the talent that came out of New Jersey will be two of the best stories about April's draft. I wrote some about the N.J. kids the other day, but I went back and looked to see just where some of these guys were rated out of high school by the recruiting sites. It's pretty interesting.

UVA's Eugene Monroe was rated as the No. 1 player in N.J. in 2005, according to Rivals. Georgia's Kade Weston was No. 2 and USC's Brian Cushing was No. 3. That's a good group, although get a look at the bottom four guys in the top 30:

No. 27 Donald Brown, UConn

No. 28 Malcolm Jenkins, Ohio State

No. 29 Corey Wootten, Northwesterm

No. 30 Anthony Scirrotto, Penn State

From Paul in New York: "Your story about the Duke assistant [director of football operations Kent McLeod] was cool and got me to wonder about the relevance of the recruiting sites. I check Rivals, Scout and ESPN's rankings all the time. Are schools taking them more seriously than say five years ago?"

Feldman: I'd say so. It's not so much that college coaches are taking their cues from the sites, meaning they'll reconsider some guy they've got on film if one of the online recruiting sites is touting him as a blue-chipper, but no doubt there is more awareness of who is a five-star recruit and who isn't. As I've written before, a lot of staffs have someone in their office pulling clips about the kids on their recruiting board to see "the buzz" on them, what they're saying to reporters about the recruiting process. As for the credibility of the rankings, schools are torn. The coaches often seem uncomfortable with the rankings system yet they will be more than proud to tout who was the No. 7-ranked SAM linebacker prospect in the country if he signed with his team on Signing Day.

The rankings also can have some financial impact on the coaching staffs. It did at Ole Miss, where the administration rewards the coaches if they have a "highly rated" class. According to John Brice, it's in Tennessee recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron's contract now that he will receive a $25,000 bonus if the Vols land a consensus top-five recruiting class. My hunch is there are probably other coaches with similar deals.

From Doug in Washington, D.C.: "I really appreciate your article on FSU football. You make valid points, and as a die-hard fan/alum, its good to see touchy subjects that have been discussed in private circles make their way into main-stream conversation. That being said, I really wish you would have taken a bit more time to discuss how and when the program can recover from this. I know it's not a simple fix, but with a big-name brand and a fertile recruiting territory, I feel FSU will always be primed to turn the corner and regain its dominant form. UF and Miami have both proven this to be true in the past 10 years. Additionally, Jimbo Fisher might not have all the answers, but he engineered the top offense in the conference last year with players he didn't recruit. There may be friction now, but once Bobby is gone (which should be by 2010), this team should be in pretty good shape. Do you agree with this assessment? Do you feel that once Bobby is gone, the team will begin to ascend back up the mountain? I feel like the school has too many positives going for it to be down for too much longer."

Feldman: I do agree. Obviously, no one can say for certain whether Fisher will prove to be a great head coach until he actually has the job, but the key elements are certainly in place for a return to the mountain top. FSU has great history; sits in a great recruiting location; has excellent facilities and has cache. Many kids grew up rooting for the Noles. It has the cool quotient that is going to be there.

From Jarred in Boston: "How can you honestly say FSU will be hurt in recruiting when they had a top-10 class this year?"

Feldman: Here's exactly what I said: I'll also be curious to see what kind of impact the probation has on FSU's recruiting. It's not as if the Noles lost a lot of scholarships or are being barred from appearing on TV or playing in the postseason, so I doubt it will have a big impact. That said I was a little surprised to read some of the comments from recruits in this Atlanta Journal-Constitution story:

"Florida State dropped down a lot with me because they got in all that trouble," said Loganville (Ga.) tailback Storm Johnson, who has 10 offers. "They have a great program, but I don't think I want to be any part of that."

My hunch is those kids who probably weren't really thinking about going to FSU now have another reason to shy away, and those who are very open to FSU or grew up as Noles fans will still want to be recruited by them.

Thing is, some people in e-mails have referenced FSU's lofty recruiting rankings in the past five or six years in a way of dismissing any perceived drop. The best barometer is wins and losses. FSU has had just one 10-win season in the past eight years. In the previous eight years, the Noles won at least 10 games every season. I was writing about the larger issue about why FSU has dropped.

Recruiting rankings also can be pretty dubious. In many cases I suspect guys who sign with or are chased after by high-profile schools get their star ranking elevated.

From Ben in Carrollton, GA: "I noticed one glaring omission from your top-10 newcomers story: Anthony Allen, the former starting tailback at Louisville who is now eligible at Georgia Tech. Having observed many spring practices and the spring game in 2008, an argument could be made that Allen, and not Jonathan Dwyer, was the most impressive back in spring camp last season. Nonetheless, Allen will team with Dwyer and Roddy Jones to form the best backfield in the ACC, if not the country."

Feldman: Good point. There were a bunch of other players I considered for that list. Allen was one of them, but I figured with Tech as stacked as it is in the backfield, he probably wouldn't make as big of an impact as some of these other guys.

RANDOM STUFF

• Rylan Reed, a member of last year's Freaks Top 10 list, had a really rough day at his pro day at Texas Tech, according to Redraiders.com.

"Reed was taken to a Lubbock hospital, a Tech official said, after he suffered a knee injury running the 40-yard dash at the Tech Athletic Training Center. Reed appeared to suffer a dislocated kneecap, although the full extent of the injury was not immediately determined, the official said. That was after Reed had bench pressed 225 pounds 44 times -- more than any player was able to do at the recent NFL combine in Indianapolis. At the combine, Reed's linemate, Louis Vasquez, benched 225 pounds 39 times."

This really saddened me. Reed is one of the more likeable, mature college players I've ever been around. He's had to endure so much just to get to this point in his career. He's already battled through cancer, and while he was fighting that, his father died in an automobile crash. Then last winter after he did a solid job for most of the Gator Bowl containing UVA star Chris Long, Reed broke his ankle late in the game. When I visited with him last summer while I was in Lubbock for a Michael Crabtree story, Reed said there's no way he was going to let that stop him after all he's been through. I suspect he won't let this stop him either.

• Miami RB Graig Cooper continues his strong spring under new Canes offensive coordinator Mark Whipple. Cooper had a very good day as he rushed for 112 yards on 14 carries in UM's scrimmage Thursday night. His longest three carries went for 38, 29, and 17 yards as he showed a good burst through the hole, according to Insidetheu.com.

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