Believing the hype

In an interview with Tigerillustrated.com earlier this week, Tajh Boyd was talking and he mentioned "the freshmen."

The mere term -- no mention of any specific players -- was enough to cause his face to break out into a wide smile.

Clearly, there is something special about a number of these guys who signed with Clemson in February. Their presence, coupled with a new and exciting offense, is what makes you think the notion of this team winning nine games and claiming a division title is not that preposterous at all.

I've never been a recruiting junkie. Years ago, you could've counted me among the group that dismissed the consumption with recruiting rankings and the stop-the-presses coverage of 17- and 18-year-olds who hadn't even played a college down. My response to hyperventilation in the wake of four- and five-star signings was typically: "Yawn. Wake me up when they get to campus and so something in college."

That philosophy began to change in the winter of 2005, when there was considerable buzz about a talented tailback from Atlanta who favored the Tigers. His name was James Davis, and when he signed there was unmistakable excitement from the coaching staff, a belief that he could give this program something it hadn't possessed in a long time.

When Davis made it to campus and began pouting during August camp because he wasn't getting enough carries, it seemed to provide some pretty strong ammunition against the obsession with so-called recruiting studs. He appeared high-maintenance right off the bat, and I remember thinking and actually saying: "This team might be better off with Reggie Merriweather."

Merriweather was a veteran, and he wasn't a bad back. But the difference between the two became irrefutable in short order when Davis touched the ball in the opener against Texas A&M. Don't remember if it was his first carry or second carry or third carry, but he took a handoff and bounced outside and zigged and zagged in a way that made me go: "Wow. This kid looks special."

A few months later, in February of 2006, Clemson's coaches were doing backflips in the McFadden Building when a kid from Florida named C.J. Spiller spurned his home-state schools to sign with the Tigers. I'm betting every single one of you remember Spiller's "Wow" moment. Second game, at Boston College, and Spiller goes nuts. It's basically the same as Davis' "Wow" moment ... multiplied by about 10.

The point of this is that usually, heading into a season, you can get a feel for whether incoming freshmen have enough of that "wow" factor to support notions of an instant splash. Sure, there are heralded players who take a while to truly blossom. And there are heralded players who never make the anticipated impact. Nothing about this is foolproof, and I don't know of anyone who claims that it is.

Some people still rail on recruiting coverage, wailing about the horrible practice of writing stories about poor little high school kids who can't handle the attention. They condemn the rankings and the stars and the buildup and say it's a nefarious nuisance.

No doubt there are some unsavory elements to the phenomenon, plenty of cases where the so-called experts get it wrong. But ... news flash: College football is big-time, as big-time as it's ever been. The most important part of winning is talent acquisition, and so it follows that fans are intensely interested in following said acquisition.

When Kevin Steele gushes about some of his freshman linebackers and has no qualms about saying these guys are good enough to play right away, I'm going to take notice. When coaches and players break into wide smiles when discussing some of the other freshmen (most notably Sammy Watkins, Martavis Bryant, Charone Peake and Mike Bellamy), I'm going to remember similar smiles about Davis and Spiller and some others.

And I'm going to consider it perfectly reasonable to believe some of this hype.

LW