Lander Barton Upgraded to 5-Star by On3

[younglurch]

Lander Barton officially rated the #28 overall prospect by On3 earning him 5-star status. I know On3 isn’t as respected as 24/7 or Rivals when it comes to prospect evaluation, but this could indicate a big upcoming bump in Lander’s rating by other services as well. His performance in the All-America game and practices likely caused this jump. 

Could he become our first ever composite 5-star? I’d say it’s unlikely, but this is encouraging news for the program and Lander regardless!  

[Torg]

That’s awesome for him!  That household has produced a lot of Utah athletes.

 

Looking at On3, i noticed Texas A&M has snagged a ton of top recruits…. apparently theyve got some great donors affiliated with the school. 

[younglurch]

To your point about A&M, the reports are that their boosters spent upwards of $30 million to secure that class. I think it stands to be the highest rated in modern history. 

[UteBacker]

Wow.  Chance of landing SEVEN five-stars?????  NIL is working really well for some teams.

[AlohaUte]

It’s hilarious how quickly NIL went from being Name, image, likeness to just openly paying players. And interestingly it appears the BYU opened that pandora’s box.

[NarfUte]

There’s a LOT of oil money in the A&M good ole boys club. When I was an engineer in O&G we legit had to have sales people who went to A&M and wore their stupid ring to get new projects at large OE’s

[FtheY]

Fingers crossed. He just got a small bump from .91 to .9335 on 247s composite. That was a week or two ago. 

I think class average is the best way to look at classes because it’s easier to see overall talent and doesn’t help/hurt for small or large classes. Last year we were .8727, our best ever. This year, with Landers new bump, we are .8715. If he can get one more bump we should have our best class year on year on year (and maybe on year again). 

One other unique thing about this class is that we don’t have a ton of 4* guys driving up the average. We significantly improved our floor and didn’t sign many below .85. Lots of high 3* guys this class. 

[younglurch]

Great observation about our floor being raised. Like you say, though we aren’t grabbing tons of blue chip talent, getting high 3* players to add depth helps immensely. 

In my opinion, 1 major factor that differentiates good from great teams is that great teams have true depth, whereas good teams are more likley to be hampered by injuries. What separates great from elite teams is bluechip talent being stacked several players deep at several positions. 

Over the past decade(ish), we solidified ourselves as a good team. In more recent history (barring COVID season), we have begun to grow into a great team. 

[MDUte]

^^^100%^^^ Well said younglurch!

[Tony (admin)]

Yes. The cruicial losses we’ve had in the last few years can all be attributed to lack of depth.