Expecting top-six results from a bottom 10 football program is blissfully ignorant.
Fair or not, given his recruiting acumen, that’s exactly what some fans expect from Lobo football head coach Mike Locksley.
Heralded as the No. 6 recruiter in the nation when he was hired in December 2008, Locksley arguably received the Lobos’ head job solely because of his ability to recruit, given he had no previous experience as a collegiate head coach.
Did he deliver?
Scout.com rates the Lobos’ 2010 recruiting class as tied for 83rd in the nation. UNM, according to Scout, signed just four three-star recruits, none in the top 100.
Among the bottom 13 teams in the nation, only three — Virginia (3-9), Maryland (2-10), one of Locksley’s coaching stop-offs, and Washington State (1-11) — landed four-star recruits. Washington State secured 17 three-star recruits, to Maryland’s 13 and Virginia’s seven.
Locksley, in his first, full go at recruiting, nabbed three three-star players — middle linebacker Toby Ball, quarterback Tarean Austin and wide receiver Detchauz Wray — second-most among teams that finished an unspectacular 1-11.
The stars Scout.com hands out, however, have Locksley less
than starry-eyed.
As it goes, Locksley said, some stars turn out to be supernovas. Others, he said, plummet faster than the ones that pepper the Albuquerque horizon.
“I know a lot of successful two-star, no-star guys that have had great success and I’ve known a lot of four-star, five-star guys that don’t pan out,” he said. “(There’s) no exact science to it. I’ve recruited as many five stars that haven’t turned out to be great players as two stars that have turned out to be great players. ”
The truth of the matter is recruiting is boom-or-bust. Only the matter is further complicated by established sites like Scout.com, which attempt to predict the unpredictable and forecast that which cannot be conceived.
Call it the Nostradamus Effect.
But Locksley hardly pays attention to any of the rambling done on such sites, or grades assigned by such subjective rubrics.
“I never put anything into someone else’s ratings,” Locksley said. “To each his own. What’s been proven over the years with the recruiting system that we utilize is the evaluation process. We know what we’re looking for. We have a set process in place to insure we’re bringing in the right player.”
He has his own formula, one that has rarely let him down, he said.
“It’s a long process, but to give it to you in layman’s terms, each position has a set criteria: How tall, how short we’d be willing to go at each specific position. We look at height and weight measurables. We look at speed measurables, and we have a top-speed measurable that we like. And we have a bottom — the least amount of speed and height we take.”
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From there, Locksley said, the coaches assign each recruit a grade based off a breakdown of performances in seven critical areas.
To ensure that the exercise is as foolproof as possible, other coaches besides Locksley provide input, determining who fits into the Lobos’ necessities and which players UNM can weed out.
“When you’ve got three guys doing it — the recruiting coach, the position coach and then me as the head coach — you’ve got three different grades and you average them out,” Locksley said.
And by Scout’s definition — coupled with Locksley No. 6 recruiter tagline — this recruiting class is average, perhaps even a tad below.
But, if just this once, don’t doubt Locksley.
“If you look at my track record over the years as a recruiter, it’s based on production, not based on stars,” he said. “I’ve never been the type to pound my chest as a recruiter. I’ve always prided myself on being a good evaluator of talent.”
For the time being, all Locksley can do is wish upon a star.
