Rivals.com or Scout.com?

When it comes to football, recruiting, other other sports topics which page is better: Rivals or Scout?

Who is better Rivals.com or Scout.com?

Every year when recruiting season is at its peak and signing day is just weeks away, I like most of the college football nation began checking Scout.com and Rivals.com twenty times a day. I’ve heard arguments that each web page is better than the other. Let’s take a look and try and figure out what recruiting page truly is #1.

Let’s look at who both Scout and Rivals have for their #1 overall recruit over the last few years:
2002 – Rivals #1 Recruit (Vince Young, QB for Texas) Scout #1 Recruit (Lorenzo Booker, RB for Florida State)
2003 – Rivals #1 Recruit and Scout #1 Recruit (Ernie Simms, LB for the Florida State)
2004 – Rivals #1 Recruit (Adrian Petersen, RB for Oklahoma) Scout #1 Recruit (Jeff Byers, OL for USC)
2005 – Rivals #1 Recruit (Derrick Williams, WR for Penn State) Scout #1 Recruit (Mark Sanchez, QB for USC)
2006 – Rivals #1 Recruit (Percy Harvin, WR for Florida) Scout #1 Recruit (Chris Wells, RB for Ohio State)
2007 – Rivals #1 Recruit (Jimmy Clausen, QB for Notre Dame) Scout #1 Recruit (Everson Griffin, DE for USC)
2008 – Rivals #1 Recruit and Scout #1 Recruit (Terrelle Pryor, QB for Ohio State)

Let’s tally the points:
2002 – Rivals wins! Vince Young clearly has been a better college and pro prospect than Booker
2003 – This one is a tie since they picked the same #1 each site gets a point
2004 – Rivals wins! Byers is still playing in college, Adrian Petersen dominated both college and now pro.
2005 – Too close to call. Derrick Williams and Mark Sanchez have both played very well for their teams.
2006 – Rivals wins! Percy Harvin has helped Florida win two NCs. He will also be a high draft selection.
2007 – Scout wins! USC is a winning team and Griffin is a starter, um we’ve all seen what Clausen’s team is doing.
2008 – Another tie. Each site gets a point.

So the score right now is 5-3 with Rivals in the lead. Rivals.com seems to be the better site when it comes to High School recruits. But what about the NFL draft. We’ll explore that issue in part two of my struggle to answer the question: Who is better Scout.com or Rivals.com?

Back Once Again With the Renegade Master!

As all three of the people who read this site will notice (hi Mom!), I’ve been beyond remiss in updating the site, and in covering the whole Chizik fiasco. This was a result of me being out of town a good deal, and of my desire to give the whole coaching change time to digest before putting my thoughts up here. Also, I’m lazy. On the plus side, I did build a fence, so I’ll post some pictures of that in a bit.

The hire of Gene Chizik as Auburn’s next coach initially rubbed me the wrong way, as it did many Auburn fans. We were treated to a highly public coaching search that had its ups (Turner Gill, Mike Leach) and its downs (Patrick Nix, really?), and in the end were left with the initially unpalatable selection of a coach with a 5-19 record in the Big 12 North. To be fair, most small town high school football teams could compete with Iowa State, but the choice didn’t inspire the least bit of confidence due to continued bumbling by Jay Jacobs, Jay Gouge, and our favorite meddling trustee, Bob Lowder.

Chizik is the Will Muschamp of two years ago, and was slated for coaching greatness (much like Muschamp) until he made the regretful decision to take the first head coaching job that came along, not unlike marrying the first girl you slept with in high school. Upon further consideration I’ve come to like Chizik, not because of his head coaching prowess, but because of the coaches who he has surrounded himself with. Gus Malzan as offensive coordinator is a fantastic choice, as long as we the fans shut up and give him time to build the offense his way. Trooper Taylor is a beast of a recruiter, and frankly, it will be nice to have a receivers coach who teaches our receivers to do something other than block passably and drop balls. As far as I can tell, RB coach Chris Luper has done a stellar job at Okie St, and Jay Boulware should provide a much needed boost to our struggling special teams, in addition to coaching tight ends.

I applaud Chizik for keeping James Willis on board, as he almost single handedly kept our recruiting class together during the turmoil and transition. Now here’s hoping that these coaches, along with whoever we get for defensive coordinator, can get some of the recruits back that we lost, and maybe land a few new ones. Raymond Cotton, are you listening? Please come back. I’ll make you cookies.

Whatever happens from here on out, it’s going to be nice to be rid of the incompetence of Knox, Knall, and Ensminger on the offensive staff. So this is me getting behind the Auburn coaching staff. Go get ‘em guys, and War Damn Eagle!