40 yd dash testing was today. I was told Papi White, AJ Oullette, Dylan Conner and Julian Ross all ran sub 4.5 40’s.

Yeah that one surprised me. Apparently he cut 15 lbs and ran a 4.46. Bodes well for our offense that two running backs ran that fast. Julian Ross ran a 4.37.

Yeah you’re right about that. I wasn’t surprised because Conner ran a 4.52 last fall, so everyone knew he was fast. AJ went from a 4.61 to a 4.46 which is why I was pleasantly surprised by his numbers. No doubt though, Conner may be the fastest linebacker in the conference this season. And the O line voted him “hardest hitter”. He will surprise some offensive coordinators this year.

For those that think recruiting rankings are meaningful, obviously the fact that he's fast, smart, and hits hard are irrelevant. At 5'11", he's obviously too short to play linebacker, and after all, he was the lowest ranked player in Ohio's 2016 recruiting class:
https://247sports.com/college/ohio/Season/2016-Football/C...
Furthermore, he was considered the 2977th best potential recruit that year:
https://247sports.com/player/dylan-conner-80314
When you consider that only about 2700 players get FBS scholarships every year, he clearly should have been walkon material, at best.

For those that think that recruiting rankings at the G5 level are meaningless, he's a perfect example of why you can't take those rankings very seriously. With speed, intelligence, and also being a hard hitter, he has the potential to play himself into all-MAC consideration.

Good point L.C., I didn’t know his ranking was that bad. Obviously the coaching staff are better judges of talent than recruiting “experts “. No surprise there!

Don't feel bad about the bad rating. He's in good company. In recent years, the players rated at the bottom of the class have been:
2018 - Jerome Buckner, Keye Thompson, O'Shaan Allison
2017 - Hagan Meservy, Julian Ross
2016 - Dylan Conner, Amir Miller
2015 - Joshua Cooper, Joe Anderson
2014 - Brett Layton, Mitch Bonnstetter, Maleek Irons, Papi White, Kylan Nelson
2013 - Brenden Cope, Cam McLeod, Cleon Aloese, Durrell Wood, Troy Mangen

You will note that virtually all of these not only played early in their career, they became starters, and many or most were All-MAC.

Going back further, you'll find that the players who have been drafted were generally rated poorly. Only Basham, Price, and Mitchell were in the top half of the class, and none were near the top:
2013 - Quentin Poling - lower middle of class
2013 - Tarell Basham - upper third of class
2012 - Blair Brown - rated in bottom third of the class
2009 - TJ Carrie - not rated at all
2008 - Eric Herman - lower 1/3 of class
2007 - Lavon Brazill - 2d from bottom
2006 - Taylor Price - upper third of the class
2005 - Michael Mitchell - upper middle of class

I think it is clear that the lowest rated players in most classes have been among the best players. That, presumably, is because the coaches are able to find some gems that no one else notices. Getting great players that everyone knows about is a bigger challenge because they have lots of competition for them.

Based on history, I have high expectations for Buckner, Thompson, and Allison, since they are the bottom of the 2018 class.

Yes, I really believe this is true. As L.C. has shown a lot of our stars . . . some now in the NFL . . . have come here with few or no stars from the rating services. Some of our stars have even been walk-ons. The way our walk-on program is structured it gives Frank and his coaches an opportunity to assess non-scholarship athletes and further "sniffing out' to find players that could contribute. Austin J. Ouellette might be the best example of "sniffing out" a starter from the ranks of the walk-ons.

Regarding recent and past recruiting vs. ratings, Jason Arkley has been running a nice series on his Athens Messenger blog going year by year of all the recruiting classes Frank has had.