The 2015 Patsy Ratings - Lafayette's Class of 2019

Art was extremely tired.  He had no idea what he had signed up for.

With the businesswoman that looked uncannily like Nicki Minaj, he was staring... staring... staring at some webpage with the latest Lafayette recruits on Rivals.

Eventually the numbers blurred, becoming more and more blurry, until...

"Wake up!" the businesswoman said.

Art's head shot up from the keyboard, awoken from a strange dream.

He dreamed that the businesswoman had become a full-fledged Lafayette Leopard fan, complete with crazy hair and very high heels.

"We need to get this done!" the businesswoman said.  "Stop napping!  Get back to work!"

"Sure thing," Art said, as he deleted his browsing history, and returned to his spreadsheet.  Much to his surprise, his analysis of the Leopard's Patsy Rating was complete.


THE GOOD

Art looked at the heights and weights of the linemen on the team, and was impressed.  Art remembered the many complaints of the Committee over the years that Lafayette's offensive and defensive lines didn't bring a lot to the beef department.  With this roster, with not one, not two but three 300 lb behemoths, Art couldn't help but be impressed.

Another thing of note of this class is the presence of two *** recruits, something that is a rarity in the Patsy Ratings.  Art liked that aspect of the class - with several of the recruits, demonstrable quality.

Art doesn't seem completely satisfied

THE BAD
Yet Art still wasn't completely satisfied with this group, either.

For one, the small overall size of this class - 18 - seemed only barely enough to cover the needs of the Leopards, especially considering that the Spotted Maroons did, after all, have a losing record last season.  It's one thing to get 18 recruits if you're the defending champs, and quite another when you're well behind the team that was the Patriot League champion last season.

The other aspect that troubled Art was the concentration of star points and quality points in a handful of players.  That's not to say that non-starred players couldn't emerge and become superstars - that happens with every Patsy class - but such concentration generally isn't the sign of a great overall Patsy Point class.  Art felt like it just wasn't enough considering what Lafayette needed.

PATSY POINT CALCULATION
 
QUALITY = 34.  The good news, Nicki said, was that the Eastonians got a fairly good overall number in the quality department.  But, as Art was very quick to point out, the quality point number fell off 11 points from last season.

While the overall conversion rate of "recognized recruits" was still fairly high, at 55.5% (or 10/18), 23 of the 34 points came from exactly three recruits.  While it's good that the Kitties got some high-quality prospects, it's the lack of points from the rest of the class that concerned Art.

CLASS SIZE = 2.  18 recruits barely met the "replacement" requirement, Art again pointed out, much to the annoyance of Nicki.

DISTRIBUTION = 9.  All bases were covered, including kicker, giving the Spotted Maroons the full allotment of points in this category.

Better hope these aren't the speediest members of the class

SPEED = 7.  Seven members of the Leopard class had speed information listed, but it's not like they generally had the listed speed of gazelles.  Only two members of the incoming class generated points for the Marquistadors, but it was good enough for seven Patsy Points.

TRIGGER = 1.  Not that it was a huge need area for the Leopards, but Art saw that Lafayette had one QB prospect that fogged a mirror with one recruiting service, yielding one Trigger point.

JUMBO = 4.   Of the four eligible players, all four didn't just meet the Jumbo requirement, they shattered it.  In that sense, the Maroon trench men were a big success for head coach Frank Tavani, because they won't need to feed them cheeseburgers to become jumbo-sized Patriot Leaguers.  They're already there.

"There just aren't enough of them," Art drily noted, with Nicki shooting daggers at him with her eyes.

NEEDS = 7 (of 14):  The Committee, over their warbly intercom, agreed with Art in the sense they were less than impressed with the meeting of Lafayette's stated need areas.

OL = 3 (of 5).  "The guys they got were impressive," the voice crackled, "but there weren't nearly enough of them to meet the requirements."  Art nodded his head in approval.

WR = 2 (of 4).   "Same deal at wideout - quality over quantity doesn't work here," a new voice murmured.  "I didn't even agree about awarding two whole points here, considering there was only one recruit at this position.  But by a razor-thin margin, The Committee reluctantly awarded two points thanks to the fact that the recruit was a *** recruit."

DL = 2 (of 3).  "Same story.  Great quality few bodies," a third voice repetitively said of Lafayette's third requirement.

COMMITTEE ADJUSTMENT:  Nicki paced around impatiently.  "Can't we just get on with it?" she said, of the final word on Lafayette's potential committee adjustment.  "We get it.  We GET IT!  Lafayette's class has concentrated quality but not enough bodies.  You said it over... and over... and OVER... in your assessment."

Art peered at Nicki through his glasses.  "I think there should be a negative adjustment here, and here's my reasoning.  You need depth and bodies at certain positions, and while this class has merits, depth and bodies isn't it.  That's critical in case Mr-Three-Stars gets hurt, or transfers to play at Lehigh.  What happens to the class?  I'll answer that question for you - disaster, that's what."

Get on with it, already!

An intercom voice piped up.  "But you don't know what's going to happen.  Maybe Mr-Three-Stars becomes a freshman starter and becomes an ironman on the line for four straight years.  This isn't about what actually happens.  This is about potential, and this team does have potential."

"So let's give school in the Patsy Ratings a trophy," Art cynically noted.

Nicki sighed.  "Personally I don't see anything that leads me to adjust it one way or another.  I don't see anything really over- or under-represented in this class.  It seems about right to me."

The rest of the Committee agreed.

COMMITTEE ADJUSTMENT: 0

LAFAYETTE - 64