The 2017 Patsy Ratings: No. 1, Holy Cross

The pie-eating contests were what I loved the best about the Worcester Patsy Parties.

Maybe it was the Purple People Eater moniker, the fact that they coincided with a particularly busy party weekend, it wasn't abundantly clear, but they always made for a great shindig.

I remembered the undergrads, lined up, eating the blueberry pies one after another.  It never ended well, but for some reason all the unsuspecting young people, waiting for the starting gun to go off, made me smile, as if they didn't know what they were really getting into.

It wasn't just about the pies: there was all sorts of great food and drink there: the blueberry crush cocktails, of which I had too many on multiple occasions, stood out.

Today, however, the only crush experienced in the offices were the ones of Holy Cross' Patsy Rating spreadsheets hitting me in the head.

THE GOOD

"Unheralded" QB Dom Randolph

Deep Purple fans should be thrilled that the Crusaders not only have the top-rated incoming recruit class of 2017 (as per the Patsies), but they should also be thrilled that Holy Cross nabbed three recruits that had three-star ratings, including the Patsy Point motherlode of recruits, the infrequently-sighted but rarely captured three star quarterback.  The presence of this triggerman is what put Holy Cross over Lafayette in the end in terms of recruiting.

(Of special note: A three-star QB isn't necessarily an indicator of future success.  Former Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph, who gave the Crossaders their only outright Patriot League football championship of the Tom Gilmore era, was an afterthought as a QB at St. Xavier (Ohio) behind QB Rob Schoeonhoft, who would end up at Ohio State.  Randolph became a 3-time all-Patriot League team player, owner of a Patriot League Championship, and got signed by the New York Giants after graduation.)

THE BAD

A three-star quarterback is one thing, but even a thousand-star quarterback will have difficultly doing anything if he has an offensive line filled with sacks of flour.  That's not to say Holy Cross' incoming recruits are sacks of flour, but even one single starred recruit in this area would have made the Crusaders' "very good" recruiting class into "one for the ages".

PATSY POINT CALCULATION
 

CLASS SIZE = 3.   20 recruits equals 3 Patsy points: 2 for the first 18 recruits, and 1 for the additional 2 recruits.

QUALITY = 35.   Just a hair below Lafayette's haul in this area, Holy Cross did it with more three-star recruits.  Overall, 9 of Holy Cross' 20 recruits yielded quality points.

DISTRIBUTION = 9.  All positions were covered in the incoming class.

SPEED = 9.   Holy Cross - through luck of the draw or recruiting savvy, your call - got more speed points than any other school, all from defensive players.  If "speed kills" on defense, the Crusaders are on the right track,

TRIGGER = 4.   Holy Cross had two recruited quarterbacks, one that wasn't in any of the recruiting websites, but the other (as exhaustively mentioned) was a three-star QB that yielded 4 trigger points.

JUMBO = 2.  Out of 6 recruits, only two of them tipped the scales enough to earn jumbo points.

NEEDS = 9 (of 12):  

Why You Need Offensive Linemen

OL = 2 (of 5).   When the Committee looked at Holy Cross' need areas, offensive line really stood out as a priority.  The Committee looked at the data at hand.  Did they get numbers?  Yes, four is a good number.  Did they get "quality", as defined by Quality Points?  Not so much: only one recruit so much as fogged a mirror.  Did they get big linemen that might by themselves put the Worcester Golden Corral out of business?  Somewhat: only two generated "jumbo points".  Overall, this unit seemed like it needed just a bit more of everything.

QB = 4 (of 4).   The Committee debated whether to withhold one need point because one of the QBs didn't fog a mirror, but the Committee decided against it.  A three-star QB in the Patriot League flags that recruit as a possible special talent.  He alone fulfills the need.

WR = 2 (of 3).   For this need area as well, the Committee looked at all the criterion.  "Quality"?  Check: a three-star recruit.  Depth?  Not so much... only two recruits.  For this, only two of the three possible checkboxes were checked.

COMMITTEE ADJUSTMENT:  The Committee looked at Holy Cross' overall class, and judged that the point total was representative of the type of talent that could be taking the field in future years.  They couldn't help but be impressed at the top of the class, with the three three-star recruits, and sometimes that alone is enough to propel a schools' class to the top of the Patsy Ratings.  Better yet, the Purple People Eaters had a pretty broad-based class that covered a lot of bases.

COMMITTEE ADJUSTMENT: 0

HOLY CROSS - 70