Final: 1/13/2011
UPDATED: 1/2/2011
After watching 100 live college soccer games this year, supplemented by another 52 games on tape, composed of 118 different college teams, here is my assessment of the seniors, international invitees and Generation Adidas underclassman. My rankings take into account the values of GA, international status and general assessment of the skill and how each player might fit into a MLS team.
Players that I haven’t seen are generally ranked lower than players that I have seen. I’m from the East coast – so it’s easier for me to see teams in the East. However, I’ve seen UCI, Sacramento State, SMU, Bradley, Cal-Northridge, Cal, San Diego, Tulsa and Drake live. I was unable to see some teams live, I’ve only seen on tape (e.g., Notre Dame, SIUE, Michigan, South Carolina, UCSB). The combine will supplement my prior observations and fill the gaps where needed.
Washington, Cal-Bakersfield and SD State are three teams that I regret not being able to see.
In addition to ranking each player sequentially, I’m assigning a letter grade using the following scale:
A=Can’t miss prospect. Should easily make the roster and may get time with the first team in 2011. By the end of the year, could be an impact player.
B=Likely to make the team. Could make roster, may take a year or more to get to the first team.
C=Probably not going to make the team. Has significant barriers to overcome. A very select few may eventually make it, but it would need to be a perfect storm (multiple injuries, playing out of their heads, fortuitous bounces, etc.).
D=Extremely unlikely to make a team.
F=No shot.
Within each grade, I’ve ranked each player.
This is a work-in-progress. I will be tweaking the rankings through the combine and I as review tape.
Below, I’ve broken out my rankings for defenders. I’ll follow this with rankings of midfielders, forwards and over-all. Enjoy!
| # | Pos | Grade | Name | College | Combine? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Def | A- | Kofi Sarkodie | Akron | GA-Combine |
| 2 | Def | A- | Zarek Valentin | Akron | GA |
| 3 | Def | A- | Jalil Anibaba | UNC | Signed-Combine |
| 4 | Def | B | Michael Boxall | UCSB | Combine |
| 5 | Def | B | Rich Balchan | Indiana | Combine |
| 6 | Def | B- | Tyler Lassiter | NC State | Combine |
| 7 | Def | B- | Michael Tetteh | UCSB | GA-Combine |
| 8 | Def | B- | A. J. Soares | California | Signed-Combine |
| 9 | Def | B- | Colin Givens | Michigan State | Combine |
| 10 | Def | C+ | J.T. Murray | Louisville | Combine |
| 11 | Def | C+ | Bilal Duckett | Notre Dame | Combine |
| 12 | Def | C+ | Andrew Welker | Seton Hall | |
| 13 | Def | C+ | Demetrius Omphroy | California | Combine |
| 14 | Def | C+ | Eddie Ababio | UNC | Combine |
| 15 | Def | C+ | Robert Younger | UIC | |
| 16 | Def | C | Ben Havey | Boston University | |
| 17 | Def | C | Leone Cruz | SMU | Combine |
| 18 | Def | C | Mark Wiltse | South Carolina | |
| 19 | Def | C | Kendall Sutton | Marshall | |
| 20 | Def | C | Bob Warshaw | Stanford | Combine |
| 21 | Def | C | Dwayne Williams | Rhode Island | |
| 22 | Def | C | Javier Mohammed | South Florida | |
| 23 | Def | C | Kyle Deremer | Creighton | |
| 24 | Def | C | Curtis Ushedo | UAB | Combine |
| 25 | Def | C- | Dave Dinardo | St. Bonaventure | |
| 26 | Def | C- | Chris Korb | Akron | Combine |
| 27 | Def | C- | Will Traynor | South Carolina | |
| 28 | Def | C- | Taylor Mueller | Washington | |
| 29 | Def | C- | Guilherme Reis | ETSU | |
| 30 | Def | C- | Ryan Richter | LaSalle | |
| 31 | Def | C- | Santiago Bedoya | Northeastern | |
| 32 | Def | C- | Yannick Salmon | Rutgers | |
| 33 | Def | C- | Josh Walburn | Princeton | |
| 34 | Def | C- | Chris Taylor | Tulsa | Combine |
| 35 | Def | C- | Glenn Leitch | Loyola-MD | |
| 36 | Def | C- | Ryan Corning | Stetson | |
| 37 | Def | D+ | Andre Mitto | South Florida | |
| 38 | Def | D+ | Bryan Minogue | Providence | |
| 39 | Def | D+ | David Walls | Brown | |
| 40 | Def | D+ | Nick Foster | Drake | |
| 41 | Def | D+ | Ross Liberati | Bucknell | |
| 42 | Def | D+ | James Graf | Lehigh | |
| 43 | Def | D+ | Sean Bateau | Charleston | |
| 44 | Def | D+ | Jack Cleverly | Fairfield | |
| 45 | Def | D+ | Joel Bagby | UC Irvine | |
| 46 | Def | D+ | Matthew O’Shaughenessy | FGCU | |
| 47 | Def | D+ | Nick Sih | Duke | |
| 48 | Def | D+ | Robert Brickley | Connecticut | |
| 49 | Def | D+ | Scott Horta | Towson | |
| 50 | Def | D+ | Owen Botting | Hartwick | |
| 51 | Def | D+ | Shawn Nicklaw | Connecticut | |
| 52 | Def | D+ | Greg Rosenthal | UWM | |
| 53 | Def | D+ | David Prochazka | UWGB | |
| 54 | Def | D | Teddy Schneider | Princeton | |
| 55 | Def | D | Greg King | Connecticut | Combine |
| 56 | Def | D | Rob Burnett | Georgetown | |
| 57 | Def | D | Lucas Carpenter | NC State | |
| 58 | Def | D | Michael DiNuzzo | William & Mary | |
| 59 | Def | D | Jordan Grider | St Mary’s | |
| 60 | Def | D | Matt Sanford | Northeastern | |
| 61 | Def | D | Chris Christian | Villanova | |
| 62 | Def | D | Anthony Vazquez | Monmouth | |
| 63 | Def | D | Alex Russell | Coastal Carolina | |
| 64 | Def | D | Conner Burt | Butler | |
| 65 | Def | D | Brian Quintana | UMKC | |
| 66 | Def | D | Nick Kapus | American | |
| 67 | Def | D | TJ Cyrus | UVA | |
| 68 | Def | D | Chris Williams | UMBC | |
| 69 | Def | D | Indy Smith | UNC Wilmington | Combine |
| 70 | Def | D | Sean Flatley | Charleston | |
| 71 | Def | D | Michael Reed | New Mexico | |
| 72 | Def | D | Corey Attaway | UC Irvine | |
| 73 | Def | D | Mike Jones | SIUE | |
| 74 | Def | D | Greg Tinari | Stony Brook | |
| 75 | Def | D | Chris Beville | UC Davis | |
| 76 | Def | D | Cody Stanley | Northwestern | |
| 77 | Def | D | Tommy Watkins | Dayton | |
| 78 | Def | D | Kyle Manscuk | Binghamton | |
| 79 | Def | D | Roberto Hernandez | Iona | |
| 80 | Def | D | Will Martin | Loyola University | |
| 81 | Def | D | Cameron Lamming | Stanford | |
| 82 | Def | D- | Justin Warren | San Francisco | |
| 83 | Def | D- | Diego Marroquin | Sacramento | |
| 84 | Def | D- | Tyler Hibbs | St Francis (PA) | |
| 85 | Def | D- | Andres Casais | PSU | |
| 86 | Def | D- | Thomas Huepper | VCU | |
| 87 | Def | D- | Aaron Nichols | Wisconsin | |
| 88 | Def | D- | Fro Adu | George Mason | |
| 89 | Def | D- | Assaf Sheleg | St. Peter’s | |
| 90 | Def | D- | Matthew Marshall | Howard | |
| 91 | Def | D- | Stefan Thor Eyesteinsson | Gonzaga | |
| 92 | Def | D- | Robert Millock | Harvard | |
| 93 | Def | D- | Ben Burton | Princeton | |
| 94 | Def | D- | Todd Rutledge | Fairfield | |
| 95 | Def | D- | Doug Ferner | Loyola University | |
| 96 | Def | D- | Alberto Navarro | CS-Bakersfield | |
| 97 | Def | D- | Yaron Bacher | UCF | |
| 98 | Def | D- | Weston Hawkins | IUPUI | |
| 99 | Def | D- | Lorne Cameron | Houston Baptist | |
| 100 | Def | F | Bryan Giudicelli | Dartmouth | |
| 101 | Def | F | Pierre Soubrier | Quinnipiac | |
| 102 | Def | F | Victor Cortez | San Francisco | |
| 103 | Def | F | Tom Van Grinsven | Holy Cross | |
| 104 | Def | F | Mladen Ramic | Stony Brook | |
| 105 | Def | F | Jeff Baker | Cleveland St | |
| 106 | Def | F | David Murphy | New Mexico | |
| 107 | Def | F | Jamie Thomas | Hartford | |
| 108 | Def | F | Jon Gann | Oral Roberts | |
| 109 | Def | F | Andrew Cotes | Rider | |
| 110 | Def | F | Justin Kamine | Lafayette | |
| 111 | Def | F | Wayne Lampart | CS-Bakersfield | |
| 112 | Def | F | Jamie Calvo | UNLV | |
| 113 | Def | F | Gavin Stabbe | Duquesne | |
| 114 | Def | F | Nathan Javadi | UC Davis | |
| 115 | Def | F | Cory Norris | San Diego | |
| 116 | Def | F | James Leith | Radford | |
| 117 | Def | F | Oshane Moodie | NJIT | |
| 118 | Def | F | Jon Tilton | Air Force |
Dec 22, 2010 at 11:48 am
wrote this under the wrong section…
noticed you dont have info for owen botting for 2007. He went to Heidelberg college in ohio for his school before transferring to Hartwick. His stats on the heidelberg website read: 19/18 gp/gs 2 goals, 3 assists…
http://www.heidelberg.edu/sites/herald.heidelberg.edu/files/TEAMCUME%28167%29.htm
Dec 23, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Thanks – I’ve updated Bottig’s 2007 that he was at Heidelberg, but I generally don’t use non-D1 stats for transfers.
Also, I deleted your comment to the midfielders. I can pull it out of the trash, if you prefer.
Jan 4, 2011 at 11:26 am
I was searching for some info on defenders for the upcomming draft but then remembered that you were the only guy in the world that thought George John sucked (despite your own positive in game notes??)
Maybe this time I should start at the bottom of your lists
(Hey it wouldnt be the internet w/o at least a lil negativity
)
Jan 4, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Thanks for your helpful feedback!
Jan 12, 2011 at 11:12 pm
[...] Click here for Defenders [...]
Jun 24, 2011 at 2:15 pm
when do you start assessing 2012 defenders. I’m obviously interested since you noted in spring game comments that the UNCC two center backs Charles Rodriguez and Isaac Cowles who have played together since Freshman were maybe one of the best center back teams in the country.