it really just means he was over rated, which is common with kids that have "measurables".

The truth is that there is far more emphasis put onto those so called "measurables" by recruiters than actual performance these days. They go to camps and watch these kids at the camps, and the QB position is a prime example of this, and base a large part of their assessment of that kid on how he performs at the camp.

The problem with that is that for most of these camps, and especially the qb's portion, they are not wearing pads, there is no pass rush, and the receivers are not covered. They simply stand there in their shorts and t-shirts and throw balls to wide open kids with no pressure to deal with. There are plenty of "all stars" that look great doing that but when they get into actual games, with the pads on, with the pass rush in their face, and with their receivers all covered, they are quite a bot less than "all stars".

My son is a HS QB right now, we go to camps, we do all of the things that are required to be recruited these days, so I see a lot of these kids, a lot of them. Many of them look fantastic at camps but when I've seen them in actual games they look much less than fantastic. But that is the system now.

A good example of this is something I was told by my sons private QB coach, he said that Ty Detmer told him that he can decide if a qb is good enough to play college football by watching him for 5 plays at a camp. all he needs to see is his footwork and arm strength and he knows if he is college material. And this guy, who is pretty notable about these things himself, agrees with that.

I kind of agree, but the difference is I actually see HS games and Ty and these other guys don't really see very many HS games. That may surprise some people but it is true, the college recruiters do not attend very many games, they might only see these kids in person playing outside of a camp once, twice at the most. They base their assessment on the camps and short highlight films of the kids which of course only show the kids very best plays. And I get it, HS football season occurs at the same time as college football season, they just don't have the time to attend a bunch of games.

But games are where you really see what a kid can do. You can see if he folds under pressure, or if he can actually hit a receiver with a pass when he is covered tightly, and when a pass rusher is in the qb's face. You can see how the kid behaves on the sideline and if he is a leader or a baby when things don't go well.

I'm not under any illusions here that the way recruits are graded is going to change, this is the way things are, but it does result in kids like Bateman being rated probably quite a bit higher than he should have been. I watched him in HS, live. He was big armed but couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a pass. He constantly overthrew receivers, especially on long passes. I'm not surprised by his college results, not in the least.