College Football National Signing Day

[WVRed]

According to the Worldwide Leader, Florida has the number one recruiting class in the nation with Texas behind them.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/news/story?id=4882791


Florida may have lost in the SEC title game and coach Urban Meyer may be taking a leave of absence, but nothing has slowed the Gators on national letter-of-intent signing day.



Powell

Florida received verbal commitments from five five-star players in the ESPNU 150, including the top player, defensive end Ronald Powell of Moreno Valley, Calif. The Gators also have signed the top defensive tackle in the class, Dominique Easley of Staten Island, N.Y., (No. 3 in the rankings), and safety Jonathan Dowling of Bradenton, Fla. (No. 10 in the rankings).

Matt Elam, No. 9 in the ESPNU rankings, has also signed with Florida. He was a running back and linebacker in high school, but appears headed for defense in college.

ESPNU and ESNP360.com have live coverage and analysis of signings throughout the day.

National runner-up Texas has the No. 2 class in the ESPNU rankings, led by Jackson Jeffcoat, a defensive end from Plano, Texas, and the son of former Dallas Cowboy Jim Jeffcoat. The Longhorns also have signed Jordan Hicks, the top outside linebacker in the class from West Chester, Ohio.

Alabama, the defending national champ, has the No. 3 class which includes the nation's top quarterback, Phillip Sims of Chesapeake, Va.

Auburn, the Crimson Tide's biggest rival, picked up the nation's top running back, Michael Dyer of Little Rock, Ark. Auburn has the No. 5 class in the country, according to ESPNU.

Georgia, despite not having any commitment from a top-10 player, is ilkely to end up with a top 10 class, according to ESPNU. Alec Ogletree, a safety from Newnam, Ga., is their top-ranked player.

Florida State has a commitment from the top cornerback in the class, Lamarcus Joyner from Miami. Jeff Luc, the top outside linebacker in the class from Port St. Lucie, Fla., has signed with Florida State.

New USC coach Lane Kiffin has one top-10 recruit in his class. Robert Woods, the No. 1 wide receiver from Gardena, Calif., has committed to the Trojans.

Among the undeclared players, offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson of St. Paul, Minn., is the No. 9-ranked player in the class. Demar Dorsey, a safety from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and No. 12 is the rankings, is also undeclared.

[Sea Ray]

Looks like Florida is the clear cut concensus #1 this year. I'm relieved to see that my Tenn Vols didn't get decimated as I had feared after the Lane Kiffin defection. I think they're still a little short on LBs but they did get a good kicker, top notch WRs and a few QBs. They even got another one of Phil Simms' sons.

When your rivals are recruiting like they are in the SEC it's awfully hard to keep up.

I don't know how long UC can continue to finish top ten with top 60 talent.

Doesn't look like Kelly did so well in his first class at ND. He only got two top 100 players

[WVRed]

I'm happy with Kentucky's class. Two 4 star recruits at major positions of need in Brandon Gainer and Alex Smith, and some 3 stars who look pretty promising.

The more I watch Derek Dooley, the more I think he is a young Randy Travis.

[Sea Ray]

I'm happy with Kentucky's class. Two 4 star recruits at major positions of need in Brandon Gainer and Alex Smith, and some 3 stars who look pretty promising.

The more I watch Derek Dooley, the more I think he is a young Randy Travis.


Maybe he can sing country songs like "Rocky Top"

[Hoosier Red]

I'm happy with Kentucky's class. Two 4 star recruits at major positions of need in Brandon Gainer and Alex Smith, and some 3 stars who look pretty promising.

The more I watch Derek Dooley, the more I think he is a young Randy Travis.

Kentucky grabbed a guy who had committed to IU, to be honest if I was "considering" the two I'm not sure I'd give IU a second thought.

[OnBaseMachine]

Kudos to Lane Kiffin for holding on to Pete Carroll's recruits and adding some other big ones like Seantrel Henderson and Hayes Pullard. USC landed three of Scout's top five recruits.

[WMR]

Did Lane end up poaching any of the UT kids?

[OnBaseMachine]

Did Lane end up poaching any of the UT kids?

A JUCO LB decommited from UT and went to USC.

[BearcatShane]

[QUOTE=I don't know how long UC can continue to finish top ten with top 60 talent.[/QUOTE]





UC recruits speed and that'll be good enough to compete and win the Big East with the teams that are in it. It's just when UC plays a Florida or a top level team they will get beaten up because they lack the elite talent especially at the line of scrimmage. Butch Jones runs a system very similar to Brian Kelly, if you have speed you will win at least 75% of your games.

[Red Heeler]

A JUCO LB decommited from UT and went to USC.

He didn't have enough math credits to qualify under SEC rules for JuCo transfers, so at least part of that had to do with academics.

USC also got Markeith Ambles, a highly rated WR who had been a UT commit.

OTOH, UT got some very good players who were not considering UT under Kiffen. Dooley did a great job of recruiting in such a short time.

[Sea Ray]

He didn't have enough math credits to qualify under SEC rules for JuCo transfers, so at least part of that had to do with academics.

USC also got Markeith Ambles, a highly rated WR who had been a UT commit.

OTOH, UT got some very good players who were not considering UT under Kiffen. Dooley did a great job of recruiting in such a short time.

WR was a strong suit in this year's UT recruiting class. They stole a top notch WR from the Georgia Bulldogs at the last minute. I didn't realize that JUCO had academic issues. They lost a top notch LB to someone. I wish they'd been able to hang onto one more LB

[Sea Ray]

Funny how things are perceived from campus to campus. The morning Enquirer calls UC's class "tremendous" and coach Jones calls it the best ever. The article goes on to say it was rated #59 by Rivals and #62 by Scout.com.

[joshnky]

Funny how things are perceived from campus to campus. The morning Enquirer calls UC's class "tremendous" and coach Jones calls it the best ever. The article goes on to say it was rated #59 by Rivals and #62 by Scout.com.

While they don't have the quantity Louisville and Kentucky both ended up pulling better players out of Cincinnati than UC did. And I don't understand the "speed" comment. I see a few 4.5 40s on the UC commit list (at Rivals) but that is hardly fast and most schools do better than that.

[BearcatShane]

While they don't have the quantity Louisville and Kentucky both ended up pulling better players out of Cincinnati than UC did. And I don't understand the "speed" comment. I see a few 4.5 40s on the UC commit list (at Rivals) but that is hardly fast and most schools do better than that.

Oh yea. Well we'll just see how fast they look on the football field.

[Hoosier Red]

I'm interested in doing a little analysis but I need to get my hands on some data.

Would anyone be able to e-mail me the Rivals rankings from say the last 7 or 8 years.
PM me if this is possible.

[traderumor]

Kudos to Lane Kiffin for holding on to Pete Carroll's recruits and adding some other big ones like Seantrel Henderson and Hayes Pullard. USC landed three of Scout's top five recruits.We'll see how wise those recruits look when they are playing in a program on probation.

[SeeinRed]

Funny how things are perceived from campus to campus. The morning Enquirer calls UC's class "tremendous" and coach Jones calls it the best ever. The article goes on to say it was rated #59 by Rivals and #62 by Scout.com.

I would say it is the best class UC has pulled in. UC has come a long way, but they still have a long way to go. UC continues to make strides in recruitment, but they still have some proving to do to a lot of the recruits. I don't think anyone should be expecting any more from them right now.

[Sea Ray]

I'll be the first to say that college recruiting is a crapshoot, much more so than even the NFL draft but what else are us college football fans to discuss in February?

I found this article pretty cleverly written and here's an excerpt:



If you place any stock at all in recruiting rankings, it was a pretty "meh" day for the Big Ten. Rivals ranks only Penn State (No. 12) and Michigan (No. 20) among its top 25 classes and says the only five-star recruit in the conference was defensive end Wiliam Gholston, who signed with Michigan State. In fact, the big news in Big Ten recruiting this season appears to be more about who spurned the conference.

The biggest recruiting prizes in Big Ten country this year are bound for California. Southern California, that is. Offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson, who swore he was seriously considering Iowa. Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and wide receiver Kyle Prater, who had Illinois and Michigan among his choices, will both be headed to play for Lane Kiffin and whoever replaces Kiffin in two years.http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/02/03/big-ten-signing-day-a-tale-of-losses/

Seems that Lane Kiffin hurt the Big Ten worse than Tennessee.

How can an entire conference only get one five star athlete? Florida Gators had four all by themselves.

Of course these rankings do vary. Scout.com has the Washington Huskies #11 and Rivals has them at #28. I think Scout rewards them for quantity; they had 31 recruits

[BearcatShane]

I would say it is the best class UC has pulled in. UC has come a long way, but they still have a long way to go. UC continues to make strides in recruitment, but they still have some proving to do to a lot of the recruits. I don't think anyone should be expecting any more from them right now.

Well, I can see how one might think UC's recruiting class should at least be around 40th if not a little better. But the fact is UC has never had highly rated recruits, they just find good solid players that led them to back to back Big East Championships. Did Brian Kelly have a lot to do with that? Absolutely, but as of right now I have confidence that Butch Jones will continue the success. I hope he proves me right.