Damn. And he said Ohio State was his second choice. Wonder what swayed him?
That’s two linemen we missed out on today.
Just a comment…did you hear his voice as he made the announcement? More thoughts on that later.
College football analysis and opinion with a heavy Ohio State bias
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
To be honest I think that signing day is a whole lot about nothing. When do “top classes” or “top prospects” make a huge difference. I know one thing and that is that you don’t have to be the most gifted lineman to flourish in college or even the pros (although it helps).
What does matter is the report that the lineman gain and the scheme that is in place. I think the Bucks have a solid line going into next year, key players returning in almost ALL skill positions and a scheme that has worked the past ten years to lead them to another title and hopefully a birth in the National Championship game.
Is the NC in the Orange or Sugar next year?
Fiesta, I believe.
It’s in Glendale.
And I think the mentality of a “top class” means a ton, Tim. Look back at where we were at in 2006 (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=2315716) and 2007 (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=2757802) and check out some of the familiar names near the top: Florida, Texas and USC. Sure, Trojans had a bad year, but you can’t really argue with results from Gators and Longhorns. Alabama has classes of 17th and 18th, respectively, before adding their Heisman winner Ingram. Sure there’s going to be some hits-and-misses among the rankings due to coaching and the like (you’d think Auburn would be way better than they are if you went by recruiting), but it’s a decent indicator of who’s got the most potential. We’ve seen time and again Meyer, Brown and Carroll can use that potential to make winners, so there’s little reason to doubt their ability to recruit.
As for “top prospect,” you’ll again find an instance where some guy comes out of nowhere to be huge. Troy Smith is a great example of this. But take a look at the top seven players from OSU’s 2006 recruiting (http://ohiostate.scout.com/a.z?s=145&p=9&c=8&yr=2006) and you’ll see star after star: Beanie, Larry Grant, Jake Ballard, Thaddeus Gibson, Ray Small. Sure, Connor Smith was a no-show and Rob Rose made the switch to DT and played back-up, but that’s five guys that were essential to this program. Similar pattern in 2005: Boone, Worthington and Denlinger were all starters by their senior year, while O’Neal, Schoenhoft and Mo Wells were all back-ups. Only Freddie Lenix turned out to be a total bust. So it’s not necessarily 100% accurate, but the stars do make a difference more today than they did a decade ago.
I think Tim is on to something. I started a post this afternoon about the mentality of signing day. If I get a chance, I’ll revise and put it up tomorrow.
Basically, there is something concerning about the amount of attention we’re putting on these kids who haven’t even graduated from high school. As a former teacher, I’ve seen it on varying levels.
I’ll expand when I get a chance.
As Lee Corso says ” not so cast my friends”. Although he said he picked USC he still is holding out on signing his letter of intent.
Dink, I agree that top classes and top stars a lot of times make teams jump to that next level my point was merely to state that it isn’t everything. The problem is that you can’t rank these classes until at least Junior year. With injuries, grades, transfers, arrests, team violations, NCAA violations, who knows what Texas’ class will look like in two years.
I don’t have the stats right now to back up my statement but look at notre dame. If my memory serves me correctly, ND had a top 5 class at least twice in the Weiss era and look what they have done.