FB RECRUITING Signing Day (Regular Period) Wednesday, February 7, 2018
- Thread starter SpaceRaider
- Start date
There's not much out there that's too exciting in terms of star rating. We're going down to the wire with a few kids and I'm sure other schools are trying to poach ours. I think we'll have 1 or 2 surprises on Wednesday but nothing major unfortunately.
This was more of a nuts & bolts class with lots of OL and DB's. You can read about the few kids left that we are after in the Lounge. One of them has already said he will make his announcement on Wednesday. He has offers from WKU & MT and is getting late interest from UTK with a recent visit there. UTK has actually shown strong interest in 2 of the final prospects we are targeting....little punks. I suspect UTK told him to wait until signing day because he's a back-up plan.
This was more of a nuts & bolts class with lots of OL and DB's. You can read about the few kids left that we are after in the Lounge. One of them has already said he will make his announcement on Wednesday. He has offers from WKU & MT and is getting late interest from UTK with a recent visit there. UTK has actually shown strong interest in 2 of the final prospects we are targeting....little punks. I suspect UTK told him to wait until signing day because he's a back-up plan.
I see on twitter we're picking up guys who are pretty anonymous - no profiles on Rivals or 247, no other offers from significant schools in CUSA or above that I can tell.
We're in a 14 team league. If I said we'd finishing 6th in recruiting, would you take the over or the under?
We're in a 14 team league. If I said we'd finishing 6th in recruiting, would you take the over or the under?
Cool.
Recruiting is the lifeblood of a program. There's no reason a program like ours should be at the bottom of the conference. If we want to win a title, we better recruit towards the top.
WKU is cleaning up with a ton of 3-star guys with other FBS offers, but their class is almost filled up.
We need to finish big on Wednesday.
Another ho hum class. I remember a few years ago Nixon was really bragging about the Defensive Ends we were bringing in to upgrade the position. They are turning out to be average C-USA defensive ends. Not the kind you win conference championships with. I do like our O lineman though. We did very well there. Two can contribute right away thank goodness. Just what the doctor ordered. Are both of the Jucos going to be available this spring?
I love recruiting but I have never been so ho-hum about an MT recruiting class as I am this one. Looks like we'll finish in the bottom 3rd of the conference.
I'm not making excuses for the staff, but our rating is brought down by so many OL signees. Lower level offensive lineman are never really ranked accordingly. I also don't believe our recruiting class is as big as others, and the bigger your class the higher ranking you get (Which is stupid, it should be based on average star rating).
I do think we are getting smoked by WKU on the recruiting trail, but what's new?
I do think we are getting smoked by WKU on the recruiting trail, but what's new?
Looks like we could hit a homerun, or strike out.
I know on the Vol board, Norwood took a visit to UT, but UT is waiting on a bunch of other DBs. It's not inconceivable that they could whiff on all their guys though and end up tossing an offer to Norwood.
I can't find anything on Teldrick Ross, DNJ says he has 11 offers, but none of the databases show anything (247 or Rivals) of note (247 reports a ColoState offer), and his only official visit was to Coastal Carolina. I'm a big believer in evaluating guys by their offer list.
Campbell, Grate, and Branch look like guys who could be high level guys for us.
One thing is for sure - all those dang JUCOs better be able to actually play football. Our JUCO hit rate is abysmal.
from his twitter feed, so fwiw, Georgia Southern and Colorado State, and some iaa offers (EKU, Coastal Carolina, etc.) and some visits...
I am also a big believer in looking at offer lists but how can a fan truly know which offers are legit, which are contingency offers, and which have already been withdrawn? I follow BkB recruiting much more closely than FB and have a really hard time knowing what is meant by an "offer". Even respected recruiting sites have much different offer lists for players who are not in the "elite" category.
I've been hanging out on the Vol board- re:Norwood:
Brent Hubbs, the Vol guru on their rivals site - they've been kind of making final picks on the guys the Vols are in on for tomorrow - he just said that he thinks the Vols will get a safety from Georgia and that MTSU will get Norwood.
Brent Hubbs, the Vol guru on their rivals site - they've been kind of making final picks on the guys the Vols are in on for tomorrow - he just said that he thinks the Vols will get a safety from Georgia and that MTSU will get Norwood.
It's definitely tough, especially since a lot of teams like to toss out offers like candy - "here's your offer, it's not committable though".
It's like divining the future from animal innards - you just look at a bunch of info and make a best guess.
The databases are pretty good (rivals and 247), certainly if a guy took a visit that's a pretty good indicator (teams usually won't waste an official on a kid who's not a take). Twitter can be a good indicator - especially if a guy likes to post about coach visits and such.
I'll say this about this class.
No, it's not going to rank highly, but as Wiley said, it's going to be light on numbers. If they get Norwood and Bragg, I think that'll be it. I don't envision any surprises tomorrow, but I could be wrong.
I do have a problem with some of the player evaluations this year. Matt Martin was a JUCO All American, and should be rated much higher. Jordan Branch should be rated higher. Chance Nolan should be rated higher. Chris Stamps should be rated higher. I lobbied for all to at least get re-evaluated, but it is what it is. So yeah, this class won't rank highly, but I honestly feel it's pretty good. They're filling a lot of needs and setting up their depth chart to be a battle royale for the next few years.
As for tomorrow, it's all eyes on Bragg and Norwood. Bragg is reportedly playing his cards very close to the chest, but MT feels good about the work they've put in there. Who knows what'll happen with Norwood and UT at this point. I think that's his choice, but there are others in front of him. 247 making him a 4-star player the night before Signing Day is an absolute joke. I think he ends up with MT but we'll see. Other than that, those who are committed but hadn't signed yet are all pretty solid from what I hear. Not expecting any defections..
No, it's not going to rank highly, but as Wiley said, it's going to be light on numbers. If they get Norwood and Bragg, I think that'll be it. I don't envision any surprises tomorrow, but I could be wrong.
I do have a problem with some of the player evaluations this year. Matt Martin was a JUCO All American, and should be rated much higher. Jordan Branch should be rated higher. Chance Nolan should be rated higher. Chris Stamps should be rated higher. I lobbied for all to at least get re-evaluated, but it is what it is. So yeah, this class won't rank highly, but I honestly feel it's pretty good. They're filling a lot of needs and setting up their depth chart to be a battle royale for the next few years.
As for tomorrow, it's all eyes on Bragg and Norwood. Bragg is reportedly playing his cards very close to the chest, but MT feels good about the work they've put in there. Who knows what'll happen with Norwood and UT at this point. I think that's his choice, but there are others in front of him. 247 making him a 4-star player the night before Signing Day is an absolute joke. I think he ends up with MT but we'll see. Other than that, those who are committed but hadn't signed yet are all pretty solid from what I hear. Not expecting any defections..
The signing day web page is a VAST improvement just want to give them props. Nicely done.
Jarek Campbell is signed and sealed. Big get for MT.
So they are going to be lining up Campbell at LB?! Have our coaches ever thought of playing some of these guys at their high school position?
I think we like speed at the LB position, half the time our LBs have to defend the passing game. We have done a decent job of getting these guys and building their bodies up a bit.
Jimmy Johnson built his Miami dynasty (copied by Bobby Bowden who begat Stockstill) from taking HS RBs/WRs/and safeties and turned them into bulked up LBs, and DE's bulked into DTs, and LBs turned into DEs. Created huge speed mismatches on defense.
Especially with today's spread/tempo offenses, it's can still work. Might have trouble with a big team that can run us over, but might be the best strategy for CUSA.
Norwood would be huge.
FWIW, Vol board appears that they're battling Clemson for a DB from Georgia named Flowers. If Flowers picks the Vols, Norwood won't get an offer. If Flower picks Clemson, then Norwood might get that Vol offer. We'll see what happens later today.
Individually, these guys look like good prospects.
But do you think we're doing enough on the recruiting trail to keep up with Marshall and WKU. WKU's class is loaded with quality. And Marshall is doing their usual job of scooping up guys who are getting dropped by P5 schools for various reasons.
The rankings aren't everything, but even if you give them a loose correlation to the amount of talent on a roster - we're getting blown out by our 3 rivals in the east (FAU, Marshall, and WKU).
Had the re-evaluations I suggested gone through, I think you'd see MT's class on par with the rivals in conference.
They've never been #1 in conference rankings, but they usually hold their own. I do think that the staff settled on a few players this year, particularly with the early signees, but I think that was more of a result of the new early structure and the fear of the unknown.
They've never been #1 in conference rankings, but they usually hold their own. I do think that the staff settled on a few players this year, particularly with the early signees, but I think that was more of a result of the new early structure and the fear of the unknown.
So at this moment:
Jarek Campbell is in.
Jordan Branch is in.
Gatlin Casey is in (won't count on the rankings though)
Jorden Starling is in.
Jarek Campbell is in.
Jordan Branch is in.
Gatlin Casey is in (won't count on the rankings though)
Jorden Starling is in.
I think we need to relax. We typically don't have the highest recruiting classes and you still are one of the top FB teams in CUSA. Most of our best players were not anything more than 2* recruits.
I think if they can't sign a player they want they should wait for late qualifiers, they can always waste a scholarship on borderline player later versus doing it now.
Imagine if they actually put effort into recruiting then.
WKU and Marshall take 3-star guys and turn them into NFL guys.
We take 2 star guys and turn them into 3-star guys.
And we wonder why we go 7-6 and don't have a title in 12+ years.
