sporting news article

[nd1]

Signing Day winners and losers

Winners

Southern Cal: And you thought USC's slow start was signaling the end of Pete Carroll's dominance. A quick recap: the Trojans signed the nation's No.1 wideout (Ronald Johnson, who may play cornerback for the cover-thin secondary), No.1 linebacker (Chris Galippo), No.1 defensive end (Everson Griffen), No.1 running back (Joe McKnight -- and No.2, Marc Tyler) and No. 3 guard (Kris O'Dowd). Seriously, it's just not fair.

Florida: Typically, teams that win the national title find it pays off a year down the road. Recruiting is so relationship-based, the process starts a year or two in advance. In other words, Florida coach Urban Meyer landed the nation's No.1 overall class working off the good will from a nine-win season of 2005, sprinkled with a little mojo from the national title season of 2006. What in God's green earth will he come up with next season, working on the heels of the national title?

South Carolina: This is the worst scenario possible for the rest of the SEC: elite players now want to play for the Gamecocks. Coach Steve Spurrier got his quarterback of the future (see: 2008) in Stephen Garcia and three elite wideouts (Chris Culliver, Jason Barnes, Joseph Hills) who will play immediately. Had Spurrier found a way to keep five-star DE Chris Dunlap from leaving the state and signing with Florida, the class would've been top five.

Alabama: At one point, during the lows of the coaching search (when Rich Rodriguez said no), this class was destined to be one of the worst in school history. In less than a month, Nick Saban and his staff worked their tails off to land a top 10 ranking. No surprise that it's heavy on defense -- including impact players LB Rolando McClain and S Michael Ricks.

UCLA: How, you ask, when the Bruins signed only 10 players? Easy. UCLA was ranked No.38 in the nation by Rivals, but the average of 3.6 stars per player was eighth nationally. And this easily is coach Karl Dorrell's best class -- don't be surprised if eight of the 10 (TB Raymond Carter and DT Brian Price lead the way) play next season for a team loaded with 20 returning starters. QB Chris Forcier, who some have compared to Florida's Tim Tebow, likely will redshirt.

Losers

Notre Dame: A top 10 class is hard to criticize, but it could've been much better were it not for some late defections. Five-star WR Arrelious Benn (Illinois), four-star DE Justin Trattou (Florida) and four-star WR Greg Little (North Carolina) all changed their minds late in the process and went elsewhere. ND coach Charlie Weis and his staff must learn that recruiting doesn't stop once the commitment is given. No matter how shady it seems.

Rutgers: Again, some perspective. The fact that Rutgers is ranked No. 37 in the Rivals.com rankings is a huge tribute to the staff and their work. But this team must keep state recruits home. Too many elite players have been lost over the years (Dwayne Jarrett, Brian Cushing, Myron Rolle). Rutgers got four of the top 10 New Jersey recruits and six of the top 20 -- that's good, but not good enough for where coach Greg Schiano wants to take this program. The key: capitalizing on the 2006 season with a big 2008 recruiting class.

Texas A&M: There's little doubt that coach Dennis Franchione's tenuous status going into the 2006 season hurt this class. The Aggies only had 18 scholarships to give, but made little progress vs. rival Texas in head-to-head battles. A&M landed just one (LB Derrick Stephens) of the state's top 20 players.


this guy is a idiot. calls nd recruiting class a loser.

*Unless it's a premium article, copy and paste the article so the guy doen't get hits on his anti ND crap.*

 

[ShivaIrish]

He's not the only one in the press to have criticized ND's recruiting class. But two things to acknowledge:
#1, he qualifies the "loser" quality of the class by acknowledging it's a top-ten class. Also, other people lost former recruits, which would have made their classes better as well. I don't really have much respect for Hayes as a sportswriter--to keep his traffic down, it's best just to give the relevant quote, with the proper citation.

#2--I think some people on this board are just as critical about this recruiting class, if not more. And Hayes didn't even bring up the lack of defenseive recruiting.

 

[FatBaldy]

I don't disagree with anything he said. Clearly we did have kids who "committed" to ND and then went elsewhere.

 

[ShivaIrish]

I don't disagree with anything he said. Clearly we did have kids who "committed" to ND and then went elsewhere.

The fact is he singled it out in order to classify ND as having a "loser" class. The fact is, is it's not uncommon for that to happen in the recruiting world to any team. USC lost recruits too, a QB to AZ ST. and James Wilson to Florida. Other teams that I follow, Colorado and Wisconsin, also lost former verbal commits. It happens.

You don't call a class that could have been better a "loser" class. Whose couldn't have been better?

 

[FatBaldy]

The fact is he singled it out in order to classify ND as having a "loser" class. The fact is, is it's not uncommon for that to happen in the recruiting world to any team. USC lost recruits too, a QB to AZ ST. and James Wilson to Florida. Other teams that I follow, Colorado and Wisconsin, also lost former verbal commits. It happens.

You don't call a class that could have been better a "loser" class. Whose couldn't have been better?

You maybe right, he may have taken a cheap shot. But if you just look as NSD by itself, we probably lost bigger than anyone--but I really don't know what happened to any of the other schools. The first thing he mentioned was that it was a good class.