Recruiting Season Over (or is it?)
National Signing Day went mainly as expected. As predicted in the last post, Notre Dame dropped after a weak last week of signings, and underdogs like Clemson climbed the charts.
The Tigers did so mainly on the back of the signing of DE DeQuan Bowers, by most considered the top defensive player coming out of high school (Gaines Adams, ver. 2?).
Maybe the biggest surprise from N.S.D was that the top recruit, QB Terrelle Pryor from Pennsylvania, decided to wait it out, not deciding on a school. His current list includes Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida, LSU, Oregon, and Pittsburgh.
Southern Miss, despite going through a coaching change, nearly pulled in a top 20 class, landing just outside, but far and away the top mid-major team. They even managed to get a 5-star receiver to stay in state, and not go to the SEC; the first ever to sign a letter with the Golden Eagles.
Teams who had down years still managed to pull in good classes with solid recruiting. The previously mentioned Fighting Irish only had 3 wins, but pulled in a top 5 class. Minnesota, with only 1 win and none in the Big Ten, put together a terrific class, even though the top talent in the state went elsewhere.
As far as Rivals is concerned, the Alabama Crimson Tide had the best class of 2008. Pulling an absolutely huge class of 36 people (1/3 of their upcoming roster), they kept the local talent at home and still managed to get other SEC players to commit. Nick Saban, a great recruiter, made his prescience felt in his first full season in the southeast.
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