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DT: Dotson is the best recruit we have. Brown is 4th, between Biggurs and Loveless, and Newman is 7th out of ten between Jones and Coxe. Improvement and depth. Overall a young group. A GT is expected to come in on the DL. The youth would point here, numbers would point to DE. Overall, we have 2 strong recruits and 3 OK recruits at the position, so not quite where we want to be.
DE: Probably could be considered a miss with no recruits, and a relatively old group of players. We have 6 if Gary is a DE, which is probably a bit light. We have 3 strongly recruited players at the position, 4 if Mixon comes back somehow.
LB: Denbow is our third best recruit behind Moore and Spears, with Wiley and Philips right behind at 4 and 5. Rispress is 7 out of 14 between Duke and Williams. 3, 4, 5 and 7 would mark an improvement. GT is also expected here, which would really mark an improvement. Right now we have 2 strong recruits and 5 OK recruits at the position, so need more quality here.
CB: Johnson is the best recruit we have a this position. Hayes is 4th between Davis and Sutton. Keys is 8 out of 8. Improvement. 2 really strongly recruited players (Johnson and Wyatt) and 2 OK recruits (Davis and Hayes).
S: Ellison is second between Clark and McWueen. Improvement, and a grad transfer is expected either here or corner. Most likely at safety because there is concern of size at that position. Improvement before the grad transfer, and probably a significant one afterwards. Only have 1 highly rated recruit and one ok recruit here, so GT would help.
OL: Livingston is our second best recruit, between Ali and Huhn, but it is close between the three. Thomas is 9th between Wilds and Barton, Morris 11th ahead of Pursley, and Dennis 13th ahead of Natour. Would have to say improvement because of Livingston. But this is a group to keep an eye on. We have 6 very highly rated recruits at this position, plus Pursley and Natour are DITR returning starters. Will be a top unit in conference this upcoming year and phenominal in 2019. Also expect a GT here.
QB: Brown is our 4th best recruit out of 5. So a meh, but we have 3 highly regarded recruits and 2 solid, so it is a deep group to begin with.
RB: Williams is actually our second best recruit between Medlock and Jones. So an improvement to a very strong core.
TE: Redding is 3 out of 4 between Rau and Thedford. Meh, but the group is deep to begin with - 2 stud recruits and 2 OK recruits.
WR: no recruits. Would be a HUGE miss, because we only have 7 returning players. That said, hearing 3 GTs at this position alone, and from big schools. So it should go from "oops" to significant improvement. Here, we have 2 stud recruits, 2 OK recruits, and the rest are DITR. Need to add 3 guys to compete for starting spots along side Proche.
All in all, assuming the GTs come in, this is a hell of a haul in a very short period of time. Very well targeted, and improves the roster. I think you would have to classify this class a success. Not the best since the DP or anything like that, but a success.
And, yes, I know that is a lot of GTs. But that is what I'm hearing. Dykes is honest, direct, but builds good relationships. It played out during the recruiting cycle when he told recruits that he wasn't going to honor their commitment. And I think he is going to have some very honest conversations with some of the players currently enrolled, and we will see attrition for his GTs. Particularly at S, DT, and LB.