I had made some comments around the deepest class since the death penalty in a different thread... and here are some proof points. But I think I actually undersold what the staff has done with this class:
- I know we are hearing about our ranking in the AAC being number 3, and our top finish in the conference. But from ESPN... typically we only have a handful of players rated (they rate a much smaller set of players than other services). For example, in last year's decent class, we had 7 rated, which was the most in a while. This year, all but 2 players in the class are rated by ESPN, a huge change. We don't have any of the DITR recruits in this class that we have had in the past. It is outstanding.
QB: Huge position of need, and wait for the GT news to come out, and it is all going to make us happy. Gipson is the highest rated recruit on the roster, and was actually higher regarded than Hicks. Great job.
RB: Huge position of need after the graduation of West and the two seniors on the roster. Great job by the staff. McDaniel is the top rated RB on the roster, and Bentley is second. Both are rated 3 stars and up by every service and have P5 offers. Couldn't have done better.
WR: We desperately needed to add more players after attrition. And wow, what a great job the staff did. We still need more depth - there are only 11 on the roster, including preferred walk on Hajdu. But out of those 11, 7 of those players are awesome recruits meaning they are rated 3 stars or higher by all of the services and have multiple power 5 offers. This is a unit that should be able to dominate in the AAC. Burns is our 3rd highest player behind Sanders and Johnson. Wiggins is 5th behind Proche. Rice is 6th. All of them are actually higher regarded than Roberson was!
TE: We didn't add anybody. We have 4 upper classmen out of 5 on the roster this season, so we are really unbalanced. This becomes a critical position to recruit next year.
OL: Huge position of need and we brought in some great talent. Obviously, Ike was a home run, and is the highest rated recruit a this position on the roster. But additionally, we picked up the 3rd (Brooks), 6th (Mossberg), and 8th (Bryant) rated recruits on the roster. We have 11 OL on the roster, plus added a GT from Columbia and another walkon (Mason). This class again is a job well-done, but if we pick up a GT or two, we will have appropriate numbers and it will be an outstanding job. Overall from a recruiting vantage-point, this is now one of the strongest areas of the team, with 5 awesome recruits (Ike, Ali, Brooks, Howerton, Smith), and 5 solid recruits (Mossberg, Webb, Bryant, Morris, Thomas). Starters (Morris, Ali, Howerton, Dennis, Thomas) and Backups (Ike, Mossberg, Webb, Brooks, Bryant) seem pretty set right now. It will be interesting to see if a GT or frosh can push Dennis out of the starting spot at RG, which seems like the one weak point.
K: We recruited a preferred walk on who can actually kick it out of the endzone. Well done!
DE: With Scott, Neals, Wiley, and Coxe, there are 4 players returning who were solid contributors last season and should only be better more next year. So not a huge position of need. That said, Paul and Walls are the top two rated recruits we have brought in at the position, as they are 3+ stars on multiple services. Outstanding job, because they can afford to redshirt.
DT: Another position where we have a lot of depth and no immediate needs. We have 14 on the roster if Hall comes back? That said, Chatman would check in as our 5th highest rated recruit of the bunch. More importantly, talking with his coach tonight, Chatman is going to be a great fit for what he wants to do. Overall, Coach is very happy with the group of players he has. We did fine here.
Corner: We desperately needed a starter at this spot to play opposite Robert Hayes. We took one player, Westfall, who is a slightly higher rated recruit than Hayes was. Which actually makes him the highest rated recruit at that position on the roster. I would rate this as accomplished, although one more player would be nice. If we add a P5 transfer, which is what I am hearing, then this is a job very well done. Corner is the hardest position to recruit on the team.
LB: We didn't recruit anyone here, although it was mentioned that one of the safeties could play the Nelson position. The class signed last year is deep, so not a miss.
S: This is now a huge area of need for depth if some rumors are true. Luckily, we have added to this spot in this class. Clay is by far the highest rated recruit in the position. Roberson is a solid recruit, but is still the second best recruit we have at the position. Cromartie has NFL bloodlines and comes in 5th. I would not be surprised to see a transfer come in at this position over the summer to help out. I would say we did pretty well here and there might be more to come.
Overall, given the GT news at QB, I would give the staff an A on the offensive side of the ball.
Defensively, I would give us a B. Transfers could boost this area up to an A as well.