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Rice seems to be putting together their best class in many years, Stallion what do you think?

Ross Commits To Owls


Newest Owl Charles Ross By David Mooney
Publisher, OwlDigest.com
Posted Jul 10, 2008


Rice has loaded up on linemen in the 2009 class. Still needing to add skill position players the Owls hit the jackpot Wednesday by landing one of the state's fastest Running Backs...

Wednesday was a HUGE day in Rice football recruiting. The Owls have stockpiled big Linemen and Linebackers for the 2009 class, leaving nothing but a few skill positions available for what is shaping up to be an historic 2009 class. Well that changed Wednesday when they added a difference making Running Back to that impressive group - Schertz Clemens' speedster RB Charles Ross became an Owl!
I asked Charles about his decision to become an Owl.

"I visited Rice about a month ago on an unofficial visit with my dad. I really liked the class sizes and the fact that the professors were very eager to teach and assist students." I also liked the fact that were chefs for each dining hall. I like to eat."

Chalk up the assist for Rice Dining Services.

Ross met a couple of other San Antonio standouts while on campus - Jarett Dillard and Chase Clement. He was impressed with both.

And with the Rice offense that the record setting pair creates.

"I like the fact that Rice spreads the ball around, which will create room for me to run. I like the Single Back formation they use. It's a good fit for me."

Ross is a specimen of an athlete that was clocked at below 4.4 seconds in the forty twice at the New Braunfels Rice Camp earlier this year.

If you drew up a prototype for a Running Back, Ross would match it perfectly. His workout numbers are simply off the charts.

Height: 6-1 3/4

Weight: 199 pounds

40 yard dash: 4.38 seconds

Vertical: 37"

Bench: 355 pounds

Squat: 465 pounds

Ross is a rated a 3 Star prospect by Scout and the 63rd best Running Back in the country. He's rated the #11 player on our Scout South Texas Top 75. Dave Campbell's lists him as one of the Top 20 Running Backs in Texas this year.

Ross played Running Back and Linebacker for Clemens last year where he was a Unanimous All District 26-4A selection at Running Back. He also earned Honorable Mention 4A All State honors for his efforts.

He chose Rice over offers from Colorado State, New Mexico, and the University of Houston. Ross also camped at Texas A&M and UTEP's San Antonio camp. Junior Stats:

Rushing: 1259 yards on 225 carries, 5.6 yards per carry avg., 14 TDs.

Receiving: 424 yards on 20 catches 21.2 yards per catch avg., 7 TDs.

Charles said he was relieved to have recruiting out of the way and is excited about his commit to Rice.

"I've thought about it for over a month and talked about it with my family. I think Rice is the best place for me. I think the program is on the rise."

I asked Charles what Coach David Bailiff's reaction was to his commit.

"He's on vacation in Florida right now at Disney World. He said he felt like me committing was like winning the Super Bowl and then going to Disney World. He was just real excited and pumped up."

We all are Charles, welcome to Rice!

I saw this earlier today-according to Scout they have more 3 stars than SMU 5-4. That being said I think Scout's rating system is so out of whack as to be totally useless for any meaningful analysis. I think this kid had another offer from Stanford as well as New Mexico, Colorado St, and Houston. He looks like a very good commitment for Rice. Or one of their recent commits had a Stanford offer. Just the other day they got an OLM who made the Dave Campbell Soper Team Third Team(like Atchinson for SMU).

Rivals announcing commitment to Rice lists offers from SMU and UTEP as well as those above. Said he was one of the stadouts in the recent 7 on 7 Tournament.

Stallion wrote:I saw this earlier today-according to Scout they have more 3 stars than SMU 5-4. That being said I think Scout's rating system is so out of whack as to be totally useless for any meaningful analysis. I think this kid had another offer from Stanford as well as New Mexico, Colorado St, and Houston. He looks like a very good commitment for Rice. Or one of their recent commits had a Stanford offer. Just the other day they got an OLM who made the Dave Campbell Soper Team Third Team(like Atchinson for SMU).

FWIW on Rivals, Rice does not have any stars listed on any of its recruits. We have two. Have no idea what that means but there you go.

Really? Thanks Coach.

Well, the way you talk up Rice's recruiting, you would have thought that they were setting the bar for others to follow in CUSA. To use your line, "just keepin' it real.''

Stallion wrote:Really? Thanks Coach.

Don't be such an a$s. You point out Rice's recruits and their stars all the time even though they're Scout stars which you belittle elsewhere except when they can help you skew argument. You've got some knowledge to add, you typically "keep it real" & most of your drum banging makes sense but you're an a$s - when people get pissed at you you call them sunshiners who don't face reality. I will say however I'm glad all your incessant complaining on ponyfans.com outside of any other audience has made good systemic changes to the SMU athletic program

"I think Scout's rating system is so out of whack as to be totally useless for any meaningful analysis."

So I was using Scout's ratings to prove a point about how great Rice's recruits are? -What about the above statement? I thought I was saying Scout's ratings suck. I do feel the Rice and SMU recruiting classes are very comparable. Both schools are recruiting somewhat better- both have loaded up with multiple nice looking OLM which you might not expect them to get. SMU still has a long way to go to improve recruiting if it wants to reach the goals set for this program. For instance compete with TCU. That's the level we need to be at-and we are not close or competitive with TCU's class at the present time.

So let me get this straight. We're watching a p!ssing match over the merits of the football program and its recruits at Rice?

They could have a run of five straight classes that are their "best ever;' truth is until we go down there and win, we still will not have won down there in forever and it will still defy logic why we can't pull off a win down there.

"I visited Rice about a month ago on an unofficial visit with my dad. I really liked the class sizes and the fact that the professors were very eager to teach and assist students." I also liked the fact that were chefs for each dining hall. I like to eat."

Chalk up the assist for Rice Dining Services.

STEVE O! Time to upgrade the dining facilities. Get Dean Ferring, Steven Pyles on the payroll, we got to upgrade upgrade upgrade!!!!!!
Bon Apetit'

Chris Ward of Mercury. SMU Grad.

I'm going back to school if Ward's brought on board. Could do the whole M Crowd thing since it's run by SMU grads.

Stallion wrote:"I think Scout's rating system is so out of whack as to be totally useless for any meaningful analysis."

So I was using Scout's ratings to prove a point about how great Rice's recruits are? -What about the above statement? I thought I was saying Scout's ratings suck. I do feel the Rice and SMU recruiting classes are very comparable. Both schools are recruiting somewhat better- both have loaded up with multiple nice looking OLM which you might not expect them to get. SMU still has a long way to go to improve recruiting if it wants to reach the goals set for this program. For instance compete with TCU. That's the level we need to be at-and we are not close or competitive with TCU's class at the present time.

Did you miss this: "even though they're Scout stars which you belittle elsewhere"?

pyles and ferring are both overrated...as is stallion.

Rice gets DB Broderick Jackson from Kirbyville who reportedly had an offer from SMU. Also got a commitment from a small private TAPPS school (Parish Episcopal in Dallas) that reportedly had about offers from Arizona, BYU and Kansas. Good class by Rice standards especially their last 6 straight commitments who all got quality offers.