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who cares about Rivals and Scout.....how does Stallion rank Jone's first class and how he is doing with the jr class?

More importantly where would Todd Dodge or Gary Gibbs rank this class?

true....but as is, with no changes. Feels like unless there are more decomits, we are done

below texas, above unt... right where we should be

You want this ranked on the SMU scale, or the everybody else scale?

I know it was meant in jest, but that's a bit of a low blow to your alma mater, jt.

This is a good class.

I'm certainly no expert but I've been a Rivals subscriber for about six or seven years and I can say that this class is a modest improvement over what SMU has put together over the past five or six years. Our high water mark was Phil Bennett's first full year at the helm when he brought in a class that was very strong. This class will likely finish in the low 70's or high 60's in the final Rivals evaluation and should put us right in the middle of the pack with our Conference USA mates. Its a good start and very encouraging considering we have won two games in two years. If we can string together four or five wins next year I think we'll start to see the floodgates open up.

I think that's a good evaluation. My sleeper for this class is Padron. I think you've got to be tickled to get him in here.

I agree with you about Padron. I think the most telling evidence about Padron is that June offered him this summer when we were still in on some very interesting and more highly touted quarterback prospects. I like his size and he seems pretty athletic. Also the kid has had top notch high school coaching coming from Southlake.

I haven't done any analysis comparing us with the other schools in CUSA, I'll hold off on that until signing day.

But, when you analyze recruits by 4 categories: offers, rivals rank, ESPN rank, Scout rank, this class (if you include the Miami transfer) upgrades us at every single position except for linebacker. Our recruited corners aren't great, but they are still more highly regarded than the current set excluding Bell and McCann.

So, to answer your question, this class has fewer reaches in it than any class in the past several years. Even the really strong PB class had a ton of reaches to balance things out. This is a very solid class, the best we have had in several years.

In order to correct some repeated misstatements of our Class Ranking by a certain poster who continues to state it incorrectly-here are the current numbers:

Total Points: 78th
Average Points: 83rd
CUSA Total Points: 8th (should be 7th except for some magical, mystical bonus points somehow awarded Rice)
CUSA Average Points: 8th

We are not going to be finishing in the high 60s or probably even the low 70s as represented

I looked at the points thing. Unless I'm missing something, I think we were at 179 before the two other commitments and the one de-commit. But when the two commitments showed up, the point total didn't change?

I don't know it well enough to understand how points are added or not but help me understand that. I know what the keeper said about bonus points and whatnot with us and Rice.

Regardless, this goes back to the political BS that can sometimes engulf these ratings. I know they are a barometer but they aren't ironclad either.

According to Rivals this Class really isn't too much better than about 4-5 Classes we've had around here in about the last 10 years. I will say that I believe-not Rivals-but I believe that this Class has more players with physical dimensions, speed and athleticism that is a better fit for a Division 1A Football team. Much better than last year. I'd say there are at least 16 solid, well regarded reasonably highly recruited players in this Class which I think is pretty high for SMU historically. There are still a lot of players who can only be described as "sleepers" in the big picture of Texas recruiting (see for example the last 5 commitments although it think McConico might be considered more of an academic questionmark than true sleeper) but they are simply better athletes than many we've run through here in past years. Let's also be honest, the university has allowed these Coaches to take way, way more recruits who might be academic questionmarks than ever in the modern post-DP era.

BONUS POINTS: Since Rivals awards bonus points I will too. I can think of few players in Texas that SMU had a realistic chance to get that fit June Jones' offense better than Darius Johnson. I have seen hundreds of plays in highlites on this kid but if you put the Top 15 together it would make you drool. Catching balls with one hand, deep threat, making simple plays big plays, special teams and some of the best are making defenders look like fools in open space. He's a guy you have to account for on every play because he's threat to score on every play. Should really cause problems to defenses keying on Robinson and Sanders.

Additional bonus points for the Shawbrey McNeal kid because it is a big need and because almost world class speed will bring a whole new dimension to the running game.

As for other strengths and weaknesses of this Class I'll refer to my comments that may have gotten lost in the Ja'gared Davis thread.

Biggest Positive About This Year's "Pledge Class"-you've got to notice that SMU signed a much better group of athletes whose, height, speed and athleticism eventually project much better to the Division 1A Level than in most recent years. Some definitely need to redshirt and get into a weight and conditioning program but I'm pretty intriqued with the athleticism of this group. It looks pretty decent-not to be confused with outstanding. I think there is some nice building blocks at Receiver, OLM, DE and in the secondary-BUT why have we had to award so many scholarships at DB and WR over the last 2 years? See Below.

Biggest Disappointments-we failed fully address some of the biggest problems on the team-and I do mean BIGGEST problems:

1) QB-I still would like to improve the quality at the QB from top to bottom-plus we only have 3 QBs for next year. That's a gamble not too many Division 1A schools are willing to take. This offense requires top QBs and I would hope June Jones could get superior talent here-and I mean 4-5 deep. We need some "Pied Piper" QB recruits-they attract attention.
2) DT- disappointing-Marquis Frazier could be a steal but will not have played for 2 years and is recovering from major surgery. Where are the other guys? Yet we have signed it seems like 11 WRs and about 12 DBs in the last 2 classes. That concerns me especially since our best DT graduated-suggests that we have missed on WRs and DBs in recent years.
3) LB-doesn't look like any of these guys are really physically ready to jump in next year and help at a very mediocre position. Some will probably have to but LBs weighing 195-200 pounds are probably not ready. The LBs do have extreme quickness and speed though longterm but physically they are very small for D1A. CAVEAT: Brandon Henderson could help fill this void-he's got nice size and had a good year moving to LB during the season-Not sure where he will play in College DE, DT or LB.
4) RB-Love McNeal-very leary if he isn't immediately eligible. The position is not well stocked 4-5 deep with quality D1A players. We are rolling the dice-have we improved ourselves at all at RB from one of the weakest positions on the team?

ponyboy wrote:I know it was meant in jest, but that's a bit of a low blow to your alma mater, jt.

This is a good class.

If it was said in jest (which it was) how can it be a low blow?

But follow my logic, even a big improvement over prior years may not mean we look that good in the overall scheme of rating our recruiting class as compared to other Texas schools, or even our conference mates, for example. However, I imminently unqualified to make that assessment, thus the jesting.