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On of the top prospects left on SMU's wish list that I am familiar with is DT James "Big Mac" McClinton, 6-1, 284, 5.2 from Garland Lakeview Centennial. Benches 365 and squats 600. He is listed by Rivals as a quality 3 star at 5.7. He is the No. 59 player in the Midlands and No. 25 Defensive lineman in the nation. He getting all kinds of interest across the nation but his listed favorites as of today include SMU, Iowa, Iowa St., Kansas and Kansas St. He reinforces the relentless reputation that Bennett and his assistants are getting by commenting that when he went to the SMU camp-"they loved me-I couldn't get away from them". The article doesn't list an offer yet from SMU yet although he does have offers from Arizona, ASU, Baylor, Louisiana Tech, Kansas and Iowa. Others interested include N.D., Texas Tech, OSU, A&M, Nebraska, New Mexico, Florida, and Clemson. Defensive Tackles is the one area where SMU under Bennett has not really committed that Big Fish yet and it should be perhaps our biggest area of concern in recruiting to really elevate the level of the program. McClinton would be a huge step in the right direction.

[This message has been edited by Stallion (edited 08-08-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Stallion (edited 08-08-2003).]

6'1", 285? What is he, like, a CUBE? Sounds like a monster.

Lol, a cube. I think the D-Line definitely needs some work and a "big fish" as Stallion said. My main area of concern, however, are the WR's. Our tallest reciever is Jay Taylor at 6'4", and he's terribly inconsistent. Our next tallest non-TE recievers are Reynaldo Pellerin and Ray Perkins. Reynaldo is not exactly a big fish but hopefully he will surprise us. And as for Ray, well I love that guy to death (roomed with one of my good friends while I was at SMU), but he's scout team. I really admire him for his dedication.

At any rate, we need a D.J. Massey or somesuch. We need taller, faster recievers for Bartel to hit. We'll be able to recruit them once/if we get a good passing attack established. The OL is getting to a good size/depth and seems to be gelling very well. We've made significant strides under Bennett in the recruiting dept. thus far, esp. with the OL, LB's, RB's, QB's, and we just landed one damn fine TE named Vincent Chase. We have protection for Bartel, now let's give him some targets with size, speed, and sticky fingers. Hopefully Bobby Chase turns out to be as good as some are making him out to be. I presume he will still only be a possession type reciever, though. We really need taller Trey Griffins and Comets.

At least there is one improvement in the WR dept. that we can see this year: we don't have to cringe as we see yet another ball escape the grasp of Johhnie Freeman

ksorry i had to.

[This message has been edited by UNFMustang06 (edited 08-09-2003).]

Mark it down: Reynaldo Pellerin WILL surprise. Maybe this year, maybe not this year, but he's a big kid who's going to get a lot stronger, and is faster than he looks. And he catches everything near him.

And while I agree that a tall, fast WR would be great, I've got to side with Stallion here - a big, quick DT would be fantastic right about now. And I thought I read somewhere that we had offered him. Am I mixing him up with someone else? If we could line up a pair of big, quick DTs - McClinton and Brandon Bonds for example - we not only could have them occupy blockers but also crush the pocket from the interior .... negating the offense's blocking schemes and sending the quarterback running for his life (perhaps into the waiting arms of Don Ieremia-Stansbury or Melvin Williams?)

We still have a lot of needs - we need depth everywhere - but Stallion's right, in that we should be making a star DT our top priority.

Yes, a prized DT also tops my list and McClinton sure would fit the bill.

As would Tommy Daniels of Ennis.
Let Tate Wallis get ahold of him, and he's a Pony for sure! (Well, I hope).

This past weekend, Richard Bartel told me that he was anticipating great improvement in the passing game. I addition to his obvious personal improvement, Bartel said Comet looked good and that Rushbrook was tearing up the place (which we've all seen). I then asked him about the 3rd receiver spot, and if there were any other guys we should be paying attention to at that position.

He said Blake Warren has shown great potential, and that the other two freshmen (Cleveland and Pelllerin) also looked like they were going to be really good.

I thought it was cool that he singled out the incoming freshmen (all three) as showing real promise.

Excellent! I have a feeling that Blake Warren will be a VERY good reciever. I've heard he's extremely talented (ala Comet) but was simply too short to recieve interest from any big time programs.

Yes, that's a very good comparison. Both extremely gifted young men. Both shorter than a prototype WR. I think Warren may be a little faster than Comet, but we'll have to wait and see what the stopwatch says on that one.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Stallion:
<B> .... He is listed by Rivals as a quality 3 star at 5.7.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just out of curiousity, what does the 5.7 stand for? What's the rating scale there? Like a top-tier blue-chip guy .... is he a 10? a 6.0?

Thanks for the clarification.

Rivals still has 1 2 3 4 and 5 stars but they break it down some more. 5.5 for example is the dividing line between a 3 and 2 star. 2 stars are further rated 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4. So a 5.7 would be a very high quality 3 star player. He's rated in other lists as a Top 60 in Texas type guy.

Anyone above a 5.7, esp. above a 6, is a player Rivals believes will be a stud in college. Of course, you can never get them all right, and there are sleepers in every class.

BUMP- hey I or Rivals got (another) one right. That was a big miss. McClinton turned out to be one of the best in the Big 12-dominating performance last week against the Aggies.

You really looked back seven years to find a post about which you could pat yourself on the back?

Get a hobby, like counting the tiles in the courthouse floor.

We NEED BIG MEN

And lots of them.