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Anyone else think this year has a much different feel to it than previous years?

Last year's class, we knew what we were getting pretty much in advance, and also we were on a ton of lists of a lot of good prospects that went elsewhere.

The years before that, we often signed recruits who were on nobodys radar, and were arbitrarily given two or one star ratings on rivals.

This year is different. We have a few recruits that are pretty highly regarded, who committed early. No really big names other than Chase. Most of the other recruits who have committed haven't come out of nowwhere, but they aren't super high recruits either. The only ones who came from off of the recruiting radar are the two JUCO QBs and McCrary. On top of that, we aren't listed on a whole ton of lists, other than the people who say they heard from us before they committed to UNT.

I don't know, it just has a different feel to it. I guess in the past it has been a lot of "feast or famine" - a couple of good signings that everyone knew about, and then the rest of the players came out of knowwhere a couple of days before signing day.

This year, there just seems to be less feast than last year, but less famine than past years as well. We are only getting one top player (so far), but the others are all pretty solid, not so much trying to find a diamond in the rough.

Thoughts?

We only have about 12 to give. 3 went to Walkon-transfers, 3 went to JUCOs, that leaves about 12.

Of that 12, we have about 3 really good guys and 6-7 quality guys. You cannot compare our 12 man fresh class to other 25 man classes.

that's not to say that they are all great, but there are a few guys that were not highly recruited that had spectacular runs down the stretch that we got (eg. Demyron martin (spelling)).

if we get a surprise or two in the end, that will be great. if not, then this class so far is good, but nothing spectacular. then again, we didn't have many to give and were able to redshirt our fresh class last year mostly.

considering we were freakin 0-12, this is an excellent class.

Originally posted by JasonB:
Anyone else think this year has a much different feel to it than previous years?

Last year's class, we knew what we were getting pretty much in advance, and also we were on a ton of lists of a lot of good prospects that went elsewhere.

The years before that, we often signed recruits who were on nobodys radar, and were arbitrarily given two or one star ratings on rivals.

This year is different. We have a few recruits that are pretty highly regarded, who committed early. No really big names other than Chase. Most of the other recruits who have committed haven't come out of nowwhere, but they aren't super high recruits either. The only ones who came from off of the recruiting radar are the two JUCO QBs and McCrary. On top of that, we aren't listed on a whole ton of lists, other than the people who say they heard from us before they committed to UNT.

I don't know, it just has a different feel to it. I guess in the past it has been a lot of "feast or famine" - a couple of good signings that everyone knew about, and then the rest of the players came out of knowwhere a couple of days before signing day.

This year, there just seems to be less feast than last year, but less famine than past years as well. We are only getting one top player (so far), but the others are all pretty solid, not so much trying to find a diamond in the rough.

Thoughts?

It appears to have settled into a mythodical recruiting rythem. Hope for some suprises, hope for no losses and we continue to fill our needs.

Yeah, I just can't remember the last time SMU had a class with several "OK" recruits. Usually we have a handful (or 0 ) really strong recruits, and quite a few nobodys.

I wasn't trying to rip on the overall quality of the class. Actually, overall it is a decent class. But I haven't seen SMU do this before, and I actually think it is a positive.

If SMU gets a class like this, where the overall quality is pretty strong, and then adds some marquee players to it, now THAT would be the best class since the death penalty. I think it actually shows improvement that SMU is hitting the "decent" player rather than just hitting it big with a few and the rest are tweeners.

I know, I will get propped as a "cheerleader" by stallion. But here is why this class has a different feel:

Early commits

SMU had six or seven early commits and with the JUCO signees, do not have thtat many ships to get into the news. However, you have to put a great deal of trust in the coaches ability to identify , attract and close on the recruits. I heard Bennett state that SMU has only had 24 offcial visits and we have 17 - 18 commits. Taht is a n ectremely high "close" rate.

Originally posted by GoRedGoBlue:
We only have about 12 to give. 3 went to Walkon-transfers, 3 went to JUCOs, that leaves about 12.

Of that 12, we have about 3 really good guys and 6-7 quality guys. You cannot compare our 12 man fresh class to other 25 man classes.

that's not to say that they are all great, but there are a few guys that were not highly recruited that had spectacular runs down the stretch that we got (eg. Demyron martin (spelling)).

if we get a surprise or two in the end, that will be great. if not, then this class so far is good, but nothing spectacular. then again, we didn't have many to give and were able to redshirt our fresh class last year mostly.

considering we were freakin 0-12, this is an excellent class.

Originally posted by JasonB:
[b] Anyone else think this year has a much different feel to it than previous years?

Last year's class, we knew what we were getting pretty much in advance, and also we were on a ton of lists of a lot of good prospects that went elsewhere.

The years before that, we often signed recruits who were on nobodys radar, and were arbitrarily given two or one star ratings on rivals.

This year is different. We have a few recruits that are pretty highly regarded, who committed early. No really big names other than Chase. Most of the other recruits who have committed haven't come out of nowwhere, but they aren't super high recruits either. The only ones who came from off of the recruiting radar are the two JUCO QBs and McCrary. On top of that, we aren't listed on a whole ton of lists, other than the people who say they heard from us before they committed to UNT.

I don't know, it just has a different feel to it. I guess in the past it has been a lot of "feast or famine" - a couple of good signings that everyone knew about, and then the rest of the players came out of knowwhere a couple of days before signing day.

This year, there just seems to be less feast than last year, but less famine than past years as well. We are only getting one top player (so far), but the others are all pretty solid, not so much trying to find a diamond in the rough.

Thoughts?

[/b]

Well the only ones I can comment on are Eckert and Merrill. Let me tell you that Eckert will be the second spectacular one. This guy can play and you shall all be quite pleasently surprised. He is a gamer. Dont get caught up in name players or lists of so called top players. That crap means nothing. Eckert was the 9th rated JUCO passer nationally with a rating of 153. His stats are legit, not garbage time stats or stats against weak teams as the offense runs up the score ala Dane King at Blinn. TJC plays in one of the best confrences in the nation and their non confrence games are against good teams including a div 2 team. Some of you think King was the man they wanted. That may have been true at one time but Eckert would have beat him out anyway. He is a much better QB. I saw Eckert and King play against each other. Eckert ate Kings lunch. The score at the half was 42-7. Eckert finished the game with 3 TD's and ran for 3 more. King had 3 int. in the first half when it was still a game and less than 100. King ended up with about 20 more passing yards but most were in garbage(catch up)time. Merrill will be a tremendous asset to this team. He'll get time at reciever and will probably be one of the best special team players. He is small but plays big. My opinions are drawn from seeing these guys play many times. I'm not relying on some list or hear say. I for one, think SMU did great getting these JUCO guys.

Who is Merrill?

Chris Merrill. He is a walk on from Tyler Junior College. He was Eckerts back up at qb but worked as a Wide Reciever, played special teams and was the holder on pat's and fg's. Dam good player.

Originally posted by GoRedGoBlue:
considering we were freakin 0-12, this is an excellent class.

This, I think, is the real point. we started great guns in the summer and early fall. Helped, in part, by the fact that we won 3 of the last 5 games. And then the season fell apart.

I think recruiting will be slow next year until we get a win under our belt. I just pray that win comes early.

Badda Bing,

Thanks for your insight. Looking at their passers ratings, the JUCO QBs are solid on paper. Obviously, they are against JUCO talent, but so were LeBron James' stats, right (HS)?

ALl that matters is if they can transfer to a faster playing field. Some can, some can't. We shall see and I am looking forward to seeing the Spring Game with these guys.