Complete assessment of the early signing period

[JasonB]

Hey guys, thought I would post the information from the early signing period. I'll go through position by position. For evaluation, I look at 5 categories - Rivals, 247, 247 composite, ESPN, and Offers. 3 star across the board and multiple BCS offers gets you a 5 rank as a recruit.

QB: No signees. Currently 2 5 rating players and a 3 rating player. In good shape.

RB: No signees. One 5 rating player (TJ), a 4 rating (Bentley), and a 3 rating (Williams). Need an upperclass high end player as a transfer.

WR: Gray is the second highest rated recruit behind Sanders. Thad is the third. Burns, Wiggins, Rice, and Roberson are all returning 5 rating players. Page is a 3, Bell a 2. Thad and Gray are significantly higher rated than the other 5 rating players. Massive gain to an already strong group.

TE: No signees. One 5 rated player returning, the rest are meh from a recruiting perspective, but we know Granson is awesome and Redding is solid.

OL: 7 signees. Ike, Ali, Brooks, and Howerton are our 5 rating recruits on the roster. Erin Smith is the best recruit in this class and would slide right behind them, followed by Shelmire. The rest of the 4 ratings would be Sparks, Perdue, K Smith, and Hickman. Jordan would be rated ahead of those, but he doesn't have the offers and wasn't rated by Rivals, which takes him down a notch. Otherwise he would slide in behind Shelmire. Next group is Mossberg, Marcus Smith, Marcus Bryant as 3 ratings. The way I would look at the new group is that there aren't any super stars that stand out from a recruiting perspective, but they are rated significantly higher than Bryant, Morris, Jaylon Thomas, and Dennis, who are all significant contributors at this point. Between the new recruits, Ike, Brooks, and Shelmire, I would expect a significant improvement at RG and RT (as well as overall depth) next season. Job well done.

DE: Mastrov is actually our second highest rated DE behind Paul. The fact that he is only a 3 ranking tells you we have a lot of DITR recruits here. Solid recruit, but not a standout. I would anticipate a grad transfer at this position.

DT: Levelston, as a 4 rank, is the second highest recruit we have here behind Dotson. Abercrumbia and Gary are two of the 3 rank recruits we have (Chatman). Brown and Newman are solid but I think we need a GT here pretty badly. You can see why we only took one frosh because we are really missing older players.

LB: No signees. McBryde and Moore are great if they are all coming back. Robinson was a DITR but has outperformed. Spears is the only 3 ranking recruit. Ellison, Phillips, Rispress are two ranking players. If McBryde or Moore aren't coming back, we need a GT really badly. Either way, we need a high end young transfer or a recruit. This position set isn't a disaster, but it still needs an upgrade. A little bit of a miss.

CB: No signees. Stephens was a high rated recruit and is a good player. Westfall was a 4 ranking, but hasn't been healthy. Armani was only a 1 (ranked high by Rivals), but is a stud. Guy-Robinson and Keys were both DITR. We need one transfer who can play immediately here, and another young transfer or HS recruit that are higher end. This was a little bit of a miss.

S: Taylor is a solid recruit. This is the one area of the defense that is in a great spot. Calloway, Jones, Clay, and Johnson are all 5 rankings. Taylor is a 4. Roberson and Cromartie are lower rated but the staff loves them.

It is really interesting, because going through this exercise, you can certainly see why our offense is so much better than our defense overall.

Every recruit in this class is an improvement to the roster. Positive additions in the late signing period at LB and CB will really help the roster composition, while GTs at RB, CB, DE, DT, and possibly LB are going to be really important for the team to compete for the conference championship and potentially an undefeated run next season.

[dalpony]

Thanks JasonB - truly appreciate your critical analysis

[SMU_Alum11]

So in short: the staff around offense can go on early Christmas vacation and defensive staff needs to be hitting the road hard.

Next year really could be our year. Memphis in coaching rebuild and UCF still needs to work it's way back up. We have a golden opportunity to win the conference and a NY6.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

It is really interesting, because going through this exercise, you can certainly see why our offense is so much better than our defense overall.

Sounds familiar.

[JasonB]

So in short: the staff around offense can go on early Christmas vacation and defensive staff needs to be hitting the road hard.

Next year really could be our year. Memphis in coaching rebuild and UCF still needs to work it's way back up. We have a golden opportunity to win the conference and a NY6.

There is a ton of talent on those rosters, as well as at Cincy.

We have P5 level talent on offense. We need to add P5 level athletes at DE, DT, LB, CB to be the favorites in the league.

[indianmustang]

good pickup for tulane
https://247sports.com/player/jesus-machado-87004/ over alabama

[leopold]

Don’t kid yourselves- the conference is going to be LOADED next year, especially for a G5 conference. We could very well have a better overall team next year and still end up 8-4.

[mavsrage311]

You left off James, the stud Alabama transfer TE that will be eligible next year. Another offensive position we have quality depth at.

[PonySnob]

Don’t kid yourselves- the conference is going to be LOADED next year, especially for a G5 conference. We could very well have a better overall team next year and still end up 8-4.

So another bowl that the players don’t care about getting ready for.

[Charleston Pony]

Don’t kid yourselves- the conference is going to be LOADED next year, especially for a G5 conference. We could very well have a better overall team next year and still end up 8-4.

So another bowl that the players don’t care about getting ready for.

Or a trip that the kids can enjoy as a reward for having another winning season. I'm sorry, but SMU has not exactly been a football factory and at this point in the program's development, 8-4 seasons are nothing to get depressed about.

[SMUstang]

8-4 would be good. A few more wins would be super. Especially another W over TCU.