The first Wednesday in February is like Christmas Day for college football fans. You wake up, turn on your TV and computer, and watch the news come in of players signing with your favorite team. It's as if somewhere between 15-25 presents are being opened for the coaching staff of the school. It brings new players that you'll cherish for the duration of their college career, and there's those you wish you could return to wherever this person came from. But it's one of the most fun days of the year for players, coaches, and fans alike. The kids signing with their schools will help shape the future of their football program. And with the season being completed over a month ago, it bridges the gap between the end of the season and spring practices.
To me, recruiting is not necessarily about star ratings, or where your team finishes in the rankings. We have seen two star prospects become first round draft picks, and five star studs flame out, and we've seen classes that weren't ranked very high help turn teams from cellar dwellers to conference champions. This year's version of National Signing Day brought out some very interesting things.
I was impressed with the way Mike London and Jimbo Fisher were able to keep their recruiting classes in tact despite lots of turnover on their respective coaching staffs. London is arguably on the hot seat at Virginia, and he responded by bringing in a really strong recruiting class. There were very few decommits when there was a shakeup in the coaching ranks, which shows that in some ways, London has a big influence over the kids that commit there. As for Florida State, Fisher had a lot of coaches leave to pursue other opportunities, and Fisher kept a recruiting class in tact that is widely regarded as the best in the ACC.
Clemson's defense has been very mediocre, and Dabo Swinney addressed that this year. He brought in a lot of recruits to help fill the wholes defensively. They still have work to do on that side of the ball, but the defense should be on its way to being improved going in to next season. You can easily argue they are the team to beat in the ACC going in to the 2013 season.
There will be four more years of another Fuller roaming the field in Blacksburg, as Kendall Fuller signed on with Virginia Tech as the cream of the recruiting crop for the Hokies. They really addressed the secondary and the offensive line with this recruiting class, as those were issues on this year's Hokies team. But they also have their QB of the future in Bucky Hodges in this class. Hodges is tall (6-5), but pretty skinny for his height (225). He won't plow through people like Logan Thomas does, but he'll be more elusive.
Despite the sanctions, Al Golden did pretty well in recruiting. He was only able to get 15 commits, but they were pretty big needs all things considered. Of course, everyone will want to see how Ray Lewis III performs. Please don't call him RL3. The commits were spread out all over the field, so there wasn't one key area they worked. It was more about getting what depth they can for now, because who knows what's going to happen with this program in the future.
You can tell what kind of influence Mike Locksley had on Maryland's recruiting class. Thirteen of Maryland's 22 commits were from Maryland or from Washington DC. Randy Edsall had difficulty recruiting in this area before bringing Locksley in. Now we'll have to see what things are like going forward when they are in a different conference.
If there's a team that rankings don't mean much to, it's Georgia Tech, especially on offense. Paul Johnson doesn't need to recruit big name talent to fit his scheme. He picked up another quarterback and two more running backs who will definitely be on the field in a couple of years. What was interesting is that Johnson got a commit from a 6-6, 360 pound offensive lineman named Shamire Devine. This guy is mammoth. I can not wait to see him get on the field.
There wasn't a huge splash in the recruiting class of the so called ACC Coastal division champs, North Carolina. They do have a running back coming in, T.J. Logan, who could see the field right away. You could say he could be the next Gio Bernard. The Heels went up and down the east coast to get recruits, including going up to New Jersey to get three commitments.
It'll be interesting to see how NC State's recruiting class fits with Dave Doerson. He's being handed 23 recruits who may not fit exactly what he's looking for, but if he's a good coach, he will adapt to what he has. The recruiting class is full of solid players who aren't splashes in the recruiting rankings, but there will be a player or two on this class who will stand out. I'm really intrigued by Joshua Mercer. he runs a 4.4 40, and was heavily recruited by the majority of the SEC, yet stuck with NC State. He could be a name to watch out of this class.
Wake Forest isn't going to wow you in the recruiting rankings. For that matter, you probably won't see many of these guys next season. Jim Grobe will redshirt as many freshmen as he can. Grobe actually got commits from high school teammates for the offensive line. Josh Harris and Cory Helms played on the same team at Milton High School in Alpharetta, Georgia. It was interesting to see that Wake Forest got several commits from the state of Texas as well.
Duke picked up 20 commits for the class of 2013, and six of them are defensive backs, so we see where David Cutcliffe is looking to address this team. There weren't many commits on offense, but you don't worry too much on offense with David Cutcliffe. He really needs to work on the defense if he wants to make it to a second consecutive bowl. Duke also picked up two commits from California, and two from Texas.
The recruiting season was a bit of a nightmare for Boston College. There were a lot of decommits, and players expecting to sign with the school that chose to go elsewhere. The Eagles only nabbed 14 recruits, and the best ones were on defense. They even went out in to my neck of the woods and signed Jack Cottrell from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which is about 20 minutes west of where I live. The Eagles actually did most of their damage in Ohio, signing five commits. There isn't a lot of big name talent in Massachusetts, much less New England, so Boston College has to do some traveling to get their commits.
We won't really know how these recruiting classes will turn out for another four or five years, but it's always fun to try and project things with recruiting classes, despite the fact that we really know little to nothing about these players. Now we get to watch the coaches develop these kids in to football players, and hopefully they lead your team to glory.
