Football Recruiting Picking Up?

by TVP on Nov 20, 2011 12:53 PM EST

After a very slow start, the staff has secured commitments from several good looking prospects recently.

These players verbally committed in the past few weeks:

LaKeith Wells of Ohio, RB/LB over Louisville, Syracuse, Pitt, Cincinnati, and Duke

Shadrach Thornton of Georgia, RB, a former Kentucky commit who was also looking at GT and Vanderbilt

Marchez Coates of Maryland, CB, who switched from his Pitt commitment

Tyler Knox of SC, DE, who had offers from a number of SEC and ACC programs.

Thornton and Knox were big surprises.

A big reason why I was so down on TOB and staff was the poor recruiting. Whether you are ranked 25th or 35th or 45th in recruiting does not matter much in my opinion, but you do need to recruit at least a baseline level of talent. Plus, a highly recruited player is more likely to be a star than a sleeper. E.g., the two best players on our defense (in my opinion) were the two highest-rated recruits - Amerson and Manning. The last class was sleeper-filled, with many players reporting few or no other BCS offers. This class looks to have the baseline level of talent needed to sustain the program along with a few potential stars.

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Was happy about the Thorton commit

didn’t even know Knox before he committed, Can we get a LB in this class? Maybe a taller WR, too?

by chip24spb on Nov 20, 2011 5:40 PM EST reply actions

Agreed

The staff certainly hasn’t quit in this arena and it looks like the dividends of our 9-4 season are paying off a year later (as they typically do). This is why getting back to a bowl game is so crucial and why winning huge home games with tons of recruits at them (UNC most prominent among those) is big. Beating Clemson on national TV, one of our few nationally televised games this year is also huge.

by leewolf on Nov 20, 2011 7:42 PM EST reply actions