I know many of you are on the edge of your seats, waiting to see if Sammons, Dioubate, or Hill commit. I am too. Or will Onwenu flip to the Spartans?
If none of those things happen, there will be huge disappointment. However, It will still be our best recruiting class in the Dantonio era, as measured by the ranking of prospects on NSD. And if you look one layer deeper, at who else offered our commits, it is even more impressive.
Here are a few thoughts:
Best recruiting class for safeties, DL, WR's ever:
These are three positions of great need. On the DL, you have Auston Robertson, Naquan Jones, Mike Panasiuk and And Josh King. All four of those guys are 4 Stars, and they dominated in their SR seasons and at camps. King played in the Army AA game. Add in Mufi Hunt, reportedly up to 260 pounds and already on campus, and you have an amazing group. It will be touch and go on getting a couple of guys qualified, but things seem to be trending in that direction. And to think we are still after Dioubate and Sammons. Amazing talent headed our way, even if we don't get another commitment.
At safety, Kenney Lyke and Demetric Vance are both 4 Star recruits, and both were pursued by top colleges. they are 6'2" and 6'3" respectively, and huge hitters. Vance played in the Army AA game.
At WR, you guys all know the names - Cameron Chambers, Donnie Corley, Trishton Jackson and Justin Layne. All four stars, all pursued by top schools, all well over 6' tall and fast. And corley, Layne and Chambers all played WR in High School, so our trend of converting athletes to WR (Fowler, Lippett, Shelton) isn't in play here, which should make for quicker production. And Layne and Corley can play CB, so keep that in mind when evaluating our DB class.
Very solid class at OL, QB, K and TE:
At QB, we got what we needed - one very solid recruit in Messiah deWeaver. Again, he is a 4 Star, highly recruited kid. He also seems to be a great leader, and has galvanized these incoming recruits. In some years, we would consider him the star of our recruiting class.
At TE, we got a solid recruit in Noah Davis. We only needed one, and Davis seems to be a a guy who can make plays in the passing game. We like to have both - some TE's that can really catch, and others who are bruising blockers. Jones seems to fit the pass-catching category, and will complement some of the young TE's in the program.
On the OL, we have four commits - Thiyo Lukusa, Matt Allen, Luke Campbell and A.J. Arcuri. all seem solid. Matt Allen is ranked a 2 Star, which is ridiculous. Ranking Allens is like ranking Bulloughs - they don't go out of their way to attend camps and get ranked, but we know what we are getting, and couldn't be happier. Campbell's film is amazing, and Arcuri is a guy our staff evaluated hard and got very comfortable with. Lukusa was the most highly recruited, and committed early to the guys. We are still after Sammons, and are a long shot with Onwenu to flip, but these four guys look pretty solid to me.
We signed a very solid kicker in Coughlin, which is exactly what we needed.
LB and CB - great athletes, low year in numbers:
At LB, both of our guys are very, very solid. Randle played in the Army AA game, and received great reviews all week. Bachie is a thumper, and a prototypical inside LB. We only took two LB's, as we have a lot of young depth at the position waiting in the wings.
At CB, we have Austin Andrews, who is a very good CB. When Dantonio and Barnett make an early offer to a DB, you can rest assured they are solid. If you add one of the WR's to this side of the ball, you would say it is a great class. And that is likely to happen once the WR position gets resolved. Finally, if we add Lavert Hill on NSD, this group would move up to the top category, and be one of our best groups ever.
We skipped RB, which was a conscious decision by the coaches:
We have a lot freshmen RB's, and will wait until the 2017 class to go after our next RB's.
So, enjoy National Signing Day. Don't spend time worrying about the one or two kids we don't get, or whether we rated number 7 or number 11 in the country. This is a great class, and fits our needs to a tee.
If none of those things happen, there will be huge disappointment. However, It will still be our best recruiting class in the Dantonio era, as measured by the ranking of prospects on NSD. And if you look one layer deeper, at who else offered our commits, it is even more impressive.
Here are a few thoughts:
Best recruiting class for safeties, DL, WR's ever:
These are three positions of great need. On the DL, you have Auston Robertson, Naquan Jones, Mike Panasiuk and And Josh King. All four of those guys are 4 Stars, and they dominated in their SR seasons and at camps. King played in the Army AA game. Add in Mufi Hunt, reportedly up to 260 pounds and already on campus, and you have an amazing group. It will be touch and go on getting a couple of guys qualified, but things seem to be trending in that direction. And to think we are still after Dioubate and Sammons. Amazing talent headed our way, even if we don't get another commitment.
At safety, Kenney Lyke and Demetric Vance are both 4 Star recruits, and both were pursued by top colleges. they are 6'2" and 6'3" respectively, and huge hitters. Vance played in the Army AA game.
At WR, you guys all know the names - Cameron Chambers, Donnie Corley, Trishton Jackson and Justin Layne. All four stars, all pursued by top schools, all well over 6' tall and fast. And corley, Layne and Chambers all played WR in High School, so our trend of converting athletes to WR (Fowler, Lippett, Shelton) isn't in play here, which should make for quicker production. And Layne and Corley can play CB, so keep that in mind when evaluating our DB class.
Very solid class at OL, QB, K and TE:
At QB, we got what we needed - one very solid recruit in Messiah deWeaver. Again, he is a 4 Star, highly recruited kid. He also seems to be a great leader, and has galvanized these incoming recruits. In some years, we would consider him the star of our recruiting class.
At TE, we got a solid recruit in Noah Davis. We only needed one, and Davis seems to be a a guy who can make plays in the passing game. We like to have both - some TE's that can really catch, and others who are bruising blockers. Jones seems to fit the pass-catching category, and will complement some of the young TE's in the program.
On the OL, we have four commits - Thiyo Lukusa, Matt Allen, Luke Campbell and A.J. Arcuri. all seem solid. Matt Allen is ranked a 2 Star, which is ridiculous. Ranking Allens is like ranking Bulloughs - they don't go out of their way to attend camps and get ranked, but we know what we are getting, and couldn't be happier. Campbell's film is amazing, and Arcuri is a guy our staff evaluated hard and got very comfortable with. Lukusa was the most highly recruited, and committed early to the guys. We are still after Sammons, and are a long shot with Onwenu to flip, but these four guys look pretty solid to me.
We signed a very solid kicker in Coughlin, which is exactly what we needed.
LB and CB - great athletes, low year in numbers:
At LB, both of our guys are very, very solid. Randle played in the Army AA game, and received great reviews all week. Bachie is a thumper, and a prototypical inside LB. We only took two LB's, as we have a lot of young depth at the position waiting in the wings.
At CB, we have Austin Andrews, who is a very good CB. When Dantonio and Barnett make an early offer to a DB, you can rest assured they are solid. If you add one of the WR's to this side of the ball, you would say it is a great class. And that is likely to happen once the WR position gets resolved. Finally, if we add Lavert Hill on NSD, this group would move up to the top category, and be one of our best groups ever.
We skipped RB, which was a conscious decision by the coaches:
We have a lot freshmen RB's, and will wait until the 2017 class to go after our next RB's.
So, enjoy National Signing Day. Don't spend time worrying about the one or two kids we don't get, or whether we rated number 7 or number 11 in the country. This is a great class, and fits our needs to a tee.
