National Signing Day 2015

So, yesterday was National Signing Day for pretty much all of major college football. In a sense, it's almost become like college football's version of the NFL Draft with all the media hype that goes around it now. I admit, I don't follow NSD as much as some others, but I do have a few quick things to ponder on:

So, Auburn gets the #1 rated player in the country going into college, defensive end Byron Cowart, but Alabama gets the #1 rated recruiting class according to ESPN and 247Sports (USC got the #1 class according to Scout and Rivals). Obviously, the battle lines continue to be drawn in the Iron Bowl.

Saban continues to pick up talent like a machine, but Auburn now has Muschamp as their defensive coordinator and the #1 overall player in the country (who by the way plays defensive end). This should make for some good fodder when I make my yearly trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama in two weeks. There are a lot of snowbirds down there this time of year, but Auburn and Bama are still well represented.

In all seriousness, it's always fun to see those two go head-to-head in recruiting because that battle goes all year round. Alabama's class is usually more highly heralded ranking wise and they've got the credentials over the last six years (i.e. three national titles), but it's not like AU has shabby recruiting classes either; theirs usually get in the top 10.

Where I live (Houston), even though Texas and A&M aren't in the same conference anymore, they still have a lot of battles in recruiting. Texas came out with the higher rank in three of the four major services, but the rankings were pretty even in all of them.

What is intriguing about Charlie Strong's first full recruiting class is that Texas I think has eight players from out of state. I'm not going to state my opinion on whether it will or won't work out, as I'm just going to let it play out, but I think it's interesting to see. As I recall, when Brown was coach most of their talent came from inside the state.

I've touched on part of the Huskers' recruiting saga in a previous blog, but the Huskers ended up with 20 commits, which isn't as bad as it could have been considering Pelini attempted to blow the whole thing up when he left town. There were a couple of other players I would have liked to get (Willie Sykes of Spring flipped his commit to Arkansas at the last minute and we lost Atlanta area linebacker Terez Hall to Missouri), but other than that, I think Riley did fine for his first class. His classes need to get into the top 25 going forward though.

I do like that Riley is big on linemen though. Nebraska has fallen by the wayside especially on both lines over the years, and that is something that absolutely needs to be corrected, in addition to keeping the local talent in their own backyard (Daishon Neal helped with that part of the game).

Michigan meanwhile had a modest class of only 14 commits, and a ranking in the top 40 by most of the recruiting machines (I believe 247 has them just inside the top 50). To be fair, Harbaugh got a late start because of when Michigan hired him...which was right after the 49ers season ended.

That said, he is going to have to recruit at a much higher level if he wants to challenge Meyer in the Big 10 on a yearly basis. He's not going to be able to challenge Meyer with consistent classes rated like that.

He is set up for success early because of the talent Hoke left him (Hoke had top 10 recruiting classes in 2012 and 2013), but when that top rated talent leaves in a couple of years, Harbaugh will have to have recruited top level talent. Some coaches can get away with classes rated in the high 20s and low 30s (Gary Patterson at TCU develops the talent he gets on a regular basis, which makes him one of the best coaches in the game), but it's very rare.

On the Rockets: Dwight Howard out for at least a month. Not good. That said, they got a very nice win over Chicago and I hope they can stay afloat until Howard comes back. One final NBA note: Golden State and Atlanta have the two best records in the league and play on Friday night and it ISN'T on ESPN. Veeeeery smooth job promoting your league, NBA. Not.

Until next time....