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To be frank, making definitive arguments on who won or lost National Signing Day is idiotic. It’s impossible … even armed with a militia of psychologists … to determine the futures of teenagers entering college and projecting their success on a football field. It’s far more asinine than even grading draft classes the day after, which is fairly Nickelback in its own right.
As we all know, it’s a snipe hunt to assume how young people will deal with the off-field distractions and adjustments of college, let alone the jump up in competition. However, people also like lists that make little sense, so these things exist. I will try to normalize it. Rather than “winners and losers,” we’re going with “coulda done worse” and “coulda done better.”
Rather than target individual players … which is a total crap shoot and pointless … I will target program-specific situations. Did you get a new coach that set you back? Do you have artificial barriers that make it more difficult to bring recruits to your school? Did you not need a large class, enabling you to just focus on concrete needs? That matters a lot more than pretending you know what some high school player will look like in three years.
There’s nothing like sitting on the fence.
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Coulda done worse
1. Mississippi State: You’ve got to hand it to Dan Mullen, especially during an offseason that brought up mild questions about whether or not he’d leave for a place assumed easier to recruit to than Starkville. Thus far, the Bulldogs hauled in 28 recruits, which will add depth. They hoisted up what some feel is an overall top-20 class. In other words, Clanga capitalized on a surge in national interest from this past season … and that’s what you have to do.
2. Arizona State: You’ve got to hand it to the Sun Devils. While Southern Cal and UCLA were making recruiting headlines for folks that like to project these things with any degree of sincerity, ASU was putting together a solid class in spite of some of the artificial barriers the school has, like not being the biggest brand name in the conference as well as dealing with the rise of in-state rival Arizona. The … um … on-campus scenery is not a disadvantage, however. Still, ASU came up with a nice, deep haul flush with talent that will keep the Sun Devils consistently competitive in the ever-muscle-flexing Pac-12.
3. Michigan: You’ve got to hand it to Jim Harbaugh and staff, because while most coaching staffs are coming in late in November, Harbaugh and staff were put together after the NFL season ended in late December. Yet they patched together a small but mighty class that was ranked 36th by Scout, only an 0.02-star average behind Ohio State and Penn State, which led the conference in such a category. If Harbaugh has inherited anything, it’s good recruiting classes which were apparently not developed. This is a heck of a coup for the Wolverines, all things considered.
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Coulda done better
1. Miami: Not banging on the ‘Canes, because all it takes is one 10-11-win season and pretty much everyone wants to go to Miami again, but this was a chance to make up ground in-state in spite of no real nationally splashy seasons, with Florida undergoing another coaching change. Florida State will continue to flex muscle in-state, but you wonder if recruits are worried about the long-term future of the staff there if, say, the ‘Canes run off a 7-win season this upcoming year. Now, I think they’ll be a power again and that Al Golden is the man for that gig, but no one of merit is asking me, and to seemingly not make up a ton of ground as Florida goes through a transition is odd.
2. Colorado: It’s a little vexing to see the Buffs struggling as they enter the third year of the Mike MacIntyre era. Now, again, rankings are totally subjective, especially when you get that far down into them — they’re awfully inexact. However, the Pac-12 continues to get more powerful overall, and more teams are getting into that elite club while recent powerhouse Colorado seems oddly stuck in mud considering its tradition, its success over the last 30 years, and a gorgeous campus. MacIntyre is a good coach, but it’s tough to struggle and then potentially not out-recruit your conference foes. That’s a rough recipe, like whatever is in Bud Light Chelada.
3. Purdue: The natives aren’t so far removed that they don’t understand you can be successful in large ways at Purdue, and even though Darrell Hazell and staff have improved from really terrible to marginally bad in one year, it’s surprising to hear local media wonder how long this marriage will last. Purdue still seems to be “evaluating” at quarterback, as the Boilers have been seemingly since the Kyle Orton days. However, to Hazell’s credit (or dismay, I guess), some staffs say they enter a situation with a bare cupboard … and then there’s Purdue, which was basically collecting dust. The low-rated class has to be cause for concern.