rpongett
100+ Posts
The Big 12 seems to have done pretty well. For now, at least, we are ranked as the #4 conference overall by Rivals, and would have been ranked much higher, except Iowa St, Okie State and Baylor dragged down the average considerably.The Rankings of teams in order of Rivals/Superprep/CBS Sporsline(Prepstar)/Lemming/Sporting News/Emfinger: 2/6/7/6/3/6 (5.0 avg) OU - Did a great job of landing studs and filling needs, not that they had many needs after winning an MNC. They locked down Oklahoma (and didn't offer Janet), went into Louisana to grab QB Rawls, California to grab highly ranked TE Chester, Iowa to land LB Toomey and Texas to land DL Harris. They also grabbed a couple of JUCO OL's to quickly address OL depth issues. Quite a few of the higher ranked players have very large grade issues looming, but even if they don't work out, OU has a great class and likely plans to pick up some of those players after JUCO. Harris, Rawls and Chester were the jewels. 5/5/3/4/5/4 (4.33 avg) Texas - Did a great job of getting quality impact players, mostly from Texas. Only Kaelen Jakes was a big name out of stater this year (had far more out of state targets in '99 and '00). Addressed big needs at OL, RB, CB and LB, but needed an extra DT (though, next year the state is loaded with DL's, like it was with OL's this year). There is now only 1 large academic risk, and a few substantially smaller ones. Benson, DJ, Scott and Quan were the jewels.
10//7/13/15/15/21 (Avg. 13.5) Nebraska - The ratings services always have a tough time with Nebraska for a couple of reasons: (i) their offense requires a different skill set than most schools (e.g. shifty, fast QB's, squatty OL's, WR's that block), so evaluation and comparison is hard; and (ii) Nebraska gets most of their talent from prarie and lower midwest states that are not heavily scouted by the recruiting services. Nebraska landed LeKevin Smith and Marques Simmons on signing day for a big finish. Nebraska addressed its need for DT's beautifully with Smith, Titus Adams (may have qualification probs) and Jared Helmring. They also picked up some nice CB help (stolen from Ags) in Daneal Manning and Cory Ross. They brought in two option-style QB's to try to battle Jamal Lord after Crouch leaves. The NU coaches are very high on Simmons, and he might be the quick I-Back they've been waiting for.
14/UR/UR/UR/20/15 Kansas State - the recruiting services don't do a great job evaluating JUCO's (well, at least, not in the past), and K State has at least 10 JUCO's. K State landed Jerome Janet on signing day and picked up the top JUCO QB (Marc Dunn) to copete with Roberson to replace Beasley. They also picked up their usual batch of JUCO WR's, DB's and DL's to reload. This might be their most highly ranked class I can remember, and their classes are usually very underrated because of JUCO recruits.
24/UR/24/UR/UR/12 A&M - Closed with a couple of commits before LOI day. Obviously, the Ags finished below where they figured they would in the preseason. The jewel of the class by far is the very gifted OL Jami Hightower. They addressed big needs at WR and DL by getting lots of guys that aren't rated highly, but Slocum has does a very good job of talent evaluation, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these guys turn out to be great players.
37/UR/UR/UR/UR TTech - Unlike under Spike, Tech went the JUCO route this year with success (at least 7 JUCO players), including landing the top rated JUCO WR in the nation, Anton Paige. Tech also landed one ofthe top WR's inthe state in Durrough and one of the top DL's in Clayton Harmon (beat the Ags for both). Leach badly needed speed in the backfield, WR corp and defensive backfield, and he addressed that by landing lots of talented JUCO and HS players.
40/UR/UR/UR/UR Kansas - Like a broken record, the JUCO craze continues. At least 9 JUCO players are committed to Kansas. Very few names in the class. 41/UR/UR/UR/UR Colorado - Looks like everyone's going JUCO. The Buffs have 4 (2 CB's, a DT and a RB). CU has a couple of guys left looking at them, but took a lot fewer players than I thought they would (only 16-17 commits right now). This certainly isn't a McCartney or Neuheisel level class -- no huge Cali or Texas names, lots of Colorado guys and their two highest rated players are JUCO's.
47/UR/UR/UR/UR Missouri - Not a lot of big names. Also, only 4 JUCO players. Not a lot of huge names. They landed Damien Nash out of East St Louis, and maybe that will start the domination of St Louis (East St. Louis, especially) and Kansas City that Mizzou needs to kick it up a notch. They also landed Omboga out of Texas. The low ranking of players is understandable with a new coach coming in.
53/UR/UR/UR/UR Iowa St - The biggest names here are JUCO QB Senneca Wallace and JUCO DE Beau Coleman (both from Cali JUCO's). Most of their recruiting is sleepers in other states besides Iowa (lots of Texans, some midwesterners and Cali JUCO players. Only have 4 JUCO's total.
60/UR/UR/UR/UR Baylor - Steele finally hit the JUCO ranks pretty hard, landing 8 JUCO players. Their highest rated recruit is Abe Robinson, who is more likely to go tto Navarro JC (which he's doube-signing with). Steele hit the Texas sleepers bigtime, and we'll have to see how those players work out. He did make a serious run at Quan Cosby, which was impressive.
65/UR/UR/UR/UR OK St - not many players (18), as one would expect with a new coach just coming in. The highest rated player by far is JUCO CB Kobina Amoo (only three JUCO's). The class focused mostly on Oklahoma sleepers, with some Texas sleepers thrown in.
You can also see these at my National service rankings list and final comments
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Check out my painfully exhaustive bios of Horn 2001 commits (with photo and video links).
10//7/13/15/15/21 (Avg. 13.5) Nebraska - The ratings services always have a tough time with Nebraska for a couple of reasons: (i) their offense requires a different skill set than most schools (e.g. shifty, fast QB's, squatty OL's, WR's that block), so evaluation and comparison is hard; and (ii) Nebraska gets most of their talent from prarie and lower midwest states that are not heavily scouted by the recruiting services. Nebraska landed LeKevin Smith and Marques Simmons on signing day for a big finish. Nebraska addressed its need for DT's beautifully with Smith, Titus Adams (may have qualification probs) and Jared Helmring. They also picked up some nice CB help (stolen from Ags) in Daneal Manning and Cory Ross. They brought in two option-style QB's to try to battle Jamal Lord after Crouch leaves. The NU coaches are very high on Simmons, and he might be the quick I-Back they've been waiting for.
14/UR/UR/UR/20/15 Kansas State - the recruiting services don't do a great job evaluating JUCO's (well, at least, not in the past), and K State has at least 10 JUCO's. K State landed Jerome Janet on signing day and picked up the top JUCO QB (Marc Dunn) to copete with Roberson to replace Beasley. They also picked up their usual batch of JUCO WR's, DB's and DL's to reload. This might be their most highly ranked class I can remember, and their classes are usually very underrated because of JUCO recruits.
24/UR/24/UR/UR/12 A&M - Closed with a couple of commits before LOI day. Obviously, the Ags finished below where they figured they would in the preseason. The jewel of the class by far is the very gifted OL Jami Hightower. They addressed big needs at WR and DL by getting lots of guys that aren't rated highly, but Slocum has does a very good job of talent evaluation, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these guys turn out to be great players.
37/UR/UR/UR/UR TTech - Unlike under Spike, Tech went the JUCO route this year with success (at least 7 JUCO players), including landing the top rated JUCO WR in the nation, Anton Paige. Tech also landed one ofthe top WR's inthe state in Durrough and one of the top DL's in Clayton Harmon (beat the Ags for both). Leach badly needed speed in the backfield, WR corp and defensive backfield, and he addressed that by landing lots of talented JUCO and HS players.
40/UR/UR/UR/UR Kansas - Like a broken record, the JUCO craze continues. At least 9 JUCO players are committed to Kansas. Very few names in the class. 41/UR/UR/UR/UR Colorado - Looks like everyone's going JUCO. The Buffs have 4 (2 CB's, a DT and a RB). CU has a couple of guys left looking at them, but took a lot fewer players than I thought they would (only 16-17 commits right now). This certainly isn't a McCartney or Neuheisel level class -- no huge Cali or Texas names, lots of Colorado guys and their two highest rated players are JUCO's.
47/UR/UR/UR/UR Missouri - Not a lot of big names. Also, only 4 JUCO players. Not a lot of huge names. They landed Damien Nash out of East St Louis, and maybe that will start the domination of St Louis (East St. Louis, especially) and Kansas City that Mizzou needs to kick it up a notch. They also landed Omboga out of Texas. The low ranking of players is understandable with a new coach coming in.
53/UR/UR/UR/UR Iowa St - The biggest names here are JUCO QB Senneca Wallace and JUCO DE Beau Coleman (both from Cali JUCO's). Most of their recruiting is sleepers in other states besides Iowa (lots of Texans, some midwesterners and Cali JUCO players. Only have 4 JUCO's total.
60/UR/UR/UR/UR Baylor - Steele finally hit the JUCO ranks pretty hard, landing 8 JUCO players. Their highest rated recruit is Abe Robinson, who is more likely to go tto Navarro JC (which he's doube-signing with). Steele hit the Texas sleepers bigtime, and we'll have to see how those players work out. He did make a serious run at Quan Cosby, which was impressive.
65/UR/UR/UR/UR OK St - not many players (18), as one would expect with a new coach just coming in. The highest rated player by far is JUCO CB Kobina Amoo (only three JUCO's). The class focused mostly on Oklahoma sleepers, with some Texas sleepers thrown in.
You can also see these at my National service rankings list and final comments
-----------------
Check out my painfully exhaustive bios of Horn 2001 commits (with photo and video links).
