Charlie has got to be elated

[I35]

It's like a kid that use to get wooden blocks for Christmas when living with a foster home in Louisville and he gets adopted by a rich family in Texas and now getting video games for presents. He has never had anything close to this recruiting class.

 

[wadster]

This feels like the Cowboys when Jimmy took over and they had all those extra draft picks from the Walker trade. We'll miss on a few, but the numbers in this class are going to set us up for one hell of a run. Hope aboard.

 

[dillohorn]

I am just giddy about the class and the future.

 

[Crockett]

That's the kind of thing only Strong would know and he's probably not in a position to say. We can only measure his performance by stars from Scout and Rivals at this point and while it's fun, it's imprecise.

I'm giving Strong and crew high marks for evaluating talent based on what he accomplished at Louisville, much like we should Texas A&M when Sherman was in charge. The fact that 2011 recruiting classes at Louisville and A&M ranked in the 20s but produced 3 first round draft choices and the 2011 class at Texas ranked in the top 5 has to this point produced no draft choices at all tells me the services were not as good at evaluating as Strong or Sherman.

NFL folks, of course, are imperfect, but its teams have a helluva lot better personnel, time and resources for talent evaluation than Orangbloods or TexAgs.

 

[arieshorn]

Charlie is building a nasty defense. The 2005 squad had a NASTY defense and a number of players went pro off that championship team. I like what I am seeing.

 

[dukesteer]

Arieshorn, the number of NFL players that came out of the 2005 roster is sick. For example, if I am not mistaken, five players from the secondary alone have been or still are NFL starters, including:

Michael Griffin
Cedric Griffin
Tarell Brown
Michael Huff
Aaron Ross

Additionally, I believe that all of these guys played in that game and later started -- or are starting now -- in the NFL:

Orakpo
Roberson
Blalock
Charles
Scott
Sendlein
Thomas
Young

That success rate at the next level has to be in the conversation as one of the greatest rosters in FBS history.

And, I didn't include others like Dockery, Finley, Melton, Miller, McCoy...who were freshmen or redshirted.

When we watched that game on 1/4/2006, we were truly looking at greatness. And it still took a Herculean effort to win, which tells you just how great USC was that year.

 

[kbrown]

don't forget Studdard, Okam, Crowder, Sweed.... Big time talent on that field

 

[I35]

Also Tony Hill

 

[kbrown]

and although he didn't get drafted or signed as a free agent ( to my knowledge) don't forget Larry Dibbles and our All America tackle Rodrique Wright....Vince stirred the drink but he wasn't alone

 

[arieshorn]

back to back Thorpe winners in the secondary from the 2005 squad

.

 

[Pericles]

Nice job of recruiting by Strong.

Given how he started with this class, I admit that I am surprised by the kids he is getting.