National Signing Day: The Winners and Losers
For college football enthusiasts the season doesn’t truly end until the first Wednesday of February. National Signing Day is exciting as balls for guys like us. We get a ground floor perspective of the guys that will be college football stars for the next several years. Some of us enjoy it more than others though. Take TFM’s own “Bacon” for example. This pile of fuck has been hooting and hollering all morning up and down the TFM Headquarters hallways about Mizzou landing the #1 player in the nation. I wonder if Bacon has seen what the rest of Missouri’s class looks like though. Don’t worry, I’ll fill him in.
I’ve been working my sources and pounding the pavement all day to bring you assholes some exclusive Signing Day coverage. Let’s check out National Signing Day’s winners and losers.
Winners
Alabama
Sitting at the front of my “What the fuck else is new?” file we find the University of Alabama recruiting class. I’m tired of giving the Nicktator so much damn credit, but he keeps giving me every reason to. Saban raped the hopes and dreams of LSU in the title game, stole their top recruiting target in front of a national audience, and now they have locked up the top recruiting class in the country. Nice month for Saban and Bama fans.
I hope you’re not holding your breath waiting for Bama to suck any time soon. Spoiled assholes.
USC
Southern California is still hindered by scolly limits handed down by the NCAA from the Reggie Bush fiasco. That’s not slowing down Coach Lane Kiffin, though. USC has secured the highest average star rating in the country at 4.07 per commitment. That’s just crazy talk. With the scholarship limits they have had to be more selective, and Kiff accomplished that. Job well done.
Kiffin is still a shady, devious, sly son of a bitch, but the man can flat recruit. With their bowl ban expiring after the 2011 season, look for USC to be back in the national picture in 2012.
Texas
Also dipping into LSU’s backyard (more on them later) is the Texas Longhorns. I don’t know how Mack spun back to back shitty to sub-par football seasons into back to back ridiculous recruiting classes, but the man is a recruiting boss. Austin, TX isn’t a tough sell either.
The headliner of this blue chip-laden class is running back Johnathan Gray, who accumulated something like 1,278 touchdowns in his high school career. Someone might have to check my math on that, but the point stands. The kid is electric. Mack is trying to get this program back to the top, and this 2012 class will be a vital piece to that journey.
Ohio State
Urban Meyer is wasting no time re-establishing himself as one of the best recruiters in the nation. A couple quick phone calls (most likely impermissible) landed him a couple 5-stars right after landing his new coaching gig.
Valuing and selling recruits on family environment, competition and winning while shunning honesty are just a few of Urban’s tactics, and he already has them working in Columbus. It’s not tough to predict that he’ll have Ohio State back in the national title hunt very soon.
Other winners: Florida State, Miami, Stanford, Michigan, Florida
Losers
LSU
Alabama not only whipped them in the natty, they apparently beat the Torshiro Davis out of them too. Davis, one of the region’s top DE prospects, switched his commitment from LSU to Texas today. LSU typically builds a proverbial wall around Louisiana when it comes to recruiting. Letting guys slip out of state is a rarity, and they let the top 4 in-state guys get away. One of those was Landon Collins, the #1 safety in the country. He chose Alabama live on ESPN in one of the most awkward TV moments you’ll see, as his mother was adamant in her preference for LSU.
Another oddity is that LSU didn’t sign a single kid from inside the Rivals top 100. That’s not something we’ve been used to seeing in recent years. All this happens after an SEC title and a title game appearance. Weird shit.
Missouri
“Alright, Dorn clearly doesn’t follow recruiting. Mizzou just landed DGB!”
Yeah, but that’s it. The rest of their class is sitting somewhere between crap and shit. I had a chance to sit down with Bacon for a one-on-one exclusive just minutes ago to discuss the Tigers’ recruiting class.
RD: “Thoughts on Mizzou’s class?”
Bacon: “D-G-B!!!”
RD: “He’s going to be great, but what about the rest of the class?”
Bacon: “Dude, who cares? We got DGB!!!!!”
RD: “I mean you guys are in the SEC now. You’re going to need some studs all over the field to compete. You see any other guys stepping up from this class?”
Bacon: “D!!! G!!! B!!!”
RD: “Thanks for your time.”
Maybe it was the putrid Missouri rap video that’s been unfortunately tearing through the web, but to say Missouri’s class is top heavy would be quite an understatement. They signed Dorial Green-Beckham, one 4-star and a slew of threes and twos.
Nebraska
Crazy Bo Pelini hasn’t really taken off like Husker fans have expected. The move to the Big 10 was a hurdle he’d have to overcome, not just learning the ins and outs of his new foes, but with new recruiting territories. Their commitment list looks like it’s still stuck in the Big 12 North, not with the big boys of the Big 10.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when a recruiting target makes the “Thanks, but no thanks” phone call to Crazy Pelini. Although, I bet he just takes his frustration out on a pack of chewing gum.
California
“Honestly R.D., no one gives a shit about that liberal California school.”
I understand, and apparently the recruits stopped caring as well. Cal Berkeley was the talk of the Army All-American game recently when we saw an onslaught of 5-star prospects commit to them on national television. The recruiting high that all 35 of the Cal football fans felt was quickly pissed on when those same recruits de-committed when Cal lost a vital member of their coaching staff.
Competing with USC, Stanford and Oregon isn’t getting any easier for the Bears.
Other losers: Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Notre Dame
Note: Comments are based on the entirety of each program’s class, not just National Signing Day activity.
I hate to say it, but i blame the whole “we are mizzou” fiasco on Bacon. That video never would have surfaced to the infamy that it’s in now if he hadn’t posted it on this site. I feel like it stole the spotlight from DGB and shit all over our chance of being relevant in the SEC in the near future. Oh yeah, i guess we could blame those FIJI’s too…
13 years ago at 1:31 amYes, blame me for a video that was featured in multiple ESPN articles as well as on SBNation, the KCStar, RockMNation, Rivals, and God knows how many other websites. But no, my posting it, two days after it launched and already had 50,000 views, is what made that bitch viral. For sure.
13 years ago at 2:54 am
13 years ago at 6:49 am^^^ If you think a student made video destroyed Mizzou’s chances of success in the SEC, you really need to re-evaluate something in your life.
13 years ago at 7:52 amfuck FIJI so fucking much
13 years ago at 10:01 am^ Are you describing a favorite activity?
13 years ago at 10:33 amColin, I’m sure that’s you, but don’t worry, I’m sure FIJI will get theirs.
13 years ago at 10:54 amOk, I’ll admit I was unaware that it had already gotten so much media attention, but introducing it to the TFM community definitely did not help our cause. And goddammit Dorn that made me laugh
13 years ago at 2:16 pmArkansas wishes they had DGB, but they pulled a fucking coup on defense. LB Otha Peters flipped from Tennessee, DT Darius Philon flipped from Alabama, and DE Jamichael Winston kept his commit despite rumors. Given what the Hogs needed I’d take any of those over DGB if there was only one spot left.
13 years ago at 1:32 amgeorgia and fsu definitely are winners here, ur retarded
13 years ago at 10:19 amFSU is listed as winner, smart guy. And Georgia signed a 5* after the column was published.
13 years ago at 10:30 amYou’re a fucking dunce for not highlighting Florida State in the winners’ section. Having the second best recruiting class in the country this year, and the best last year definitely warrants more than an honorable mention. You chose to mention USC, #13 recruiting class, and more sanctions than the Iranian government. Swallow a knife, please Mr. Dorn
13 years ago at 10:32 am^ Please take some English courses from whatever “fratty” university you attend. You sound as if your Father got too close with your Aunt.
13 years ago at 10:37 amRivals.com has them at 8th this year, (and, while we’re at it, they were ranked 2nd, 10th, and 7th in the 3 years before that, dating back to 2009. Real good it did them.)
Point being, write your own fucking column on your own website.
13 years ago at 10:43 am^^^ Swallowing a knife might kill me. Are you willing to carry that burden?
13 years ago at 10:55 amI would be okay with it
13 years ago at 11:25 amI wouldn’t take it as far as killing you, but in all fairness you are the worst columnist on the site, you show way too much a bias to where you were born and don’t even look at the other side of the story. How about you go beyond your comfort zone and watch something that isn’t on the Longhorn Network, and also EAD.
13 years ago at 4:01 pmHow in God’s name were the Dawgs losers? Somebody based their entire opinion on reading the Rivals team rankings. Best RB in the country, best OLB in the country, #1 in-state recruit, and six out of ESPNU’s Top 150, who also named us the fifth best class in the country
13 years ago at 1:04 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9XkWdi45VM
13 years ago at 1:29 pmWhat is the point in reading this? I already know the South won.
13 years ago at 3:24 pmThe only thing apparent from these comments is the fact that everyone who disagrees with Dorn wants him to die.
“Oh my gosh why didn’t you put X University as a winner! We signed seven 5* and three 6* recruits! Suck the gas out of my Tahoe and smoke a cigarette you fuck!”
13 years ago at 3:44 pm^Way to ruin the fun….
13 years ago at 10:38 pmRoll Tide.
13 years ago at 8:11 pmFor someone who claims that they follow recruiting quite a bit, Dorn you are wildly inaccurate in your claim that Mizzou’s class is awful. Depending off which site one uses as their recruitment guru (Rivals or ESPN) Mizzou’s class can either be considered as a good class ranking within the top 25 or just around 30 according to rivals. Mizzou has always had success in turning 2 and 3 stars into solid contributors and all conference players. Michael Sherar, Donavin Newsom, Evan Boehm, Morgan Steward,Maty Mauk all have the potential to be all SEC players in 4 years. Although we did get some of our recruits stolen from us by our redneck neighbors to the south, I still believe that this class was a solid one for Mizzou and will go down as a great group of guys that will propel Mizzou into being yearly contenders for the SEC east champion spot. Next time you do something like this, do a little research prior to your posting.
13 years ago at 9:53 pm^No.
13 years ago at 10:38 pm