Wed Signing Day

[SWAG]

Rebs have swung all the way up to #5, Bulldogs hanging on to the #25 spot. There are 10 SEC teams in the Top 25 recruiting classes. I think the SEC on average has 7 or 8 in the Top 25 recruiting each year. TX A&M of course adds another lock for the SEC in those rankings. With this type of coverage we see on signing day now, it puts schools and coaches much more in the lime light. We shrug recruiting #s off sometimes giving examples of 2 star recruits making it big and 5 star recruits never panning out, but one would assume that todays ratings are more accurate than ever with technology, demand, and $$$ available???? Are the recruiting rankings now a mirror of where schools should finish???? If they do not is coaching the culprit???? Are the teams that finish near the top the best programs at evaluating talent or the best ones at developing talent or both???? Ed O did a great job of recruiting. Nutt did a great job of coaching good players. Croom seemed to recruit ok. Mullen seemed to over achieve with Croom players but has underachieved with more of his own. Saban kills everyone I think you need top 20 recruiting classes to compete in the upper tier of the SEC, no doubt about it. I believe you have to put multiple classes together to be more than a bump in the road. As great as Bama and LSU recruit, I believe they are also among the best developing players. Training, education of the position, experience; it all comes together to make the team have "chemistry". Without that chemistry you can have a very talented ball team under perform much of the time. Everything feeds off the next. You recruit well>team becomes more talented>competition among players makes them better>play better on the field>win more games>easier to recruit good players. That is what Saban and Miles do that MSU and UM have not been able to for consistent periods of time. Congrats to UM on a very good stepping stone type day. Congrats to MSU for staying in the hunt with another good class. Congrats to Bama, LSU, and now maybe Florida and AU for doing it consistently better than everyone else.

[Po Monkey Lounger]

Lost in the hoopla of the Rebels signing class and the job Freeze had done, is the class signed today by Auburn. Gus Malzahn, along with new DC Ellis Johnson, have really improved their DL today with 3-4 top signees, including Lawson, Adams, and Daniel (who flipped from AU to Ole Miss and back to AU today. While Auburn has signed top classes in the past, I don't think it was expected this year.

Alabama and Saban have "quietly" loaded the cupboard again today with a top 5 class. I am just glad that my Rebs held onto Conner.

MSU signed a nice class today, highlighted by Chris Jones ( who flirted with the Rebs late in the game). The Dogs' class should be in the top 25.

Most of the SEC teams had very good signing classes. FL and LSU each inked their usual top 10 type of class. TAM's class will be highly ranked as well. The SEC West is already very tough and will remain so for years to come.

[bigoak]

Great class by Ole Miss. Everyone else in the SEC signed their usual classes. I am afraid Mullen and Co. have missed their window of opportunity. Ole Miss was down and we had the opportunity to not only win 4 straight but knock them out of a bowl game. Missed that opportunity, got killed in our bowl game, and have now lost any momentum we had built over the last 3 years. Signing a 25th (or so) ranked class will land you right square in the bottom of the SEC. Hope the events of the last two months have gotten the attention of everyone in Starkville. Time to step it up in every area: recruiting, coaching, attitude, handling the media, etc...

[GulfCoast]

As of right now, 7 of the top 11 recruiting classes as ranked by ESPN are SEC teams. Only Ark, Tenn and Ky are not in the top 25 classes. The rankings will probably change by the end of the day.

[mshunter77]

Also getting lost in the hoopla is Vandy. Franklin doing very impressive things in Nashville. Nobody had a bigger hill to climb than him and he has done a he k of a job.

To answer a question in original post recruiting is important but you have to recruit by need and players that fit your system. You can't just chase stars. Then you have to develop that talent and get them to buy into the system or process as Saban refers to it.