Well, since none of our resident Dogs have posted up with their analysis of the MSU recruiting class, I though I would share with you a thoughtful and thorough analysis provided by a Dog fan who is the founder of the "Six Pack Board". Enjoy:
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"It has been too long since I provided the Six Pack
masses with the best bathroom reading there is, but
the General has returned to bring you his insight into
Mississippi State Recruiting 2006, or as I would
prefer it called, An Exercise in Utter Failure. Let's
have a look at this year's crop, position by position.
We start at quarterback. I don't think anyone would
argue that it is by far, the most important position
on the field. You need look no further than our bitter
rivals in Oxford to show you how much difference it
makes to have a truly great quarterback on your team.
So to that end, Coach Croom didn't sign one. Yes, the
decision has been made to stand pat with Mr. Perfect,
Mike Henig. Now, I enjoyed the Egg Bowl as much as the
next Bulldog fan. And I'll admit, Henig was
serviceable that day, aGAINST a defense that clearly
wasn't motivated to play. But serviceable in this
league gets you to 3-8, at best. So the Bulldogs go
into the spring with Henig at the controls, backed up
by a wide receiver and two redshirt freshmens
(Copyright Rick Stansbury). Meanwhile, our
aforementioned rivals bring in a 5 star, SEC
experienced JUCO transfer, who by some accounts we
could have a good shot at, but we chose to stand pat.
How on earth can anyone justify this decision? I'm
supposed to believe that Mike Henig is the future, a
legit SEC caliber QB. He can barely see over the
linemen! He has a good arm, but his mobility is
lacking, he's not especially hard to bring down, and
he hasn't shown great decision making skills. Yet
we're confident enough in him and two other guys who
have never played to not even attempt to bring another
guy in. It doesn't make sense.
And evidently, most of the SEC agrees. Ten out of the
other eleven schools signed at least one quarterback
this year. The lone exception was LSU, and geez, with
Russell, Flynn, and Perriloux, they can afford to go
one year without.
Normally a position without a player wouldn't receive
a grade, but I felt this a position of need, and we
completely ignored it. That's a F.
At running back, the need was greater. With three
tailbacks gone from last year's opening roster, it was
imperative to replace them, and more than likely, find
a guy who could emerge as the workhorse. Yet aGAIN, we
come up short. We got two quality backs in Anthony
Dixon and Courtney Jones, but the departure of Kenny
Ashley leaves us with three tailbacks on the 2006
roster. Think about that for a minute. There is simply
no other school in the conference that is that thin at
the tailback spot. I am not aware of the eligibilty
situation of either incoming freshmen, but God forbid
one not make it. Imagine trying to compete in the SEC
with two running backs. Even Kentucky and Vanderbilt
have the warm bodies to trot out there. Another
position of need goes unfilled, at least not to
acceptable standards. The talent of the guys brought
in salvage a C-.
Let's allow the reoccuring theme to continue as we
begin to talk about wide receivers. Quite simply put,
this was the area Croom specifically targeted as the
most important. He made it clear, we would sign at
least five wide receivers in this class. So it goes
without saying that we only signed four. One of them,
Alex Carpenter, is likely to start off at JUCO.
Another, Chris Mills, was a clear Plan B option after
LT Thomas, Jamere Holland, and Brent Brewer all
declined to be Bulldogs, and he has a bum leg to boot.
So that leaves two JUCO's, Tony Burks and Ryan Mason.
Burks was a highly recruited player out of high
school, and will be able to compete in spring trainer.
In my opinion, he was the most important commitment we
got. Mason has great physical attributes, but he only
caught ten passes last year in a conservative offense
at MDCC, mostly on deep balls where he just outran or
outjumped coverage. Can he make the adjustment to the
shorter routes?
MSU suffered more poor play from the wide receiver
position last season than it did from anywhere else on
the field. To know that, and then to go out and not
address that in recruiting is an absolute joke. All
this means is next season, with Burks and Mason as
seniors, we have to go and try to sign five wideouts
aGAIN. Hopefully we can get a higher grade next year,
because you guessed it, it's a D-. If Burks weren't
here, I would have to petition someone for a grade
lower than F.
Tight end was one position that MSU fans could look at
with some confidence. With Eric Butler, Jason Husband,
and Jeremy Jones, we are three deep with quality
players. So of course it makes perfect sense to offer
a one star tight end with the build of a wide receiver
and the speed of a lineman to a scholarship. It makes
sense to Coach Croom, who has yet aGAIN brought a
friend's kid on board in Brandon Henderson. Because
that worked out so well for us with Johnathan Lowe.
Let's face it, if Croom didn't know his dad, Henderson
would have signed with Troy yesterday. Instead, he
will surely become this group's most likely candidate
to never play a meaningful down. I bet you can guess
the grade here, it starts with the letter of the word
I say the most when thinking about this class.
Vince Lombardi once said that football is at it's
essence, blocking and tackling. And evidently at one
time, Coach Croom believed that, because he made the
comment that we would look to sign 5 offensive linemen
each recruiting year. Good to see him live up to his
word.....what's that? Only signed 4? And one is
currently a tight end? Pardon me while I bum a page
from the Sports Guy, and I go light myself on fire.
Football is won in the trenches. Women know this, for
God's sake. Yet for some reason, Croom has decided to
forsake the line this recruiting year. Yes, last year
we reeled in some promising prospects, but ever heard
of depth? While it's great to get a JD Hamilton, a guy
who will likely start right away, it would have been
better to see a few more big bodies. Especially when
you consider the two other true linemen, Mark Melichar
and Kyle Love, has exactly one other BCS offer between
them, and that was Melichar's Vandy offer. I will say
that Chris Herrera looks like a nice prospect, good
size and speed. But he'll need another 15-20 pounds
before he can expect to hold up in the SEC. I'll give
a C here for the immediate impact of Hamilton, but the
other three guys leave a lot to be desired.
Defensively, I'm not impressed with the line. With
Andrew Powell, Deljuan Robinson, and Antonio Johnson
all seniors, you think there would have been a bigger
push to sign some tackles. Instead we sign three, one
of which, Alex Dekle, is all but assured of going to
JUCO first. And aGAIN, neither Reggie Odom nor JC
Brignone can boast another BCS offer. This also holds
true of defensive end Brandon Cooper. Rodney Prince,
the other defensive end signed, did get an offer from
Clemson, but at 6-2 and 222, he has a lot of weight
room in his future to be able to play at this level.
With the impending graduation of the three tackles,
this area was a greater need than most realize. No big
time prospects means another C. There's some
possibilities here, at least, but nothing looks that
promising.
At linebacker, arguably the deepest position at MSU,
the Bulldogs brought in 3 prospects. One, Timmy
Bailey, seems to be getting more pub due to his
involvement in the military than anything football
related. I'm all for having good locker room guys, but
I'd rather them have talent to match their attitude.
Chasman Davis, one of the Bulldog's three ****
signees, committed to State after taking a
career-threatening injury, tearing his MCL and ACL,
and suffering nerve damage. He's at least two years
away from contributing. The last signee, Jamon Hughes,
is another in the long list of Bulldog signees without
another BCS offer. He put up great stats in high
school, but so did Al Bundy. We see where that got
him. Gradewise, I say C-, for two reasons. One, we
spent three scholarships on an area where we already
plenty deep, and two, because one went to a guy who
may never play aGAIN. I think I'm being generous.
The secondary is another position of strength
currently at State. It was strengthened further with
this class, probably the best overall effort. Two
Anthony's, Summers and Johnson respectively, will be
added to a talented unit this fall. Johnson will
actually compete in spring drills. Summers is probably
the jewel of this class, and the lone member of the
Olive Branch group we were able to reel in. He played
quarterback in high school, but he'll be a safety now.
And what about Marcus Washington, the other DB brought
in? Another guy with no other BCS offers. You can't
win them all, I guess. I'll say B+ here. If we hadn't
signed Washington, it's an A.
Finally, we get to talk about what you've all been
waiting for. I'm hurt Rivals and Scout didn't do a
long snapper rank by position, because we would have
been by-GAWD (Copyright Jim Ross) number 1. Seriously,
we gave a scholarship to a long snapper. We could have
signed Florida's class, and I'd still give it a B just
for the sheer ridiculousness that is signing a long
snapper. Aaron Feld, welcome to MSU. You're going to
be the subject of a lot of posts, I feel.
So let's wrap it up. Need a quarterback, didn't sign
one. Needed running backs, only got two. Needed wide
receivers, probably only got two. Needed linemen, only
signed one who will contribute before 2008. Didn't
need a tight end, signed one nobody else wanted.
Needed defensive linemen, got a bunch of CUSA caliber
players. Didn't need linebackers, signed 3, one of
which may never play aGAIN. Defensive backs, good job.
Long snapper....seriously, we signed a long snapper.
How can the overall grade be anything but F? We didn't
fill a single need by my eyes. Croom has proven to be
the complete package of mediocrity. At least Orgeron
can recruit (insert cheating reference here). And I
promise you, another class like that, and my mother
could coach Ole Miss to a bowl game. Meanwhile, we
continue to stockpile players that no other BCS school
in the country wants to have play for them.
Croom has stated time and time aGAIN that in order for
his offense to work, we have to bring in the same
caliber of players that LSU, Auburn, and Georgia bring
in. That isn't happening, not even close. However, the
chances of Croom altering his coaching style are about
the same of Dawgstudent passing up a plate of lasagna.
So it's quite the Catch-22. We need to recruit better
to run this offense, but we can't win enough to
recruit better, in large part due to the offense we
run. And as Kurt Russell playing Wyatt Earp said,
that's the damnable misery of it. MSU is now
officially at rock bottom, with no chance of rising
until either Coach Croom is removed as head football
coach, or he undergoes a major paradigm shift in terms
of offensive philosophy and recruiting style, because
neither one of those is working for him right now.
Look at the probable starting lineup for the first
game. Henig at quarterback. Thorton at tailback. The
majority of the wideout rotation playing in it's first
college game. No real proven depth behind the starters
on the offensive line. This is the stark reality we
MSU fans face this fall. For everyone who thought last
year's offense was bad, I don't think you've seen
anything yet.
As always, avid readers, I hope to be completely wrong
about all of my negative predictions, but history has
shown that I'm usually not. But until August, hope
will have to spring eternal, before reality rears it's
ugly head. Until next time, this is the General.
Dismissed"
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You can always count on me to provide fair and balanced analysis.
What's up with that? 