Recruiting Recap

So Letter of Intent day, or LOI if you’re into TLA’s, has come and gone and pretty much everything went according to plan. All 21 of the players that pledged verbally to attend Penn State have made good on their promises and signed on the dotted line. I’ve updated my Recruiting Big Board and added Drew Astorino and Chimaeze Okoli who recently signed. You can always view it by clicking on “Recruiting 07” under “Resources.”

One of the stories that developed over the day is that of running back Broderick Green who signed with USC. Let me reiterate that Green signed with the school that he verbally committed to earlier. Although he had second thoughts and was thinking about coming to Penn State he stuck with the team he started with. It’s not time to hang yourself with your blue & white necktie; this was a great recruiting class. It becomes exponentially more important for the coaches to go after several running backs for the class of 08, but Penn State will have a great deal to offer including significant playing time from the get-go. Who knows, maybe one of the young backs Penn State has on their roster now will turn into the next Tony Hunt. Betting on 18 year old kids is like throwing a stick in a raging river and trying to predict its course a mile downstream.

Speaking of recruiting, erstwhile ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Lemming is always a good read. No really, he knows everything; stop laughing. In a recent article he dumped on the Big Ten:

"Perception and momentum are the key words in recruiting," CSTV analyst Tom Lemming said. "The perception before that game was: Ohio State is the superstar team. Then the Buckeyes got their clocks cleaned and Florida became the juggernaut."

Really? So I’m to believe that one game completely changed the landscape of recruiting as we know it, because theOSU decided that game film was overrated the entire Big Ten will now suffer?

"The perception is that more exciting football is being played in the SEC right now," Lemming said. "And it's common knowledge that it's easier to get players who are borderline academically into the SEC than the Big Ten."

No shit, our football up north is just so damn boring I mean we only had the 8th and (two teams tied at) 26th best scoring offenses in the country – boring. The Big Ten was home to two finalists, including the eventual winner, of the Heisman trophy. Moreover, players in the Big Ten won the Walter Camp, Outland Trophy, Chuck Bednarik, Davey O'Brien, John Mackey, Bronko Nagurski, and Ted Hendricks awards. In comparison, the only awards won by players in the “exciting” SEC were the Doak Walker, and Butkus. For half the season, the only thing the entire college football world would talk about is the eventual collision of Ohio State and Michigan, a game that saw 900 yards of offense. But I guess that wasn’t too exciting.

Maybe Lemming is right, or maybe it’s because the Big Ten recruiting grounds had an off year talent-wise. Could it also be that Ohio State only had 14 commits? When you only have 14 scholarships to give you better have a really fine class to be ranked in the top 10 (USC did just that). In comparison, South Carolina has 30 and Tennessee has 26.

Let's get real Lemming is that YOUR perception, or is that the perception of all the 18 year-old kids you stalk analyze? I'm betting on the former.