South rundown
By Scott Kennedy
Recruiting is 12 months a year and 365 days a year in the SEC, and there have been several interesting story lines that have followed the Southeastern Conference all year, and some that have only recently begun.
There are familiar names atop the Scout.com team recruiting rankings as Florida, Georgia, and LSU are at the head of the class. Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer was thought to be a liability on the recruiting trail when he was hired proved even the most harsh cynics wrong by locking up Scout.com's No. 1 Class.
Going national to get players like Percy Harvin, Scout.com's No. 2 wide receiver, of Virginia and Brandon Spikes, a five-star linebacker out of North Carolina, as well as staying home to lock up Florida kids including Jamar Hornsby and Jarred Fayson, Meyer flexed the Gator recruiting muscle all over the country.
Mark Richt and Georgia quietly put together another Class in the Top 10 for Scout.com. Getting Matthew Stafford, Scout.com's No. 2-ranked quarterback, out of Texas was a huge pull.
Ole Miss Head Coach Ed Orgeron has certainly put the Rebels back on the recruiting map. After a 3-8 season, what Orgeron was able to do at Ole Miss was nothing short of miracle work. Going into signing day, Orgeron had his Rebels sitting in the Top 10 after picking up players like the No. 1 junior college quarterback Brent Schaeffer.
Springdale High School led an Arkansas resurgence almost single-handedly. Scout.com's No. 1 quarterback Mitch Mustain led three of his teammates to Fayetteville to play for the Hogs. After briefly flirting with other schools after having committed to Arkansas, Mustain re-upped with the home state team.
The biggest fish in the pond in SEC Country is Andre Smith of Huffman High School in Birmingham. Smith is ranked the No. 1 prospect in the entire South, and he has been tight-lipped about his recruitment. Smith will choose between Alabama, Florida, USC, and LSU on signing day.
East/ACC rundown
By Miller Safrit
In recruiting, it is all about finishing with Florida State and Miami.
Miami, currently the top team in the ACC team recruiting rankings, is finally starting to put together the type of class most expect from the Hurricanes. Over the last week, Miami received commitments from three four-star prospects in Ian Symonette from Houston, Tex., Kylan Robinson from Tampa, Fla., and Colin McCarthy from Clearwater, Fla.
The Seminoles always close with big names making a commitment on signing day. Last year, Florida State picked up five new commitments on the first day of the signing period, including five-star prospects Antone Smith, Fred Rouse, and Callahan Bright. This year the focus is squarely focused on C.J. Spiller, a five-star running back from Lake Butler, Fla., Anthony Leon, a safety from Miami, Fla. already committed to the Seminoles but remains heavily interested in the Hurricanes, and Daron Rose from Tampa, Fla.
The main competition for Spiller comes from Bobby Bowden's son Tommy at Clemson. The Tigers put together a tremendous class led by Ricky Sapp, the top prospect in South Carolina. The Tigers are also in on another running back in Terry Grant, who is also interested in Florida State.
North Carolina, N.C. State, and Virginia Tech are all waiting on their big fish to come down on Wednesday afternoon with major prospects still left on the board. The Hokies have a great chance with LeSean McCoy, the nation's number two running back, and three-star tight end Dennis Godfrey.
The Wolfpack hit the state of Florida hard this year, and still have several major targets left in the Sunshine State including defensive tackle Audie Augustin and linebacker Emmanuel Cook.
North Carolina appears poised to take a commitment from its lone prospect Aleric Mullins, but that would be the top prospect for the Tar Heels in North Carolina this year.
Northeast rundown
By Bob Lichtenfels
The Big East has to endure more national negativity from the media then any other conference in the country. Thankfully, for Big East fans, West Virginia proved on a national stage that the Big East is not dead and they are deserving of their automatic BCS bid. How does that directly correlate to recruiting? The answer is easy: Recruits want to play in BCS conferences and on national television.
One problem that several Big East schools faced this season was a lack of scholarships. West Virginia, Connecticut, and Cincinnati all had smaller classes than normal this year. Pittsburgh was one of the bigger disappointments on the field in Dave Wannstedt's first season as the Panthers head coach. Fortunately for Pittsburgh fans, that has not translated into a poor performance in the recruiting wars.
Pittsburgh is on its way to a potential top 10 finish in the national recruiting rankings. The Panthers have verbal commitments from five of the nation's top 100 prospects including Scout.com's No. 1 tight end Nate Byham, No. 4 wide receiver Dorin Dickerson, No. 8 safety Elijah Fields, No. 12 offensive lineman Joe Thomas, and No. 13 running back Kevin Collier. Pittsburgh and Mississippi have easily been the biggest surprises on the recruiting trail this year.
Louisville had a banner final week of January as they landed three Scout.com four-star prospects including the No. 14-rated wide receiver in the nation according to Scout.com Josh Chichester (West Chester, Ohio.), who originally committed to Ohio State. The Cardinals also landed the No. 31-rated wide receiver Latarrius Thomas (New Smyrna Beach, Fla.), and the No. 32-ranked defensive tackle L.T. Walker (Wynne, AR.). The coup for Louisville happened on Tuesday as Deantwan "Peanut" Whitehead, the nation's No. 3-rated defensive end and a Scout.com five-star prospect, committed to the Cardinals.
Syracuse landed a standout in Delone Carter (Copley, Ohio.), Scout. com's No. 25-ranked running back prospect. Carter could end up starting for the Orange or at the very least, will likely be in the rotation. The Orange added a must have prospect in the nation's No. 20 wide receiver Andrey Baskin (Camden, N.J.).
West Virginia fans were somewhat miffed as their victory over Georgia did not net better results on the recruiting trail. The class is lead by four-star cornerback Ryan Brinson (Chatham, Va.), along with linebacker Anthony Leonard (McKeesport, Pa.), cornerback Robert Williams (Cincinnati, Ohio.), and wide receiver John Maddox (Philadelphia, Pa.). Brandon Heath is a top prospect from Florida that the Mountaineers would love to sign.
Midwest rundown
By Chris Pool
Joe Paterno is all too quick to let the media know that he hasn't changed in all of his years of coaching and all of his years of being on the recruiting trail. Point blank, Penn State is college football and when the Nittany Lions are winning BCS bowl games and Big Ten championships, they will attract national talent.
Coming off an 11-1 season, with a season-ending victory over Florida State in the Orange Bowl, Paterno has assembled one of the most impressive recruiting classes, led by five-star commitments Antonio Logan-El and Chris Bell. Does Joe Pa have one more trick up his sleeve? Come signing day, he could get a fax from All-American wide receiver Vidal Hazelton.
After misfiring a few times on head coaches, Notre Dame has finally got it right by hiring Charlie Weis. With Weis at the helm, Notre Dame is once again at the top of the recruiting food chain. Notre Dame missed a lot the past few years when they tried to bring in some of the best talent from around the country.
Why weren't the Irish able to land the nation's elite blue-chip prospects? See Penn State, above. Winning and BCS bowl games equal recruiting success, Notre Dame is back in a big way. Weis started out strong this year on the recruiting trail by landing four-star running back James Aldridge and finished by gaining the commitment of arguably the best offensive tackle in the country, Sam Young.
Michigan and Ohio State will always do well in recruiting. The Wolverines started off the recruiting season by locking up the top in-state prospect, Brandon Graham, and just this week, Lloyd Carr received a verbal commitment from Steve Schilling, the No. 3-rated offensive lineman in the nation, according to Scout.com. Michigan did take a hit when Jai Eugene, the No. 1-rated cornerback in the nation, according to Scout.com, backed away from his Michigan commitment and said he'll sign with LSU.
Ohio State once again cleaned up in-state by landing commitments from All-American Robert Rose, his teammate, Ray Small, and Scout.com "Hot 100" linebacker Thaddeus Gibson. The Buckeyes secured the commitment of U.S. Army All-American Connor Smith before the 2005 season as well as the MVP of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, Chris Wells. Wells, the No. 1 prospect in the nation, according to Scout.com, could arrive in Columbus next fall and have an immediate impact for the Buckeyes.
The biggest surprise in the Big Ten has to be what Ron Zook has done at Illinois. The Fighting Illini struggled on the gridiron in 2005 but that didn't stop Zook and ace recruiter Mike Locksley from closing the borders of Illinois.
Illinois, especially the Chicago area, has always been recruited by most of the Big Ten, Notre Dame and several other schools. Iowa has made a living in Illinois the past few years but Zook did an outstanding job of keeping the in-state talent in Illinois.
Quarterback Isiah Williams (Chicago) is the crown jewel of this class. Chris James (Chicago), Marques Wilkins (Decatur), Garrett Edwards (Downers Grove) and Michael Hoomanawanui (Bloomington) all had scholarship offers from other schools in the Big Ten Conference.
Ohio's Jeff Cumberland, New Jersey's Kenny Britt and Florida's Chris Duvalt all add depth to this outstanding recruiting class at Illinois.
West rundown
By Chris Fetters
As per usual, the sun rose in the east, water is wet, and USC is killing all comers when it comes to recruiting battles out west. With 12 of their 19 verbal commitments in Scout.com's national Hot 100 and their star ranking per recruit at a whopping 4.37 out of 5 (the next best is Florida, at 3.85), it's clear that Pete Carroll cheats off our recruiting list and makes it his own. Or is that the other way around?
The Trojans have three prospects that are either No. 1 or No. 2 at their respective positions nationally - Vidal Hazelton, Stafon Johnson and Taylor Mays - but even the mighty Men of Troy aren't immune to getting shut down. Hazelton, while still committed to USC, is thinking about staying closer to his Staten Island home. It could be Penn State, a school that has made some dents in other schools' commit lists of late. It'll be a signing day decision worth sticking around for.
Another player that shunned Carroll and the Trojans is Scottsdale JC defensive end Louis Holmes - the crown jewel of an exceptional class recruited by Mike Stoops and the Arizona Wildcats. In a short period of time, Stoops has stockpiled Tucson with a truckload of talent. The latest to jump on board, Devin Ross, is Scout.com's No. 4 cornerback nationally, and arguably the top "lock-down" corner out west. It's a bit of a surprise, but give the 'Cats the second-best class in the Pac-10 in recruiting's second season.
Coming in a very strong third is UCLA, with a class that was put together very quickly and very early on, by most west coast timetables. Over half of their class verbally committed to Karl Dorrell before the Bruins' season started, taking a page from the Texas playbook. But that doesn't mean they haven't closed strong too. Their last two commits, Micah Kia and Terrence Austin, are both top-20 by Scout.com nationally at their respective positions, joining two other commits - Kai Forbath and Darius Savage, in that elite company.
Don't get the idea that things are done out here in the west. Strange things have a way of finding their way out to the left coast. Besides Hazelton, USC is still waiting on big fish Gerald McCoy from Oklahoma City (who is also looking at Oklahoma and LSU) and Andre Smith, Scout.com's No.1 offensive lineman prospect.
There are still three uncommitted players in the top half of Scout.com's West 100 - Jonas Mouton (looking at USC, Michigan and LSU), Jamere Holland (USC, Mississippi State, Arizona and Oregon) and Sione Fua (Oregon and Stanford) -- that are looking for homes.
Big 12 rundown
By Jeremy Patterson
It seems as though schools in the Big 12 have locked up their classes extra early this year and many schools, particularly in the state of Texas, have already started to focus on recruiting prospects in the class of 2007.
Mack Brown has acquired the nickname Mr. February because of his ability to close in recruiting, but he never seemed to be able to turn that talent into a national title. This year he may have permanently lost that nickname by not only winning the national title, but by all-but-completing the Longhorns' recruiting class by Christmas. In fact, all but three members of the class were committed before the season ever began. One of the biggest commitments for the 'Horns came in November when Stephenville quarterback Jevan Snead de-committed from the Florida Gators and gave his commitment to the 'Horns, who were in desperate need of a quarterback.
Though the Oklahoma State Cowboys had somewhat of a rebuilding year on the field, they are setting themselves up well for the future. They have racked up eight four-star commitments, including Salt Lake City quarterback Alex Cate and Richardson, Texas defensive end Ugo Chinasa.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders not only finished as the No. 2 team in the state on the field behind the Longhorns and in front of Texas A&M this year, but it appears as though they will do the same in the recruiting rankings as well. The class is led by Abilene quarterback Taylor Potts and JUCO offensive lineman Ofa Mohetau.
This has been a tough year in recruiting for the Big 12 North as there is a very distinct possibility that no Big 12 North team will finish in the top 25 in the rankings. The Nebraska Cornhuskers stand the best chance of doing so by picking up some top talent out of California.
The Kansas State Wildcats had a very slow start to recruiting, but since the hiring of Ron Prince the 'Cats have clawed their way up the rankings. Prince's hire may have come too late to catapult the 'Cats into the top 25, but he easily has them poised for a top 50 finish. The biggest coup of the year for Prince was stealing four-star Kansas City quarterback Josh Freeman, who was committed to the Nebraska Cornhuskers and planned to be an early enrollee. Days before he was to sign his letter of intent he made the switch and chose to head to Manhattan instead.
The Oklahoma Sooners aren't used to losing four games in a year very often, but that didn't slow down recruiting efforts. The Sooners still have a shot at a top 10 finish if they land the nation's top defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and Jermaine Gresham as they are expected to do. They've already racked up commitments from most of the top in-state prospects, the top player in Nevada and several big-time players out of Texas.
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