Re-Ranking the Class of 2008

With the team rankings from Scout.com due to be released this week, now is as good a time as any to look back at the Class of 2008 based on who suited up for their respective teams this month. After all of the class attrition, it turns out, there's a new #1.

From baseball to grayshirts to transfers to academic casualties, there are multitudes of reasons why the dream that was Signing Day 2008 changed for so many players. Attrition takes its toll on just about every program in the country.

Of course the true ranking of each class won't be known for several years, but here's a look back with a re-ranking of the Class of 2008 based on who suited up this year.

The Alabama Crimson Tide finished on Signing Day of 2008 with Scout's #1 Class, with Notre Dame nipping closely at their heels. Alabama signed 32 players, so some attrition was expected. Scout only counts the top 25 prospects per class, but in February there's no telling which 25 are going to report.

Alabama was hit particularly hard by baseball losing Destin Hood and Melvin Ray to the draft. Alabama lost another 4-Star in Devonta Bolton. Those three players were enough to give Notre Dame the edge, who enrolled all of their signees.

It's been stated before, but I don't think it can be said enough; the recruiting job that Charlie Weis and staff did last year to secure the #1 class in the country in the midst of Notre Dame's worst season in its history, is one of the best recruiting jobs I've ever seen.

I don't think anyone is taking the Tide lightly despite some attrition, because Alabama still brought in the #2 class in the country with headliners such as Julio Jones, Mark Barron, Burton Scott, and Tyler Love. It's less heralded recruits (if you can call a 4 star guy unheralded) such as Don'ta Hightower and running back Mark Ingram that have already made a huge impact for Alabama.

Miami is another team that oversigned and was expecting some attrition, but most of the key guys in the class enrolled on time and have seen a lot of early playing time. All of Miami's 4 Star rated or better prospects are currently on the team. The Class of 2008 is the biggest building block in getting the Hurricanes back to national prominence.

Rank	Prev:	Team	Key Losses
1	2	Notre Dame	None
2	1	Alabama	Devonta Bolton; Melvin Ray
3	3	Miami	Antonio Harper
4	4	Ohio State	Shawntel Rowell
5	5	Georgia	Toby Jackson
6	6	Michigan	Marcus Witherspoon; Taylor Hill
7	10	UCLA	None
8	7	LSU	DeAngelo Benton
9	11	Clemson	None
10	8	FSU	Debrale Smiley; Anthony Hill
11	16	Texas	None
12	9	USC	Daniel Campbell
13	12	Florida	Dee Finley
14	13	Oklahoma	Josh Jarboe; David Sims
15	14	Washington	Dominique Blackmon
16	19	Illinois	Patrick Nixon
17	17	Arizona State	Kemonte Bateman; Jarrell Barbour
18	15	Texas A&M	Derrick Hall; Blake Chavis
19	25	Pittsburgh	None
20	27	Colorado	Paul Vigo
21	21	Nebraska	David Whitmore; David Grant
22	23	Oregon	None
23	20	Virginia Tech	Leon Mackey; Derrick McCoy
24	30	North Carolina	Kevin Reddick; Joseph Townsend
25	22	Boston College	Eric Reynolds; Patrick Neumann
26	31	Missouri	None
27	26	Wisconsin	None
28	18	Auburn	Onterio McCalebb; Freddie Smooth
29	32	Cal	Kamaron Yancy; J.P. Hurrell
30	41	Penn State	None

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