The dust has settled on National Signing Day and while there a few kids still left to sign most of the class rankings are being finalized, at least in regards to who signed an LOI with each school. We've got the Scout Rankings, the Rivals Rankings and theESPN Rankings in the bank right now. As Chris Huston, the Heisman Pundit, points out the rankings today aren't exactly the classes that we'll get by the time these kids enroll in summer and through camp.

that said, what we have is what we have right now. The preliminary evaluations are in and now we get to figure out what it all means. Were you team's needs met? Did you sign a fullboat of kids? How many of these guys will contribute immediately? Where are the developmental projects that can pay off in the future?

There's a lot to assess as the kids come in and first and foremost "needs" must be discussed because ultimately it is a word that gets tossed around a lot but means nothing if it is not used correctly. College football is not the NFL. There are parallels but by and large the differences in roster management are so striking that they make the word "need" mean two very different things. no comments

One of the most intriguing things about National Signing Day (and most nerve racking) is seeing which recruit will "flip" their commitment from one school in order to sign with another. During the recruiting process it's common for recruits to change their minds. Let's face it, these are seventeen year old kids who are about to make the biggest decision of their lives. Sometimes they get caught up in the moment and then decide later that maybe they don't want to spend their next few years at college X. We already took a look at where the top uncommitted recruits landed. Now let's take a look at the highest ranked prospects who flipped their commitment on National Signing Day:

Shaq Thompson, S, (Overall CFBZ #7)- Shaq didn't technically flip his commitment on NSD as he made it known previously that he had re-opened his recruitment. After Tosh Lupoi left Cal to go to Washington the writing was on the wall and on NSD Shaq decided to follow Tosh and sign with the Huskies.

Dante Fowler, DE, (Overall CFBZ #36)- FSU landed Mario Edwards and Eddie Goldman on their defensive line and they were both in our overall Top 10. Was that the reason that Fowler flipped to Florida? No matter the reason, it was a big get for Muschamp and Florida. The overall effect on FSU shouldn't be much but it always stings a bit when a recruits flips to your bitter rival. no comments

National Signing Day has came and went. It was a big day for college football and college football fans. The sport we love is now a year-round sport and winning the off-season is huge to winning on the field. Recruiting won't win games for you by itself but it certainly helps to get the right prospects in your program and it can also provide a spark that can lift your school. I'm not going to tell you the "winners" and "losers" of signing day. The true winners and losers won't be known until these kids get onto the field and play for a year or two or four. Let's take a look back at National Signing Day and re-visit our Top Uncomitted Recruits from the beginning of January:

Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, (Overall CFBZ #1)- DGB ended up spurning the advances of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas to stay in-state and play for Missouri. It was a huge pick-up for the Tigers as they enter SEC play for the first time this coming year.

Shaq Thompson, S, (Overall CFBZ #7)- A one time Cal recruit, Shaq followed coach Tosh Lupoi up to Washington. Lupoi was a fantastic hire by Sarkisian and it paid dividends in the recruiting game. Anybody who watched Washington's defense against Baylor knows that Shaq will be able to contribute immediately for the Huskies.

Eddie Goldman, DT, (Overall CFBZ #9)- He was on Alabama's wish list but he wanted to play in a 4-3 defense and FSU made a lot of sense. FSU was very strong on defense last year and landed some good recruits this year. Now if they could just score the football... no comments

I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers: The Story of Success.  It's a fascinating work that studies the circumstances which help mold ultra-successful people.  There is a lot more to success than you might think.  The typical American thought process on success is that smart and talented people work harder than their peers and ultimately become successful in their field.  That's the American Dream, but it isn't that simple.  While hard work and talent are certainly critical to success in any venture, those aren't the only ingredients.  Timing, opportunity, expectations, access, and cultural factors all play a major role in success.  For instance, Gladwell writes that Bill Gates just so happened to go to one of the few middle schools in America that had a computer in the late 1960's.  Gates spent hours learning how to program and write code.  Had Gates been a youngster in any other city or at any other middle school or in any other time in history, the world might not know the basics of the PC as we have them today.  Would Bill Gates have been any less intelligent had he not had that access?  Of course not.  Would Bill Gates have been any less driven had he not been able to work on his craft at such a young age?  Of course not.  But Bill Gates is a product of excellent timing, unique access, nurturing support, and endless opportunity.

National Signing Day 2012 will once again be a huge event.  Hundreds of websites will enjoy record traffic, and countless radio and television shows will profile the nation's top high school football talent.  It is not uncommon for recruiting junkies to take off work on the first Wednesday in February and spend the day trying to make sense of their favorite team's recruiting haul.  And I've got news for you, National Signing Day is only going to get bigger.  But what created this monster?  This relatively new phenomenon of sports lunacy had to start somewhere.  The NCAA doesn't directly benefit from high school kids choosing hats off of a table.  So what factors built National Signing Day into the huge event that it is today? no comments

Ray Perkins can relate to what Penn State's Bill O'Brien is going through.

Not too long after Perkins took over as Alabama's head coach in 1983, legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant died.

Perkins went 32-15-1 in four seasons, but he was never able to get out of the shadow of Bryant. No one ever wants to replace a legend.

Now O'Brien is faced with taking over for college football's winningest coach Joe Paterno, who died Sunday, Jan. 22, almost 29 years to the day Bryant passed.

Perkins told the Altoona Mirror in September 2010 that no one will ever replacePaterno. "There's no one can replace Coach Bryant. And there's no one can replace Joe Paterno," Perkins said. "There's going to be somebody to follow him someday [as] I merely followed Coach Bryant." no comments

 

#1 The Rivalries

College Football is all about rivalries and the rivalries in the SEC take a back seat to none. Unfortunately for the SEC, the rivalries have turned nasty recently and have been in the news for the wrong reasons. Just like they have been on the field by winning National Championships, Alabama has been a leader of some of these issues. From the jackhat Alabama fan who poisoned the trees at Toomer's Corner, to a USA Today handicapper (and Bama grad) claiming to have Cam Newton "bag man" tapes, and most recently an Alabama fan taking disgusting liberties with an unconscious LSU fan. Alabama is definitely at the forefront of some of these issues but they aren't the only ones (and to be fair, the Alabama fans I've met have always been nice to me). In the South, college football is big business and we have very passionate fans. We also have a lunatic fringe that is a bit larger than other areas on the country. And of course there is the Jerry Springer of the college football world, Paul Finebaum, fanning the flames and egging people on. Love him or hate him, he's out for ratings and fame and he will continue to scour the dirtiest garbage cans, most run-down trailer parks and lowest ditches to bring you college football controversies.

Whether it's on the field rivalries like Auburn/Alabama, Georgia/Florida, LSU/Alabama, Auburn/Georgia, Tennessee/Alabama, Ole Miss/Miss State, Tennessee/Florida or Auburn/LSU, or off the field issues by the fans or the media fanning the flames, it's clear that in today's age of the internet this is only going to get bigger.

With rivalries come NCAA investigations and inquiries. Let's be honest, most NCAA investigations (at least the big ones) don't come by what schools turn in on themselves. They come from other sources (read: rivals). Like they are every year, the NCAA will be something to watch around the SEC (as they are around the entire Nation right now: Miami, USC, Ohio State, Oregon and UNC are just a few schools that garnered some heat in the recent past). no comments

 

Until a team from another conference really challenges the SEC in the BCS National Championship, you have to wonder which Southeastern Conference team will win it all in 2012.

USC seems to be the favorite right now to challenge the SEC for supremacy, but the Trojans might have to run the table to get consideration for the title game.

With the SEC increasing its membership from 12 to 14 next season, it's unclear if that will hurt or help the conference in its quest for a seventh consecutive BCS title.

It's not like Texas A&M or Missouri are considered contenders, but who should be considered the top five teams that will bring another title to the SEC?

Alabama

Alabama may be losing a number of key players to the NFL, but the Crimson Tide have something every other program in the nation does not: Nick Saban.

You don't think Saban makes a big impact in a game? Just look at how the Tide played in winning their second BCS title in three seasons.

Quarterback A.J. McCarron developed into a solid player and gained a serious amount of confidence in beating LSU.

For everyone worried about the loss of Trent Richardson, all you had to see was how well Eddie Lacy ran the ball in the title game.

Alabama's toughest task will be replacing all of that talent on defense that will be playing on Sundays next fall. no comments

I’m just going to be real with you here for a second: If you’re looking for some quality college football recruiting coverage, Aaron Torres Sports simply is not the place for you (although, we are doing some things at the other site I work for, CrystalBallRun.com). I’m not saying I’m a busy guy per se, but the idea of tracking a bunch of 17-year-old kids, more than half of which will never make any tangible impact on the college level, just doesn’t sound all that appealing to me. Especially when I’ve got more important things to do… like watch re-runs of How I Met Your Mother, for example.

Still, this whole recruiting frenzy does kind of make me wonder, and think how much fun it’d be to be a recruited athlete. Beyond just the bags of cash, free trips and endless girls (boooooring), I’m always curious what it’d be like to have a Nick Saban or Lane Kiffin in your house, pitching the merits of their school to you. What would they say? How would they act? Do you think Les Miles likes dogs?

Which is why in the lead-up Signing Day, I’ve decided to do something different here at ATS. Rather than pretend like I know a damn thing about any of these recruits, I’m going to instead focus on the guys that I do know, the coaches. And in one paragraph or less, I’m going to try my best to sum up what I think they might say, and what their top selling points might be.

In Part I today, I’ll look at the coaches of the SEC, Pac-12 and Big East and tomorrow I encourage you to come back with Part II, evaluating those from the ACC, Big Ten and Big XII.

Here goes:

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Every year there are some questionable decisions made by student athletes in declaring for the draft in their respective sports. They make those decisions for different reasons (family reasons, school issues, bad advice, coaching issues, etc).Take a jump over to Pro Football Talk for a list of the full 65 guys that declared for the NFL draft. Here are some guys that I believe would have benefited from staying in school for one more year:

QB Darron Thomas, Oregon- Thomas has been very successful as a starting QB at Oregon but his prospects at the NFL level are questionable. I'm reading that Thomas is looking at the fifth round (as of right now) as his best landing spot. Unless he can really impress scouts with his "intangibles" then he might not even get drafted. At best, Thomas is a project at the NFL level.

QB Barrett Trotter, Auburn- Another surprise at the QB position as Trotter announced that he would not be coming back to Auburn for his final season. Originally it was phrased in a way that made me think he was just moving on to his next stage of life but he did put his name in the hat for the NFL draft. He was Auburn's best QB last year but couldn't hold down he starters job for the entire season. If his goal is to go pro then his only choice should have been to come back to school. Of course, knowing what kind of offense you are going to run would have helped and Gene Chizik hasn't made that decision yet. He's 6'2" so he has decent size but I would be very surprised if he was drafted.

RB Edwin Baker, Michigan State- The normal thought I have for a RB going pro is "go get your money". RBs take a ton of hits during their career and when the time is right, they should go get their money in the NFL. For Baker the time wasn't right. In 2010, Baker ran 207 times for over 1200 yards and 13 TDs. But this year he was outperformed by Le'Veon Bell and only ran the ball for 665 yards and saw his ypc reduce from 5.8 to 3.9. Bell basically said he didn't want to come back and get injured. Baker's stock significantly took a hit in 2011 and I think he would have benefited from another season in Lansing.

QB Brock Osweiler, Arizona State- In Osweiler's first year at the helm of the Sun Devils offense he got some good publicity, but a lot of it was because of how tall he is (6'7"). It would have been a challenge for Osweiler to learn a new offense in his senior season but with his intangibles he had a chance to really improve his draft stock. As it stands now he could be a second or third round pick, next year he could have played himself higher.

RB Darrell Scott, South Florida- Another RB. Yes, I know I told the RBs to take the money and run but that's more for elite college RBs. Darrell Scott ended up at USF by way of Colorado. Coming out of High School he was the #1 back for some scouting services and even drew comparisons to LaDainian Tomlinson. Last season, at USF he ran for 814 yards, 5.3 ypc and 5 TDs and with a break-out senior season he could have really upgraded his draft position.

For those that enjoy the draft take a look at our three round mock draft that was posted earlier in the week.

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Yesterday the nation's number one quarterback recruit, Gunner Kiel from Indiana, reportedly decided that Louisiana State University was not the place for him,instead he would stay closer to home and go to Notre Dame. If you've followed Kiel at all you know he originally intended to stay close to home by committing to Indiana, going to play with his brother even, but that didn't last for long as he switched to college football power LSU. We've come almost full circle as he returns home to play his ball.

So a teenager has committed to three places, has yet to actually enroll so there's a chance he could change his mind again and spurned one of the nation's more consistent winners in the last decade. You know what that means right?

It means get crazy if you're a fan of anyone and everyone. LSU fan go ham on Gunner Kiel. College football fan in general do your worst about a teenager because that's what makes you a big man. Basically say whatever you want to say about a kid, because he isn't certain about where he wants to spend the next three to five years of his life.

Our bloguin colleague The Subway Domer took the time to write a bang up post about talking to recruits and why every fan should just leave the entirely alone. Truly a great cause, a fantastic point is made and as we travel into the offseason that is definitely one of the main focuses that we should all have to help make college football a bit better. no comments