A Ridiculous Exercise In Recruiting

I'm getting a little ahead of the curve here, but the 2009 recruiting class is going to be one of the most important in recent history. After having it's hands tied a little bit do to the small number of available slots, the staff will have a lot more head room in 2009 with 25 scholarships available. If you are interested in where exactly Penn State will have it's holes, Mike his that shit locked down over at BSD (last episode, including links to all positions, here).

Well the runners are off the blocks and lets see where the contestants stand. OBVIOUS DISCLAIMER: The current date is March 31, 2008. We have a long way to go. This Top 100 list will change substantially, players will jump ship right up to signing day (huhumcoughShawcouch), the coaching ranks are infested with Snake Oil Salesmen who wear funny hats.



A quick look at the Rivals Top 100 yields the following verbal commitments (note: schools are in order of their highest ranked verbal commitment):

School	Verbals	Player Rank
USC	6	1, 15, 21, 30, 77, 97
LSU	2	4, 91
FSU	3	5, 37, 92
Miami	1	9
Michigan	2	10, 42
Texas	5	11, 33, 59, 65, 69
WVU	1	22
OSU	5	32,38, 47, 48, 88
Alabama	1	36
UNC	1	39
MSU	2	50, 64
Oklahoma St	1	70
UCLA	1	86
Clemson	1	93

Couple things to note: Penn State is, of course, absent. USC, Texas and Ohio State have a pretty big jump on the rest of the pack. North Carolina? WTF?

Moving on to the all important in-state race. There are five players on the current Top 100 who reside in the Commonwealth, none have given verbals. Of the five, all but the lowest ranked player are considering Penn State. That doesn't mean much right now except that they were given an offer. Most of these kids have lists with half the D1a teams on them. No bad news to report, however.

I wouldn't normally be looking at this now except to point out that you have to really be concerned about Paterno's situation. Where in the past it was always a question of "Will he be my coach in four years? Three?" we've moved right on up to "Will he be my coach, ever?" While bashing Paterno's recruiting is popular right now (and for the most part warranted), there are players who, once announcing their commitment, simply say "I'm excited to play for such a great coach." The name sells, even if it's somewhat marginal, it matters.

The current group on the recruiting trail appear to be in the worst possible situation. The team has had two average years in a row. The Paterno card has been removed from the deck, even if temporarily. Hell, they can't even say that they will be in State College next year.

To get to the point: I don't know why the hell they are waiting so long to make a decision. It is clearly hurting the program.

Random News You've Already Heard

10:33 Thoughts while I should be working:
-I had a feeling Pryor would push his anouncement back. From what I've gathered, Pryor had somewhat made up his mind, but his father might have talked him into reconsidering Penn State. He is headed for an official visit some time this weekend, maybe.
-Lynn has signed a letter, which is a big.
-Shaw may have decided to go to Michigan, but BSD has told us all that he has decided to push his anouncement back to 1 pm.

10:45 MGoBlog says both Shaw and his HS teamate Roy Roundtree are headed to Michigan. Roundtree is WR and had as of yesterday been a soft verbal to Purdon't. Roundtree did not have Penn State on his list, however I don't know if that was because Paterno didn't offer or the kid wasn't interested.

10:50 Rivals and MGoBlog have all redacted their statements about Shaw, they appear to have jumped the gun. Also, Pryor was creeped out by Michigan and their fan's are pretty defensive about it.

11:00 IF Shaw does jump, that means we don't currently have a four star player who is not a linebacker...although I have to wonder how Rivals can rate a player (Lynn) recruited by USC, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio State a three star.

11:31 I know this isn't really news, but this is about as embarrassing as it gets.

11:38 So I hear Pryor will be "fielding questions" at his Noon press conference. I would say "who this will be interesting" but I get the feeling whatever he says won't make any sense by Firday...

12:05 The whole thing was suppose to be over this very minute. Also, Shaw has set his press conference for 1:00 pm, he is either headed to Michigan with several of his teammates or signing with the Lions.

12:12 Just kidding! Pryor will visit Oregon, unless of course he doesn't. He also is going to pick between Ohio State and Michigan, according to the 'experts' on ESPNU (is this a contraction of terms?), because that makes for a better news story.

12:30 From what I understand: Pryor wanted to go to OSU, Dad wanted him to go to PSU. They decided to wait. He also actually said this: "Jay [Paterno] is a great guy." I think the jury is still out on JayPa (most don't), Morelli isn't a fair way to judege him in my opinion, but the fact that he even was mentioned is a good sign. The PlayStation thing must have worked.

12:56 In five minutes we will either have a four star running back or we won't.

1:19 Fucking Michigan...

Well, that was fun. Check out BSD for a good wrap up of who signed.

Terrelle Pryor Is Headed to Michigan*

EDIT: For the latest update, click here.

*Probably, that is. And by probably, I mean most sources are saying there is a 99.2% chance, leaving Ohio State, Penn State, Florida and Oregon to split the other .8%.



Most of this speculation is coming from info leaked by Ohio State, who have all but given up recruiting the kid.

This is really too bad, I thought a player like Pryor could turn around our backwards offense and actually make Penn State games fun to watch. What I simply don't get, though, is that Ohio State seemed like the front runner when RichRod was still at WVU, but now that he's at Michigan, with no Noel Devine in the backfield, he thinks playing in a gimmick offense is all the sudden a good idea. I had heard from several different places that this was the exact thing that was keeping him from WVU, but now it's the number one issue.

Pryor had also talked about playing basketball during the winters. So how is Michigan's basketball program better than WVU? When they aren't cheating I mean. In addition, RichRod has a history of being very much against dual sport athletes. None of this adds up, which is of course why I am starting to believe it, and until Kirk Herbstreit reports it, I have a feeling Pryor will be at Michigan next fall.