For those of you whose favorite College Football teams made you want to hollar "Wait until next year!" (Yes, I'm speaking of us, Michigan fans) Well, today markes the Beginning of next year.
The Chron has a nice database for local football talent but the go to place for Big School recruiting news is Rivals.com...
For instance. A quick glance at the "Top Dual-threat QB" page reveals that the Wolverines have a commitment from Tate Forcier, one of the top QB prospects in the country and someone who's tailor made to run Coach Rodriguez' spread-run option attack. Overall the 2009 Wolverine recruiting class is shaping up quite nicely. Teric Jones is a RB in the mold of current Houston Texans standout Steve Slaton and the entire list is full of quality speed, especially on the lines (where the Big Tenelven suffers against other conferences).
Hopefully 2009/2010 will turn out a little better than 2008/2009 did for the maize and blue. Bowl qualification would be nice.
Unfortunately, for smaller schools Rivals just doesn't commit the resources to scouting and often miss-grade several prospects.
The Houston Cougars have a list that's full of local talent, and (predictably) heavy on defense. A.J. Dugat and Tyler Chambers are two potential stars at Wide Reciever and Phillip Steward out of Hightower is a potential impact LB (Rivals has his rating incorrect at two stars, he should be a four-star guy). Houston has five OL recruits verbally committed that could be 3-4 year quality starters. Coach Sumlin is building what has the potential to be a CUSA powerhouse over the next two to three years. This is the best Cougar recuriting class that I've seen since before Art Briles came to town.
Rice (which doesn't have a rivals.com team page and who's self-ran team-page is a terrible recruiting resource) has a solid recruiting class led by Turner Peterson and Charles Ross. Looking to replace all-world WR Jerret Dillard will be difficult, but undersized Donte Moore and Andre Geautreaux could grow into a competent tandem. Defensive End Cody Bauer is an undersized, high-motor guy of the type that's experienced success at Rice for quite a while now.
Of course, it's possible that none of the players I've mentioned here will ever see the field. More likely is that fact that some will excel, some will be average, some will change schools and several players unregarded out of HS will become stellar players, such is the inexact science of HS recruiting. I can tell you this however, USC, Florida and Texas will be hovering around all of the National pundits "top 5" lists. There's a reason the same schools compete for National Championships almost every year.
Next year is here.
