Recruiting Roundup

The real goal....

So national signing day was yesterday.  You can see all the coverage for yourself.  Beyond that, I would add a few thoughts...

First, I'm perfectly happy with the job our coaches did.  To paraphrase the song, we might have "99 problems, but recruiting ain't one."  They might be new and untested, but the coaches are clearly good recruiters, especially off that season.  They brought in an excellent class.

Now, as far rankings go...I'm a little bit of skeptic.  What I like is that most of our guys were sought after by other schools.  Whether they are 2-star or 3-star...I'm glad if they are three-star, but these are 18-year old men.  Some 18-year olds are late bloomers, some are topped out...they can be coached up and they can mature.  They can be put into systems they can thrive in and they can be put into systems they will languish in.

Yesterday was a good start.  In fact, probably better than that.  But winning signing day is one thing.  Winning the big trophy---that's what it's about.  You have to recruit well to do that--as Coach Jinks noted with the strong Clawson recruiting years setting the stage for a big run--but you also can coach a guy up.

For today it is good.  We'll know in '19 if we are starting to get some results.

Maybe sooner.  Coach said he'd like to redshirt everybody but given our depth issues that might not be possible.  But, know that his ultimate vision is to redshirt a whole recruiting class.

Other general notes:

The Blade indicated there were 11 preferred walk-ons, too.  Those are not public until they enroll this summer.

BG went heavy on lineman.  Out of 24 players there were 5 O-lineman and 5 d-lineman.  Beyond that, 2 of the o-lineman were JUCO guys who could start right off the bat.

There also were 5 WRs, which is a big issue given today's offense.  Even if BG does go to a more running style, you might well have four receivers split out with one back.

There were 13 players on offense and 11 on defense.

The most interesting was Travis Koontz who was committed to BG, de-committed, committed to Toledo and then re-committed to BG.  There was talk of him having P5 offers and he could be a difference maker as a matchup problem out of the TE slot.

No kicker...though maybe with the walk-ons.

BG's biggest de-commit was Noah Harvey, who ended up at MSU.  Shows we were on the right track.  Best of wishes to him.  MSU is getting slagged for stealing a BG commit--which is as much a slam on us as them--so I hope he destroys some people.

Anyway, the recruiting appears to be in good hands.  It shows a re-commitment to succeeding on both sides of the ball and being strong up front, which has been one of the consistent things during our recent success.