A closer look at the 2016 recruiting class.

[DistrictDawg92]

First of all, recruiting rankings are far from flawless. If you don't sign 25 you are at a disadvantage automatically. For example, if we had signed 7 3-star punters on top of the 18 we signed, our class would have easily been ranked in the 20s. When you focus on the guys we signed rather than the guys we missed on, it really is a good looking class.

Jeff Simmons- top 10 guy nationally, 3 year guy
Kobe Jones- 4 star DT with double digit offers
Marquiss Spencer- 4 star DE with a 5 star ceiling, the type of rush end we have needed for years
Stewart Reese- 4 star OG, 1 guy away from being a take for FSU
Jamal Couch- 4 star 6'5" 220 receiver, former FSU commit
Dontea Jones- former 4 star receiver out of high school, I guess he got worse over the past year* due to his 3 star rating. Everyone seems to be forgetting about this guy
CJ Morgan-Walker- Safety with offers all over the nation. Showed out in the Semper-Fi AA game, packs a punch when he lowers his shoulder and shows good coverage ability.
Jordan Thomas- late bloomer with no offers out of high school. 6'7" 275 TE that has soft hands and can run. Many big schools made a run after him late in the year. Steal of the class.
Errol Thompson- Most years would've been a take for Bama. Big MLB with great instincts. Our LB corp is stacked.
Tre' Brown- Kaleb Eulls type player. Won't make highlights but does all the little things right. Team player that was basically a sign and place for us.
Korey Charles- quiet recruitment but claims offers from all over the country. low risk/high reward type guy.
Lashard Durr- Sign and Place CB with some length. Expected to contribute immediately.
Christian Roberson- 6'5" 230 TE that was an early enrollee. Offers from all over the country. Reminds me a lot of Bear on tape.
John Michael Hankerson- Speed kills. Just a bigger version of Brandon Hollaway with better top end speed.
Dareun Parker- Big OG that was an early take for us. The little bit of success we have had recruiting OL has been guys that were very early takes.
Cam Dantzler- long CB that was a few guys away from being a take for LSU, we have thrived on these type guys.
Nero Nelson- very athletic guy who we have been after for what seems like 5 years. People seem to be sleeping on this guy too.
Greg Eiland- Huge OT and like they say, you can't coach size. This guy is definitely a project though and don't expect to see him on the field for 3 or 4 years.

The sky is not falling. The more I look at this class the more I like it.

[Bubb Rubb]

In other words, we signed a five star and 17 guys with five star ceilings?

I'm not a big "recruiting stars" guy, but this is some gene's page-level sunshine. We got some good players and we got some guys who will be good players, but we missed on a lot of guys that we needed, too. That isn't a good thing. I don't want a bunch of guys that were "one or two players away from being a take" for LSU or Alabama. I want to see us beat out those schools head to head for the players in our own backyard. I will give the staff a pass on AJ because he is a diva, but a guy like Lashley - a commit in our own backyard to fill a position of extreme need - losing out on him is a borderline fire-able offense. We've got to get better.

[KB21]

In other words, we signed a five star and 17 guys with five star ceilings?

I'm not a big "recruiting stars" guy, but this is some gene's page-level sunshine. We got some good players and we got some guys who will be good players, but we missed on a lot of guys that we needed, too. That isn't a good thing. I don't want a bunch of guys that were "one or two players away from being a take" for LSU or Alabama. I want to see us beat out those schools head to head for the players in our own backyard. I will give the staff a pass on AJ because he is a diva, but a guy like Lashley - a commit in our own backyard to fill a position of extreme need - losing out on him is a borderline fire-able offense. We've got to get better.

BS! Losing out on Lashley to Alabama is a loss, but it isn't even close to a fireable offense. First of all, the kid may have injury problems due to his blount's disease. The guy was a redshirt candidate at MSU. At Alabama, he will end up getting lost in the shuffle and will probably be processed medically down the road. That kid has to work on bending his knees and his overall technique. The potential is there, but he's not an early contributor.

The recruiting sites ding you when you commit early and only take one visit. That is what a majority of this class did. Errol Thompson, Korey Charles, CJ Morgan-Walker, Marquiss Spencer....they didn't even visit another school. When you aren't stirring up drama, the recruiting sites tend to forget about you.

[msstate7]

Thought bama offered Thompson late

[DistrictDawg92]

In other words, we signed a five star and 17 guys with five star ceilings?

I'm not a big "recruiting stars" guy, but this is some gene's page-level sunshine. We got some good players and we got some guys who will be good players, but we missed on a lot of guys that we needed, too. That isn't a good thing. I don't want a bunch of guys that were "one or two players away from being a take" for LSU or Alabama. I want to see us beat out those schools head to head for the players in our own backyard. I will give the staff a pass on AJ because he is a diva, but a guy like Lashley - a commit in our own backyard to fill a position of extreme need - losing out on him is a borderline fire-able offense. We've got to get better.

I guess you looked over the part where I said, "looking at the guys we did sign rather than the guys we missed on". Obviously we missed on some guys that would've helped tremendously that's obvious and yes, inexcusable. The point of my post is that the guys we did sign are not getting enough credit. Hard to find a weak spot and only about 3 or 4 guys that don't have SEC talent as of now IMO.

[defiantdog]

Thought bama offered Thompson late

He had a Bama offer early, but then they knew they were getting Ben Davis and Lyndell Wilson. So they didn't push the offer.

[defiantdog]

I still would have liked another OT and WR in this class. We can't miss in 2017.

[DistrictDawg92]

I still would have liked another OT and WR in this class. We can't miss in 2017.

Yep, losing out on AJ, Farrar, Cushenberry and Lashley killed us. Don't get me wrong, I definitely wish the last week had gone differently, but I do really like the guys we did sign.

I think as long as we can avoid career ending injuries in this class we will be okay. I am glad we didn't replace those spots with fillers, depth is of utmost importance, but if someone is not SEC material, they are just taking a spot from someone in the future.

[msstate7]

I still would have liked another OT and WR in this class. We can't miss in 2017.

Is Parker projected at tackle or guard?

[Reason2succeed]

When it comes to evaluation and recruiting Mullen still gets the benefit of the doubt from me. I can count on one hand guys that he "missed" on that went on to hurt us badly. Usually he took some guy no one was thinking about and made him just as good or better.

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

From Scout rankings

Stanford 26 signees / Avg. Rank 3.31 stars / Class Ranking 15

MSU 18 signees / Avg. Rank 3.33 stars / Class Ranking 35

So what this tells me is if we had a full allotment of scholarships to offer and had signed 26 players, we would have finished in the top 15 in the rankings. Yes, overall this was not a highly ranked class, but the 18 we signed are good football players.

We'll sign several in December that will count back to this years class.

[Coach34]

agree with Defiant-We needed more OL talent and another WR- but this was not a bad class. But honestly- it should have been a little better coming off 19 wins the last 2 seasons. And the OL haul would have been worse without Buckley adding Reese. Hevesy is killing us.

[msstate7]

I like the players we got, but Aj/farrar, lashley, cushenberry and knott keep me from being too happy. B-

Each one of those misses would've raised the grade 1 increement

[mic]

If we had kept Lashley , Cushnberry and Farrar it would have been a homerun class..
Still might be.. But I said it before and others have too, you CANT just sign 3 OL...

[state66]

The issue with the project OL is that more of them are becoming busts than panning out.

[Barkman Turner Overdrive]

But I said it before and others have too, you CANT just sign 3 OL...

Whatevs. No worries. Hevesey's got this.*********

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

Check this out and let me know what you think and if I missed anything. But it looks like to me we should have added some Juco lineman this year, so we wouldn't go into 2017 with only 1 Sr. OL. The other classes are balanced pretty good other than maybe having 1 more body in each class.


2016
Sr. Justin Senior
Sr. Jamaal Clayborn
Sr. Devon Desper
Sr. Jocquell Johnson
Jr. Martinas Rankin
So. Deion Calhoun
So. Ronald Cochran
So. Elgton Jenkins
RFr. Michael Story
RFr. Darryl Williams
RFr. Harrison Moon
Fr. Dareuan Parker
Fr. Stewart Reese
Fr. Greg Eiland

2017
Sr. Martinas Rankin
Jr. Deion Calhoun
Jr. Ronald Cochran
Jr. Elgton Jenkins
Jr. Tommy Champion
So. Michael Story
So. Darryl Williams
So. Harrison Moon
RFr. Dareuan Parker
RFr. Stewart Reese
RFr. Greg Eiland
Fr.
Fr.
Fr.
Fr.

[Bubb Rubb]

I guess you looked over the part where I said, "looking at the guys we did sign rather than the guys we missed on". Obviously we missed on some guys that would've helped tremendously that's obvious and yes, inexcusable. The point of my post is that the guys we did sign are not getting enough credit. Hard to find a weak spot and only about 3 or 4 guys that don't have SEC talent as of now IMO.

What I saw was, "we got this guy, he was almost an Alabama take, we got that guy, he was almost an LSU take, we got this guy, he got some late offers." Like I said, some of them will be great players, and some of them will be good players. But we have to get better, period. You're going to win some and lose some on the recruiting front, but it's never acceptable to let other schools come into your backyard and flip your commits.

[Johnson85]

From Scout rankings

Stanford 26 signees / Avg. Rank 3.31 stars / Class Ranking 15

MSU 18 signees / Avg. Rank 3.33 stars / Class Ranking 35

So what this tells me is if we had a full allotment of scholarships to offer and had signed 26 players, we would have finished in the top 15 in the rankings. Yes, overall this was not a highly ranked class, but the 18 we signed are good football players.

We'll sign several in December that will count back to this years class.

Had we signed the full allotment of players, our average ranking would have gone down. That's not the average of stanfords top 18 players, that's the average of all twenty six of their players.

[msstate7]

Had we signed the full allotment of players, our average ranking would have gone down. That's not the average of stanfords top 18 players, that's the average of all twenty six of their players.

Maybe, but we missed on farrar, Aj, lashley, and knott who would've raised the average