Tag: class

Revisiting Florida football’s top recruiting class of the decade in 2010

UF had the nation’s top recruiting class in 2010 but a series of factors including bad injury luck kept it from manifesting on the field.

Nothing is ever certain in college football. Five-star quarterbacks can disappoint and loaded recruiting classes can be blown up by academic disqualification or disciplinary issues. Even the best recruiting cycles on paper can be a letdown.

This was the case for UF’s 2010 recruiting class.

The 2010 class was disappointing across the board. ESPN ranked its group of five stars as the weakest over the last ten years. Of its 12 five stars, eight were drafted, but many of them had disappointing college careers due to off the field issues or injuries.

UF recruited four five-star recruits in that class, including the No. 1 prospect in Ronald Powell. They also landed Dominique Easley, Matt Elam and Jonathan Dowling. All four were drafted, though perhaps only Elam, who was selected in the first round after his UF career, lived up to expectations. Easley and Powell both showed moments of greatness, but injuries limited them significantly. Dowling spent one season at UF before transferring to Western Kentucky, eventually getting drafted in the seventh round.

The Gators had the nation’s top recruiting class in 2010, but a series of factors such as coaching changes and bad injury luck kept it from manifesting on the field, and the class preceded one of the most frustrating periods in modern program history.

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2017 Saints draft class ranked second-best in hindsight

The New Orleans Saints had a terrific 2017 NFL Draft class, but the Kansas City Chiefs outranked them by picking coveted QB Patrick Mahomes.

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The New Orleans Saints hit a series of home runs in the 2017 NFL Draft, landing instant upgrades at key positions like cornerback (with Marshon Lattimore), offensive tackle (in Ryan Ramczyk), free safety (Marcus Williams), and running back (Alvin Kamara). That sudden influx of young, high-end talent reshaped a roster that had gone 7-9 three years in a row into a squad that’s won 13 games in each of the last two seasons.

However, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler ranked just one other team ahead of them in reflection on that year’s crop of college prospects: the Kansas City Chiefs, who bagged Patrick Mahomes one slot ahead of the Saints. Mahomes, of course, was the player Saints coach Sean Payton famously coveted the most and could have (would have, and maybe should have) transitioned to from Drew Brees.

But let’s not lose sight of the positives here. Brugler had to dig all the way into the sixth round to find a swing-and-a-miss for the Saints in 2017, and that year’s final draft pick, Al-Quadin Muhammad, has earned his spot in the Indianapolis Colts lineup. Muhammad has logged 400-plus snaps in both of the last two years, racking up 13 tackles for loss, 11 quarterback hits, and 3 sacks. The Saints were simply too stacked for him to hang around.

The challenge now, of course, is paying all of these big names now that their rookie contracts are expiring. The Saints bought themselves some time by triggering the fifth-year options for Lattimore and Ramczyk as soon as NFL rules allowed them to, tying them to the team through 2021. But Kamara and Williams should each end up ranking among the top earners at their respective positions. Will the Saints be the ones to pay them?

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Notre Dame Lands Big Time Cornerback Commitment

Notre Dame got some much-needed good news Tuesday afternoon after landing a commitment from top-20 CB Philip Riley from Florida.

The sting of missing out on the Will Shipley sweepstakes didn’t sting as hard, or at least not for as long as Notre Dame fans may have expected.  Less than an hour after Shipley announced his commitment to Clemson, Notre Dame landed a big-time commitment from cornerback Philip Riley.

What do you need to know about Philip Riley?

The four-star prospect attends Bloomingdale High School in Valrico, Florida but is originally from the state of Washington.  Riley had received 40 scholarship offers from the likes of Clemson, Florida State, Penn State, Texas and USC as well as plenty of others to give you an idea of how sought after he was.

This is a win for Notre Dame and an even bigger win for new defensive backs coach Mike Mickens who offered Riley a scholarship not even six weeks ago.  Mickens tweeted his excitement about Riley’s commitment shortly after it was announced.

Riley is the ninth commitment in Notre Dame’s 2021 recruiting class but the first corner back in the group. He joins safety Justin Walters of Bolingbrook, Illinois in the class of 2021’s secondary.

Saints pick up fifth-year options on Marshon Lattimore and Ryan Ramczyk

The New Orleans Saints exercised fifth-year options for Marshon Lattimore and Ryan Ramczyk, keeping them both around for the 2021 season.

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The first members of the 2017 NFL Draft class have had their fifth-year options picked up for the 2021 season, and they both play for the New Orleans Saints. ESPN’s Field Yates reported Thursday that the Saints exercised the options for both cornerback Marshon Lattimore and right tackle Ryan Ramczyk, keeping them both under team contract control for the next two years and, crucially, buying more time to hammer out long-term contract extensions for both of them.

Lattimore and Ramczyk being the first members of their draft class to have their options activated speaks to how highly-regarded they both are in New Orleans. We estimated earlier this offseason how much these options will be worth in 2021, but those figures will heighten between now and then as new contracts are paid out around the league.

Lattimore, the 11th overall pick out of Ohio State back in 2017, has been voted into two Pro Bowl appearances in his first three years. He was also selected as the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Ramczyk, the 32nd overall pick from Wisconsin that year, has strangely been snubbed for each Pro Bowl since while earning recognition on the All-Pro list in both 2018 (on the second team) and 2019 (on the first team).

For a quick refresher: because neither Lattimore nor Ramczyk were picked within the first ten selections, their fifth-year option values will be determined by the average of the highest-paid players at their positions (specifically, the 3rd- to 25th-highest annual salaries). For now, that puts them in the ballpark of $11.6 million for Lattimore and $12.8 million for Ramczyk.

And, just to remind everyone: the Saints picking up these fifth-year options does nothing to affect either player’s 2020 salary cap hits. These were expected moves that should do a lot to keep the Saints competitive in the future.

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Early Look At 2021 Recruiting Class

With the 2020 recruiting class all wrapped up, Longhorns Wire takes an early look at the 2021 recruiting class for Texas.

The ink hasn’t even dried on the 2020 Texas Longhorns recruiting class but with National Signing Day now behind us on the calendar, it is time to look forward. The Longhorns wrap up yet another top ten recruiting class under Tom Herman. This class however did mark the first time they didn’t finish in the top three based on 247 composite rankings.

So far the Longhorns have seven hard commits. According to their 247 team page, it puts Texas atop the Big 12 for 2021 and top five in the country. Ja’Tavion Sanders is leading the class as a four-star athlete out of Denton Ryan. Here is a look at how the class looks as of February 5th.

  • Ja’Tavion Sanders: four-star athlete, Ryan (Denton, TX). 4th ranked athlete, 5th ranked out of the state of Texas.
  • Jalen Milroe: four-star dual threat quarterback, Tompkins (Katy, TX). 3rd ranked dual threat qb, 8th ranked out of the state.
  • Billy Bowman: four-star athlete, Ryan (Denton, TX). 7th ranked athlete, 15th ranked out of the state.
  • Derrick Harris Jr: four-star outside linebacker, New Caney, TX. 12th ranked outside linebacker, 28th ranked out of the state.
  • Hayden Connor: four-star offensive tackle, Taylor (Katy, TX). 28th ranked offensive tackle, 37th ranked out of the state.
  • Lake McRee: three-star tight end, Lake Travis (Austin, TX). 14th ranked tight end, 50th ranked out of the state.
  • Juan Davis: three-star athlete, Everman (Fort Worth, TX). 35th ranked athlete, 58th ranked out of the state.

So far for the 2021, the Texas have offered 94 players for the class ahead of the 2020 football season.

  • Three Pro Style Quarterbacks
  • Two Dual Threat Quarterbacks (one commit)
  • Six Runningbacks
  • 15 Wide Receivers
  • Eight Tight Ends (one commit)
  • Nine Offensive Tackles (one commit)
  • Four Offensive Guards
  • One Center
  • Six Weakside Defensive Ends
  • Eight Strongside Defensive Ends
  • Three Defensive Tackles
  • Two Inside Linebackers
  • Eight Outside Linebackers (one commit)
  • Seven Cornerbacks
  • Four Safeties
  • Eight Athletes (three commits)

Official List of Texas Longhorns 2020 Recruiting Class

The 2020 recruiting class is officially complete. It was a successful class for the UT, as they once again finish inside the national top 10.

The 2020 recruiting class is officially complete after four-star defensive end Alfred Collins picked Texas over Alabama and Oklahoma. Overall, it was a successful class for the Longhorns, as they once again finish inside the national top 10.

As for the Big 12, Head Coach Tom Herman will once again bring in the top class in the conference. Being No. 1 in the Big 12 for the third year in a row, the Longhorns are followed by Oklahoma, TCU, West Virginia, and Oklahoma State in the top five.

Running back Bijan Robinson is the best player in cloUT 2020, making it three years in a row Texas has signed a five-star prospect. Defensive end Alfred Collins is listed as a five-star to 247, but the 247Sports composite has him as an overall four-star.

All rankings are by the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Five-star: RB Bijan Robinson

Four-star: QB Hudson Card, QB Ja’Quinden Jackson, WR Troy Omeire, OC Jake Majors, OG Logan Parr, OT Jaylen Garth, OT Andrej Karic, DT Vernon Boughton, SDE Alfred Collins, OLB Prince Dorbah, CB Kitan Crawford, S Xavion Alford, S Jerrin Thompson, ATH Kelvontay Dixon,

Three-star: WR Dajon Harrison, DT Sawyer Goram-Welch, OLB Jaylan Ford, ATH Jaden Hullaby

Looking ahead to the 2021 class, Texas is once again currently ranked No. 1 in the Big 12. Inside of the top five nationally, the closest team in the conference is Oklahoma down at No. 18. Led by four-star ATH Ja’Tavion Sanders, the recruiting trail is continually won by the Longhorns. Now, it is time to turn the talent into victories on the field.

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