Monday, January 12, 2009

Vanderbilt scores a recruiting moral victory


The Commodores are in the process of putting together Bobby Johnson's best-ever recruiting class.

They've signed 10 three-star recruits as rated by rivals.com. The latest is Eddie Foster, a cornerback from Texas who runs a 4.3 40. Really.

Other highlights include a pair of stud running backs (Warren Norman and Zac Stacy), a speedy athlete (Eric Samuels), a coveted offensive lineman who's light now but has a big frame (Wesley Johnson of Nashville), a big defensive tackle (Darrius McMullin), a 6-5 wide receiver who can play right away (Brady Brown), a dual-threat quarterback (Charlie Goro), another big tight end (Mason Johnston) and another hard-nosed linebacker (Blake Southerland, brother of Georgia fullback Brandon).

Sounds good, huh? It's even impressive when we don't sign people. I'm talking about Jared Wheeler (see above), a hulking offensive guard from Florida who signed with the Miami Hurricanes a couple of days ago.

His second choice? Vanderbilt.

A distant third, fourth and fifth? Florida, Tennessee and Auburn.

Sure, it's a moral victory. But it shows that top high school athletes are starting to notice the Commodores, which is leading to some real recruiting victories too.

2 comments:

Anything but Gatorade said...

It's good to see Vandy bringing in better players these days. The unfortunate part? Even though this is probably CBJ's best recruiting class yet, it's still good for last in the SEC, per the omniscient writers at ESPN. Kentucky's best class EVAR was only good for 6th.

LSU signed ten (TEN!) kids rated in ESPN's top 150, and they were only good for fourth. Ole Miss is slated to get top honors, along with a big basket of crazy in Nutt: Year Deux.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

You're right about Vanderbilt's ranking. That's OK. I'll take a No. 12 class with 10 3-star players over a No. 12 class with two 3-star players, like we've had in years past. But what really matters is what Johnson and company do with the players once they get them. Remember that D.J. Moore and Earl Bennett were 3-star guys. Chris Williams was a 2-star guy.

We beat Auburn and Ole Miss this season, and those teams were loaded with 4-star athletes.

Anyway, there are still a lot of players left to be signed.