Friday, January 15, 2010

Looking ahead to signing day

OK, so it hurts to lose Bradley Roby, who chose being a cornerback at Ohio State over being a wide receiver at Vanderbilt.

Last year we were in the Top Five for players like Roby; this year we've actually gotten verbal commitments from them. Maybe next season we'll get the players to keep those commitments.

I'm not going to attempt to belittle Roby or suggest that he's a liar. Heck, when I was a high school senior I committed to study literature at Auburn and then I got accepted by Vanderbilt and changed my mind. Nobody called me a liar or questioned my character because nobody gives a crap about English majors.

By all accounts, Roby was impressed with Vanderbilt and actually waited as long as he did to publicly commit to Ohio State because he didn't want other Vandy commitments to follow him and jump ship.

So let's look ahead to signing day:

• We need a punter to replace Brett Upson: We've got one walk-on, Richard Kent, on our roster. We'd extended an offer to William Russ, a punter/kicker from Louisiana who this week committed to Arkansas.

• We still need to upgrade our receivers: I imagine we offered Jordan Matthews after Roby told our coaches he wasn't playing for Vandy. That seems to be the strategy: When a top kid like Roby or Davis Dudchock steps out, we immediately offer a scholarship to a kid who'll accept right away, a kid like Matthews or Blake Gowder, who accepted an offer immediately after Dudchock jumped ship to Stanford. Oh, Collin Ashley's no longer listed on our football roster, confirming rumors that he's left school, but Brady Brown is still on the roster and has apparently returned for spring semester. That's great news. Though Ashley had a better freshman season and actually caught a pass, Brown still has the biggest upside.

• We need an offensive lineman who can play right away: No offense to Reilly Lauer, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound lineman who's played wherever he's been asked to play during his career and will again compete to start his third straight year. But we need an upgrade. James Stone would likely play for us as a true freshman, something no offensive lineman has done in Bobby Johnson's tenure. Stone, as you know, lives near Nashville and has narrowed his list down to Auburn, Alabama and Vanderbilt. If Stone heads to the Yellowhammer state, then other possibilities include Zak Tait of Knoxville and Parker Mack from Little Rock.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

the only thing is that Matthews got his Vandy offer in October and Roby didn't get his OSU offer til mid December. So signing Matthews had nothing to do with Roby silently committing somewhere else. The staff thought that Jordan Matthews had too good of a camp and senior season to pass up.

Anonymous said...

parker mack committed to princeton yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Dimon,

You are a damn genius - in your own mind !! What a jerk !!

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Anonymous,

Thanks for reading and contributing. Just curious: What ticked you off so much?

Anonymous said...

Matthews got his offer in October. Brad Roby didn't get a Ohio State offer until December, so that cuts a lot of holes in any "silent committing" nonsense. I know for a fact that Roby was still a Vandy commitment until last week, so there was no conspiracy here.

Also, Davis Dudchock was dropped by Vanderbilt and they actually offered Blake Gowder and accepted his commitment two days before they told Dudchock to go ahead and go to Stanford since he had to go back on his word about not visiting Palo Alto.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

So we didn't want Davis Dudchock anymore and we told him to go to Stanford? That's interesting.

The story about Roby liking Vanderbilt enough to help them in recruiting (without actually keeping his commitment and playing for them) is definitely making its rounds. As far as Matthews, he was flying under the radar in October and not many people knew he had a
Vandy offer if he did.

Maybe you should start your own recruiting blog.

Anonymous said...

It's kinda funny because, all of these anonymous aren't the same. I can say I wrote the first and second posts, but as for the rest it was definitely a different person or persons.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

It is kind of funny. It's easier to talk trash when you're anonymous but at least you could make up a name so I could tell you guys — or girls — apart.