Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Vandy wraps up whirlwind class with 10 recruits in 10 days — but do they still have more scholarships to give?


Less than 24 hours from signing day, Vandy just got another verbal commitment, this time from quarterback Kris Kentera of Colorado. That's our 10th commitment in about 10 days. Imagine what Coach Franklin and his self-proclaimed dream team of recruiters will do on the recruiting trail with a full year to operate.

Clearly, Kentera is not this staff's first choice at quarterback. He's unrated by Scout and ESPN, and got two stars from Rivals. He's got good size at 6-4, 195, but had no other FBS offers. (His offers came from Montana, Northern Colorado, Weber State and Wofford.)

That said, Franklin has said he wants five scholarship quarterbacks on the team during a season, and right now he's got three — Smith, Rodgers and Goro. So under that reasoning he's got room for one more quarterback after Kentera — and Josh Grady and Lafonte Thourogood are still considering the Commodores.

Here's how we're looking for the next four seasons at QB:
2011: R-SR Smith, R-JR Rodgers, R-SO Goro, FR Kentera
2012: R-SR Rodgers, R-JR Goro, R-FR Kentera
2013: R-SR Goro, R-SO Kentera
2014: R-JR Kentera

Using the five-quarterback rule, Franklin can sign two more quarterbacks over the next two seasons. So if he can still get Grady or Thourogood, he probably will, especially because both guys are athletes who could play all over the field. In fact, Thourogood's best position is probably receiver.

That brings us to another question: How many scholarships does Vandy have left to give? Right now, none, and that's assuming that Jamie Graham is not returning for a fifth year of eligibility and that punter Richard Kent still has no scholarship.

I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of guys vanish from the roster between now and the start of spring practice. This time last year it was redshirt senior lineman Reilly Lauer and sophomore receiver Collin Ashley.

A prime candidate might be redshirt senior Austin Monahan, who's suffered a long string of devastating injuries. Guys who were rumored to be leaving last season were WR Brady Brown and QB Charlie Goro, and neither of them played a snap last year. Of course, with the shortage of quarterbacks, Goro might be advised to stick around and see if he can crack the depth chart with a new set of coaches. Also, redshirt junior safety Al Owens saw action in only one game and is now last on a depth chart loaded with young safeties. He may wish to stick around and get his Vandy diploma — that's what I would do.

2 comments:

A.J. said...

Any idea what we should be looking for tomorrow?

Any guys announcing on TV that might go our way?

Dimon said...

I doubt if we're in the running for anybody who's announcing his choice live on television.