Further evidence that Bobby Johnson is building a great recruiting class, at least by Vanderbilt standards

As we sink into the dog days of summer, I wanted to give you further evidence of Bobby Johnson’s success on the recruiting trail. Everybody praised him for the 2009 class, but the 2010 class is shaping up to be much more impressive. (That's Thomas Ryan pictured above.)

Consider:

• This time last year, Vanderbilt had no commitments from three-star players. (Eric Samuels would eventually pick up a third star from rivals.com.) This year, Vandy already has commitments from six three-star players (DE Thomas Ryan, OL Grant Ramsay, QB Nash Nance, DT Kyle Woestmann, WR Jonathan Krause and TE Davis Dudchock).

• So far, Scouts.com ranks this year’s class No. 39 in the nation, and eighth in the SEC ahead of Ole Miss, Miss State, Arkansas and Kentucky. Last year’s class, widely considered the best in school history, was ranked No. 72 and the worst in the SEC.

• So far, Vanderbilt has verbal commitments from six players with three-star ratings from scouts.com (Ryan, Ramsay, Nance, Woestmann, Krause and Dudchock), compared to five three-star players in last year’s entire class (TE Mason Johnston, DE Walker May, WR Brady Brown, OL Wesley Johnson and DE Thad McHaney).

• So far, eleven players have accepted scholarship offers from Vanderbilt. This time last year, only three players had accepted offers.

• In all, Vanderbilt signed 13 players in the last recruiting class who received three stars from either rivals.com or scout.com (Johnston, Brown, Johnson and McHaney from both; LB Blake Southerland, RB Zac Stacy, RB Warren Norman, QB Charlie Goro, DB Eddie Foster, DB Trey Wilson, RB Wesley Tate and WR Collin Ashley from Rivals; and May from Scout. As mentioned earlier, Vanderbilt had no three-star verbal commitments this time last year and already has six. If Vandy has a successful season to rival 2009 then the current recruiting class should eclipse the last one.