Warning, moderately strong language ahead. That being said, I think I speak for all of Bulldog Nation when I say (er, um, post):
To recap:
- It doesn't appear that we lost anybody who had already gone public. As of this writing I don't think Chris Sanders of Tucker has gotten his letter in, but I have no reason to believe it's not forthcoming since he was our first commit of the class and has never publicly waivered.
- We also got a commit from Mountain Vista H.S. midfielder Jenna Owens. Hooray nonrevenue sports!
- Jeoffrey Pagan got Ray Drew's call, then put him on hold to take one from Nick Saban. I told Darius Dawgberry yesterday that I thought that's where Pagan would go, despite the "insider information" a lot of the so-called experts had indicating he would sign with Georgia. My thinking, which holds for almost all prospects, went like this: the closest and/or home state schools usually have the inside track. If those are eliminated, the school with the best recent records/most prestige usually are the next most likely destinations. After that you get a witch's brew of factors: how hard/early a school recruited the player, the percentage of players from the school at his position have gone onto the NFL, and the depth chart. In Pagan's case, he eliminated Clemson (the closest to a "home school") among his finalists. That left 'Bama and Georgia, and 'Bama right now is a lot hotter. That's just the way it is.
- But we did get a letter of intent from Lauderdale Lakes, FL linebacker Kent Turene. I think Turene is one of the steals of the class, as I'll explain in an upcoming TMI feature on him. Turene is also a good example of where recruiting services can go wrong in evaluating a prospect, at least in this blogger's opinion. Stay tuned for that. Turene's commitment also confirms National Signing Day rule #76: Never walk away from a recruit in a funny hat.
- Most of the drama is done for the day with the exception of Isaiah Crowell's announcement in about an hour. There were some rumors this morning that Georgia extended a last minute offer to Grady H.S. tailback/Kentucky commit Marcus Caffey. I have not been able to confirm those rumors, but if true it would obviously be a bad sign.
There's obviously a lot going on nationally, what with Auburn clearing some room under the salary cap and putting it to good use, Clemson signing players who have absolutely no logical reason for going to Clemson, Will Muschamp taking a beating from his own fans, and Urban Meyer tiptoeing over, around and through all sorts of ethical and NCAA rules-related boundaries. Step lively, Dawg Sports community. Rule #1: Comment like a champion! And . . .
Go 'Dawgs!!!