Thursday February 07, 2008

The Blueprint

The Blueprint
Wow! What a day.

I think February 6, 2008 may be a day we look back on a couple of years down the road as being one of the most important in the football program’s history.

In my opinion a blue print for a great recruiting class must have the following ingredients:
1. Quality
2. Quantity
3. Headliners
4. In-state dominance
5. Meets needs
6. Signing day drama

Quality
The Clemson staff was able to sign a class without having to “reach” on any prospects. All 26 signees have a legitimate chance to develop into contributors. Not all will, but everyone has a chance to develop. Quality can be found from the top of this class to the bottom.

Quantity
Clemson signed 26 players including players at every position. The Tigers even signed a punter, placekicker and a snapper.

Headliners
All great recruiting classes separate themselves because of the top four or five prospects. For Clemson, it gets no better than Da’Quan Bowers. Simply stated, Bowers is the most talented prospect to ever sign with Clemson. All national sites have Bowers as a national top ten and most have him as a national top five prospect while some think he is the nation’s top prospect.

When players like Marquan Jones, Jamie Harper, Brandon Thompson, Dwayne Allen and Spencer Adams are not your top player then you know you have a great class.

In-State Dominance
It would be difficult to claim a great recruiting class in a state like South Carolina unless you have in-state dominance. I am not sure how anyone could spin it any other way this year except to say that Clemson dominated the state in this class. According to Rivals.com, the Tigers inked seven of the top 12 in South Carolina and South Carolina signed one of the top 13 of the state’s top prospects. According to Scout.com, Clemson signed seven of the top 11 in the Palmetto state while the Gamecocks netted one of the top 13 in the state.

Meet Needs
The Tigers staff identified a couple of areas where they needed to make sure they secured help including safety, defensive line and running back.

Clemson will lose Michael Hamlin and Chris Clemmons after next season and the depth is an issue at the safety position. The Tigers inked four safeties in this class including Adams who could get an early look to break into the two-deep.

Recruiting coordinator Billy Napier told me this morning that he felt the next step to get to the elite programs comes along the defensive line. He referenced the New York Giants’ Super Bowl effort from their front four in making his point. Bowers, Thompson and Jarrett Crittenton comprise one of the best defensive lines Clemson has signed in recent memory.

There was a time in January where we all thought James Davis was headed to the NFL. Lucky for us he changed his mind but Clemson could face the same situation next season with C.J. Spiller. The Tigers had to come up with two running backs and I think they hit two home runs here. Andre Ellington is a terrific back with tremendous acceleration. Harper gives the Tigers a power back they have lacked since Chad Jasmin.

Signing Day Drama
I guess you could have a great class without any signing day drama but it sure helps to grab the headlines with a couple of coups on the last day. Clemson enjoyed one of the best signing days in recent memory yesterday.

The night before signing day I received a call to inform me that Clemson’s staff felt they had a chance at all four players they were waiting on. I asked, “Massie being the fourth?” The source said, “Try again.”

“Allen?” I asked. “You got it.”

On signing day your first order is to secure all of your current commitments without losing one to a potential invader. Your second goal is to grab one last signee or maybe even two on a great day. What Clemson did on Wednesday was phenomenal.

Allen got it all started when he had the guts to disappoint his head coach and go with his heart. It is rare when Clemson steals one from Georgia on signing day but Allen injected some energy into signing day early.

It had to be hard for Allen to tell Mark Richt that he was switching his commitment but maybe not as hard as what Antoine McClain had to do. It was another rarity when Clemson was able to go into the state of Alabama and sign of the state’s top ten players. McClain had the unenviable task of having a press conference in enemy territory and selecting the unpopular school. It took a strong kid to stand up and chose the school in that atmosphere.

Then on national television Jamie Harper selected Clemson over Miami, Illinois, Florida and Florida State. It was the perfect ending to an almost perfect day. Jerrell Harris stayed in state and signed with Alabama but that could do little to damper the enthusiasm Coach Bowden and his staff generated on this special day.

Anyone who did not watch ESPN’s family of networks Wednesday missed what looked like a Clemson infomercial. The announcing teams were constantly talking about the Tigers and the program. ESPN ranked the Tigers class as the second best in the country and Bowden and Bowers had live interviews on ESPN. All of this positive publicity is a big boost to the program and can only help future recruiting efforts. I am not sure what it would have cost if Clemson wanted to buy all of the air time it received on national television Wednesday.

864-834-6060

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency