recruiting roundtable

by PaulM, Chicago, IL, Thursday, February 12, 2009, 21:36 (6257 days ago) @ Jay

Biggest Get: Without a doubt, this would be Te'o. He has the potential for instant impact, and I expect him to play in the nieghborhood of 20-25 plays a game this year, more if in the case of injury. Watt or Wood would be number 2; they should both have an impact early.

Biggest Miss: Since our OT depth is such a big deal, missing out on Xavier Nixon will probably be the biggest miss. To bring back an older name, though, missing out on Eric Shrive was a real disappointment. He had some skill and most people thought he was heading to ND. I wonder what happened?

Class Sleeper: My personal favorite from this year's class, Theo Riddick. I think he has all the skills to be a very good RB. While he won't start right away, I think he'll be a top contributor and an NFL player later in his career. As an aside, while nobody is proven yet, who would have thought we'd follow up the Aldridge-Allen-Hughes haul with an even better three?

Favorite Moment: Te'o putting on the hat. I was with a friend, having just told him that Te'o was going to USC. I was never happier to be wrong.

Parting Thoughts: This class reminded me a lot of the 2007 class. Short on size, but long on talent, they made a contribution right away. Hopefully this class will have a similar impact, and next class will be similar to our 08 signees. We already have a good start, with Chris Martin announcing that he's going to look into transferring to another school so he can enroll here early.