People will get worked up about our ranking next year but they shouldn't. It works out perfect that our state is loaded especially at needed positions which works out well with limited scholarships. It is great that we will be able to fill our RB needs, ad hopefully do it early.
LSU will have to be very picky this year, so our average star rating should be pushing 4.0. A stellar class is to come folks.
USC has gotten off to an early start but it's not how you start that counts, it's how you finish. Here is a list of the Rivals100 players for the class of 2009 who have interest in playing for the Trojans, or are already committed to playing for USC. 1. Matt Barkley- Committed to USC 3. Cierre Wood- medium interest 4. Russell Sheppard- medium interest 6. Dre Kirkpatrick- medium interest 7. Manti Te'o- medium interest 9. Devon Kennard- High interest 10. Bryce Brown- medium interest 13. Marlon Brown- medium interest 18. Chris Davenport- medium interest 19. Vontaze Burfict- medium interest 22. Logan Heastie- medium interest 27. Justin Chaisson- medium interest 31. Ronaldo Jefferson- medium interest 33. Mason Walters- medium interest 39. Patrick Hall- Committed to USC 50. Emory Blake- medium interest 59. Thomas Ashcraft- medium interest 60. Shaquelle Evans- medium interest 63. Randall Carroll- Committed to USC 66. Tyler Gaffney- medium interest 77. Morrell Presley- Committed to USC 78. Donovan Tate- medium interest 81. John Martinez- medium interest 83. Nick Kasa- medium interest 89. Kevin Graf- Committed to USC 97. TJ McDonald- Committed to USC 100. Chris Metcalf- High Interest LSU has offered Michael Ford and Rueben Randle and like isl and others have said, we're going to be very selective with a handful of schollies to hand out. 13 at present and I'd venture to way we end up with 15-18 by year's end.
Looks like Texas already has their QB for 2009 Garrett Gillbert. Hopefully this will help us with Russell Shepard .
So based on, let's say 17, recruits for 09, we have possibly the following breakdown by position: QB - 1 RB - 2 OL - 3 WR - 2 DL - 3 LB - 3 DB - 3 Talk about being picky. I would be shocked if this class is under a 4.0 rating. I would think we might end up with three 5-star and fourteen 4-star. That would average out to 4.18.
Dont jump so far ahead of yourself looking for a 4.18 avg. LSU is a great recruiting school but lets be honest, we arent USC. We cant be in the running for nearly every major recruit. That said we do have to be very selective, so yes the avg should be pretty damn high. I agree with a lot of your breakdown of recruits. Except I think we may go for 2 QBs, depending on their level of course. Perrilloux is gone after two seasons, while both Lee and Jefferson are highly touted neither has played yet. Lee has all the intangibles but does he have the arm? Jefferson has a lot of work to do, but a world of talent. I think DL and LB are places where IF the talent level is high we may go for more. Only if they are top tier players though. Both are positions that we are going to be losing a lot of talent in the next few seasons with a lot of young, mostly unproven players.
With 6 DBs in the past 2 classes, I only see us taking 2 DBs next year. 2 for OLine as well since we've had 9 in the past two classes. We lose 4-5 guys off the DLine next year, so we may take as many as 5 DLine but it really depends on how last year & this year's guys turn out. I've heard Blackwell is fat & out of shape, so maybe 4 DL. Depends on who qualifies this year for WR, but I could see 3 WRs. FYI: You'll enjoy this, as I read that Miles said we'll take 3 RBs next year, but I've not been able to find that quote anywhere so I'm not sure if it is accurate. Ultimately, there's a lot of flexibility & it depends a lot more on what is available than truly what we need. The eternal optimist...
I count 20 seniors this year plus Pittman (which I assume got his extra year of eligibility). That's 21 players leaving without counting any attrition. Why are we declaring "in the teens"? I think my projection of 22-23 is more accurate.
