I will be the first to admit, that I don't follow college football recruiting religiously, but if you are a college football fan, today is probably the biggest non-college football gameday of the year. Today is National Signing Day, or as I like to say the equivalent to the draft for the NFL. It is the day when high school players across the country officially make their verbal commitments binding by faxing in their National Letter of Intents to the school of their choice.
While there are many people who follow sites like Rivals, Scout and ESPN to see where the top players are going, I tend to take the wait and see approach. As a BC fan I know BC can't compete with schools like Alabama and LSU when it comes to raking in 4 and 5 star recruits, but I do know throughout the years BC has produced many 3 star recruits to become stars in the NFL like Matt Ryan, BJ Raji and most recently the 2013 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Luke Kuechly. The one 5 star recruit that I can remember BC signing was linebacker Brian Toal, whose younger brother Greg also played for BC. While Brian wasn't a bust, due to injuries he was never able to live up to the hype. For instance I remember him more for his goaline touchdowns when he was known as "First and Toal" than his linebacker play that he was recruited for at BC. It is for reasons like this why I tell not only BC fans but college football fans in general whose teams weren't one of the highly ranked recruiting classes to not put too much stock into the star system.
Would I like BC to start having more 4 and 5 star recruits commit to the program? Obviously yes, and I am confident over time with Steve Addazio as the head coach, who is a relentless recruiter, that BC will become a place top players across New England and the country will want to come to.
For all I've read this BC class is pretty good. It was a class that for the most part committed to the Eagles last fall, so BC didn't have too many last minute surprises. It appears to be a class, at least on the offensive side of the ball that is made up of speed, as the BC offense transitions to more of a spread and up-tempo offense. The part that I like the most is that BC reestablished itself in Massachusetts and the New England area. While the quantity of players the New England area churns out in college football isn't much compared to the South or Texas and California, the area throughout the years has had several quality players. Over the last few years it appears BC lost its stronghold on the area, but with Addazio (a Connecticut native) now as coach you can tell he has made a commitment to making BC a place local kids want to come to play. For instance 12 of the 30 players BC players signed are from the New England, including linebacker Connor Strachan, who is from my hometown Wellesley, MA and high school St. Sebastian's. It also looked like BC did a great job in the state of New Jersey, which I feared they would lose their footprint in after former coach Bill McGovern left to take a position with the Philadelphia Eagles.
While I am excited for this class, it will be interesting to see how early these kids see the field. I am very interested in particular who gets the nod at quarterback whether it's Florida transfer Tyler Murphy or incoming freshman Darius Wade. I am usually not one for playing freshman, but it does appear that Addazio may want to transition to more of his style of play and that may mean starting the youth movement. While it may result growing pains early on, I am hoping it will pay dividends 3 years down the road.
As for recruiting on the national level, there really weren't too many surprises as Alabama appears to be the consensus #1 class again with many of the traditional powers following. The one school that appears to be the Ole Miss of last year is Tennessee who according to Scout.com finished at #4 by signing a whopping 32 recruits.
Anyways, time to put college football on the back burner for a bit as the Olympics and March Madness are on the horizon, but hopefully August 30th will be here soon enough when BC travels to Gillette Stadium to take on UMass, and until next time #BEADUDE
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