Signing Day 2014

[donovan]

I like watching kids on signing day. They exude the excitement that has built up in them for years, tantamount to raging hormones. (That is a different subject, or not.) I never really follow them until they get on the field. Rankings by Rival, etc., on the best HS players never seem to have enough validity to follow them.

Signing day at schools is now a big production; so it is no longer the telephone in the morning in the High School coaches office and then tell your friends and that's it. There are a couple of early observations of the teams I have adopted, Boise State and Oregon State and for other reasons BYU, though I do not care if they win or not. (Though I miss Puget Sound, I don't miss the obnoxiousness of the University of Washington. Of course they have an equal here in University of Oregon, who is the most pestiferous changes on a game to game basis.)

So far:

Boise State has taken one QB:

Alex Ogle
QB | 6'3" | 205 | Palm City, Fla. (Jensen Beach HS) You have to like his height. Talk about geographical cultural shock...he must have visited in Spring...surely not in December.

Oregon State has a couple of interesting signs. OSU has a timeline on their website that shows the minute the call was made...started at 6:00 am.

Jake Knight a 6'$ tight end from Meridian Idaho....that is 6 miles from Boise State. Don't know the story, but he is on the honor roll and sometimes kids choose schools for education reasons, doesn't want to stay at home...we all get that...and sometimes parents see what they think is the big picture which includes more than football.

BYU BYU has a policy that players on scholarship that choose to serve a mission for the LDS church retain their scholarship when they return. This two year hiatus has pluses and minuses, foremost the come back much more mature and focused. Many get married, which is why BYU has far and away the most married players in the country. They downside is they may lost some athleticism and interest, etc. As they are having more returning missionaries this year, this will be the smallest HS signing class they have ever had. The other note is an outstanding player Pritchard that is returning, signed with Oregon State.
(Now that LDS missionaries are leaving at 18 years old, out of high school if they have graduated, they are signing, but never playing until they come back. That will be very interesting to see how that works out. I suspect having a couple years aging a maturity can only help.)

[Spence]

I like watching them because today they are all superstars. Everything is all roses. They don't have to deal with reality until summer camp rolls around. It is good to be 19 with your whole life in front of you.

[billybud]

The guys are getting huge...Jimbo has been going for big guys in the trenches...

FSU signed guys who were;

6'8"
6'7"
6'7"
6'7"
6'6"
6'6"
6'6"

and the 6'5 and 6'4 guys.

[donovan]

The guys are getting huge...Jimbo has been going for big guys in the trenches...

FSU signed guys who were;

6'8"
6'7"
6'7"
6'7"
6'6"
6'6"
6'6"

and the 6'5 and 6'4 guys.

Amazing......Bigger Faster Stronger.....they can teach all the rest.

[billybud]

The kids, these days, are much different then in my salad days...When a 200 pounder played on the O line.

Now? A 6'7 320 pounder still in high school? Wait until college weight training for a year...the kid will be a locomotive.

The SEC keeps loading up on these big boys and FSU has to do so as well...am arms race. It used to be that FSU could recruit Florida...now, you have to go to where the big bodies are...

FSU pulled in the big boys on the lines from New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri, Kansas...

And picked up the speed/skill positions from Florida.

Even Alabama went to Minnesota, Iowa, and California for O linemen.