Disaster Strikes Oxford

Signing day came and went Wednesday with the Rebels adding 20 additional players. (The Rebs also added 4 midsemester transfers and resigns.) It wasn't near the class expected by most. In fact the class mostly fell apart at the 11th hour. While the "I'm In" crowd is doing their best spin control little good can be said of the final outcome. The class also did a poor job of addressing needs at cornerback, offensive line, quarterback, and tightend.

A quick caveat I will not badmouth any recruit by name here as I feel like that is in bad taste.

The Rebels lost 2 commitments to Miss. State on signing day. This was only part of the overwhelming defections. Some were grade inspired but for some reason Big 12 champion Oklahoma and Alabama were able to take a chance on players that our staff believed were too risky. In fact here is a total list of one time commitments that were sadly many of our best prospects that signed with other schools and where they signed.
Robert Elliott - MSU
LaMarcus Williams - MSU
Drake Nevis - LSU
Stevan Ridley - LSU
Dion Gales - Troy State
Allen Bell - Iowa State
Alex Williams - Oklahoma
Jeramie Griffith - Alabama
Larry Dennis - University of Nevada At Las Vegas
Darnell Williams - University of Southern Florida
Stanley Porter - Arkansas State
Paul Henry - Arkansas State

Of course the biggest story from signing day was that Robert Elliott, who committed to the Rebels last February, signed with State because he felt the Rebel staff wasn't honest with him by telling he was their guy and then telling Joe McKnight the same thing. He said that if they were just recruiting another running back he wouldn't care but that he felt the coaches were being dishonest with him. That and MSU gave him the chance to "Rock the 2" in that he would not have to where a double digit number but continue to sport his highschool number 2.
Recruiting Coordinator Hugh Freeze said on the radio Wednesday night that while runningback was not a necessity the Rebels will have to sign a juco running back next year since they failed to add one this year. The frustrating thing about this is that the Rebels had a top ten ranked running back committed but lost him by their own screwing around. A Rodian friend of my said it best when he compared the situation to having having a super hot girlfriend in the bed and getting dressed to go out and see if you have a chance with Pamela Anderson (or the supermodel of your preference).

Where the defections took the highest toll on this class was on the offensive line. This was one of the greatest needs again for the class and sadly was mostly unmet. Paul Henry and Alex Williams were the two highest rated offensive lineman that committed to the Rebels leaving the Rebels with projects. The staff publicly stated previously that they felt it was a position of such great importance that they would sign six new players. The Rebels added 3 with one Juco midsemester transfer. In two years the Staff has now brought in 5 new highschool offensive lineman. And one of those played Defensive Tackle on the scout team last season.

The Rebels also desperately needed to bring in a star tightend or possibly two. Everybody loves to score with a Tight End. Showing how they were concerned with the depth last year they signed a Juco tightend who left the team after spring training. Going into next year the only Tightends with any experience will be seniors Robert Lane and Robert Hough. Beyond them is one walk on and possibly Cecil Frison if he gets moved back. The Rebels did add one Tightend, David Rue out of Monroe, LA, who did not draw any interest from another SEC team and choose the Rebels over Louisiana Tech.

Additionally the Rebels did not sign a quarterback this year. Last year everyone said the Rebels had to sign an elite quarterback this year. Now everyone says its actually next year that the Rebels have to sign an elite quarterback partly because of the transfer of Jevan Snead. However Snead will transfer in as a sophmore after playing at Texas and will not count as a quarterback for this class.

Quarterback is a position that has to be addressed every year. This was the mistake that Cutcliffe made. If you wait and sign one every few years then you dig yourself a hole where the one you signed has to pan out. If you have gaps and one turns out to be more athlete than quarterback you find yourself with no quarterback and scrambling the jucos for a signal caller. As we've seen this year junior college is not where you want to look for a quarterback. Especially if you want to run any kind of complicated offense. In all honesty, thought, I have to say I'd prefer not to sign a quarterback at all than sign one who was recently arrested for possession of ecstasy.

Oddly the Rebels also didn't sign a single defensive end. However they recruited there so well last year it wasn't really a need but you still think they would have signed one for number balance. One area the Rebels desperately needed going into last year and failed to bring help was at Defensive tackle and this year they added three highschool tackles that should give some much needed depth.

There are some players that I'm really high on. Obviously its hard not to like signing the top rated player in the state in Eddie's nephew Chris Strong. If he keeps his weight down he'll be a solid linebacker like his uncle. Otherwise he'll be a solid defensive lineman. Either way he'll play. Johnny Brown, the only other dandy dozen player signed by the Rebels, looks to be a solid athlete that currently is projected to play in the defensive backfield. The coaches rated Roderick Davis as the top player in Memphis and he sounds like an elusive receiver that should really help the Rebels. Ted Laurent has Mr. T's mohawk and that's good enough for me. Tony Fein is the Juco Linebacker we desperately needed for depth after loosing Rory. Isaiah Smith is my sleeper of the class and I think he makes it on the field sooner than anyone is expecting. And Justin Sanders sounds like a really tough player that slated to help on the defensive line but I wouldn't be surprised if he moves to offense because of his frame.

One of the underlying problems of this class is that Ogerzook only signed 5 players from the State Of Mississippi. The State where the University is located. You can't argue that there was not other players worthy of scholarship offers. Members of the top ten and dandy dozen signed with Alabama, Auburn, Miami (FL), and LSU. 3 of the players signed by Ole Miss made the Clarion Ledger Top Ten , one was the son of a coach, and the other was not on the second team all state team. Of these players, two had family members that attended Ole Miss, one had a father on the coaching staff, and one grew up tailgating in the Grove. This is not a good way to build relations with coaches around the State of Mississippi. Coaches will soon feel like you are not taking care of your own kids. And in state is one of the few areas where you're supposed to have a built in advantage. No matter what anyone says you can't completely rely on out of state players since most of them were passed over by their instate schools. Which might be why we finished 9th in the SEC.

And Ogerzook only outrecruited Croom for one player in the State of Mississippi. On top of stealing two commitments on signing day Croom finished with more top ten players and more dandy dozen players. And these were players offered by Ogerzook. According to the Scouts.com rankings MSU actually signed a higher rated class. In fact Ole Miss finished in 9th place in the SEC only beating Arkansas, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt. So at best this class is treading water which is not a good thing if the water you're treading has 8 losses.

Finally the supposed expertise of the Ogerzook was supposed to be his ability to recruit. Instead this class turned out no better than one of Cutcliffe's and that's if everyone makes it into school which is a big question mark at this point. If one or two players don't qualify this class is beyond a disaster. In fact based on the scouts.com rankings the average Cutcliffe class was 32nd in the country. Scout rated this class 32. Awesome. We made a coaching change to go up zero spots in the rankings. This must all be part of Boone's master plan since he just gave Ogerzook an extension for the same stellar recruiting that he felt earned Cutcliffe's dismissal.