Today, Purdue signed 17 players to bring the total incoming class up to 20. As you all know, 70% of the class is from the state of Florida, with only 6 players being recruited from New Jersey, Kentucky, Georgia (2), Texas and NY. This is the first time since '75 that Purdue hasn't signed a player from Indiana...and opinions are mixed if this is all positive. While I understand that Football is played year round in the Southeast, I also don't think it's great to see good players leaving the state. Players like Dakotah Tyler, Montez Robinson and Jordan Barnes come to mind first as the ones that got away...But Hope and Co. didn't see it as important to focus on Indiana.
Some theorize that a two-star Florida player equates to a three-star Indiana player. I don't know if that's necessarily true, but as IU recruited heavily in Indiana, we will get to see how the two states compare in the next four years. IU's recruiting class ended up being ranked 58 (65 according to Scout) and Purdue's comes in at 74 (63 according to Scout)...pretty even. And honestly, according to star ranking, neither is anything to write home about...but I like a lot about this incoming class for Purdue.
Speed was obviously a focus as Purdue boasts of eight players that run a sub-4.5 40 yard dash...five of those in the 4.4 range. But does that speed come at a cost in the fact that many of these guys will need a redshirt year to bulk up? Perhaps...but whether they're physically ready or not may not matter as Purdue will probably need to get at least a few of these receivers on the field right away.
Here are some of the guys that I think have a good chance of seeing the field in the fall of '09:
-Ishmael Aristide CB
-Dwayne Beckford LB ('08 carry over)
-Gabe Holmes TE
-Al-Terek McBurse RB
-Antwon Higgs DE
-Eric McDaniel DT
-Xavier Reese WR
-Eric Williams WR (slot)
My hope is no more than this are needed and can be redshirted...but my guess is that won't be the case...and I am positive one or two of the 4.4 players will end up playing special teams someplace.
Conversely, here are the players that I think will redshirt:
-Antavian Edison
-Cody Davis
-Trevor Foy (I think Hope sees him as an O-lineman a la Matt Light)
-Rob Henry (I actually hope he is able to redshirt; he has huge upside)
-Kevin Pamphile (only played organized football for one season)
-Chris Quinn
-Najee Tyler
Granted, this is all vast speculation based on articles and videos...so I could be very wrong. But I am already excited to see what the new guys can do.
6 comments:
I distinctly remember reading the text of one of Colletto's first press confrences, and when asked about his recruiting philosophy and where he planned to target, he said something along the lines of "if we recruit in Indiana, we'll do fine. Limiting the focus of your recruiting efforts to one state-- That really chilled me to the bone. It's good to see Hope looking outside the Midwest, and his strengths and contacts certainly lie in the Southeast USA. Let's see how this plays out-- can't be any worse than Jim Colletto's reign of incompetence.
If you look at the other scholarship offers for the midwest 3 stars that IU got, all you will find are MAC schools (with a few exceptions). I believe many of our 2 and 3 stars from Florida to be very underrated.
Robinson was originally from the south. He wasn't staying in Big Ten country. Barnes decommitted from Michigan, then decommitted from his silent verbal to Purdue. Good riddance.
I'm not sure how you stretch those players leaving the state to Coach Hope not seeing it as important to focus on Indiana talent. Wasn't he in on at least a couple of those guys (and several others) from Indiana.
Indiana isn't exactly a hotbed of high school football - Florida IS! Yes, it would be nice to have local top talent coming to play for the Old Gold and Black, but I'll take a Florida 2 star recruit over an Indiana 4 star recruit any day of the week. Danny Hope and Purdue Football is in good shape!
As far as comparing our program to IU's program, well, the only time we should do that is when we are looking at the Old Oaken Bucket... and EVERYBODY knows the score there! And does 62-10 ring a bell with anyone?!
Just found this blog. Thanks for the post on the next class.
I've just re-started a site of my own that focuses largely (so far) on Purdue. Feel free to stop by:
http://daltman.blogspot.com
Also, I refuse to believe that the Matty count is only at 3. I would have guessed somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 or 50 by now.
Daniel, I think you're right...but we only started it recently.
Anon, Hope focused only on a few players...but didn't put a whole bunch of recruiting effort in this state. I understand why, but I really don't like seeing high-level talent snatched out right from beneath our noses...Local guys have been hearing about Purdue their whole lives via local sportscasters...there simply has to be a way to leverage such players to W. Laf...even if you're not putting the manpower into recruiting Indiana heavily.
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