Wed. Feb. 7 is letter of intent day

[Skkorpion]

Go Devils!
Go Irish!

 

[devilfan02]

This will be a very interesting 24 hours to say the least. We have a solid chance to get Omar Bolden, Adam Tello, and Garth Gerhart. We have an outside but realistic chance at landing David Ross, Romeo Pellum, Blaine Irby, and Jamaal Sheard.

Our big needs are CB's and OL. Erickson did a GREAT job at signing Pou Palelei (#9 OG in the nation nation but has academic issues) and would add icing to the cake by signing Tello (former Colorado verbal who now favors ASU over Louisville) and Gerhart (a soft Colorado verbal who by all accounts will go wherever Tello goes in a package deal). Those would be huge additions to our offensive line whom are needed in '08.

The Omar Bolden (16th best CB in the country and our biggest target) dilemna has turned into quite the soap opera. Bolden has favored ASU over Oregon St. for a couple weeks but now it's getting fishy. Donnovan Warren, believed to be the best CB in the country and obvious USC commit, spurned his hometown USC Trojans and committed to Michigan. So who is after Bolden now? That's right, Pete Carrol and USC. They sent a car to pick Bolden up and he went to the USC/ORE basketball game on Friday night and offered him while he was on campus. He still says that he's leaning our way but that USC is definitely in the picture now and he'll pick amongst ASU, USC, OSU. It's too bad because I don't see him turning down his hometown Trojans. He would be a huge and unexpected get considering Erickson has only been recruiting for 1 month.

Romeo Pellum is an interesting CB project that is a soft Wazzou verbal. Ever since his visit to Tempe he has been wavering and it wouldn't surprise me to see him sign with us tomorrow. On the other hand, David Ross is a long shot. He, like Bolden, is a top 20 CB who verballed to Nebraska before Erickson was hired. Erickson brought him in for a visit and Ross loved it. He is still saying he's Nebraska bound but he is still taking calls and in-home visits from ASU, the only other school he's doing that for. That and Nebraskas huge class (30+ verbal commits) leaves a slimmer of hope for ASU. Sheard will pick between ASU, Auburn, Pitt, and Rutgers. He visited last weekend and it supposedly opened his eyes. Doubtful he comes here but would not be a shock. The most interesting storyline tomorrow could be Blaine Irby, Texas verbal who is rated as the 10th best TE in the country (just as good at LB and may very easily play there as well). Erickson started recruiting him when he was hired and it got interesting when he named Olson as our OC. Irby is Olsons Godson and is also Samson Szakacsys best friend. He took a secret visit to Tempe a couple weeks ago yet remains a Texas verbal. Szakacsy switching to ASU could get Irby to highly consider coming to ASU as he was waivering before that happened. Every signing day there's always some big names that switch their verbal agreement and sign elsewhere and I'm hoping Irby is one of them this year.

Overall, I'm very impressed with how Erickson has done in his short recruiting time in Tempe. He filled needs quickly (LB, DE) with immediate contributors in a couple JUCO players (Wooten, Vasquez, Tanner, Hollman), managed to hold onto the good Koetter recruits (Simpson& Taylor), and has a very good shot to sign some players that Koetter didn't and would never target (Bolden, Ross, Tello, Gerhart, Palelei, Stangel). I also love how Erickson has recruited SPEED! He has a number of kids in this class, primarily on defense, who are flat out fast which we didn't see with Koetter. Foles decommitting was a wash when he signed Szakacsy as they both are above average QB's. Foles was your typical Koetter Pocket QB whereas Szakacsy is Ericksons typical system QB who is well accustomed to the shotgun spread offense. He's got an above average arm and great mobility for a 6'5 big QB. My only concern is his release which is very unorthodox. However, he is extremely accurate (73% one year, CA record) so if it works, it works. He's also a tough kid who has played a game on a broken shin and a broken ankle. He's very exciting. Stangel is awesome and is better at this moment in time. I can very easily see him give Rudy a battle this fall.

 

[devilfan02]

Rivals and Scout are reporting that both Tello and Gerhart have committed to the Devils!!!!!!! They were supposed to announce tomorrow but I guess they got a little excited! These 2 are great gets for Erickson and the Devils. If Palelei sticks to his verbal agreement and signs with us tomorrow and manages to get qualified then Erickson has worked an absolute miracle in recruiting the OL in a very short period of time.

Now if we can get one (or more) of either Bolden, Ross, or Pellum to sign then Erickson has covered all the bases in a quarter of the time that the rest of division 1 coaches got. I have a gut feeling Bolden and Pellum will sign with us and Ross will stick with Neb.

I'm still amazed at how Erickson has landed immediate contributors in only 2 months of recruiting. All these new recruits are switching from schools that they verballed from months ago. Wooten, Vasquez, Palelei, Taylor, Gerhart, Hollman and several others have high chances at starting next year. Rounding into a very solid class considering the circumstances (considering they all sign tomorrow)

 

[Skkorpion]

Erickson is working miracles it seems. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[devilfan02]

Erickson is working miracles it seems. Keep your fingers crossed.

He truly is. Everyone knew he could recruit but I didn't expect anything much out of this year. Let's hope all our verbals sign tomorrow and we can get a couple steals in guys like Bolden and Irby. That would be awesome!

 

[Skkorpion]

He truly is. Everyone knew he could recruit but I didn't expect anything much out of this year. Let's hope all our verbals sign tomorrow and we can get a couple steals in guys like Bolden and Irby. That would be awesome!

Wonder how maotosi will spin this one.

 

[devilfan02]

Jabaal Sheard, 6'4 240LB 4.6 speed from Fla, has eliminated Rutgers, Auburn, and Minnesota and will choose between ASU and Pitt tomorrow at 11 ET.

David Ross (#19 CB in the country), a verbal to Nebraska, has said it is 50/50 between Neb and ASU. We were his last visit and he said we left a lasting impression on him. There is also word that he is frustrated with Nebraska for signing 2 more CB's after he verbaled. Should be interesting, I think we have a legit shot.

Omar Bolden (#16 CB in the country) has supposedly already chosen ASU but has to wait till 8pm tomorrow night when he will announce his decision live on Fox Sports Net. Several boards (including a USC board) have said he has already told USC that he is not interested and that he will sign with ASU tomorrow.

There's also grumblings that Brandon Johnson (33rd ranked RB in the country) is waivering from his Washington verbal. We were the only other school he tripped to and he supposedly loved it. Longshot but he could be another surprise.

Tello and Gerhart did indeed verbal to us this afternoon.

I have a gut feeling that Blaine Irby will switch his commitment from Texas and sign with ASU tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day and us ASU fans will be surprised by some of our signees. Guys like Ross and Irby who have been committed elsewhere for months may switch at the last second. Bottom line is we will most likely sign one or more players tomorrow that we thought we had no chance of a week ago (Irby, Ross, Bolden, Johnson). Knock on wood

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Wonder how maotosi will spin this one.

I actually could really care less if Erickson succeeds or fails, how ASU fares has little to nothing to do with the welfare of the Arizona program. As long as the athletic department and coaching staff as a whole is doing everything they can to improve (such as spending the cash to re-establish the Island pipeline that Mackovic thought he was too good for) and continue bringing in good players then we'll be fine. If anything, ASU being good actually helps Arizona and vice versa. Do you really think ASU could keep landing big name basketball coaches were it not for Lute showing the country what can be accomplished in the desert?

My biggest question is now that Erickson is in on some highly-rated guys, does this mean the star system popularized by websites such as Scout and Rivals is now legitimate in the eyes of ASU fans? Because for the last few years I heard it was nothing but a fraud.

 

[devilfan02]

My biggest question is now that Erickson is in on some highly-rated guys, does this mean the star system popularized by websites such as Scout and Rivals is now legitimate in the eyes of ASU fans? Because for the last few years I heard it was nothing but a fraud.

The star system is crap and is very flawed. I don't go off the star system rather what a player is ranked at his respective position. People may say it's the same but it's not. Our recent verbal, Garth Gerhart, is only a 3 star yet is the ranked the 7th best center in the nation. Look at nearly all of our current Erickson recruits. He has found "hidden" talent so far and most of them have been 2 stars or worse. After these 2 star players get reevaluated once they committed, nearly all of them came back 3 or even 4 stars (Wooten, Holman, Stangel, Woods, Vasquez, Tanner, it goes on and on and on). All those players had stars added to them after they verbaled to us which shows you how bad the star system is.

It is also a catch-22 no matter how you look at it. Stoops may be actually recruiting legit talent but he hasn't been able to develop it. He has done little with the offensive talent he has assembled because IMO he's simply only a defensive coordinator. He has shown me nothing as to his in-game coaching skills, clock management, offensive gameplanning, and composure that leads me to believe he's a good football coach. He has done a good job with the defensive talent he's recuited and has got them to play good.

I'm more excited because Erickson is showing no fear at going after these players. He started recruiting them a month and a half ago and has them on the verge of signing with us. He has done a great job getting immediate contributors at the positions we're desperate at (OL, CB, DL). He's also going after big time talent that Koetter never had the balls to go after.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

The star system is crap and is very flawed. I don't go off the star system rather what a player is ranked at his respective position. People may say it's the same but it's not.

How is it different? The stars assigned to players reflect the rankings you speak of. The higher-ranked players at a position have more stars than the guys ranked below them and so on down the line. Obviously the star system is not an exact science, but it's been proven that there's greater odds five star players become impact players and go to the NFL than four stars. Same with four stars and three stars and so on.

It's similar to the NFL Draft. The odds a 1st round draft pick goes to Pro Bowls is higher than later round picks, but that doesn't mean every first round pick is going to better than every lower round draft choice.

 

[Future1984]

A UOFA Rat Fan is just getting his panties in a bunch because soon, not only will UofA lose on the football field to ASU. But they will also lose the recruiting battle also.

D-day Dennis has arrived

 

[green machine]

A UOFA Rat Fan is just getting his panties in a bunch because soon, not only will UofA lose on the football field to ASU. But they will also lose the recruiting battle also.

D-day Dennis has arrived

Who are the UofA Rats?

 

[HooverDam]

A UOFA Rat Fan is just getting his panties in a bunch because soon, not only will UofA lose on the football field to ASU. But they will also lose the recruiting battle also.

D-day Dennis has arrived

Well thanks for that well thought out post.

I'm an ASU fan, and I think in the past few years ASU fans complaining about the star system has been quite silly. Since ASU wasn't getting 5 star guys, ASU fans wanted to act like the star system was meaningless, a clever defense mechanism, but very silly.

Mao is right, higher stars=higher probability of a player being good. I'm glad to see Erickson going after higher profile guys than Koetter ever did. One thing I think is a big thing to look at is, what schools are recruiting a kid? Under Koetter ASU was usually competing with Boise St, Utep, etc for recruits, Erickson is already trying to compete with schools like USC and Auburn- very encouraging.

I do hope Irby switches his commitment to ASU. Heap & Miller in the past, Guthrie this year (or Brent Miller), and Irby in a few years, ASU really will be Tight End U.

 

[HooverDam]

edit: weee double post- sorry.

 

[General Chaos]

A UOFA Rat Fan is just getting his panties in a bunch because soon, not only will UofA lose on the football field to ASU. But they will also lose the recruiting battle also.

D-day Dennis has arrived

You are with out a doubt the biggest pile to post on this board. You never have anything intellegent to say.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

A UOFA Rat Fan is just getting his panties in a bunch because soon, not only will UofA lose on the football field to ASU. But they will also lose the recruiting battle also.

Considering you predicted ASU to go 11-0 last year and ASU Basketball to surpass Arizona Basktball next year, I'm pretty sure I won't lose any sleep over your "predictions" (although delusional ramblings might be more applicable). Figuring out this board ain't hard, you state your opinion and support it up the best you can.

 

[devilfan02]

Irby hasn't faxed his LOI to Texas yet, nearly every other verbal has done so thus far for Coach Brown. Could get interesting........

Another name to watch is Anthony Boyles. He will 90% sign with UDub but he has a father like relationship with our WR coach, Eric Yarber.

My wish list includes- make sure Palelei signs his LOI with us (he verbaled to us already), sign Bolden, Ross, and Irby. Would be quite the day

 

[boisesuns]

Should be interesting to see how Boise's class looks after the Fiesta Bowl win.

 

[devilfan02]

All of ASU's verbals have signed their LOI's which is a good sign.

Jabaal Sheard signed with Pitt today. He would have been a good addition but I didn't expect him to pick us due to our late start on him and we already have 3 DE commits. I'm surprised we made his top-2 over schools like Auburn, Rutgers, and Minnesota

Blaine Irby did indeed sign with Texas but it took him awhile.

All indications are Omar Bolden is signing with us and will announce it on FSN at 6pm. I'm praying that happens.

David Ross pulled a quick one on ASU. He was a Nebraska verbal, called the ASU coaches this morning and told them he was signing with ASU and was faxing his LOI over after he hung up the phone. The ASU coaches didn't get the fax and weren't allowed to call him (against the rules, dead period begins Feb. 5th and ends the day after signing period). They heard through the grapevine that he signed and faxed his LOI to Oregon St. of all places. Very strange he would pick them over Nebraska and ASU. Makes signing Bolden that more important

 

[Skkorpion]

Notre Dame lost two more commitments today and ended up with only 18 recruits when they really needed 25. Weis blamed himself for the lack of numbers because he took kids at their word and quit recruiting once he had 25 commitments. Big mistake.

Of particular concern were the few number of defensive linemen signed.

 

[Dback Jon]

Notre Dame lost two more commitments today and ended up with only 18 recruits when they really needed 25. Weis blamed himself for the lack of numbers because he took kids at their word and quit recruiting once he had 25 commitments. Big mistake.

Of particular concern were the few number of defensive linemen signed.

But you got Golden Tate from Nashville - he's gonna be good.

 

[devilfan02]

Notre Dame lost two more commitments today and ended up with only 18 recruits when they really needed 25. Weis blamed himself for the lack of numbers because he took kids at their word and quit recruiting once he had 25 commitments. Big mistake.

Of particular concern were the few number of defensive linemen signed.

Weis was on Colin Cowherd this morning and it was a good interview. You could tell he was mad because he had gotten word that he lost a couple verbals he thought were gonna sign with ND. He repeatedly said the only thing he doesn't like about college football is the lack of commitment. He said it's tough to find 18 year old kids who remain loyal and committed to one particular team througout the recruiting process. What else do you expect, Weis? I don't mean to be a dick but if you can't handle it then go back to the NFL. Every other coach in college football has to deal with this and it's only going to get worse with all the recruiting services and press these high school kids get. It just seems like common sense that you would recruit a kid all the way up to the point of signing day. Weis has no one to blame but himself (which it looks like he's doing)

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

He said it's tough to find 18 year old kids who remain loyal and committed to one particular team througout the recruiting process. What else do you expect, Weis?

No kidding. Did Weis never have kids? Getting a teenager to stay committed to even the most trivial things for five minutes is hard enough, getting him to stay committed to a university and coaching staff for months when he's got dozens of people in his ear telling him he's better off elsewhere requires hours of diligent work. That's why the best coaches in the country recruit their committed players harder than undecided prospects. A bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush as they say.

And as a postscript to Skkorp, Wally, and others who think USC is not destined for continued greatness - Pete Caroll landed the best WR, RB, D-lineman, and LB in this class and also took the best player out of Arkansas, Michigan, Arizona, and Louisiana. All this is without the services of his recruiting coordinator and in an offseason where rumors of coaching turnover plagued the media.

 

[devilfan02]

No kidding. Did Weis never have kids? Getting a teenager to stay committed to even the most trivial things for five minutes is hard enough, getting him to stay committed to a university and coaching staff for months when he's got dozens of people in his ear telling him he's better off elsewhere requires hours of diligent work. That's why the best coaches in the country recruit their committed players harder than undecided prospects. A bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush as they say.

From what Weis has said, it seems like he stopped recruiting some of his verbal commitments once they pledged to ND. Several recruits have said today that coaches were texting them all day today up until the point they signed their LOI. Take notes Weis

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

From what Weis has said, it seems like he stopped recruiting some of his verbal commitments once they pledged to ND. Several recruits have said today that coaches were texting them all day today up until the point they signed their LOI. Take notes Weis

Then he's either really dumb or really lazy. Keeping up with your commitments through Signing Day is College Sports 101.