Letters will spell it all out today
Crunch time arrives for football recruiting
It's recruiting season in college football, and the key question is the same as it is during the regular season.
Who's No. 1?
Unofficially, we'll know today, when college football letter-of-intent day arrives and the commitments become firm. But we really won't know for a few years, at least, when the prospects of today have turned into the successes - or failures - of tomorrow.
Recruiting season will come to a conclusion today, and when it does, it will end the way the regular season did - with a shuffling among the top teams.
Who's No. 1 right now? Depending on which website you check, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Miami are among the contenders. You can also throw in national champion LSU among the top 10. Add familiar names such as USC, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Texas and you see why the bluebloods of college football are the bluebloods.
There are other story lines that will develop next season. Can Notre Dame bounce back under Charlie Weis after the most dismal Irish season in history? Can Alabama coach Nick Saban get the Tide to roll again? Can Michigan, with former West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez now running the program, find a way to end Ohio State's dominance in the Big Ten?
Recruiting is the key to it all. If you look at any list of the top recruiting teams, you won't see any Cinderellas.
Recruiting guru Tom Luginbill has Florida on top this year, just above Miami, but a flurry of activities in the final hours could change the order. Florida, which has 11 of the top 150 players (according to ESPN and Luginbill), picked up momentum in the last few days when it received a verbal commitment from cornerback Adrian Bushnell of DeSoto, Texas.
Miami is in the mix at the top because of commitments from the two top outside linebackers in the country, Arthur Brown of Wichita East High School and Sean Spence of Miami Northwestern High School.
Quarterback Terrelle Pryor, a 6-foot-6-inch, 235-pound senior from Jeannette, Pa., has been the star of the recruiting season. Both Ohio State and Michigan have focused on Pryor, who rushed for 1,899 yards and passed for 1,889 in leading his team to a state title.
What should worry Boston College fans is the emergence of Clemson as a recruiting force. Atlantic Coast Conference members Miami, Virginia Tech, and Florida State traditionally have been top 25 recruiting forces, but coach Tommy Bowden's Tigers have been a factor this season. And North Carolina State, under the guidance of former BC coach Tom O'Brien, has shown up on top 25 lists, with quarterback Mike Glennon of Centrefield Westfield (Va.) leading the way. Glennon is the younger brother of Virginia Tech quarterback Sean Glennon and is regarded as a future star.
BC is lurking in the top 25 with a solid class, one helped by the Eagles' 11-3 season and an ACC divisional title. Coach Jeff Jagodzinski hopes running back Josh Haden of Fort Washington, Md., can be a keynote performer.
Jagodzinski and offensive coordinator Steve Logan made it clear that the battle to replace quarterback Matt Ryan should be interesting, as a group of incumbents led by Chris Crane take on newcomers such as Justin Tuggle and junior college transfer Codi Boek.
Defensively, safety Okechukwu Okoroha and cornerback Junior Okpara lead the BC class. 