KU Football Signing Day (Open Thread)

It's a big day, so I thought I'd just open this up. Post your thoughts or surprises by clicking comments below.

Comments

[DJ]

Let's start this one off with a rundown from the KC Star:

“At Notre Dame, they wanted me to play fullback,” said Toben Opurum, one of KU’s three players with four-star ratings. “I didn’t feel like I could trust everything the coaches were saying. No disrespect to Notre Dame, but it’s just not a fit for me. Maybe someone else would appreciate the prestige that comes with it.”

http://www.kansascity.com/166/story/1016528.html

[DJ]

If you can navigate the KUsports.com chat system, you can ask 4-star RB Toben Opurum a question today:

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2009/feb/03/chat-one-kus-top-recruits-6-pm-wednesday-submit-qu/?football

[DJ]

KUsports.com has a nice summary on all of the BIg 12 classes --

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2009/feb/04/texas-leads-big-12-recruiting-classes/

[DJ]

Briscoe makes Tim Griffin's hits in a "Recruiting Hits and Misses" post yesterday. I think I'd add Aqib Talib to the hits list:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/big12/0-7-10/Big-12-recruiting-hits-and-misses-over-the-years.html

[DJ]

CW / Bleacher Report has a nice article on the Big 12 future:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/119125-eating-crow-predicting-the-future-of-the-big-xii#comment_body_556082

[eastcoasthawk]

Hope we don't get stung by any surprises today as we have a great day lined up for signing.

[CW]

DJ, everyone signed, includng Bradley McDougald. Donnie Pritchett teetered, but he ended up signing with Fresno State. Shane Gordon was another one that teetered this morning, but he ended up faxing his LOI to Pitt about 9:30 this morning.

DeQuin Evans is still on the board. He has yet to make a committment, let alone sign. Tanner Poppe is still in the same boat as DeQuin Evans. Dominic Wilkins is still up in the air too. KU will probably sign their allotment of 25, although they had enough guys come enroll in December that they could sign 26. I don't think that Mangino is going to sign more than that.

There will probably be some overlap in recruiting between 2009 and 2010 classes, but I imagine that most of the coaching staff is already recruiting for next year.

[CW]

I had a dee-da-dee moment. Apparently it has been staring at me in the face since November, but regardless, Tanner Poppe will NOT be signing with KU to play football. He signed with the Jayhawks to play BASEBALL. More than likely, he will be a preferred walk-on for the football program if he wants to, but he will not be a scholarship player.

Apparently he is one heckuva he can throw the ball with some serious heat. I'm thinking Jeff Smardja here...maybe it is just wishful thinking...but Notre Dame's pitcher/tight-end-turned-slot-receiver was pretty decent (drafted in the first round of the MLB draft AND the NFL draft).

[DJ]

Tanner Poppe -- aha. I was looking at him the other day and wondering what was going on with that. Sure would like to throw in Evans just for fun, but I'm ecstatic that McDougald is for real. I also like the way the conference rankings look:

http://kansas.rivals.com/teamrank.asp?Sort=0&PosType=0&Year=2009&conf=0

Toe-to-toe with NU

[CW]

I was like you. I knew Poppe had an offer. I knew that no one else was really in the running. I just didn't know why he hadn't signed. I expanded my search and struck gold.

I think that KU's class would be ranked a little higher if Poppe or Rashawn Copeland counted toward their ranking. By the way, Copeland IS on campus currently. He the preferred walk-on that DenverJayhawk picked up on a few months ago. I don't know if he will have an impact on defense, but his sub-4.4 speed is going to have a HUGE impact on special teams right from the start.

[DJ Goodwin]

Good point on Copeland. I've never heard of a three-star walk-on before, but at 6-2/190 and 4.4 speed you really like to have a guy like that on board:

http://kansas.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=53119

Is Evans still out there?

[CW]

Yeah, Copeland may be a beast. He has great size and is a better DB than WR, but I don't know how much time he will spend on defense...it is up in the air right now. I won't be surprised to see him on the field on defense...but then again who knows. He is a great ST player though. I think that is why KU went after him...improve PR and KR.

Evans, quite literally, just signed with Kentucky. I checked his status like 10 minutes ago and he was still up in the air. In that time he has sent the LOI and it has been reported. That kinda sucks, but I am not going to complain too much. KU already had 5 DE commits, so I could see why the guy wanted to go elsewhere. I kinda figured that Pritchett would sign with KU before Evans, but that is okay.

Since Evans didn't sign, KU may be done for 2009...they may get an early jump on 2010.

All in all, it has been a good class. Four 4-star players (3 from HS ranks so they will have PLENTY of time to develop), average class stars at 3.08, 5 kids on campus already, it really is hard to complain. I've got an article I am working on right now discussing the impact of this class by position....and another one talking about the class of 2008 and how they will finally start to impact things.

[DJ Goodwin]

Yeah, I have no complaints. Evans or Pritchett would have been icing on the cake.

If we deliver on the field next year, I think we could see a top 25 class.

The official school press release:

http://kuathletics.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020409aaf.html