National Signing Day



RB Herschel Sims



QB J.W. Walsh



The Cowboys had a fantasic National Signing Day, evidenced by their #21 ranking on the ESPNU scale.  The day had a little more drama than the Pokes would have liked, as they waited on the LOI for RB Herschel Sims to get to Coach Mike Gundy (it seems the 5-star RB had a power outage in his high school and couldn't get in touch with OSU for a short time).  Nonetheless, Sims' letter is in, as is 4-star QB J.W. Walsh's, who has been compared to former QB Zac Robinson but with a better arm.  Although these two recruits are the stars of the class, the Cowboys leaned heavily towards recruiting on the defensive side of the ball, with 16 of the 26 signings slated to play D for Bill Young's unit.

The Top 10 Recruiting classes look as follows, according to Rivals.com:
1. Alabama (2009 National Champion)
2. Auburn (2010 National Champion)
3. Florida State

4. USC (2004 National Champion)

5. Texas (2005 National Champion)

6. Georgia 

7. LSU (2003, 2007 National Champion)

8. Clemson

9. Notre Dame

10. Ohio State (2002 National Champion)

Other Big 12 notables:

16. Oklahoma

19. Texas Tech

32. Texas A&M

33. Kansas

44. Missouri
47. Baylor

The SEC retains it's title of King of All Conferences, as 4 of the Top 7 (and 9 of the Top 25) recruiting rankings belong to teams within the power conference.  The Big 12-2 and Big 10+2 each have 3 such teams in the Top 25, according to Rivals; the Pac-12 has 5. 

Notes of Interest:
* Oklahoma has it's lowest ranking in the last 10 years. 
* After finishing with their best season since 2004, Texas A&M still doesn't crack the Top 30, even with in-state rival and national power Texas having their worst season since 1997.  Even more salt-in-the-wound is the annoying pest that is Texas Tech finished with a substantially higher ranking than the Aggies.
* The Top 10 teams in recruiting for 2011 have won a combined 7 of the last 10 BCS National Titles (the other 3 are Florida in 2006 and 2008, and Miami in 2001)

A final thought: Recruiting and rankings have become "big business" in the last decade, with many being of the opinion that recruiting rankings bear no factor towards how they will actually play at the college level.  While this is true to an extent (and frankly, is true in any career/job/opportunity), take a look at the last 5 years of recruiting rankings and compare that to the teams you usually think of when considering the "Top Programs in the Country".

2006:
1. USC
2. Florida
3. Florida State

2007:
1. Florida
2. USC
3. Tennessee

2008:
1. Alabama
2. Notre Dame
3. Florida

2009:
1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Ohio State

2010:
1. USC
2. Florida
3. Texas

Easy to see that the rankings generally do hold true to form, as the teams that have been in the Top 3 of recruiting are usually some of the top on-field programs in college football.  Here's hoping this class catapaults the Cowboys to further success in the new Big 12-2.

GO POKES!!