Mods: I meant to post this on the prospects board. You can move it there, if that is where you think it belongs.

So, we currently have five known unsigned verbals for the 2018 class.

https://twitter.com/John_Waller58    

So, which of those guys do you think will likely end up signing with us?

At this point we really don't know exactly why four of them didn't sign early.

John Waller, DT, who only gave us a verbal on 11/22 said at the time that he would sign in February. If you look at his twitter feed he seems to be tweeting current USF related subjects and seems solid to USF.

I think Jordan Domineck, DE, is also solid based on his tweets.

The other three, I'm not so sure about.

We signed a surprise De/DT, Armon Williams who is listed as a DT by USF http://gousfbulls.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=9193

So, perhaps we don't take 4 DT's, which could possibly leave Tyrone Barber out. He recently received an offer from Syracuse.

As for the last two, Keaton and Hunter, they don't seem to be tweeting much about USF. So it's hard to tell where they currently stand. 

It's possible that we may still have one or two more scholarships available, depending on how many EE's we end up having.

I'm sure there are at least a couple of other players we would love to sign, such as Ken Torain, DB, who decommitted from UCLA and has an OV scheduled with USF in January.

We probably would also like to sign one more LB in this class, although Hunter could possibly play that position.

Anybody have any thoughts on who we still end up signing?

45 minutes ago, Gatorbull325 said:

I think Chauncey Smart had olympic type numbers, but not sure if he counts since he only did half a season

Chauncy was an unusual case, because he sat out playing FB as a senior in HS. He was offered an FSU track scholarship and then decided he would try both sports at USF. After being on our FB team he realized his main goal was to try and get to the Olympics, so he is just going to run track at Miami.

Horne also plans to play FB and run track for USF and one day hopes to make it to the Olympics.

Derrick Hopkins played both sports at USF and was just as fast as Lamar, Killans, Smart and Horne.

I believe that Hopkins and Smart were a little smaller than the others.

Another new signee, Johnny Ford, is supposed to also be very fast, but I don't think he competed in HS track like the other guys mentioned.

Just now, Rocky Style said:

I don't think 4th and 24 compares long term because that game didn't hurt us in conference.

It only effectively hurt us from hosting a possible CCG with Memphis. But, we never got to play that game.

I don't think most people on here [or the team for that matter] were conscious of that being the case, when we played Houston.

19 minutes ago, BullsFanInTX said:

Completely wrong. USF 82.61. UCF 82.40

By the way, USF was over 83 until signing a punter with a rating of 70. That is the reason it dropped to 82.61 to begin with. Because they signed and unheralded punter with a low ranking. 

The punter given a 70 for now only means that he has not yet been rated. At some point, if and when, they have more info on him, hopefully, it will change. 

12 minutes ago, Brad said:

We probably all owe a debt of gratitude to Mama and her lovely hubby HowieP.  Both historic members of the 'Pen since the days before internet.    

Thanks everybody.

We wish you all the best during the holiday season and the coming new Year.

Dennis Dodd writes a brutal article on Snyder:

It's clear now more than ever that Bill Snyder is holding Kansas State hostage

Snyder wants his son to take over and is doing whatever he can to ensure that happens

...The head coach wants his son (Sean) to replace him. Never mind obvious concerns about nepotism and qualifications, the more Bill can back the administration into a corner, the better … for Bill. The vast majority of fans and administration don't want Sean -- for good reason. Sean has never managed a clock, recruited a class, called a play or … oh yeah, been a head coach.

After what Bill Snyder has built at Kansas State, the program deserves someone with experience.

We already know Snyder shot down a plan to bring in Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt as coach in 2018. Snyder did so over the wishes of his boss, K-State president Richard Myers.

That's beyond scary. It's dictatorial.

No coach should have that much power. Apparently Snyder does. If left unchecked, that power could ruin both his legacy and Kansas State football...

Read more at:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/its-clear-now-more-than-ever-bill-snyder-is-holding-kansas-state-hostage/

1 hour ago, Hueyhog20 said:

So the runner up in the MW conference is matched against the 4th best AAC team....kind of odd. Would think they’d try to get Fresno lined up a P5 at least. 

I'm sure they tried. LOL

Birmingham's Team!!!‏ @UABFootball2017 Dec 23

On 12/23/2017 at 7:58 AM, Apis Bull said:

How many are expected to be EEs?

These 5 players have all said they will enroll early at USF:

I also like the job he is doing.

Houston (7-4) is a 2.5 point favorite over Fresno State (9-2).

Of course, I'm rooting for Houston.

As for UCF, I have mixed feelings. If they beat auburn, where they are 9 point underdogs, the perception of the AAC will look stronger.

Since we have already signed 24 players, whatever UCF does against Auburn will have no bearing on our recruiting class. A win might help them to solidify their class, but since Frost is gone, it won't make that big of a deal.

Whether UCF wins or loses they will still end up ahead of us in the final rankings.

However, if they lose badly, they might not be ranked in the preseason, because Frost is gone.

Even though we lose Flowers, we won our bowl game and still have CCS at the helm. So, I'm hoping that we are ranked in the preseason polls and that UCF is not. I realize that is not likely to be the case.

Therefore, I am rooting for Auburn to beat UCF so badly that they drop significantly in the polls and we move up much closer to them.

By the same reasoning, I hope Memphis loses and drops out of the polls completely, or at least, we jump over them.

But, if both UCF and Memphis wins it will just make the AAC look stronger as a conference, with three ranked teams in the final polls.

So, either way, we can't really lose.

3 minutes ago, Bulls On Parade said:

Yeah I saw that Killians said that...wasn't smart they aren't playing a Big 10 team. 

Here is an article on that for those who missed it.

Auburn hasn't faced UCF speed in the SEC, says UCF's running back

https://www.sbnation.com/2017/12/14/16778486/adrian-killins-ucf-running-back-auburn-sec-speed

2 hours ago, Brad said:

I'd gladly welcome being middle of the road in a P5 conference instead of close to the top of the class in a G5 conference.

No question about that.

We were middle of the pack in the Big East, but I'd settle for that in the Big 12, over AAC champion.  

35 minutes ago, Bulls On Parade said:

Yeah I just looked for senior year in HS in the 100 meter Killians ran a 10.83 avg and Horne a 10.67.

Killians PR is 10.49 and Hornes PR 10.29.   That is quite a bit faster than Killians.

Just for fun looked up Rodney Adams didn't run much track but his best 100 was a 11.44 and Lindsey Lamar best was 10.35 so Horne might be the fastest player in USF history when he is on the team.

 

We signed another speedster last year, Chauncy Smart, who was probably faster than Killians, but he quit the FB team mid season and transferred out to run track for Miami this spring.

Don't know if anybody here realizes that Killians has put a big target on his back when he plays against Auburn. He basically said that the SEC is slow and that Auburn can't match up with UCF speedwise. 

Does anyone else remember the Southern Miss coach, Jeff Bower, complaining about OUR band playing when they had the ball?

BTW, he was on the CFP committee this year.

4 hours ago, HPbull said:

Just a question for the imagination, do you think the UCF game ending would have played out similar to the Texas Tech game had Wilcox not fumbled? 

I had this calmness about me on that drive that we would score, I think UCF knew it as well but then the Wilcox play happened.

Even if we had beaten UCF, we still would have needed to win at Memphis and that result can't be known.

If we lost to Memphis, we probably would have been in the Liberty bowl against Iowa State, with UCF going to Birmingham.

Navy would still be going to their bowl, regardless.

So, there really is no point dwelling on UCF.

Let's just be thankful, that we won our bowl game against TT, a Big 12 team.

Both Memphis and UCF might very well lose their bowls, Just like Temple and Navy did who were in front of us last year.

22 minutes ago, Azmodi said:

I'd like to point out that our commits have seen a drop in ratings since committing. USF was at 172.4 two days ago with the same commits. UCF's ratings havent changed.

I suspect a UCF fan or two working that site.

It's now back up to 172.75 and 82.61.

BTW, UCF  has signed three from junior college and we have none. I remember a time when their fans mocked us for having to sign JUCO players.

Johnny Ford dropped tremendously after he signed. That is inexplicable, because ESPN has now rated him with three stars.

Also, our new punter has not been rated yet and is just assigned .7000 in the meantime and that drops our overall class rating.

Some here might not realize that we just signed a player, Terrence Horne, who is similar to Lamar in both size and spectacular speed.

It will be interesting to see how CCS utilizes him.

He might actually be faster than Adrian Killins of UCF!

54 minutes ago, charsibb said:

Only one LB? I'm worried about LB most, so while I like the class, I think we haven't filled our biggest hole...

According to Atterbury after the game, 3/5 OL starters are back, so this should be a strength for us. Glad to see we're backstopping, but it will take a year or two of weight gain and gymtime for the newcomers to be ready for college ball.

 

There are two LB's listed: Grier and Copeland, but you make a good point.

We had another who recently decommitted because he wanted to play RB instead.

Two other LB's who were not USF verbals, but thought we might land, went elsewhere.

So, we will likely sign at  least one more LB or one of our players listed at another position might be moved to LB when he gets here, depending on our need. 

You would think that by now they would know the difference.

8 minutes ago, BullFan98 said:

Solid class

Yes, and it will only get better in February.

It's so nice not having to worry about keeping the P5 vultures away from so many of our verbals.

IMO, the early signing period is good for USF.

4 minutes ago, Thebullsfan said:

Link?

I wish to possibly troll.

Bowl thread: https://247sports.com/college/texas-tech/Board/102951/Contents/Official-Texas-Tech-vs-USF-Birmingham-Bowl-Thread-112677707