We lost Porter, Reagan, Litton & Stewart. But, wow, grade this class!

[JupiterBull]

ESPN updated their rankings this morning and still left us out. Our class was better than Nebraska's even before our most recent commits. Something fishy is going on. Maybe they don't want an AAC school breaking the top 40...

I'd wait for tomorrow.  We have 6 ESPN 4* commits.  That has to carry weight.  They are slow to update.  But, Scout has us at 46, so maybe that's our place.  Don't care...this class kicks ace.

[Apis Bull]

Rivals has us at 39

[JupiterBull]

Two others I forgot:  Chris Jones (Purdue...then Nebraska) and Frankie Hernandez (Marshall...grades?).

[206BULL]

24/7 has us at 40.. I would assume ESPN S will be right around 40 when all is said and done just like the other services.

[NCBull]

Grade of A...Taggart and crew crushed it. Welcome #DreamTeam!

[Flowers4Heisman]

This is an A+ class in my book.

 

The coaching staff did an outstanding job, considering we came off a terrible season.

 

We fought the SEC and the ACC, among others, and won. Really amazing.

 

We've got a lot of gifted athletes in this class, and people with the right attitude also.

 

I mean look at Jimmy Bayes. He WANTED to a be a Bull. And just like so many of the other ones we signed, they WANTED to be Bulls.

 

Now, let's hope they all make it through the USF academic committee's screening. Fingers crossed!

[ckparrothead]

I can't comment on every kid they got because I don't have the time to do the research on all of them. I entered the year with some opinions about a few of these kids, just as a full disclosure.

 

I've been looking through some senior highlights and I have to say:

 

1. Ryeshene Bronson - The highlights here were skimpy to say the least. He remains kind of a blank to me, more rumor than confirmed skills. The highlights I have seen from his senior year are actually kind of disappointing if truth be told. We'll see where he's at when he shows up to campus.

 

2. Stanley Clerveaux - Still not sure what Stanley will run. That's his task as a collegiate athlete though. Run and run and run. Get good at it, do explosive training and plyometrics. What this kid has is incredible hands and catch radius. His senior tape only confirms what you could already seen in junior tape. Those hands catch the football way outside of his frame naturally and securely. He even does well catching the football while going to ground. He's got the makings of special hands. How much he works will determine whether he can iron out dropping the ball on easy catches, which is for some reason usually a phenomenon that accompanies guys with great hands and catch radius. But that's more about lapses in concentration than anything.

 

3. Nick Nataro - This is the best compliment I can think of to give to a tight end recruit: he looks like a Notre Dame tight end. This kid should be going up to South Bend. He actually kind of reminds me of Vance McDonald from Rice. He's added some more intriguing skills with the football in his hands as a senior. Can't wait to see how he blocks. He looks nasty. Heck of a find.

 

4. Michael Galati - I loved his junior tape. He can play anywhere on the line and has the right build, moves the right way. The thing I heard about him right away in 2013 was he faced off with George Campbell, who is now ESPN's #1 recruiting prospect in the "athlete" category, and the next day I'm seeing tweets from Campbell about how disappointed he is with himself and how he'll do better. That was a great sign. So I'm digging into his senior tape and I just love it. He plays with a straight back and powerful hands. He's got really, really good feet. He has a natural gift for pulling and scraping behind the line. Dare I say the way he gets his hips turned off the snap on pulls even reminds me of David DeCastro. He just doesn't quite have the size but hopefully with some help of the strength program he can add some good weight. One thing you can always do with OLs if their highlight tapes look a bit conspicuous to you is find out if their RBs or QBs are revered prospects and then find highlight tapes of those guys. It's sort of a cross-check. I've been doing that with Galati since he was a junior and did it with his senior tape too. He always checks out. He's very, very consistent. Reminds me of Rodger Saffold.

[ckparrothead]

Quinton Flowers is still an intriguing prospect because we all know how athletic he is and how elusive he can be.

 

I definitely saw progress in his passing on the highlight reels, particularly on some of his quick passing. His passing mechanics have gotten more structurally sound.

 

But his overall passing mechanics are still so new they come off like an inflamed version of what they should be once they've settled down. His ball comes off slow and aimed too often.

 

This still has the potential to be an ill fit between South Florida and Flowers. The reason I say that is South Florida needs a quarterback yesterday. Yet this kid is the kind of project that shouldn't see the field until he's a redshirt junior, most likely. Can South Florida afford to wait for him to ripen? Play him too early and he may settle into bad habits.

[ckparrothead]

Going back to the thread title I'm not crying over the losses of Reagan or Porter.

 

Reagan has always looked to me like a very confusing player on the field. It's really a matter of what you want to do with him. He's unorthodox in every way. If you have him as a defensive tackle then I think he could thrive with the right teaching, but he's still got to be built from the ground up. People wanted him on the offensive line though and I saw that not at all.

 

And Porter...I mean he was kind of a mediocre quarterback prospect if I recall right, and he was being moved to the secondary. Obviously you've got to be playing the long game if you're doing that with a guy. It was dicey though. Could've gone either way. I never saw special ability.

[ckparrothead]

On the other hand if I'm remembering the right kid then losing Chris Jones is a blow.