Big 12 Recruiting Roundup: Kansas
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February 14, 2008 by
Kansas won’t win any beauty contests with their 2008 recruiting class. Only three of their twenty recruits earned four-stars from either Rivals.com or Scout.com and two of those three came from junior colleges (running back Jocques Crawford and offensive lineman Nathan D’Cunha). Tight end Tanner Hawkinson was the lone four-star recruit from the high school ranks.
But with at least three-stars given to the remainder of the class, it doesn’t appear they had a wasted scholarship in the bunch. And the Jayhawks didn’t have scholarships to waste. With only thirteen seniors departing (and a standout pair of juniors), KU had a pretty full boat. Things won’t be quite so easy next year when 23 seniors will be set to depart and the Jayhawks will find themselves particularly needy at defensive end and in the secondary.
The #40 ranking by Rivals.com and #47 by Scout.com don’t sound all that great, but when you compare it with any of KU’s last four classes it looks much stronger. The perception may be that the Jayhawks are losing ground, but the truth is they have done as well or better in terms of recruiting as they have in recent memory. If Kansas can continue to develop players (recall that Aqib Talib was a two-star prospect when he was recruited) they can continue to win games in the conference.
So KU fans perhaps can’t crow about signing day, but they shouldn’t lose any sleep either. They appear to be making steady progress and after so many years of struggling, that should be a welcome outcome.
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Greg Morrow Feb 14 08
I've been trying to get a wrap around this post. This post being about the Jayhawk's recruiting. Something I might have found to be a trifling topic. Can't play that card, anymore.
Whatever and however Mangino and crew are getting and doing with their players, they're getting it done. I really need to only look at the very close games (amazingly close) Nebraska won, in Lincoln in '04 and '06. Then contrast those to the just as amazing and tremendously thorough whuppings dealt in Lawrence.
Will serve hold to form? Nebraska will obviously be different, but will they be better than the "Fighting Manginos"?