Just a few observations, and questions, after most of the letters have been signed and delivered as to where a bunch of 18-year-old boys are going to play football and get their education next year.
• We always hear Texas is the most fertile recruiting state in the union, and it has been written it produces as many as 300 college football players every year. Granted, not all of them are on the BCS level, but a large percentage are. Yet only 34 signed to play with SEC schools in the latest class, and 17 of those were, as expected, with Texas A&M. LSU was second with five, and Arkansas had four.
• Texas is still supplying many great players to Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, not to mention Baylor, TCU and other schools in the Lone Star State. Does that mean it is ripe for the SEC to come in and get more players? As one longtime sports writer said: "Quarterbacks are falling off trees in Texas, there are so many."
• Everyone in the SEC wants to recruit the state of Florida, specifically Dade County, which may turn out more BCS players than any county in the country, but the league signed more players from Georgia than Florida. The Bulldogs signed 14 instate players, but another 49 signed with the other 13 schools. That 63 beat Florida having 46 SEC signees.
• When John Chavez resigned as LSU's defensive coordinator to take the same position at Texas A&M, there was much speculation he looked at this year's recruiting list and said there wasn't enough emphasis on improving the offense. The Tigers signed 25 players, 13 on offense, but only one quarterback (a two-star player out of Cedar Hill, Texas). If there has been one consistent question about LSU Coach Les Miles, it is whether he can recruit a big-time quarterback? LSU did have the No. 14 recruiting class in the country.
• A few years ago SEC Commissioner Mike Slive had it written in stone that no team in the conference could sign more than 25 players in one recruiting class, and all teams would be at or under the NCAA-mandated 85 scholarships. The 85 scholarships rule is still in play, but apparently New Mexico State found a loophole in the NCAA rules about signing only 25, and now other schools are using that loophole, too. It is called "blueshirting." The way it works is a youngster pays his own way to summer school and then goes on scholarship when fall camp starts. He counts against the scholarship total for the next season, and he could not have made an official visit to the school.
• Alabama did not finish No. 1 in some recruiting rankings, but as a close second to Southern Cal. What does this mean for the Crimson Tide? Probably nothing. They signed 24, and that included four five-star players and 14 four-star players. Alabama still has most of its past four No. 1 recruiting classes returning, too.
• Look out Mississippi, here comes Tennessee. Since Hugh Freeze became the head coach of the Rebels in December 2011, the school has had some amazing success in recruiting, although it did slip a bit this year. However, "Rocky Top" is the new rage. Don't know if Knoxville is giving away pizza, but the Vols signed 29 kids, four of them five-star recruits and 13 four-star recruits, and finished as the consensus No. 5 class in the nation.
• Not quite as surprising was Auburn's No. 6 ranking. The Tigers convinced a couple of big recruits to switch in the last week of recruiting and that helped them immensely. Oddly, with the departure of Nick Marshall, Auburn signed only one quarterback.
Sports on 02/06/2015