SB Nation - Login for mobile commenting

The Ralphie Report

*FINAL UPDATE* Discussion Board: National Signing Day Thread

National Signing Day is complete. Best of luck to the new Buffaloes! And thank you everyone for your contributions on this series of Recruiting Discussion Boards!

Final Recruiting Rankings:

Scout: #29 in the Nation, #6 in the Pac 12

Rivals: #33 in the Nation, #8 in the Pac 12

ESPN: B- Grade, #7 in the Pac 12

These players who had shown CU interest remain uncommitted (for whatever it's worth).

Last Updated: 5:50 PM, February 1

DE Ewing Simmons *** Stockton, California Rivals Visited 1/20. Will choose from: Multiple Pac 12 offers (unknown). Favorite: Unknown. Enjoyed his trip to Boulder.

Chris Solomon *** West Covina, California Rivals Scout Visited 1/13. Will choose between: Colorado, Nevada. Favorite: Unknown.

Poll
CU made it a priority rebuild the d-line and defensive backfield. We also signed 3 TEs and a highly touted QB. Which of these story lines will have the most profound impact on the success or failure of the 2012 recruiting class?
The decision to recruit QB Shane Dillon over QB Cyler Miles
18 votes
The DB’s (Wright, Crawley, etc.) ability to shut down high octane Pac 12 offenses
49 votes
The D-Line’s (Jagne, Henington, etc.) ability to provide quality depth/pass rush/run D
19 votes
The TE’s (Hobbs, Ray, Irwin) ability to provide a new dimension to the CU offense
3 votes

89 votes | Poll has closed

All comments, FanPosts, and FanShots are the views of the reader-authors who create them.

3 recs  |  67 comments

Comments

I really love these discussion boards regarding football recruits

There’s no way I understand all this stuff and have time to follow all the news…..so these posts are really great. Thanks to all who contribute. Go Buffs

Folasa's out at Ucla. He's between CU and New Mexico

and Ucla’s in play for Jacobs

So who do you think we flipped?

Kyle Ringo mentioned, in his chat today, that a visitor from this past weekend may have changed his mind about a prior commitment.

Perhaps a silent commitment to OK State by Jacobs

and now heading to Buff Nation?

Could be

but Kyle wrote there is the potential of 3 more signings, a flip from last weekend, Jacobs and and a commitment on Wed.

I think Solomon is a good bet

He’s down to CU and Nevada.

Greg Biggins just Tweeted

Folasa tried to commit but “Buffs ran out of spots before he could”

That could mean we are done

Or saving spots for bigger targets.

Christian Powell is a Buff!

News got leaked. Way to go Embo!!!

There's the flip
Interesting regarding Powell and Norgard

I really like Powell as a FB, he looks damn good.

But I also really like Norgard as a Fullback. Here’s to hoping he’s got the speed they were looking for at Linebacker. He’s just a good Football player, so that will help him.

And Powell is a beast of a Fullback, I just hope he can get here as early as possible because we’ll need him right away. Because I can’t imagine we’ll have both of them there at FB…

It's a good problem to have
I feel bad for Powell

The next 24hrs might be the toughest of his life thus far. He’s going to have people pulling at him from every angle.

Very true, and I totally agree

The best kind of problem to have. ESPECIALLY with the kind of Offense we’re trying to run.

And both of them look like they could contribute on Defense and Special Teams if asked (or at least Special Teams)

I wonder if Powell may move to MLB

He’s a beast FB, but also a damn good defensive player too, I saw he had something like 15 sacks this season.

USC was interested in him as a DT
From ESPN LA Prep Blogger Dan Arritt
Christian Powell played on the same team as Lawler, and the fullback and defensive lineman likely earned a few additional looks from scouts who came to watch his teammate. Powell didn’t have any offers at the start of the season, picked up his first from Arkansas State in mid-October and Nebraska came to the table about a week later. Powell, a 6-foot, 250-pounder who rushed for 400 yards and seven touchdowns on offense and recorded 15 sacks on defense, continued to impress with his physical play, picking up additional offers from Texas A&M, Colorado and Washington. He took official visits to all three schools. It wasn’t until he visited UCLA earlier this month that Powell said he felt most at home, committing to the Bruins soon after. His meteoric rise up the recruiting ranks — he’s listed as the fourth-best fullback recruit in the nation by scout.com — passed some colleges by, but not the Bruins and new coach Jim Mora. When all is said and done, he might just end up as one of the prized possessions of this Bruins class.

I can’t find any info on Christian Powell switching to the Buffs

Because he hasn't gone public

It’s only being verified by anonymous sources. That said there are multiple sources.

I have also read...

Elijah Shumate but as I understand it, that is a pure baseless rumor at this point. Regardless, it would be great to have either old Shu or Powell!

Not to get anyone nervous but this class will determine the fate of the program for the next 4-5 years

Next years class will be considerably smaller and a lot of these kids will play and possibly start for the next few years.

So sit back and relax. It’s no big deal right?

Gulp...in that case, it makes me wonder

if we have enough OLs to turn Folasa away at the door. How many FBs do we really need?

valid question and sad we have to turn Folasa away

The D lineman can easy switch to offensive line

Embree already touched that in a interview on why so many d lineman in this class.

Usually, a coaches first class determines his fate as well. Often times you look back at a coaches first class and he will often get a few NFL draft picks out of that first class, I believe Hawkins did that with Smith and Soldier right? If Embree can get these kids to buy in and believe they will win and truly focus on becoming great student athletes, I think we see Colorado return to a Top 25 program. However, if he continues to struggle with discipline, losing on the road, questionable offensive output (QB Play), I think we see another 4 years of crap football and get raped in the Pac 12 by Stanford USC Washington Oregon

last year was Embree's first class

technically, but this is his first full year of a recruiting class

but... the Smith/ Brown/ Solder class for Hawkins

was equivalent to last year’s class. So if you want to compare the 2- that’s last year’s class.

technically i will give credit to Barnett for those guys, man Hawkins sucked at what he did/does

I suppose you can, but you'd be wrong

Solder was the only one who was a Barnett recruit, and he had him as a TE. Hawkins moved him to OT, and recruited both Smith and Brown. The rest of Barnett’s recruits that year:
Bill Boyer
Steven Fendry
Eric Lawson
Wes Simon
Jonathan Hawkins
Thomas Perez

You know, this doesn’t have to be an all or nothing approach. It is possible to do some good things while still being unfit for the job overall.

So Barnett never recruited Smith and Brown?

I don't know when first contact was made with either

Hawkins was named the coach on 12/15/05. Smith committed 1/28/06. Brown didn’t commit until APRIL (4/24/06). You’d be hard pressed to call either one of those Barnett recruits. And even if they were- Barnett had nothing to do with their development.

I can't believe anybody still has the balls to back Hawkins...

He may have done a thing or two right. But that pales in comparison to the monumental failure that he was.

His was fired a year too late and his awful recruiting classes are leaving us void of veterans and forced to count on frosh and sophomores.

Now, I can't stop thinking about

Shu in the secondary with YW, KC, JW, MM, GH and the rest of our 2-9 defense…from a barren secondary to an embarassment of riches. If it really is Powell, that’s great too; a FB is sorta like another o-lineman.

They need to get on the phone

ala the Fab 5 and talk about how they can dominate the secondary for years to come & establish their own legacy.

Yes, I just compared our incoming db recruits to the Fab 5.

And re: Powell, I wonder how his size compares to Vickers. That guy did OK for himself.

I think its a great strategy with the spread offense becoming powerful in the Pac 12

donations?

Caught wind of a possible 250 million dollar donation to CU! To be announced this spring. Think of what that would do for recruiting in the yrs to come.

That could certainly help pay for that new video board and maybe some more facility upgrades

Shi*t i wish i had the kinda Green that allowed me to donate $250 mil

CSU recruiting?

has anyone else seen their recruiting class so far? they are going to suck for a while…

last in the mountain west, they only have 2 3 star guys

csu

Recruiting class rated 117th. Ouch

and Pete Thomas gone

he was easily their highest-rated recruit in years

Did anybody see the piece on ESPN yesterday

about how Texas recruits are extremely overrated

Found it extremely interesting.

Yeah

saw it, clipped it, somehow it didn’t make the cut. I’ll get it up tomorrow though

Right now we have a top 30 recruiting class

but yet we are 9th in the Pac 12
#Tough
#GoodthingRecruitingRankingsdon’tmeananything

sigh. Yes, they do

Research has repeatedly shown that highly ranked recruiting classes correlate to good teams on the field. The only people who say recruiting rankings don’t matter are fans of teams with poor recruiting rankings.

Actually Tom Luginbill, director of recruitng for ESPN, said quote “Class Rankings for recruiting mean about as much as the paper they are printed on” on ESPN radio the other day

Yes, they do

http://sbn.to/wKMEwY
http://bit.ly/dPFiLP
http://bit.ly/h9dCNA
http://bit.ly/ef2o5R
http://bit.ly/gVgPvw
http://sbn.to/wKMEwY
http://bit.ly/ytLKSN
http://bit.ly/sgy6sj

I stand corrected, recruiting rankings mean everything

The third link in your list...

The yahoo article. I think the stats are interesting in that 3* teams have fared better against the 5* teams than the 4* teams did. My takeaway, FWIW, there’s a big difference between 5* guys and non-5* guys, and a big difference between 3-4* guys and 2* guys, but 3* and 4* are essentially a wash.

obviously if you take that hashtag at face value that would be incorrect, they of course do mean something however, its almost impossible to project what a 17 year old kid will be like in 3 years when his mind and body develop in a place that is no longer home

short answer, from all of those links:

highly ranked players are more likely to develop into stars. Having more of them gives you more leeway over being wrong. Every serious college football fan knows the name Darrell Scott, whether they follow CU or not. How many people know who Jermie Calhoun is (maybe Woods)? He was the 1B running back to Scott’s 1A (or vice versa) in that class. Never did anything. No one cared. Why? Because he went to Oklahoma. He didn’t make it- on to the next one.

It is not almost impossible. It is simply a matter of playing the odds.

I sure do!

Add in R.J. Washington and Stephen Good, who were also 5-stars in that class. Neither has been anything close to a “super-star”.

Ryan Broyles, Sam Bradford, Jeremy Beal… all 3-star recruits

Most of our all-anything guys

were three-star recruits, too

Who are some of the programs/coaches that are pulling together impressive classes?

One that stands out to me is Dooley at Tennessee pulling a Top 15 class after the past 5 years they have had at UT. Vanderbilt would have to be the other

Courtesy of Greg Biggins via Twitter
Just received a text from #UCLA FB commit Christian Powell confirming he has switched his pledge to #Colorado
By the way, who the **** is Greg Biggins?
Nevermind, figured it out.
Powell

AWESOME!

Alright Christian Powell! Now turn off your phone for 24 hours.
Latest Scout Rankings:

Colorado #26 in the nation, #5 in the Pac 12 LINK

Grain of Salt

Yeah…. how we can be one spot behind U$C when they have four Top 100 guys (we have 0 per their rankings) and eight 4* guys (we have 1 per their rankings) is beyond me. I hear them in the value in quantity argument, but that’s a large delta in my mind….

totally, it's just a numbers thing

I really don’t buy at all that we have a top 25 class. If you sort it by average star ranking we’re 45th for both rivals and scout (USC would be 1st and 4th if you ranked it that way). That sounds about right to me and that’s probably ok considering the season (well, multiple seasons actually) that we’re coming off.

You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of The Ralphie Report to post a comment.