Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Familiar teams landed the most highly-touted faces in 2012. The top 10 classes according to 247Sports offer few huge surprises, aside perhaps, from Urban Meyer raising Ohio State's class from ashes in mere weeks to one of the Buckeyes' best ever.
Alabama is No. 1. Texas is there. As are Georgia, Florida, Florida State and Oklahoma. Miami's ridiculously big class of 33 puts it in the picture. Those teams have been fodder and foil for Nebraska since the 1960s.
But recruiting trends rarely start in the top classes. There, trends are reflected. No, change begins a little lower than that. If you wanted to chart the SEC's real rise to recent power, you did it by looking at LSU's classes getting steadily better; by Auburn landing Cam Newton by hook or ... whatever; by Arkansas, Ole Miss and South Carolina making waves.
So here are the whispers of the next trend: Stanford at No. 7. Oregon at 14. UCLA at 18. USC at just 11, but with the second-highest average rating.
The Pac-12 might have had a joke of a 2011 conference title game with the Bruins limping into Eugene. The Reggie Bush scandal staggered the Trojans. But the league attached at the hip of the Big Ten is making its move in football.
A $3 billion TV contract with Fox and ESPN starts this year. Big-name coaches Rich Rodriguez and Mike Leach took jobs at Arizona and Washington State, respectively. Oregon held on to Chip Kelly. Ditto for USC and senior quarterback Matt Barkley. And the league entered into a football series with the Big Ten starting in 2017.
"Down the road you're going to see the Pac-12 mount a serious, serious challenge," said JC Shurburtt, the national recruiting director for 247Sports. Shurburtt's talking about a challenge to the SEC. And he's not precisely kidding.
"It's not unheard of now for a kid from Florida to visit Arizona State," Shurburtt said.
It's little secret that recruiting sites are oriented toward the South. Is it bias? There's a history of it that's been curbed over time. But at this point it makes sense: The SEC's won six straight national titles for a reason.
Is Landon Collins from Geismar, La., a better safety than a similarly-sized-and-skilled Shaq Thompson from Sacramento, Calif.? The smart money, right now, says yes. The football's just a little bit better along the Gulf Coast. Especially on defense. Nebraska's rooting around in Louisiana for that precise reason.
Of course, NU's in California, too. A lot of teams are, Shurburtt said, and they're after more than just the next Tom Brady.
"Football still matters in California," he said.
The state's junior college system for football, he said, is stronger than ever, flush with talent. NU's had two recent defensive starters from Golden State junior colleges — Dejon Gomes and Daimion Stafford — and hopes for a third in Zaire Anderson.
And many of the state's best high school programs are now hip to spread offenses. Four of 247Sports' top overall 20 prospects are from California, as many as Texas, and one more than Florida. And each of the four signed with different schools.
Conversely, Pac-12 programs are creating national recruiting strategies. USC and UCLA have for years, but consider now Stanford. Players from Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma, Utah and Kansas City, Mo., from where Nathanael Lohn — who was interested in Nebraska — committed.
Shurburtt sees the Cardinals trying to position themselves as a "Notre Dame of the West," using its academic credentials and recent pedigree on offense — Toby Gerhart, Andrew Luck — as a calling card.
Colorado got players from 10 states —- including two from Washington, D.C. Oregon landed players from nine states including two from — Ohio? Yep. The Ducks' Nike-fueled brand sells. The ocean sells. The mountains sell. Travel costs are heartburn on pocketbooks, but kids like plane rides. And they'll get dozens of them in the Pac-12.
Just a trend to watch. Rodriguez will be tireless at Arizona, you know that. Washington just poached the league's best recruiter — Tosh Lupoi — away from Cal for a reported half-mil. Why? UW's class was ranked No. 12 in the league by 247Sports just 48 hours before signing day. Then Thompson — the nation's No. 2 safety who originally committed to Cal and Lupoi, switched to the Huskies. Washington finished No. 5 in the league rankings.
The SEC would approve of such Machiavellian tactics.
More quick hits nationally:
• FSU's class is seriously strong for its small size. Mario Edwards and Eddie Goldman are two terrific defensive linemen, and their presence could help the Seminoles win the ACC titles that have eluded them for several years.
• Texas' highly-touted classes in 2007 and 2008 didn't pan out, and I'm pretty darn comfortable saying a good chunk of the 2009 class won't either. So Shurburtt gets the skepticism of the hype surrounding this one.
Bottom line, said Shurburtt: The Longhorns haven't developed their offensive line recruits very well. Outside of, say, three guys — Colt McCoy, Jamaal Charles and Jordan Shipley — I'm not sure UT's developed offensive players, period, since 2007.
• That Baylor — winner of one bowl game in 20 years — could land a top 25 class in ultra-competitive Texas is only tangentially connected to Robert Griffin III's Heisman Trophy. It's Art Briles, a $4 million coach sooner or later, whether it's in Waco or, my guess, the SEC. The Bears hadn't been ranked in 25 years.
• I appreciate Kansas State's dream season of timely takeaways and Collin Klein, but come on, Bill Snyder: You have to land a better class than No. 74 nationally after a year like that.
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