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Inside College Football Posted: Wednesday February 12, 2003 9:41 AMWhy some programs had surprising results on national signing day By Kelley King How did new Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione land a top 10 class in eight weeks? By returning to the Lone Star State with virtually the same staff he had at TCU from 1998 through 2000 (and at Alabama for the past two seasons) and milking his old Texas high school connections, Franchione signed 24 players, including 16 of 18 who had made oral commitments to R.C. Slocum before he was fired as coach on Dec. 2. The prize catch was 6'7", 275-pound offensive lineman Jorrie Adams, considered to be one of the top three players in Texas. "That my guys and I had a recruiting identity in Texas was key," says Franchione. "I didn't grow up here, but it feels like home." Right after he was introduced as the new coach, Franchione set out to visit each of the recruits who had already committed to the Aggies and to make a late pitch to blue-chippers still on the fence. During one five-day trip Franchione visited with Adams in Jasper and then went to Mission, home of one of the state's top receivers, Earvin Taylor. Both committed soon after to help make the 2003 class the Aggies' best ever. Several players chose A&M over 2000 national champion Oklahoma, and two rescinded oral commitments to LSU and Colorado at the last minute. "Now it's time to get the players who are returning to believe in us too," says Franchione. How did LSU coach Nick Saban sign what some recruiting gurus are calling the top class of 2003? From the day he arrived in Baton Rouge from Michigan State in late November 1999, Saban declared his desire to make LSU a dominant program again. His first priority was to keep the state's top talent at home. For years schools such as Florida State, Miami, Michigan and Notre Dame had raided Louisiana for blue-chip talent. This year Saban kept nine members of the Baton Rouge Advocate's Super Dozen in state, including eight of 10 from the New Orleans metro area, long a dry well for LSU. "It's important that the players in Louisiana don't feel like they need to go someplace else to play," says Saban. At the same time Saban maintains a nationwide recruiting base, so the Tigers are not, as he says, "held hostage" by Louisiana prospects. This year, for instance, LSU coveted only one in-state receiver -- beating out Miami for Craig Davis of New Orleans -- but also signed two top wideouts from Florida, Anthony (Amp) Hill and Dwayne Bowe. In addition the Tigers landed the No. 1 quarterback in Alabama, 6'5", 230-pound JaMarcus Russell. "It's the persona [Saban] brings to the table more than anything else," says coach J.T. Curtis of John Curtis High (River Ridge, La.), which contributed four players to the Tigers' 27-player haul. "He believes that LSU is going to be a top five program, and he makes sure that everyone surrounding the program feels the same way." Why didn't reigning national champion and preseason favorite-to-repeat Ohio State land a top 10 class? Because the Buckeyes have a depth chart that's more crowded than an American Idol casting call, including 18 returning starters, many blue-chippers looking to play right away signed elsewhere, and Ohio State ended up with a modest, 15-member class. "It would have been really hard to come in and compete for a job there," says Dublin (Ohio) Coffman High All-State quarterback Brady Quinn, who signed with Notre Dame. "It's great that they have so many players coming back, but I had to do what was best for me." Recruiting coordinator Bill Conley says that while many prospects were daunted by the Buckeyes' depth, he is optimistic that the team's success will boost recruiting efforts after next season, when Ohio State will lose 29 seniors. For now, says Conley, "those players who chose to forgo the draft and finish out their Buckeye careers are the best recruits we could have asked for." Is USC the hot spot again in California? For the better part of the 1990s many of the best prospects in talent-rich Southern California left the state for schools in the Northwest and Southeast. Trojans coach Pete Carroll, who took over an ailing program in December 2000, has stopped the bleeding. His crop of 22 signees features 20 Californians, including one of the nation's top running backs (Reggie Bush of Helix High) and the state's top two receivers (Ventura's Whitney Lewis and Woodland Hills's Steve Smith). Although Carroll failed to sign a quarterback (USC went hard after Monte Vista High standout Kyle Wright but lost him to Miami), the Trojans had a consensus top three class, its best in 30 years. While an 11-2 record, including a victory over Iowa in the Orange Bowl, helped him on the recruiting trail, the 51-year-old Carroll also developed an unusually strong rapport with prospects. "Carroll will hang out with these kids at practices, at pep rallies, anywhere and anytime the NCAA says it's legal," says Tustin High coach Myron Miller. Says Inglewood defensive lineman Lawrence Jackson, who grew up 15 minutes from the USC campus but until recently thought he'd go to Florida, "Coach Carroll was the only one who stopped whatever he was doing when I needed to talk to him. If you can play in your home state for a coach like that, there's no need to go anywhere else." How is Notre Dame's Tyrone Willingham distinguishing himself as a recruiter? Focused and organized on the sideline, Willingham displays similar characteristics on the recruiting trail. While most coaches invite 50 or so recruits on official visits, Willingham hosted just 32 prospects in landing a top 10 class. "He's not going to play salesman," says Greg Mattison, an Irish defensive assistant since 1997. "His process is a very selective one in which we decide on the kids we need and then go after them hard." Willingham targets players who demonstrate what he judges to be impeccable character. "He asks a lot of questions about the person a recruit can become and very little about the player he can become," says Gilman High (Baltimore) coach Biff Poggi, who had two players sign with the Irish. "You know to mind your manners around him," says Dwight Stephenson Jr., a linebacker from Boca Raton, Fla., who was among Notre Dame's 22 signees. "He makes it clear that he's looking for a certain type of person." Issue date: February 17, 2003 For more College Football see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, February 12. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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