2/2/17 Update: And now we’ve got to change the way we look at this class. And that’s awesome. The UCF Knights have flipped four star recruit Cordarrian Richardson from Maryland. He’s the eighth best running back in the country. Here’s what this means:
- The Knights now have the highest-ranked player to sign with a Group of Five school.
- The Knights now have signed a four star player for at least three classes in a row.
- The Knights now have the 54th best recruiting class this year. This makes them the best G5 class.
- The Knights now have their best-regarded recruiting class in school history.
- This class is now another Scott Frost recruiting triumph.
So by all means, keep reading our initial reactions
below. But the final analysis of what it all means now changes for the
better.
UCF appears to have wrapped up its signing class by late
morning. Scott Frost and the Knights have signed a class of 21 recruits.
As of this writing, Rivals puts the Knights’ class ranking at 60th overall and 3rd in the AAC behind Memphis and Cincinnati, both of which have larger classes than the Knights.[1] It seems likely the Knights will end up with the third best class in the conference, mostly consistent with our observations pre-National Signing Day.
All of the Knights are either two or three star recruits.
This breaks with the recent pattern of UCF signing a four star player
or two each year. From 2014 to 2016, the Knights signed at least one
four star player. In 2014, it was Kyle Gibson. In 2015, Tristan Payton.
And in his first recruiting class last year, Frost brought in Dredrick
Snelson and Aaron Dowdell.
Not that this should make UCF fans particularly gloomy.
Of course, recruiting ratings are as a general matter a bit imprecise.
Under George O’Leary’s tenure, the Knights had a lot of players with not
a lot of stars blossom. No UCF fan can ever forget that Blake Bortles
as one of the prime examples. And of course we could name a bunch more –
Kemal Ishmael (two stars), Pro Bowler Josh Sitton (two stars), A.J.
Bouye (two stars) . . . feels like we could do this all day. And if we
want to talk current players, AAC Defensive Player of the Year
Shaquem Griffin had a modest three stars. It is early to judge Frost’s
eye for the two or three star talent, but undoubtedly three star
freshman McKenzie Milton, Jawon Hamilton, and Adrian Killins were
important for UCF this year.
So that’s what we can view as the overall context. But now this year’s class.
Much of the drama came before signing day with some late
de-commitments. JUCO DT Jamari Chisholm (two stars) committed to Texas
when the Longhorns offered late last night. Unfortunate, and indicative
of the present Power Five-AAC dynamic. After being pledged to the
Knights for six months, QB Marvin Washington (two stars) decommitted two
weeks ago to re-open his recruitment is headed to UConn. UConn! It’s
annoying but understandable as Washington was unhappy about two other quarterbacks being taken in the class.
The Knights did have a bit of a late and positive
surprise in pulling in Marlon Williams (three stars), a wide receiver
who at one point was committed to USC. He pledged to UCF last night and
sent his letter of intent a bit on the later end this morning, choosing
the Knights over Georgia Tech. Most of the day’s signed letters of
intent were in by 9 AM for UCF.
As a broad observation, it’s great to see this staff
continue to have success recruiting Florida. The Knights have now added
15 in-state players. Too often it felt that the O’Leary staff failed to
pull in players from in-state and seemed not to be looking hard enough.
But as he did last year, Frost has added a plethora of Florida players,
including from talent-rich South Florida.
Quarterback was a position of need now that Justin Holman
is gone and Tyler Harris and Garrett Kruczek have transferred. That of
course made the Marvin Washington decommitment a bit disconcerting.
Frost had wanted “at least” two quarterbacks in this class and, well, he
did end up with two: Darriel Mack Jr. (three stars) and Noah Vedral
(two stars). Frost has said it’s realistic to expect a freshman to be
involved in the quarterback competition, and it would seem that Mack – a
dual-threat kind of guy – would be the most likely.
The offensive line was a weakness last season and needed
an infusion of talent. The Knights brought in three linemen in Cole
Schneider (6’4”, 300 pounds, two stars), Samuel Jackson (6’6”, 310
pounds, three stars, great name), and Julio Castillo (6’6”, 315 pounds,
two stars). That’s some notable size – though not a “hard” average, it’s
fair to think that the average offensive lineman is about 6’ 3” and 302
pounds. Schneider’s commitment is a bit noteworthy in that he resisted
late runs by Purdue and Michigan State.
The Knights have three recruits from the 2017 class
already enrolled. CB Antwan Collier (three stars), WR Emmanuel Greene
(three stars), and RB Otis Anderson (three stars) are on-campus and will
practice in the Spring.
On the whole, it seems like a very satisfactory second
class for Scott Frost. Needs were addressed, though perhaps not as
thoroughly in some areas as would be ideal. It’s not the “triumph” I described last year’s class
as, but my enthusiasm in that regard was triggered by Frost’s
performance given the compressed winless season, the compressed
timeframe following his hire, and the sluggish recruiting by O’Leary’s
staff. Knights fans should come away from signing day pleased this
year. After all, it’s hard to complain when you wind up with one of the
three best recruiting classes in the conference.
[1]
I admit my biases here: I have tended to have more faith in the ratings
by Rivals and so use those throughout this post. But – again as of this
writing -- 247Sports has the Knights also at 60th overall but 2nd in
the AAC. The difference in conference ranking is likely affected by the
fact that 247Sports counts August 2016 enrollee Anthony Roberson in the
2017 class, while Rivals does not.
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