TicketsBy Chris Gundrum
It has been a long and arduous process for Butch Jones and his coaching staff.
Traveling, long hours at the office and sacrificing time with their families, the coaches at Cincinnati have been hard at work to secure the best available players for the recruiting class of 2012.
Today Jones announced the names of 30 players who are part of what is considered the most successful recruiting class in program history.
"Today is kind of a culmination of over a year's worth of work by our coaches working to what we feel is attract the best caliber student-athlete here to the University of Cincinnati," Jones said.
Of the 30 new players, nine of them enrolled early. Jones believes that can only help push the program in the right direction.
"To me that's critical as we continue to elevate our football program," Jones said. "You graduate a highly successful senior class, so to be able to bring nine individuals in I think that's going to make spring football extremely competitive."
And there should be plenty of competition to go around.
When you look at the list of players coming in, every position was covered. And not only have the Bearcats added depth to each position, you'll notice they've added size as well.
An issue Jones felt needed to be addressed
"The thing we have really lacked in our football program is big body types," said Jones. "You know run and hit guys."
It would appear that those "run and hit" guys have been added.
And while the recruiting process is over for the newest members of the football team, the work for Jones and his coaches is not quite done.
They'll continue to go on the road, spend time away from their families and search for players to add to the list of recruits for 2013.
Here is the Signing Day Class for 2012:
(Early Enrollees)
DB Kevin Brown 6-1 195 Indianapolis, Ind./ Lawerence Central
RB Deionte Buckley 5-9, 195 Indianapolis, Ind./ Warren Central
DL Jonathan Burt 6-3, 248 Indianapolis, Ind./ Warren Central
LB Errol Clarke 6-2, 210 Miami, Fla./ Central
QB Bennie Coney 6-2, 210 Plant City, Fla./ Plant City
TE DeShawn Dowdy 6-4, 222 Akron, Ohio/ North
DB Marcus Foster 6-1, 190 Troy, Ohio/ Troy
QB Trenton Norvell 6-4,215 Daytona Beach, Fla./ Seabreeze
DL Josh Posley 6-2, 238 Indianapolis, Ind./ Warren Central
Rest of the Signees
WR Shakim Alonzon 6-5, 205 Pittsburgh, Pa./ Woodland Hills
OL Deyshawn Bond 6-3, 283 Indianapolis, Ind./ Warren Central
DB Drake Bruns 6-0, 190 Fort Thomas, Ky./ Highlands
LB Franklin Bruscianelli 6-0, 220 Woodridge, Ill./ Montini Catholic
WR Nate Cole 6-0, 177 Memphis, Tenn./ Mitchell
DB Dylan Coombs 6-1, 185 Cincinnati, Ohio/ Colerain
DB Alex Dale 5-10, 170 Memphis, Tenn./ University School
DB Zach Edwards 6-1, 180 Middletown, Ohio/ Middletown
WR Jeremy Graves 6-2, 185 Cleveland, Ohio/ Maple Heights
RB Tion Green 6-0, 197 Altamonte Springs, Fla./ Lake Brantley
LB Corey Griffin 6-1, 205 Miami, Fla./ Coral Reef Senior
RB Aaron Harris 6-0, 200 El Cajon, Calif./ Granite Hills/ Southwestern CC
DB Andre Jones 6-1, 195 Cincinnati, Ohio/ Colerain
LB Joey Jones 6-0, 190 Homestead, Fla./ South Dade
RB E.J. Junior 6-0, 210 Middletown, Ohio/ Middletown
OL Ryan Leahy 6-6, 256 Cincinnati, Ohio/ LaSalle
LB Ey'Shawn McClain 6-2, 220 Jacksonville, Fla./ Raines
DL Alex Pace 6-3, 284 Cleveland, Ohio/ Ginn Academy
DB Leviticus Payne 5-9, 176 Southfield, Mich./ Southfield
OL Caleb Stacey 6-4, 280 Cincinnati, Ohio/ Oak Hills
OL Kyle Williamson 6-5, 275 Cincinnati, Ohio/ Madeira
--In case you're wondering here's a positional breakdown of this year's recruiting class:
QB- 2 RB- 4 WR- 3 TE- 1 OL- 4 DL- 3 DB- 8 LB- 5
Why is stealing recruits such a bad thing? There's nothing in the rules that says it can't be done...
Throughout the recruiting process there's always the possibility to lose a potential recruit to another school.
It happens all the time.
Dennis Norfleet, a highly touted running back from Michigan, originally committed to play football for Cincinnati. However, at the last minute changed his mind and de-committed to attend Michigan instead.
While it may anger coaches and fans, there's nothing in the rules that says a player cannot change his mind.
I was listening to the radio on my way home from the big Singing Day press conference and Mo Eggar brought up a couple of good points--1) Until a player has signed on the dotted line, he's still technically available. Regardless of what a player says a verbal commitment means nothing. 2) If stealing recruits is going to amp up a rivalry or add fuel to the fire on gameday, then what's wrong with that? Sports involve rivalries and storylines anything to make the games even more interesting is a good thing.
--Here's a ling to the story about Norfleet's decision to go to Michigan over Cincinnati